Surus is believed to have been the lead elephant of the 37 which Hannibal crossed the alps with. Little is known of him apart from he had 1 tusk, the other was probably damaged and he probably wore red cloth and armour as the other elephants supposedly did. It is unsure whether he was a large Asian or an Africa elephant, although a coin of the time shows him as African his name may mean the Syrian which would point to him being Asian. Hannibal rode him after he lost his eye to get a better view of the battlefield and he was the longest living animal of the 37.

Given how many RP Carthaginian elephants seem to be in process at the moment I wanted to try and do something a little different with mine so I have built him as Surus, and depicted him as being African.

This is great kit, well sculpted and engineered and highly original, it was a pleasure to work on. Apart from cutting the tusk I replaced the spear shafts with brass and put a wire insert into the goad. I replaced the medallion with a scratchbuilt one and made the lamellar armour.

Richard at Oakwood kindly made me a bespoke base and the nameplate is from Name it. All in acrylics apart from the Mahouts flesh which is oil over acrylic.

  • Clive Jackson

    Nice work! I got this one as a little Christmas treat, I think you are right, there are going to be a lot of these turning up soon! Gold for me!...I believe the Elephants that Hannibal used where a sub species of African Elephant that were indigenous to North Africa then, slightly smaller than the ones in the South, gone now.

    • Kilsh

      Thanks Clive Look forward to seeing yours done! I’ve read about the extinct sub species too, I guess we will simply never know for certain what he used and what happened to them. Cheers Neil

  • Jakob VPLUS

    Beautiful work. Very clean and strong.

    • Kilsh

      Thanks Jakob!

  • Mariano del Olmo

    Nice work on an outstanding model.

    • Kilsh

      Thanks Marisno!

  • Sergey PopovichenkoPLUS

    Cool!!

    • Kilsh

      Thanks Sergey

  • John Margiotta "BloodASmedium"PLUS

    Now this I love !!! Gold

    • Kilsh

      Thsnks John