Sunday, August 12, 2018

Sumer-time and the paintin' is easy


Sumer? Yes, Sumer, I Akkad you not. I may be rash, mercurial—even mistaken—but to Ur is human and the urge to Ur is upon me. As with many serendipitous projects, the moment has met the man and I'm going full speed ahead. Sæpe erro, nunquam dubito!

I blame Ernie Calvillo for this sudden development. (The cats are innocent—this time.) He posted on the Lion Rampant Facebook Group about the Sumerians he was painting, and that got me all worked up.

Ernie's Sumerians
I've been a fan of Sumerians for pretty much ever. Yet in all that time, the only Sumerian minis I've painted were for a 15mm DBA army (Essex Miniatures), since sold. I'd wanted to do a 28mm army for a while, but I never had a feel for the right minis to use. Wargames Foundry started a range years ago. I love their minis. The range looked promising, but they abandoned it. It was unavailable for a long time and is now available again. However, it's a very limited, unfinished range and there's no chariots; in fact, it's just spearmen and javelinmen.

Cutting Edge (Warlord) makes Sumerians, but I can't bring myself to use that range. I bought some Middle Bronze Age Amorites (think Mari) from them a few years ago. I was pretty eager when I orderd, but then very disappointed by the minis when the order arrived. They're beautiful and have a lot of nice detail—but they're so wee! Compared to other 28mm ranges, they're like skinny children. I like chunk. Cutting Edge minis have no chunk at all.

Newline (L) and Cutting Edge (R)
I'd seen a few other ranges, such as Eureka Miniatures and Castaway Arts from Down Under, but I hung back. I didn't want to make a move without first seeing the minis or at least seeing better pictures of them.

Finally, I just wasn't sure of what I would do with a lot of Sumerians after I'd painted them. I love Ancients, but the state of that part of the hobby seemed to be in a doldrums, at least to me. But now I know: I'll use 'em for Pat Lowinger's Chariots Rampant variant for Lion Rampant (Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy, Issue 82).

Ernie and I gamed together back in San Jose, CA 30+ years ago. He's now in San Antonio, TX and I'm in here in Beautiful, Formerly-Bucolic Lynnwood, WA. Ernie has always been an excellent—and prolific—painter.  He's also always had an eye for good minis. When I saw the pics in his post, I asked who made them. He told me that they were Newline Designs and that for July they were 20% off their normally reasonable price of a bit more than £1.00 per figure. In my head the voices screamed, "BUY NOW!" What could I do? I bought now and for a ridiculously low price, I got more than enough minis for a Chariots Rampant army—with options! Now I have an unexpected summer Sumer project on my hands.


So, why Sumerians?

Well, because they're cool. They're one of the oldest civilizations on Earth. So old they're just on the cusp of being prehistoric—and I like prehistoric things (see my love for prehistorical Europe) as I love all that is old and arcane. I strive every day to be older and arcaner myself.

Sumerian soldiers wear sheepskin skirts and go barefoot; they're like The Flintstones with ziggurats. They used four-wheeled, shambling proto-chariots drawn by "equids," i.e., not quite horses. They fought in phalanxes 2000+ years before the Greeks figured it out. They wore shiny copper helmets and fearsome, metal-studded capes long before Batman made wearing capes cool.

Caped Crusaders - 3rd Millennium BC
Sumerians invented writing, art, literature, and law. (They also invented government bureaucracy, so it's not all good.) They invented the cat—no, seriously, see this. They invented cities. They had ginormous eyes.


They invented sexagesimal mathematics, which we still use to calculate time, angles, and compass points. They invented the sail (maybe) and the wheel (also maybe—at least it wasn't that guy from the B.C. comic strip). They created the first armies and also produced the first records of how soldiers looked (ca. 2500 BC) on the Standard of Ur and the Stele of the Vultures.

Standard of Ur
Stele of the Vultures - detail
So, yeah, Sumerians are cool.

