Design Studio Painter Andrés Amián is a well-known hobby fiend, and his painting desk is never empty. It’s almost like he does this sort of thing for a living! He’s once again been working away on his Hail Caesar Epic Battles collection, and as we all know, if there’s one thing no self-respecting Carthaginian force can’t be without, it’s loads of elephants! He’s set about turning these mighty beasts into centrepieces for his army. Now then, Andrés – about those elephants…
Andrés – This is another instalment in my series of short articles about making the most of the Hail Caesar Epic Battles range, trying to get new kinds of troops by doing easy conversions or using simple painting solutions. On this occasion I will focus on the awesome elephants! There are a few illustrations and paintings depicting war elephants wearing red warpaint, sometimes just on their ears and around the eyes, and sometimes the whole head. Painters such as Angus McBride, Giuseppe Rava, and the great Peter Dennis have shown this in some of their works portraying pachyderms. I always find that this effect gives the creature an otherworldly appearance, like a furious titan breaking out from Tartarus. I wanted my elephants to look just as fearsome!
I started out by painting the entirety of the uncovered heads with Army Painter Fanatic (APF) Basilisk Red. Then I washed some of the recesses such as those around the eyes, ear-folds, and similar places with APF Dark Red Tone. Next, I highlighted the head with APF Dragon Red, followed by APF Pure Red, and finally the higher areas with APF Lava Orange. To give it an extra touch, I varnished the forehead with APF Gloss Varnish, and applied a decal from the Carthaginian shield decal sheet. I used some decal softener here to make it conform to the wrinkles in the elephant’s skin, giving it a more lifelike appearance. For the armoured heads, I decided to paint only the ears and circles around the eyes, using the same colours and techniques I used with the previous heads.
I won’t go into detail about how I painted the other parts in the elephants, since that has been covered in a previous painting guide by my Studio colleague Jamie. Definitely do give it a read, because it’s full of good advice to get your elephants looking suitably excellent.
This little project wasn’t a very ‘intense’ conversion per se, but the paintjob on the elephants along with some small head-swaps on the crew handling them makes them objects of interest in my Carthaginian force. I used some of the Carthaginian Battle Scarred Angry Elephant heads to add character, and to make the bases even busier, I surrounded the elephants with skirmishers protecting them or enemies attacking them – essentially turning them into little dioramas.
As I mentioned, I wanted to swap some of the crew members to add a bit more variety to the elephants. It was a straightforward operation to some Numidian skirmishers with bows and javelins in the howdah – the only thing I needed to do was to get rid of the ‘base’ around their feet so that they would fit inside the howdah. One of the ‘angry’ heads has an unfortunate Roman Legionary grasped in its trunk. I felt quite sorry for the Roman, so I added some friends to the elephant’s base – maybe they’ll be able to help him out! On another of the bases, I added more Numidian skirmishers on foot, supporting the elephants and giving them a bit of protection against the attacks of enemy skirmishes – one of the weak points of those giants.
A slightly more ambitious project was to use the fallen elephant that came with the pre-orders of the Hannibal battle-set. Many readers may have already painted theirs, but for those who haven’t, this might be the perfect use for it. I wanted to give the impression of the enraged beast trampling over a fallen comrade, in its haste to get to grips with the enemy. To achieve this, I had to cut and slightly re-sculpt the trampling elephant’s rear legs to make it step on the dead one. This was a bit fiddly, but I really like the overall effect.
If you missed out on Hail Caesar Epic Battles pre-orders, the Poor Perished Pachyderm model is now available as a limited time reward in our Warlord Medals program. Every time you shop with us you can earn point to redeem against vouchers or limited-edition miniatures!
As you can see, simply by using different paintjob and adding some figures from other sets to howdahs and bases, you can add a load of variety to your elephant units, and once you include the angry heads, the choices get even more numerous. Remember – customised elephants do better in battle!
Have YOU got enough elephants? Silly question – there’s no such thing as enough elephants!
