Indie war elephant

Maybe a bit too indie for it's own good, this is a much poorer casting than the Sassanid elephant and it is taking a bit more time to get it to come up to a reasonable quality.

On the plus side the smiley face has been scratched into both sides of the howdah. so at least there is some consistency :-)

As I mentioned in a previous post I cant find a reference to ancient Indian war elephants equipped with a howdah, they show blankets only with some really interesting patterns. I'm guessing the hatch pattern shown (the same as on the Indian war chariot) denotes a weaved wickerwork. References in one of the WRG books suggests the wickerwork on the chariot would have been covered with leather, hence the tan paint job?

So far I have opted out of putting any patterns on the blanket other that the blue and gold trim which I copied onto his way cool pajamy cords ;-) and have opted for natural red leather tethers and accoutrement, plenty of time to embellish and highlight later.

Side by side view, I hadn't noticed that the Indian elephant was considerably bigger casting than the Sassanid, in my ignorance of the period I had assumed that the Persians probably used Indian elephants. I guess the castings are suggesting they used the now extinct North African elephant.

So there you go that is my little repaint effort, I'm sure by the time they're finished and bases (40mm frontage as per the DBX rules) flocked up they will get a pass, and then I think mr ebay can have 'em seeing I don't have any ancients. I did have a good idea about the Indian elephant which could easily pass for a later period (right up to the Raj just about) of putting a tiger hunting crew in the howdah. Two separate crews so's to speak. Yeah that's the ticket, multi task that nelly! 

It will be good to get em finished and move onto the two successor elephants which I personally think are a better casting.