John Gleason was having a sale on his 15mm Chariot miniatures at Advance the Colors 2005, so I eagerly sorted through the miscellaneous packs, looking to see what new Biblical army I could piece together. He had lots of packs of Sea Peoples, so many in fact I decided to buy two armies' worth, paint one up and sell the other. One interesting thing about the Chariot Sea Peoples castings, though. They've molded the colored patches on the kilts the Sea Peoples wear in depth. The square, colored portions are recessed, and the area that would be the white bands between them are raised. I knew this would present some problems when I applied my black wash at the end to bring out the detail (because in this case, I didn't want the detail to show!). So, I had to be careful to immediately dry out a brush and suck off the wash from the kilt portion of the figure. You can see what I'm describing best, perhaps, on the Auxilia figures below.
Another challenge for painting this army, or rather for basing it, was how to tell the warbands from the auxilia. I solved that by utilizing the figure in the packs that is holding aloft a brand or torch. No flames are molded on, but after I was finished I added a tiny scrap of cotton ball as the smoke from the flaming brand. So, I can tell opponents that the Auxilia are the ones with the torches (see how courteous I am to my opponents...what a guy!).
Anyway, the origins of the Sea Peoples is still somewhat debated among historians. It is generally agreed that they came into the realms of the Egyptians and Hittites from the seas, that is, probably from islands in the Mediterranean. Some have tried to line things up linguistically, for example, by saying the Sherden tribe came from Sardinia. Not all agree to that, but one thing that is generally admitted is they burst upon the scene as an invading horde, tearing down some kingdoms and nearly settling in a wave across the eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptains weathered their onslaught, but their rivals the Hittites did not. Egypt went on to employ the Sea Peoples as mercenaries. One Sea People kingdom that was founded was the Philistines of Bible fame.
In DBA, the Sea Peoples are a difficult army to achieve success with. Their high aggression (4, on a scale of 0-4) means they will rarely set the terrain that they desperately need. They aren't quite as hamstrung in the open as, say, the Early Hebrews. However, they'll definitely prove a challenge to the budding general. With all those warbands (8 of their 12 elements), they'll need some good combat dice! Nevertheless, they are a pretty army on the tabletop. The variety of poses among the Chariot packs makes for a great looking army.
Okay, first of all, no, I did not scratch build the column. The incised detail of the scarab beetles and the lower half of a Pharaoh figure are way beyond my ability! However, I did paint it...starting with a dark brown base coat, dry-brushing khaki then while over it. I covered it in a final coat with my Polly Scale black wash (Clear Flat paint with a dab of black mixed in).
I converted one of the Sea Peoples spearmen to a slave driver, bending his spear to look like a leather thong tying the captives together. The Egyptian boy and girl captives are, I believe, from one of Corvus Belli's civilians packs. I used a shaved down twist tie from a loaf of bread as the thong connecting the boy and girl. The guard on the other side of the column I was very, very tempted to set down atop the column, instead. However, I knew this would be a tall camp already and didn't want to make it any taller.
As with all my recently-made Biblical era camps, I was quite happy with how it turned out. It definitely makes an impression when you set down on the tabletop!