Showing posts with label Praetorians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Praetorians. Show all posts

Monday, 21 March 2016

Praetorians


I recently bought a beautiful (late) Early Imperial Roman army from Aventine's Adam Smith and he has kindly painted up some further units to round it out. These are the Praetorians of what will be my third Early Imperial army (EIR3).

Like Adam, I love to see Praetorians with Black shields; very Hollywood!  These will hopefully see action later this year against a German army. 

Monday, 24 September 2012

Cohortes Praetoriae

These are the two cohorts of Praetorian guards that I needed for the Ad Castores game.  There were 9 cohorts of Praetorians in the Othonian army, but only 3 were sent northwards, initially, to resist the surprise transalpine Vitellian invasion.


Most of the miniatures are the single Foundry Saleh pose, which luckily I love.  They were superbly painted for me by my friend Nick Speller.  I do love the striped pila shafts he painted...  I added the shield transfers, some highlights, varnished and based them.  The grimacing Optio in the front rank is a Black Tree conversion, and the cornicen and signifer are converted A&A's.   I'm particularly proud of the standards, which I extended by a cm or so, to make them suitably imposing.  The shield transfers are, of course, LBMS.  


Since originally sending these off to be painted, I've picked up some 3 dozen more unpainted Praetorians, and I'm minded to paint another cohort or two, so that I can use some of the lovely red LBMS transfers.  And after all, at the battle of Cremona, there were Praetorians on both sides!

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Praetorian WIP


These proud (and clickable) guardsmen are half of the two Praetorian cohorts I hope to deploy at Partizan.  They were superbly painted by Nick Speller; I added the transfers and touched up the shields.  Hopefully Nick is beavering away at the command stands... when I base the second lot, I'll add the static grass.

Steve Saleh only sculpted a single pose of Praetorian, so the unit is necessarily very uniform!  IMHO this uniformity doesn't matter quite so much in the case of spit and polish guardsmen.

Courtesy of recent purchases, I should be able to deploy a couple more cohorts next year (and I'll certainly be buying the later EIR Praetorians from Aventine, too, when the standing poses come out).  Happily, a lot of Praetorian cohorts were deployed in 69AD...

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Praetorians WIP


Mate Nick Speller recently sent me the first of two planned instalments of Praetorians, and I just couldn’t resist getting transfers onto their shields (on which I still need to do just a little highlighting and detailing).  These are all Foundry models from the Saleh range, which I do love passionately, even though there are no varied poses.  In the background are the newest two cohorts of auxiliaries which I need to grit my teeth, and flock!

Sunday, 2 October 2011

More Praetorian Preparations

I finished a few of the other minor conversions for my Praetorian cohorts; 2 optios on the left, and an aquilifer and a cornicer for a Praetorian prefect stand I plan make up (Sejanus, anyone?  I'm a huge I Claudivs fan).

The two optios are lightly converted BTD figures, with brass hastile and spines added to their shields using a green stuff stamp.  I've simply added manes onto the two Aventines on the right.

An aquila, I hear you say, but surely the Praetorians weren't a legion?  This is true, they were 12 separate cohorts, but one does often see an aquila in the background behind Praetorians.  My guess is that there was a Praetorian aquila that was brought forth when the cohorts were gathered together.  If anyone has any info on this, I'd be very interested to hear it.  This aquila is cut from one of the A&A Praetorians, it is quite like the ones one depicted in the relief (left).

I envisage raising a small Praetorian corps consisting of a couple of units of guards, a cohort of  Vigiles Urbanes,  the cavalry I finished earlier, and a turma or two of German Bodyguards.

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Higher Standards

I've been planning a couple of cohorts of EIR Praetorians, for a year or so, but I've not been able to find suitable signifers wth the very tall and distinctive Praetorian standards.  

Praetorian standards were taller than regular cohort standards, and much more highly decorated, with wreaths, images of the Imperial family, plaques and so forth.  They were so heavy that, during one long march, the signifers were given permission to load their standards onto carts.

