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In a break from trying to prise my Athenian cavalry off of their current bases without breaking any of the horses' legs, my thoughts wandered to planning my final Persian satrapal or, probably more appropriately, regional army.

This one is to be based in the south-east portion of the empire towards the border with India. I'm trying to sort out what sort of subject levies the local governors would have to hand to either support an expedition by the king of kings, fight off an invasion, or ferment a revolt.

So far, I've come up with, in temrs of armament and general appearance (remember this is at 6mm so high levels of detail aren't that important):

Utians - foot bowmen clad in tunics and trousers

Paricanians - both foot and horse archers clad in tunics and trousers

Pactyans - foot bowmen wearing tunics and trousers

Sarangians - infantry armed with bow and spear and wearing tunics and trousers

Arachosians - light cavalry clad in tunics and trousers armed with spears

Gedorsians (Asiatic Ethiopians) - foot archers with shield wearing kilts and the scalps of horses (although this might be difficult at 6mm)

Gandarians - bow and spear armed infantry wearing either kilts or maybe tunics and trousers and possibly some shielded spearmen.

Hindrush - kilt wearing infantry armed with bow and big sword, potentially also some cavalry either bow or spear armed (and shields?)

Plus as possible outsiders: Some Saka Haumavarga (although this it is dubious) and an Indian ally complete with heavy chariots and elephants.

Any comments or suggestions welcome, and if they can make use of some of the figures in my left overs pile so much the better.

Thanks.

Quote from: dwkay57 on September 18, 2025, 08:35:53 AMIn a break from trying to prise my Athenian cavalry off of their current bases without breaking any of the horses' legs,

I'm not sure of the materials you use to base your troops David, but I might have a solution to the 'broken ankles' problem. (Looking at your photos I can't decide whether you use mdf or cardboard and I'm not sure whether you use gloss paint or a gloss varnish all over the base.)

If you use cardboard (and this will probably also work on mdf as well) I would suggest instead of trying to seperate the figures from the bases you turn it around and try to remove the bases from the figures!

My chum has an extensive 6mm collection and he wanted to re-base his Adler ACW armies after many years of disuse. He approached the task with a craft knife trying to prise or cut off each figure from their cardboard bases. Adler figures have very weak ankles and he was breaking an unacceptable number of figures.

I suggested he obtain a shallow, water-tight tray, such as a metal baking tray or perhaps a plastic ready meal tray, and fill it with 5mm to 10mm of water, and place the bases in the tray overnight (covering the figures at least up to their ankles). In the morning he found the flock had floated off forming a 'scum' on top of the water and the cardboard bases had turned to a soggy mush that could be peeled away from the figures. It was a bit messy but he had no more breakage. The figures' paintwork was unaffected.

I'm presuming (as I haven't tried it) that mdf will absorb water more slowly and that gloss paint or varnish will reduce the absorption rate but we all know how pervasive and penetrating water can be. Perhaps this would need a longer soak? It may be worth a try if your materials are suitable.

P.S. I can see that you don't use flock but if anyone should try this with modern plastic filament flocks or static grass (rather than old fashioned sawdust flocks) it would probably be environmentally friendly to try and capture the plastic filaments before pouring the waste water down the drain. I have successfully drained such contaminated flock water through a coffee filter paper. It caught the lot and once dried out I disposed of it in household waste - not a perfect solution perhaps but it will at least delay any creatures ingesting the filaments.

The figures are based on Daler board (artists' board) with polyfilla thrown on. I managed to get the Athenian hipparchoi's base demolished without any injuries and then realised I could have just cut very carefully down the middle  to give two single bases from the one double