Picture of the prototypes

Now I have more to show than just a few renders. I have only printed one of the bodies and two of the heads. When you look at the pictures remember that they were printed with a low resolution 3d printer, this is not the finished result. If you look carefully you can actually see all the edges from the layers.

I am very happy with the miniatures. They will get some minor corrections, like the sword will be reduced in size and the nose not as wide (remember this is heroic 28mm scale, and so are their noses!) :-)
The plastic is very light grey, so it can be a little hard to see details.

And another thing, if you have Facebook you can follow my project there:
https://www.facebook.com/Kestrophedrone

Shielded slingers

There are some pictures showing slingers with shields. 
Was it common for slingers to have shields?
What would be the benefit of having a shield? I suppose it won't give any protection from in-coming missiles, but the shield would make it possible for them to fight other skirmishers in melee.
My figures will not have shields, but they have been design with shields in mind so it is possible to add a shield to them.

Here is a random picture I found on internet. He is a Thracian, but I have no idea if they really had shields (I could of course look it up in Webber’s excellent book “The gods of battle”, but I am at work right now).

Menhir, our sculptor

Now I want to talk about Menhir, the project's sculptor.

He is a new (at least for me) up and coming sculptor from Argentine.

So far he had made two Kickstarters (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickryan/fantasy-champions-from-around-the-ancient-world-se) and has some more projects in the pipe-line.
He has been very good to work with, giving me a lot of advice for how to improve the miniature from a sculptor and casting point of view. I can recommend him highly.
You can get in touch with him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprotobitsproyects

You can read an interview with him here (it is both in Spanish and English, the English version starts midwaydown): http://bernohn.blogspot.com.ar/2014/08/another-interesting-kickstarter-menhir.html

All three bodies

Now I have all three bodies and six heads! The third body is reloading, and the head is wearing a kausia, a Makedonian hat that has maybe survived in todays Afghanistan (the Pakol)!

So what is next? I am waiting for the protype to show up. I got an email on friday telling me that they have shipped it!

Some of the main problems with reconstruction the Kestros

I will here talk about some of the design decision Menhir, the sculptor, and I had to make.

Since there is no remains left of the Kestros, we don't know what it looked like. There are no pictures or archeological remains. But what we have instead is a description in both Livy and Polybius. Great you say, two independent sources, that should make our task easy.
Unfortunately no, they are not independent of each other. Livy's description is taken from Polybius (if I remember it correctly).

So when Menhir and I talked about how it would look like we looked at a lot of different pictures and films before we settled on our version. I have to give Menhir most credit for working out which version to use. And of course a big thanks to Pillager on Fanaticus forum for some very helpful comments. The result is very different from earlier 28 mm wargaming miniatures.

Problem 1. The English translation of Polybius claims that the dart is 2 cubit long, that is 90 cm or longer. But it looks like it was mistranslated; it should be 2 palms (30 cm).
Source: See paragraph 11 and note "a" here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/27*.html

Problem 2. Earlier the Kestros has been shown as a staff-slinger. But the staff was pure speculation as it is not mentioned in Polybius/Livy's text. I suppose people thought there was a need for a staff if the darts was 90 cm or longer (see problem 1).

So I think we can rule out both long darts and staffs. But still there is more uncertainty. What about the sling? What did it look like?

Problem 3. In what way was the dart and sling connected to each other? A lot of reconstructions show the kestros with a sling holding the dart at the feathers (see pictures).

The reason I don't believe this is correct is that Polybius says "The thongs of the sling from which the missile was discharged were of unequal length". This suggests at least two thongs, one longer than the other. The above has only one thong, or they are of equal length.

Still there are at least two more variants of the kestros. Both have two thongs, the difference is how the thongs are connected to the dart. One reconstruction has the first thong somewhere between the dart's point and the feathers and the second at the end of the dart (se picture). This is how Xyston is making their kestros.

We settled on the fourth version, where the first thong is actually holding the darts point.

Movie time!

What does it looking like when they used the Kestros?

Unfortunatly neither the romans or makedonians filmed it, but we have the second best thing! Random people on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rb6TfNRdew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9SUw-DPW-8

Another body for the army

Menhir, the sculptor, has finished body number two and head three and four!

