Sunday, 20 May 2012

Imbellis Populus...

...or "Un-warlike (i.e. untrained) civilians"

 

Today I completed my Roman Rioters project, huzzah! I now have 4 “units” of rioters: two of javelin/ brick chucking skirmishers (rear, above), and two of poorly armed plebeians medium infantry (front, above).  The concept is that these are poorly-armed civilians and vigiles, perhaps raised to defend their city as by Vitellius in 69AD, or rioters from some racing faction, depicted in the act of rioting through a marketplace.  All the photos are clickable.





Just over half of the minis were very nicely painted by my mate Greg Privat, and I painted most of the remainder.  The figures are mostly Foundry, but include quite a few Aventine, a couple each of Gorgon and Gripping Beast and some odd old minis from the bits box (spot the caetrati).  The pottery is from Baeuda and the foodstuffs GB, and the cart is from Irregular.  Most of the tables are scratch built.  The potsherds are painted eggshell (very cheap!), and I'm going to highlight them tonight to match the completed pots.  The flat Roman bricks are plastic strip. 

So next... I want to make some tenement buildings for them to riot past, and this will be the subject of a future post.  I'm also planning a post for GregPrivat's big parade event on July 14th.  Last year I posted my Roman Legion, http://bigredbat.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/simons-big-parade.html , and this year I want to post their associated auxiliaries, who will be rather more numerous, and just possibly even the legionary fortress.  Luckily I have quite a lot of painted Black Tree Roman Auxiliaries who just need finishing and basing, and who I'll try to get on the table during the next few weeks. 

13 comments:

Caliban said...

Great stuff, Simon, they look suitably nasty!

Anonymous said...

Those are absolutely spectacular. Very good work, and a superb mix of different manufacturers who still look like they're part of a unit.

Keep it up!

Handgrenadealien said...

Nice work, it perfectly illustrates the notion that a government should be afraid of its people and not the other way round.
Regards HGA.

Michael Awdry said...

Wonderful! Love the bits of broken pottery you've added to the bases. The whole project just looks superb!

Sire Godefroy said...

It just says "Rome" to me. Thanks for sharing, very inspired and inspirational.

Cheers
SG

Cyrus said...

Great work, the cobblestone bases are very effective. More bread and circuses...

Rodger said...

Great work. Very impressive.

BigRedBat said...

Thanks very much chaps, I enjoyed doing them (strangely, I especially enjojed painting the pottery!).

Cheers, Simon

Anonymous said...

Marvelous... Even better then the WIPs suggested and those were great already!

Galpy said...

they look great real bunch of characters

Hobbyworker said...

Stunning work there love it :)

EinarOlafson said...

O_O That unit is fantastic... I didn´t see it before!! Thank you for the link in your las post.

BigRedBat said...

Cheers, all!

Simon