IVth-Vth Century B.C.: 1/72 Scale/20m/HO Scale Miniatures

In recent years, the availability of quality plastic gaming miniatures has greatly increased. These figures have in the past not been a mainstay of historical gamers due to the lack of variety in poses and their tendency to shed paint. The first of these deficiencies has been alleviated with sets like this one from Italeri and the second is dealt with below.

Affordable and light, these miniatures are perfect for sampling new armies and for recruiting new gamers into the fold. In general, the 20mm plastic miniatures are better proportioned than most metal minis and their weapons are much truer to scale.

This particular set almost seems designed with De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) in mind, as straight from the box, you have all the necessary figures to field List# I/52(f) Early Hoplite Greek (Athenian 540-450 B.C.). The DBA elements possible using one box include 1x4Sp (Gen), 7x4Sp, 2x2Ps, 1x3Ax, and either 2x3Bw or 1x4 Bw. The figures themselves scale to 23M on the Barrett scale, being well proportioned and detailed throughout. They include:

1) Commander figure (1) - straight from the Osprey drawing.
2) Piper (1)
3) Thracian peltast (2) - again, straight from osprey.
4) Javelin man (2)
5) Slinger (2)
6) Archer (3)
7) Kneeling Archer (3)
8) Hoplite with Bull Head Shield
9) Hoplite Bird Shield
10) Hoplite with Argive Shield
11) Hoplite with Lambda (Spartan) Shield
12) Hoplite Athenian (Three Leg) Shield
13) Hoplite Scythe Blade Shield
14) Hoplite Lion Shield
15) Hoplite Kneeling with Club (Theban) Shield
-- 30 Hoplites in Total