HaT 8056 |
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The web master for HaT very kindly sent me this test sprue of their [now in production] Carthaginian Command and Cavalry Figures. Mark Ottley kindly painted up the cav for me, and David Wallace (none other than the villianous Davidicus himself!) painted the infantry. So, we have four of these sprues in each box...
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 CnC Weilding a Mace, painted by Mark Ottley ...opps, HaT have just informed me that it's a horn! Oh bother, I'll have to replace it with the sword...  Bearing the Sacred Cow, painted by Mark Ottley ...opps, I mean goat! |
Now for some close-ups...
DBA Army #II/32 Later Carthaginian General's element, painted by Mark Ottley
(close-up - aprox. 400% of actual size)
You get these three mounted figures per sprue (12 per box). Note, these are test sprues, which explain the largish amount of flash around the figures and the miss-formed Cart standard, (which is actually moulded into the figure (in contrast to the rest of these figures), along with his shield) - the point is missing from the top of his spear. Fortunatley, HaT sent me a couple of each...!
I like the 'CnC's' scale armour. It has come out nicely, though it is a little difficult to see in the painted examples under his nice big shield. And let's face it, if you were about to charge into battle, which would you rather have - folks admiring your pretty armour, or the added protection of a nice big shield parked securly in front of you?!.
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 Carthaginian Standard Bearer, painted by Mark Ottley |
| (aprox. 200% of actual size) |
Funnily enough, you also get three horses as well! You'll notice that the horse armour can paint up really nicely (thanks Mark!).
The unarmoured horse is actually the same as the Roman horses that appear in the [Polybian] Roman Command set, to which you can, if you so choose, add the separate horse armour below.
And that hole in the side of the horse won't be there in the production runs. That's what a test sprue is all about - ironing out the gremlins before production starts.
The Standards
(close-up - aprox. 400% of actual size)
And here we have the accessories...
- Tridant standard,
- a Horn (I thought it was a mace! Upon further reflection, I did think it was kinda long to be a mace, but then I thought, "all the better to club you with, my dear!"),
- Goat standard (I thought it was a cow!),
- a Sword,
- and the horse armour.
These standards, along with the horn, sword, and the 6 spare spears that come with the sprue, can be slotted in the 'open hands' (for the lack of a better term - as apposed to more common 'ring hands', where the extra's are threaded through, well, rings moulded into the hands), of both the infantry and the riders.
Interestingly, the production sprues actually come with two seperate swords instead of the single sword shown here. (Click here for more details.)
The Infantry
![DBA Army #II/32 Later Carthaginian [Command type] Spear element, painted by David Wallace](images/hat_8056_painted_infantry_element_400px.jpg)
DBA Army #II/32 Later Carthaginian [Command type] Spear element, painted by David Wallace
Ok, you get 6 infantry figures per sprue, 4 different poses, all with 'open' hands (actually, 3 of them have two open hands so they can hold a spare spear I guess) with seperate shields.
The more observant of you might notice that the bloke that Dave has painted holding his sword aloft (very nicely too, it must said) actually has a sword nestled nicely on his belt. In fact, there are only 2 figures that are sculpted without a sheathed sword - one of the mounted standard bearers (who you can't give any exta's to anyway) and the mounted CnC - to whom I gave the horn (dohh!).
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| Dismounted CnC (?) | ||
(close-up - aprox. 400% of actual size) |
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Overall Comments
I like these guys a lot. At last my Cart army has an appropriate general!
The facial expressions on these figures remind me of those faces cast in stone on Roman monuments. The infantry have got small feet(!), but there's lots of variety in their armour type, and, with the seperate standards/weapons/shields, quite a bit of potential for extra variety in their presentation too.
Speaking of poses, it might be said that the 'dismounted CnC' has an odd stance - though perhaps there is potential there to plonk him back on his horse!
Above all a big "Thanks" must go out to HaT for producing these cool command figures, in fact their entire Punic Wars range, and indeed their on going commitment to producing an ever growing number of historically accurate Ancient's in Plastic!