Athenian hoplite shield patterns full#
Athenian hoplite shield patterns plus#
Athenian hoplite shield patterns series#

Victrix add-to-cart Victrix Plastic 28mm 12+ General Historical Box UnpaintedĪthenian Armoured Hoplites 5th to 3rd Century BCE Information Please note: Models are supplied unpainted and some assembly will be required. 48x Athenian Armoured Hoplites Miniatures with Various Variants.Making this set one of the finest detailed and versatile plastic sets on the market. There are cloaks and various sword scabbards to add even more character and flavour to your Hoplite miniatures. (Remember if you want to make more at rest arms, by rotating a thrusting arm 90 degrees it becomes a spear at rest position) There are 8 figures per sprue, 4 have shield arms attached and 4 have no arms attached to enable you to make the musician and other speciality positions for officers and character figures.

There are thrusting arms options, spear at rest options and sword arms. There are a couple of crest options to make some officer variants. This fantastic set of miniatures represents Greek Hoplites of Athens from the 5th Century covering the end of the wars with Persia, to the 4th century and the titanic struggle for Greek supremacy. His secondary armament was a double-sided, leaf-shaped slashing sword of about 60 cm length.14095 Athenian Armoured Hoplites 5th to 3rd Century BCE 20.54 22.95 GBP OutOfStock Home/Wargames & Miniatures/Specialist Miniatures/Victrix Limited/ The hoplite’s principal armament was a thrusting-spear between 2 and 3m in length, with a long, leaf-shaped iron blade at the top, and a spiked iron butt at the bottom. Weighing perhaps 7 kilos, the shield was held using an arm-band combined with a hand-grip. The round hoplite shield, which had a convex shape and could be up to a metre across, comprised a core formed of wooden strips covered by an outer plate of bronze. Leg, arm, and sometimes hand and foot guards were very much the exception. Plutarch tells the story of one Spartan who used a life-sized fly as his shield emblem: A Spartan had as an emblem on his shield a fly, and. There seems little evidence of standardisation, at least up to and including the 5th century: each hoplite chose his own shield design.

Body-armour was of bronze for those who could afford it, typically in the form of a muscled cuirass, but most men seem to have made do with the linen cuirass, a stiff shirt, and shoulder plates, all formed of many layers of linen glued together. Hoplite shield design was incredibly varied. The helmet was surmounted by a crest of dyed horse-hair. The most popular was the Corinthian helmet, which covered the whole of the head, leaving only the eyes, nose, and mouth clear. Hoplite helmets were made of bronze in a variety of designs. Most would have had some form of body-armour, and some may have had greaves on the lower legs, and perhaps a guard for the right arm and hand. Each, though, would have had the basics of helmet, shield, spear, and sword. There was therefore no official uniform or standardised equipment, and the appearance of a hoplite phalanx would have varied from man to man. Items of equipment were almost certainly passed down the family line and replaced only when necessary.

Athenian hoplite shield patterns full#

The panoply – the full set of arms and armour – was expensive. Roughly a third, mainly formed of prosperous peasant-farmers, were deemed rich enough to equip themselves to fight as hoplites – heavy infantry – in the phalanx. Men were ranked by wealth, and their service obligation reflected their resources. The Athenian Army was a city-state militia in which every able-bodied, adult, male citizen was obliged to serve.

Athenian hoplite shield patterns plus#

Shield: between 80cm and 1m in diameter, and formed of bronze facing, wooden core, and leather lining, plus armband, handgrip, and other internal fittings.Greaves (optional): muscled lower-leg guards of bronze, flexible enough to clip on and off.with face enclosed by cheek-pieces and nose-guard, with dyed horse-hair crest, and head protection from leather lining or woollen cap. Sword: about 60cm in length, double-edged and leaf-shaped.Long thrusting-spear: between 2 and 3m in length, with leaf-shaped iron blade and pointed iron butt.

Athenian hoplite shield patterns series#

Linen corselet: layers of linen glued together to a thickness of about 5mm to form a series of strips and plates held together with straps and ties.

Shield design: either individually chosen or representing clan, neighbourhood, or tribe.In pitched battle, the army formed a single phalanx of 10,000 men, a kilometre wide, eight ranks deep, protected by a wall of overlapping shields with a hedge of spear-blades projecting above.