General questions on Greek Hoplites.....

[Luftbct]

Having developed an interest in Greek Hoplites after seeing "300" and after purchasing 3 Mini-Art kits of 1/16 Hoplites (Spartan, Athenian, Greek) plus 4 Osprey books on the subject, I now have a few questions and requests for info:

1. Almost all the books, references seem to agree that sandals/shoes were uncommon for the Greek Hoplite, so I am probably going to scrap/remove them from the Mini-Art figures.

2. Seems there is no set pattern for sheild decoration. Sparta had some uniformity at certain times, as did Athens, etc, but all in all, sheild design and armour decoration, etc. had no set pattern and was selected by the owner. Basically there is no "wrong" way to decorate a hoplite, save for a regionally used helmet (Boetian, Spartan), etc.

3. Seems almost all hoplites fought naked, with only the curiass and sheild. I probably wont delve into sculpting "private" matters, so I'll forgo the accuracy there. LOL!

4. It seems to me that with minor modifications to helmets, armour, etc. it's possible to model almost any Hoplite.

5. Are there any other sources of 1/16 scale Hoplites?

Thanks all, I would appreciate any advice/links/sources, info.

Regards,

Tuck

 

[Francis Gekiere]

You find som information over the shield to:
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/se/~luv20009/Greek_shield_patterns_1.html

and som pic's .....


francis

 

[DaddyCool]

1. At least on the march, some footwear was most probably worn. So IMO scrapping is not necessary

2. Basically, yes. For shields, the link Francis has given is useful. With helmets there are also no rigid borders. Some helmet types were populaized in certain regions and then spread to others, like 'pilos' type. The 'Beotian' type was popular helmet of cavalry, while 'pilos' was popular even among Beotians.

3. Nakedness in pictorial sources is believed to be an artistic convention. Hoplites mostly, fought dressed, even if occasionally unarmored. So, again nothing against accuracy here.

4. Yes

5. Verlinden has a Spartan hoplite in 120mm.

Good luck!