Seleucid General
1/9th scale white metal bust from Pegaso Models of Italy
Published in Military Modelling Magazine in 2012
Whilst I have quite an interest in ancient history, until this bust was released, I can’t remember having encountered the Seleucid Empire in my research. Another admission is that it’s only the advent of this bust got me interested, and only then because the pose is unusual for a bust and the sculpting appeared quite good.
So, Seleucus; who was he then ?
Well, think back to Alexander the Great, and his period of history. Alexander had spent most of his adult life conquering adjacent lands – he conquered a nation, assimilated its people in one way or another; and then seemed to move on. His thirst for war and to expand his empire knew no bounds, until that is, something he could have no control over interceded.
Death is pretty much a be all and end all, no matter how much power you have, no matter how much land or how many people you have conquered or hold under your sway. And when Alexander died, it left a gaping hole in the Macedonian hierarchy.
The solution was to elevate Perdiccas, one of Alexander’s generals, to be regent of all that Alexander had conquered, and that other generals would become Satraps within the massive empire that had been built up in Alexander’s time. This decision was formed within the Partition of Babylon in 323BC.
As usual, things did not run smoothly and Ptolemy – the Satrap of Egypt – soon challenged Perdiccas’s right to rule, which ended in Perdiccas’s death.
Seleucus as part of Perdiccas’s retinue and his “Commander in Chief of the camp”, was one of the people involved in his assassination of Perdiccas, and as a result was gifted Babylonia. He established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, and from this point increasing his own power seems to have controlled Seleucus.
Emulating Alexander himself, Seleucs’s expansion of territory knew no bounds. His conquests brought him power over a host of nations - Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania – in fact, he took most of Alexander’s former territories in the east, and was halted at the river Indus when for some reason negotiation took precedence and he was offered 500 war elephants by Chandragupta Maurya. It is suggested that Maurya exchanged these for one of Seleucus’s daughters or neices, or another high ranking Greek woman – ostensibly to be a wife for Maurya and seal a treaty between him and Seleucus. The elephants, veritable war machines of ancient history, would play a vital part in the war at Ipsus ( 301BC ), which saw Seleucus’s forces advancing westwards and gaining Eastern Anatolia and Northern Syria.
With this western expansion, Seleucus relocated his capital to Antioch on the Orontes – named after his father, and continued his expansion ( a second capital established on the River Tigris called after Seleucus himself – Seleucia ), and then his final battle to defeat one of his former allies – Lysimachus - at Corupedion in 281BC. With this battle won, Seleucus’s forces annexed Western Anatolia and Seleucus seems to have harboured plans to take parts of Europe – namely Thrace and Macedonia itself.
These schemes came to nothing as he fell to assassins sent by Ptolemy Ceraunus when Seleucus entered Europe.
Seleucus’s son – Antiochus I Soter – whilst a competent general; was unable to keep up a fight on two fronts with Antigonaus II Gonatas of Macedonia and Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt.
But it was enough to have established an empire. Antiochus held on to this, and although the Seleucid empire saw its fortunes dip somewhat, its power re-emerged around 223BC under Seleucus’s great great grandson, named Antiochus III ( Seleucus’s son was Antiochus, followed by Antiochus II, who’s son in turn was Seleucus II – just in case you wanted to research them ).
Seleucus II came to the throne sometime around 246BC, and as mentioned, power had waned somewhat in the intervening years. Several battles on different fronts lost territories to native peoples – not least a third Syrian war which saw losses to Egypt, a civil war narrowly won against Seleucus’s own Brother Antiochus Heirax, the distraction of that allowing Bactria and Parthia to pull away from the Seleucid Empire.
As mentioned though, a revival came when Antiochus III ( The Great ) came to power. Initially he was unsuccessful, losing the fourth Syrian war, but proved himself capable after this as he re-established power over the rebellious Parthians, gained back Greco- Bactria and by agreeing to be allies with Philip V of Macedonia he annexed some of the Ptolemaic lands outside of Egypt ( splitting the gains with Philip V ). With a fifth Syrian war, Ptolemy was ousted from Coele-Syria, and the battle of Panium in 198BC saw the gains Antiochus and his army had affected made concrete.
