Warlike Gallic and Galatians

The earlier Gallic forces are rated as Warrior in Triumph, as are the closely related Galatians. In point of fact, the first onslaught of the peoples we know as Galatians are (as far as we can differentiate things 2300 years ago) just a bunch more Gallic forces initially invading Greece, kicking some ass and finally getting kicked back, then moving to Anatolia to create a homeland there. Whereas the Gauls are kinda-sorta the same people living and warring in Northern Italy and in France, being the greatest threat to Rome until its senescence.

I have a love/hate relationship with this army, painting-wise. They have a lot of rugby-jersey stile stripes, and a bunch of checks in multiple colors in their clothing. This is simultaneously glorious and really frustrating to paint, if you're an obsessive-compulsive like me.

Figures for this army are a very wide variety. There are some Essex, there are a lot of Corvus Belli, there are some Freikorps, I even seem some Pass of the North figures in there. Variety is the spice of life, and when you have a wild warband or warrior group, it seems like variety is critical.

Shield patterns here are a mix of Veni Vidi Vici monocolor waterslide transfers and paint and ink -- often with all of them together on the same shield. The red and white checks in quarter pattern with black, for example (front rank 5 from the right), is careful use of cut-up VVV transfers and then overpainted black to make it work. That figure is Freikorps by the way -- you can tell by his stolen helmet.

Javelin Cavalry

These two stands are a mixture of Essex (front stand with green shield), Museum (red and white shield on a tan horse), Pass of the North (yellow shield), and I-dont-know (black horse, red and white shield in front).

Most of them have mail because the Javelin Cavalry would be the nobles, richer than the other dudes riding horses to fight.

Ruined Temple

The figures here are 6mm; if you squint you can see the shield patterns on the foot to the right.

The Galatians in particular fell upon Greece with a fury, sacking and looting -- which is alluded to by this camp.

Rear View Showing Tartans

Here's an example of what the pants and/or tunics of this army look like, when it gets as bad as it could. The checky patterns of the tunic in the center and the pants on the right are typical -- four colors. The pseudo-tartan of the tunic on the right is another common representation. True tartans are an 18th or even 19th century invention (standardized patterns, I mean), but that sort of woven fabric had existed forever, and is attested for the Gauls and Ancient British (this stand is Ancient Brit, as it turns out, but the painting scheme is the same for the Gauls).

Simple Primer for Checky Patterns

Two things are going on with the figure on the left. His shield is white and red checks. The base color of the left side is white. A waterslide transfer by Veni Vidi Vici (VVV) provides most of the red checks. The transfer doesn't go far enough, and isn't perfectly shaped, so when dry it is supplemented by a combination of fine pen work and red paint. The same work will probably happen on the black base of the right side.

The cloak is more complex. Base coat is white. Even green stripes are painted over that vertically. The folds in the cloth make it look a little odd in this image, but that's step 2. Then horizontal stripes are painted over that in dull yellow. Now the cloak is alternating horizontal lines, first yellow, then white and green checks (squares) and so on repeating. Now paint and/or fine pens are used to paint little brown squares on the yellow. This is finicky and difficult -- the previous steps are pretty easy, but not this one.

In essence the three steps allow the creation of a four-color checky pattern where really only the last color of checks is actually painted on as checks. Big saving in time and appearance.

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