The closest I've come to suitable figures are these A&A Praetorian signifers.  The figures are OKish; I don't like the later-period leggings or sleeves, but I may be able to conceal the former with greaves.  I've removed the original tops of the standards, and lenthened them to the maximum height that will fit in my storage boxes.  I've added a plaque to each, with a (rather crude) scorpion on it. They'll do!

I have a little more conversion work to do on some other figures, and then both cohorts will be off to Nick for painting. 

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Praetorian Prototype

Whilst my final 2 EIR cohorts grind grimly onwards towards completion, I've started to think about the next unit I'll paint, a cohort (maybe two) of Praetorian guards.

Most of the unit will be the Foundry Saleh Praetorian in the above pose, with a few other minis mixed in for variety; some surprises, I hope.  I've decided to paint coloured bands on the pila, as one sees bands on carvings of praetorians (I hope this is a wargaming first), and give him a white horsehair plume.  I'm a big fan of the LBMS shield design.

Here's the back; nothing controversial there.  I will go for red, as I think it is a suitably military colour.  I can see Praetorians wearing brilliant white for parades in Rome, but not out in the field.

If anyone has 8-12 of the above figures spare, I'd love to buy them or swap for them, as I'd really like to be able to paint 2 cohorts.

Saturday, 22 January 2011

Equites Singulares Praetoriae Command

This week, I've finished the command stand for my Praetorian cavalry.  All pics are clickable.


The riders are BlackTree, shields trimmed down from Warlord Games, horses A&A, and transfers VVV.  I'd like to thank Steve from the WAB Forum for sending me the Wargames Factory standard (I'm not 100% sure it is historic, but it looks great!).  Allan Curtis is sending me an imago, which I'm going to use with another, cavalry Ala that I intend to start in a month or so.  A full cavalry Ala in 1:20 would have 24 figures and would look very fine, indeed, on the table.

The A&A horses, which I think were sculpted by Adam (now of Aventine) are superb.

Here are all the Praetorian cavalry, deployed together; a fine sight!  I'm very enthused with the Black Tree cavalry riders and have ordered an awful lot more of them.

Friday, 14 January 2011

Equites Singulares Praetoriae

I've finally finished my Praetorian cavalry (except the command stand, which I hope to start this weekend).  The riders are Black Tree and the steeds A&A; shields from Warlord Games, spears North Star and transfers VVV.

I'm really pleased with them.  I think the BTD rider figures are very nice (especially the helmets, have a click), and I plan to paint an awful lot more, especially as the proportion of cavalrymen in a Roman army was rather high.  Most of the others will be scruffier equites cohortales, though.

Sunday, 9 January 2011

Champagne Charlies

These chaps are the rank and file of the cavalry for my Praetorian guard cavalry elements; champagne corks seem an appropriate temporary base for these.  I'll eventually have 2 units of 6, as the cavalry detachments of the two 24-man cohorts I have planned.  I may eventually end up with 3.

I've just taken advantage of a clear and sunny London day to gloss lacquer them.  It'll be a while before the unit gets finished, because the command figures I ordered from Black Tree Designs (in September, grrr) still haven't arrived.  I've chased and ordered some more.

I know, somewhere, I have another 3-4 dozen Black Tree cavalry, but can I find the blighters?  I've been scouring the lead mountain, but so far to no avail...

Sunday, 26 September 2010

Praetorian Horse

These horses are salvaged from an old cavalry regiment I have decided to renovate; they are from A&A. They are a little tubby, but I love the elaborate harnesses.  Strictly speaking, they are middle Imperial Roman horses, but I won't tell if you won't!  They are going to become the cavalry components of the two Praetorian cohorts I have planned for my EIR Army.

I will be using riders from Black Tree Design.  I have most of the riders I need, but have had to order the command minis from BTD themselves, who are far from being the speediest supplier of miniatures, gulp... this could considerably delay the unit.


I have renovated the bases, too.  It is very odd to see a nicely-based unit with no riders!