The final blow to western expansion came when the Seleucid forces met the Romans. This stopped all expansion towards the Mediterranean and although the Seleucid Empire continued in one form or another – with various rulers finding ranging fortunes from good to bad – the decline had begun.
The Seleucid Empire, like many that were spawned from the conquests of Alexander the Great were largely based on military leadership, expansion through war, and with the Macedonian / Greek model for fighting those wars.
Alexander had initiated the ideal of not putting a defeated enemy force to death, but instead, absorbing those willing to fight for him to replace losses and cheapen recruitment. Ransoming off leaders and generals was common too, and this pattern continued with the regimes that followed Alexander’s death.
The Seleucids were no different in this, and perhaps their success can be partially laid at the feet of Alexander.
The Seleucid Empire did eventually end or around 63BC. It had declined so much by 100BC that it controlled little more than Antioch and some parts of Syria; the territory was in constant turmoil though, because even when outside forces such as Rome or Armenia weren’t using it as a battleground, civil war between native Seleucid’s caused instability within the area.
The Roman General Pompey, having successfully defeated the Armenian Mithridates in 63BC finally decided to change the Hellenistic East by creating client kingdoms and provinces. The likes of Armenia and Judea were allowed to continue, but Seleucid lands were viewed as just too problematical, so both rival Seleucid princes were “done away with” and the whole of Syria was made into a Roman province.
The bust.
With that amount of conquest, I’d have thought that Seleucid subjects would have been more common. It seems though to have been almost completely ignored by modellers though – unless I’m the one missing something.
However, Pegaso have seen fit to release this rather interesting bust, one that caught my eye.
Well, to be truthful, the one that a friend of mine painted was the one that caught my eye – It was that Mike Harbour fella again, turning out a fair representation of this bust, and I thought “That looks different”
The pose is set off at an angle, the now accepted twist of the head being given more character and perhaps a bit more presence that if the shoulders were set on the horizontal as with most busts.
So I bought one……..then as usual time seemed to get in the way and it languished on the shelf for twelve months.
In fact, this one sort of crept up on me. I’d enjoyed messing around with the Stormtrooper metallics range so much on the El Greco Spartan, that I fancied something else “the same but different”. This one nearly hopped off the shelf in its desperation to receive the same treatment, and that was it.
That desperation from the model was reflected by me being sporadic in my attentions; I had other things that were taking my attention, so the taking of photos seemed to get somewhat forgotten and certainly towards the end of the painting, the model seemed to just be finished all of a sudden.
However, that’s getting way, way ahead of myself. Photo #1 shows the parts laid out; the brightness of the metal has blasted the shot a bit, and I’ve not been able to rein in my enthusiasm, so you can see where I’ve already pinned the crest to the helmet.
The line of material that supports the crest and joins to the helmet is rather thin, and whilst I used a relatively small drill bit, the force of drilling through the metal cause one of those lines to appear akin to the ones Bugs Bunny forms when travelling underground in one of his cartoons. It’s easiest in this case to just shave the bulge of thin metal off, glue the wire and the two components in place and then file the wire back to match the profile of the parts and use filler ( Magic Sculpt ) to sort out any gaps.
The photo shows the part pre-putty and perhaps more clearly in photo #2. I’ve also used a very fine grit emery cloth to polish the metal surfaces of the helmet. There was a bit of pitting on the metal, and although I treated the breastplate, face and helmet to some cleaning work to remover it, the problem would come back to haunt me on other parts of the model later on.
The first attempt at primer can be seen in photo #3, and the main point of note here is the bulge of putty over that pin. Trust me, there is no way that paint will hide this, it’s far easier to just admit it’s there, and sort it out now. Putting more layers of paint on over a problem like this is just compounding the fault, and even if most people can’t spot it, you will never see anything else every time you look at the model, and neither will any judge worth his salt in a competition.
