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Odemars

Set PF13

Iberian Infantry

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All figures are supplied unpainted    (Numbers of each pose in brackets)
Stats
Date Released Unknown
Contents 32 figures
Poses 8 poses
Material Plastic (Medium Consistency)
Colours Grey, Light Brown
Average Height 23 mm (= 1.66 m)

Review

The Iberian peoples were a significant part of the forces Carthage could call upon in time of war. This set of figures was previously released under the HYTTY brand as Carthaginian Mercenaries.

To begin with, the detail on these figures is not good. What there is cannot be described as clear and it is therefore quite tricky to identify the costumes. There would seem to be figures in Greek style costume, some from the Iberian Peninsular and some that look more like Liby-Phoenician troops.

The choice of poses is neither imaginative nor particularly well executed, though we have seen worse. In particular we could not decide what the man with the falcata sword (second figure on top row) was supposed to be doing. This man has been given an extremely small base, and is consequently very unstable. However the man with his spear over his head leans so far to his right that no amount of bending would persuade him to stand.

Spears have been provided, more than sufficient for the ring hands in the set, but they are thick and quite crude, and do not fit in the ring hands (we had to split the hands open to do the scans). Eight shields are also provided as shown above, yet from the position of their left arm it would seem that many more figures than that require one, and indeed most infantry at the time would have considered a shield as an essential item. The design of the shield on the bottom row does not seem appropriate for any of these troops at this period, while the large round example in the top row looks more Greek hoplite than anything Iberian.

As with the rest of the HYTTY range this Odemars reissue has a tremendous amount of flash around these figures. Very poor sculpting and problems with many aspects of the costume that they wear leave us with the conclusion that this is a really poor set which has nothing we can recommend.
Ratings

Historical Accuracy 4
Pose Quality 4
Pose Number 5
Sculpting 2
Mould 3

Further Reading
Books
"1.000 Años de Ejercitos en España" - Almena (Guerreros Y Batallas Series No.1) - José A Alcaide
"Armies of the Carthaginian Wars 265-146 BC" - Osprey (Men-at-Arms Series No.121) - Terence Wise - 9780850454307
"Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars" - Wargames Research Group - Duncan Head - 9780950029948
"Greece and Rome at War" - Greenhill - Peter Connolly - 9781853673030
"Numancia" - Almena (Guerreros Y Batallas Series No.27) - José Ignacio Lago
"Rome's Enemies (4) Spanish Armies" - Osprey (Men-at-Arms Series No.180) - Rafael Treviño - 9780850457018

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