Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Armigeri Defensores Iuniores

Not my finest photo, but here is the first of my 2 new Late Roman Auxilia units.  The shield pattern is loosely based on the Armigeri Defensores Seniores, but I think of these as a unit of Auxilia.  Stunning work on the shields, which I bought on eBay along with the majority of the figures (I painted 8 figures to match).


I've based them so that the line curves back slightly at the ends, so that the unit is somewhat "bow" shaped.  The reason for this is that, when I take the middle two half depth elements and put them at the back, it gives the unit a wedge-shaped appearance, which I think of as a cuneus.  The idea for this came from reading Simon MacDowell's excellent Late Roman Osprey.


The original painter did a great job with the decorative patches, but I hope that I have had a fair crack at matching them on mine.  

I've now got 4 Perry Late Roman units; the start of a small army. I could do with a Legione, next, but have lost the remaining figures I have, somewhere in the Lead Mountain.

8 comments:

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Nice and colourful.

Cheers
Christopher

DeanM said...

Wow - that's an actual shield pattern? Looks like the ol' yin/yang thing going on. Nice work all around too. Love the draco standard. Regards, Dean

BigRedBat said...

Yes it is an actual design (although the colours don't match those in the Notitia). Roman hippies! :-)

I really love the Late Roman approach to shield designs.

James said...

clever idea for the basing. Good looking cohort.

Prufrock said...

Beautiful job as always, BRB!

Cheers,
Aaron

Anonymous said...

Good to see a few late Roaming Romans Simon.

CarloAntonio said...

Very nice look !!! Great work , compliments !!!

Paul´s Bods said...

A great bunch of Ying-Yang romans..I´m trying to spot the 8 you have painted...haven´t.
Cheers
paul