So, out came the files, emery cloth etc and it was scraped, sanded and generally worried at until the area was flat. Then re-primed and I could start off painting again.
Photo #4 shows the helmet with a black undercoat, followed by a gold overspray. The shadows have been worked at a bit, but it’s the lighting that shows where the highlights and shadows should be, and thus proves the painting to be correct………well correct-ish. The head is tilted to the side slightly, and the bust itself canted. One side of the helmet is more shadowed than the other, and I’d have to compensate for this eventually.
Moving on, photo #5 shows the same helmet with some highlights added to the upper surfaces and the rim picked out with lighter colour too. All this so far has been done with an airbrush – the mix of paint is probably the most important thing, and having a thin mix of pigment that can be repeatedly dusted on in layers is better than trying to do it all in one fell swoop. Subtleties can be built up with multiple layers; yes, it takes more time, but this is a hobby, not a job with a deadline.
And then we’ll just knobble it all with a nice thick layer of oils…..
Photo #6 shows the application of some Burnt Umber. This is painted on ( don’t worry about the brush-marks, we’ll work on them in the next shot ), with about the largest brush I’ve got, thinning the paint a little so that it’s about as thick as double cream.
Then comes the clever bit – dab most of it off with a soft cloth. Again, not rushing this can leave you with a nice subtle finish that enhances the shadows, and to be honest would be O.K. to leave and have done with – see photo #7.
But oh no, not me, I just like messing about. I let the burnt Umber dry fully; then I hit the whole area with another coat of the same a couple of days later. Not as much of the oils are removed this time –see photo #8, because I need the paint to be workable so I can blend in the metallic paints.
Beginning with a mix of Burnt Umber and Stormtroopers Bronze ink, I add spots and dots of this mix to the helmet in as random a fashion as I can. I then use a large brush ( dry and clean ) to stipple the paint and blend it in to the surrounding area. Then a bit more Bronse, this time mixed with Mars Brown, then more of the original colour, then lighten both with more of the Bronze and again add spots and dots, all the time blending in each layer. If it all gets a bit too dry to work with, add a few small spots of White Spirit – don’t worry if that displaces some of the inks, it’ll be random if it does and it all adds to the effect.
After I’ve built up to using almost pure Bronze, I switch to using Stormtroopers Old Gold ink, and continue with the same method, then through that to Old Silver for the highlights.
It’s tedious, tends to be messy, and to be honest can look totally rubbish when you’ve finished. So long as there’s several different patches of colour there, and highlights are following the helmet contours naturally, don’t worry…….
Because for some reason these metallic paints, when used like this, seem to need to dry over night to settle and look good. Photo #9 shows how this has happened, the matt finish showing how things are completely dry, and the colours have settled to a mottled appearance – think of it being similar method and finish to what you’d try for a dappled horse.
Photo #10 shows the other side of the helmet when it’s about half way dry. The colours haven’t quite settled and they appear more distinct. Even if this is the finished effect, it’s good, because it’ll die back with further coats of paint that will get added.
Just to show that I do my homework, photo #11 shows a genuine piece of phosphor Bronze, it’s been polished about a month ago and left to one side. The oxidization has begun, although the patina caused by weathering outside ( yes, soldiers spend a lot of time when on campaign out in the open ) hasn’t formed, because it’s been in a box in my work room.
Anyway, photo #12 shows what damage can be painted on after the initial stages have fully dried. Again, simple enough to do with the right paint and the right tools - a very fine brush with a food point is required, and some very dark brown paint. The paint is thinned down so that you can draw fine lines on the palette with it, and then once you’ve practiced, short, fine lines are drawn onto the metal areas.
Just before you rush off and start doing this though, give some thought to what we’re doing here. We’re trying to replicate battle damage from spear or sword blades. So just pausing to think how they would happen, what’s the sort of vector a sword blade travels through to contact our miniature hero, or what is the direction that a spear would be thrust in to try and pin him, will all be worth the effort.
