Carthaginian War Elephants
III secolo A.C.

Recensione dei Figurini HaT Industrie in Scala 1:72

The African forest elephant produced by HäT is even shorter than the original, it measures only 2.1 m at the shoulder. Forest elephants were too small to carry a tower, they were just ridden like horses. A Numidian mahout drove the animal e behind him sat an archer ed a lance-armed fante. The tiny forest elephant shown here will be deployed in wargames without any fanteria on the back, until a suitable archer o fante is found. By comparison, the African plains elephant shown next to it is 3.2 m tall e capable of carrying a tower con tre soldiers. The model is a toy elephant purchased at a flea market. The tower was built from balsa, e the blanket was cut from an old T-shirt. The crew will eventually consist of quattro men, the mahout, officer, e fante shown above, plus an archer. The archer is missing, but the other tre men were taken from the HäT kit of the forest elephant. The lance del fante is 5.5 m long, it was called a sarissa.

Contenuto

• 18 soldatini in 4 Poses – 23 mm equal 166 cm height
  • 6 Numidian mahouts (elephant guidatori)
  • 6 Carthaginian officers con standard
  • 6 Carthaginian fanteria con lance, in 2 poses
• 6 elephants in 2 Poses – 29,5 mm equal 210 cm height
• 6 towers - 14,5 mm wide, 13 mm deep, 21 mm tall

Valutazione

• Good choice of subject. African forest elephants were captured e tamed by the Numidians, who used them in battle. However, these animals were too small to carry a tower, they were ridden like horses.
• Satisfactory detail. Faces, hair, clothes, armour ed armi are in evidence.
• Good poses, the elephant guidatore e the soldiers are sculpted correctly.
• Satisfactory casting quality. Noticeable flash e thick le linee di stampo devono essere tolto prima di dipingere.

• The African forest elephant is not sculpted correctly.
  • The elephant’s ears should be much rounder, e they would stand straight out when the animal is agitated in a combat situation. This threatening posture is shown correctly sulla copertina della scatola, even if the ears are not drawn correctly there either, but the model has its ears folded back against the shoulders. This mistake is difficult to fix. Separate ears would have been a much more realistic option.
  • The legs e feet are almost cylindrical, but that’s a feature of the Asian elephant. The African elephant has thin legs e large, saucer-shaped feet.
  • The front feet have only tre hooves, but quattro would have been required. In addition, the hooves are out of scale e they protrude too far.
  • The tusks e trunk are sculpted in one piece, resulting in an unrealistic inward curvature of the tusks. Separate tusks would habe been a more realistic option.
• The mahout ends up kneeling on the animal’s ears, because the neck is very narrow. Instead, the guidatore should straddle the elephant’s neck e ride the animal like a horse.
• The rounded shields on the tower sides are shown correctly sulla copertina della scatola, but the models are completely flat. Since the tower is too small to accomodate the typical crew a tre soldatini, serious modellers will want to build their own from balsa wood. The tower shown above is 22 mm tall e 17 mm square.
• The fante should be armed con a lance 5.5 m to 6 m long if he is to be used inside the tower of a larger plains elephant. Since the plastic lance is too thick anyway, replace it con a "sarissa" cut from 0.5 mm pianowire. The tip of the sarissa may be scratchbuilt from paper, glued into place e hardened con superglue.
• There is no archer in the set. The African forest elephant typically carried an archer o due who knelt on the back of the animal o straddled it like a horse. The crew supplied in this set may be used for a larger plains elephant con tower, suitably converted from a plastic toy, but an archer would be required in this case as well.

Utilizzo storico

• DBA Esercito 31b, Late Carthaginians - 11th Element

The African forest elephant produced by HaT Industrie is unique in this scale. Other manufacturers have released models of war elephants based on the more impressive African plains elephant, which carried a tower. Even if HäT’s interpretation of the African forest elephant con tower e crew is not entirely correct, the kit parts will be very useful for a number of interesting conversions.

HaT Industrie Soldatini

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– Pubblicato: 06.04.2000 – Aggiornato: 18.06.2008
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