They're also easy to paint. Prehistoric, and nearly prehistoric, people dressed simpler than we do, and we dress simpler than people in the past. Try painting early 18th c. British regulars to see what I mean. But I digress.

The sheepskin, capes, and shiny helmets I mentioned above are about all the costume the Sumerian soldiers had. Only bare-nekkid Celts could be simpler—and they have those elaborate shield patterns to muck up the whole simplicity groove thing.

Sans spear, axe, cape, helmet, and shield he'd pass as Cro-Magnon
I ordered from Newline in two batches. After my initial order, I convinced myself that I needed more and made a wee supplemental order. The second smaller order came on Wednesday. It contained more of the infantry I ordered (spearmen, slingers, javelinmen, command), but also three straddle carts. The straddle cart seems to have been developed a bit later than the better known four-wheeled battle car. I haven't seen any actual Sumerian art depicting them. Yigael Yadin doesn't address them in The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, but The Two Nigels show them in Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539 BC. I had one in the first order, so I have four. I'm not really sure I wanted four.

Straddle this x4
I cleaned up several minis right away. The flash is minimal and the metal is softish (not rock-hard pewter), so cleaning was pretty easy. I replaced the cast lead spears/javelins with Northstar wire spears. I love those things. I must have bought a thousand of them.

Bronze Age warriors with brass spears
At this point, the first order hasn't arrived. International postal service isn't a science. I expect it'll come this week. Meanwhile, I've started painting what I have. So far, it's just the skin tone. I used Vallejo Medium Flesh. They look suitably Sumerian to me. There's not much else to paint for the most of them. They either wear a fringed kilt or some kind of sheepskin. It won't take much time.


I have a lot on my plate right now, but I hope to get a few units of these banged out this month and the rest in September. Then it's time for another Rampant game day.


11 comments:

  1. That's going to look great on the table! I've always had the urge to do Egyptians, but have never "pulled the trigger". Looking forward to future posts on your progress.

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  2. Oh, look what you've done. You're up to your eyeballs in projects.

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  3. I`m painting up the Hat Sumerians right now also. One army in purple and one in green.Using Tony Bath`s rules.

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  4. I too am a big Sumerian fan, l had a 15mm Dbm army of them comprising Chariot miniatures, which were lovely figures.lt has long been sold. The Newline fellows look fantastic and I look forward to seeing them painted and then in action. I hope you will really enjoy your new army.
    Recently l looked for and found the magazine containing the Chariot Rampant rules on my book shelves. I had almost forgotten that l bought it. It is most interesting. It encouraged me yesterday to brave the pouring rain and rummage in the shed for some Lamming 25mm figures I bought a couple of years ago which have hardly seen the light of day since. They are New Kingdom Egyptians and are enough for two C.R forces, l fancy doing a civil war set up as l have the figures and a decent amount of chariots for each side.
    I bought some sea people, libyians too but l am less enamoured with the figures being a mix of older styles also no second hand. This is not a period l would Dbm game in again so C. R wil meet my needs l hope.
    I perhaps should call my blog post Walk like an Egyptian when l finish the armies. Gosh I have rambled on and am probably just trying to say Good luck to a fellow Sumerian fan and also to say your post has encouraged me to work towards my Bronze Age idea rather than just let it wither away.
    Cheers
    Alan

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  5. I love a new project blog, and I also love Newline figures... bonus honus!

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  6. They are indeed very cool. I'm interested to see how Chariots Rampant works!

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  7. Replies
    1. Coming along well. I've been in a bit of a painting lull, but I have just one heavy chariot to complete before I have a 24-point Chariots Rampant retinue. I have many more figures besides, which will allow some variety, but also a second force to fight.

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    2. Expect blog updates in the near future.

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    3. I have some very old...ancient in fact SKT 15mm Sumerians. It is a fun time period to play.

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  8. Lovely project. Sumerians possibly my favourite biblical army
    Hope to hear news of Biblical Rampant game as I am painting up for early New Year. Really like the new 28mm CP Miniatures Sumerians.

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