The other thing to consider is that metal tends to be rather solid, so it’s unlikely that a sword slash would make it into recessed detail, but would tend to skip over the upper surface of anything rounded, but that a thrust / or a scratch from a thrust would be more jagged and will tend to end in a recess.
The slash might begin on the top of one area of the armour, and skip over to another raised area, missing a depression in between the two, a thrust that begins on one raised area will probably travel to a recessed section, but would be unlikely to continue over to another raised area, as the point of the blade would catch in the recess – all logical stuff, but do you pause to consider it when painting ?
In photo #13 the damage is from swords, or from slashing weapons, I haven’t added anything from a thrusting spear.
So, now just a quick run through of what else happened whilst I was busy painting, and not pausing to think about the camera and using it to take shots.
The final thing to do with the armour is to paint three or four thinned coats of Tamiya Smoke acrylic lacquer over it. If you dilute the lacquer with an equal amount of water, then you’ll be able to add multiple layers of it, so that you can control how glossy the metal becomes. I don’t like really shiny metal, except in certain circumstances, and so I left this with a satin finish, simply because that’s how the metal would look if left to its own devices.
The cloak was painted with acrylics, using the linen effect I’ve used several times before. I thought I’d paint it with a red lining and an off white outer face, which actually became a red lining with a brown outer face once I’d worked through the painting of the piece. I liked it that way, and didn’t continue to the brighter colours I’d planned on using.
The leather areas at the shoulder were painted to represent tanned leather with yellow / gold braid decoration. It looked a bit too Napoleonic to me, so I darkened the braid a lot with further washes.
After that, it was a case of fastening the head to the shoulders, and I used a large bore drill ( 2mm or so ) to put a hole up through the neck to house a large wire. The head was glued in place with the wire protruding through the hole that is in the center of where the neck sits, and once the glue had dried I added some Magic Sculpt putty and some Superglue to this area to support the head a bit more for when it’s travelling about.
Whilst I waited for the putty to cure, I painted around the edge of it with some black paint on the underside of the bust.
Once the head was fastened in place, I then needed to put some paint on the plume. It’s a large part of the kit, and although cast cleanly regarding mould lines, I could see a lot of the same pitting that had marred the other components.
This would be impossible to completely eradicate, and I thought that the paint might hide it. It’s a shame to say that it hasn’t and I can still see the pitting through the paint I’ve applied. Most folk will not see it I dare say, but it’s there if you look pretty closely.
I’ve tried repainting it three times now, but it doesn’t seem to make any odds, the pitting is still there. If I’d known this, I might have been tempted to re-sculpt a new plume – but then it wouldn’t have been ready for Euro, and I really do like to clear my bench so I can return after the show and put something completely new ( probably bought at the show ) straight onto the bench.
A note on the fallibility of article writers – I handed this piece to someone at Euro before the competition to see what they thought…….um…..they noticed I hadn’t painted the rest of the underside of the bust……
In my haste to pack and get to the show, I’d completely forgotten to paint the putty. Fortunately, it’s not an integral part of the bust, but I’m pretty sure that the eagle-eyed judges marked it down for this omission, and quite rightly so.
One thing I did miss off was the feathers at the side of the helmet. I just didn’t like these at all, and so I cut off the holders at the bottom, glued them in place and then painted them up to match in with the rest of the helmet.
Well, that’s another one finished.
I think I enjoyed painting this – well, I should have done. The truth being that the paint fell onto it so easily, I don’t actually remember when it got done…….Well, up until discovering the week prior to Euro Militaire that I only needed to paint the cloak, the plume and the decoration at the shoulder and it’d be finished.
It’s not a simple piece, and being White Metal, it’s not light either, but I do like it.
References:
Online – Primary source -Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_Empire
Secondary sources:-
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/seleucids/seleucids.php
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sleu/hd_sleu.htm
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