It is not easy to exactly see what happens in the picture, but the picture below shows how they spin the sling.

The role of the Kestrophedrone on the battlefield

I think that the Kestrophedrone was used as skirmishers to harass the enemy, much like normal slinger. What is special with the Kendros is that it shoots darts, which had sharp points. The advantage of having a sharp point instead of blunt stone is (if darts beave like arrows), according to an article in the latest Slingshot (Issue 298 "Behind the Curve - Archery in Wargames"), that mail armour and shields give no or almost no protection against arrows. If this is correct, and it can also be applied for darts, then this was a virtual anti-Roman weapon!

Because the Roman legionnaires used mail armour and shields, the main reason behind developing Kestros could  have been to counder their heavy protection. Since Makedonia had a lot of shepherds who were used to slings, but not bows, it would most likely be easier to give them a sling that shoot arrows instead of re-train them into archers.

Why did the weapon disappear from use? My guess is that it was a pure military weapon deployed against troops in mail armor with little civilian use. After Makedonia's defeat the country was de-militarized and had no need for it any more. A normal sling was most likely more effective against Thracian raiders or wolves than the Kestros. And as it was much more complicated than normal slings it was soon forgotten.

It is not clear exactly how the Kestros was used, here is a little different version than my.

Picture (c) by Johnny Shumate

A Big Thank you to Nick Harbud who wrote the excellent article about archery in the latest Slingshot! Thanks!

A hairy problem

I have just read a paragraph in David Karunanithy’s ”The Macedonian War Machine” that says that ”Strabo implies that many Macedonians had a distinct hair cut  … resembling the traditional head shaves seen among Albanian mountain clans.” It is described as ”close cropped”. (page 151)

Does anyone know more about it? It is the first time I hear about that.

What about facial hairs? Alexander the Great had forbidden facial hair in the army, but at the time of the Third Macedonian War it seems to be back in fashion, we can see that Perseus had a beard.

Perseus, last king of Makedonia

Picture from Wikipedia. 

The next step

So what is the next step for me?

So far I have recieved the first body and two heads. Next step for me is to order a prototype to see if everything is ok. Do the head fit the body, is the base not to big, do the figures have the right proportions, does the head fit the body and so on.
I have ordered the prototype from i.materialise, they should arrive the 23 of March.

I want a Kestrophedrone! What is it?

What is a Kestros?

It was a weapon used only during the Third MacedonianWar (171-168 BC). It was most likely invented by Perseus, the Makedonian king (but not him personally). It was a sling which shoots darts. Makedonia lost the war and both the king and the weapon disappeared into oblivion.

So this is a pretty obscure thing, which is maybe the reason I want it!

Even through its limited use I wanted it, maybe just for making my Late Makedonian army complete. After looking around I couldn’t find anyone making one.

So I contacted Menhir, an up and coming Argentine sculptor (and all-round nice person) and asked him if he could make a few for me. He agreed and here is a few renders of the first one!

My plan is to make three bodies and six heads, so there is no need for two figures to be exactly identical on the battlefield. There will be one body reloading and two shooting. Three of the heads will be bare-headed, 2 with sun-hats and one with a Makedonian beret (kausia).

Will I sell them? Maybe. It depends on the interest. If there is big enough interest I will cast them. If not I will just use the masters for my own army.

So if you are interested send me a mail telling me how many you want. I will sell them in packs of 6 (£14 + £4 P&P), 12 (£23 + £4 P&P), 24 (£41 + £4 P&P) or 42 (£76 + £7 P&P). No payment now. When all is ready for casting I will see if there is enough interest and then I will mail back to all interested. So this is like a Kickstarter without nice videos!

Mail me at: bjorn_floderus@yahoo.se if you are interested (just tell me how many you want and your address, so I can calculate the projects budget and postage), or just want to say Hello!

So is this something like a Kickstarter with Stretchgoals?

Well, almost. If there is a lot of interest I will ask Menhir to make some more bodies or maybe some shields.

That's all for now. I will try to update the blogg at least two or three times a week.