The War of the Eight Year: Sea Peoples Ox-Carts

You may vaguely recall that one of my Cunning Plans for 2020 was to paint up the Foundry New Kingdom Egyptian army I'd bought to play Chariots Rampant (a late Bronze Age supplement for Lion Rampant that appeared in the pages of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy).  However the impact on Covid on gaming in 2020 and 2021 meant that the project did not happen and the miniatures languished somewhere on Lead Mountain (though I did make up one chariot with much swearing). Fast forward to 2022 and discussing possible new period projects for Rebels & Patriots or Lion Rampant with George we did remember our Bronze Age plans and resolved that George would paint up his Hittites and me, my Egyptians for some battles this spring. A slight crimp in the plan was I have somehow mislaid the Egyptians (I know...) but fortunately in a fit of retail silliness I had subsequently bought a Sea Peoples army off Newline Designs in one of their sales for a second force and being able to find that I have over the last couple of months painted it up for the planned game at the start of June.

I confess I know little about the Sea Peoples beyond reading the Osprey on the subject and probably could not tell the difference between a Ekwesh and a Tjekker ,but for a small project it doesn't really matter too much (though I do know, according to Osprey, that the 'feathered' headdress is associated with the Peleset, Denyen and Weshesh peoples, whoever they are). The main reason I wanted the Sea Peoples for a second Chariots Rampant army though was the ox-carts! In an era of glamorous Ferrari speedy light chariots there was something about the ungainly ponderous ox-carts that appealed...

The Newline Design models are pretty decent, good value and fit in nicely with Foundry models (that I have mostly temporarily mislaid), the sculpting may be a bit plainer but they paint up nicely using a block painting and Soft Tone dip approach. For Chariots Rampant I only need two chariots/carts for a unit but I decided to paint up all three that come in the Newline pack.