WG Celtic Warriors as Galatians?

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks Bren- looks like I am good to go then. First up have to get some Romans speed painted and then the Galatians.

Definitely interested in the article- please post it here or you can message me if you prefer.

Thanks again

James

[bren]

Sorry James. Those illustrations are actually in the CHAINMAIL link:

http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/chainmail/


More of the Galatians at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovisi_Gaul

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks Bren- I had looked at that Chainmail link in your earlier post and i have previously looked at the sculptures of The Dying Gaul and The Galatian Suicide as part of my online research.

Sorry if I am being thick but I don't see how those links help answer my specifc question.

So far noone has pointed at any of the shields and helmets on Celtic Warrior sprue and said those are nt suitable as Galatians. i.e. if a specific shield type was more Germanic. So unless anyone tells me otherwise I am going with what I had said in the opening post.

Thanks

James

[phn104]

Hmmm... I've faced similar problem as you, there are very few depictions/reconstructions of them and I also want to use the Celtic boxsets as Galatians as I only collected Hellenic stuff so far.

The Celts that settled in Galatia came through Thrace so if you are going to mix some IM Classical helmets in maybe use the Phrygian and Thracian style helmets?

As for the shields I think you are pretty safe as Galatians are represented with both oval and hexagonal shields. http://battleshields.tumblr.com/

As for the other helmets I looked at Peter Connolly's 'Greece and Rome at War'. It has different types of Celtic helmets and its evolution (ei. when they were introduced/finds are dated to). I think I am going to assume that Galatians will only use the helmets that are no later than ~250BC on the assumptions that from then on Galatians had little contact with the Celts/Barbarian tribes in Europe.

Also are there any cloaks in that Celtic set because from painted examples I didn't see any except for metal blister packs?

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks phn.

Was good to look at pictures that you had linked. Was good to see some pictures other than The Dying Gaul and The Galatian Suicide.

Good call on the Phrygian and Thracian helmets- I have swapped for some of my spare Corinthian helmets for extra Phrygian and Thracian ones. I don't want to overdo them though in case I want to re-use any Galatians that I paint as Gauls for Punic War era. So essentially I am going to want them to be able to cover from 280 BC to 200 BC.

I have nt read that Peter Connolly book yet- will keep an eye out for it. If it has loads of info on helmets and shields then will be useful.

Yes you are right on no cloaks on plastic Celts- I must have been thinking of a different figure range when I wrote that. However if I do add any metal figures with cloaks then I will go for classic Galatian blue.

I need to speed paint some Romans first but want to make progress on Galatians afterwards. Look forward to seeing what you come up with too.

Cheers

James

[bren]

Dunno how useful it'll be for your purposes but, as promised, the Galatians article:

http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/galatia/

[wargame_insomniac]

Dunno how useful it'll be for your purposes but, as promised, the Galatians article:

http://balkancelts.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/galatia/

Thanks Bren

So would changing the ethnicity of Galatians from Gauls to Belgae change that much in terms of appearance?
I know there were differences between Gauls and Germans. I don't know as much about the Belgae I'm afraid.

Was intrigued by brief mention of Bastarnae. My understanding was that Bastarnae were Germanic in origin. I do have a WG Dacian box set and did think of using them to represent Bastarnae as some future project.

Cheers

James

[bren]

No, the Belgae were also Celts, although they were most like the Germani of the Celtic groups, cause they were originally neighbors of the Germani and in the case of the Volcae tribe actually lived in Germani. However, the weaponry would be Celtic.

The Bastarnae were also probably from the Belgae branch of the Celts, thus the confunsion among some ancient authors about whether they were Gauls or Germani (because they were technically neither). I'll post the Bastarnae article in a few weeks, which will explain that distinction better.

[wargame_insomniac]

Thanks- if there was a book "Ancient Celtic peoples for dummies, then I would probably need it!!

One follow up query though- I thought Germanic tribes had different hairstyles to Gallic tribes (thinking of Suebi and Chatti which Wargames Foundry did specific packs for IIRC). If the Belgae were more akin to the Germans than the Gauls, does the same follow for hairstyles?

Cheers

James

[Cubster]

'Celtic' is a tricky old adjective. It's kind of fluid, describing not so much a people, as cultural similarity, and no-one at the time described themselves as such. These days it is loosely used to cover peoples from the Black Sea to Ireland and there is still no definite answer as to how and why such similarities existed in tribes or nations stretched so far across the globe, or even how and when the influences spread.

The various Victorian fashions for reinventing past cultures have a lot to answer for!