Friday, 11 October 2013

Legio X Equestris


Legio X Equestris were one of Caesar's small group of elite legions. They picked up their nickname when their legionaries provided Caesar with an impromptu mounted bodyguard for a parlay with the German King Ariovistus.

I've just extended this (extremely clickable) elite cohort, from 2 stands to 3, with the help of painter mate Andres. It is built around a dozen figures that I picked up in a swap with Andres (mostly on the left), with my less well painted dozen miniatures (mostly on the right). Andres recently painted another 10 stunning shields for me so that I could finish the unit. The shields are little gems, and I love the small variations between the designs, just like a real unit must have had.

They will be in the thick of the fighting in my Thapsus game at SELWG on Sunday.  If you are comingalong, why not sign up for a couple of hours military service?

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Hail, Caesar!

No not the rules but the man.  Caesar was painted for me by Andres at Einar Olafson, who has done a stunning job!  Please have a click.


Caesar himself is an interesting piece.  His horse is Foundry, his body Aventine, and his head Warlord.  


I painted the standard bearer.  In the heat of the action, he is carrying his shield the wrong way up...  The Aventine vexilla is really useful, I must have used 2 dozen of them, so far..  

So... Caesar will be leading the action on Sunday at SELWG.  If you are coming along and want to play in the very large Thapsus battle I'll be running twice (once each AM and PM), please drop me a line at the email address on the front page of my blog, and I'll book you in!  

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

The other Numidians...

The remaining 2 units of Numidian warband.  No elephants were harmed during the basing of these units.


During Caesar's African campaign, Numidian infantry were numerous, if not particularly effective.  I tend to mix them in with my Numidian skirmishers for games with my "To the Strongest!" rules.  


The figures are a mix of Foundry (Greek and Numidian), Companion and Crusader, I painted around half of them, and finished others from eBay and that I bought from Stephen Hales.  

I have lots more of these unpainted in the loft, and will return to this army again.  BTW, if anyone has any spare Companion imitation legionaries, I'm after some.  Juba apparently had 4 legions-worth, which would be around 190 minis in the scale I'm doing, and so far I only have 40.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Poor dead nellie


I've finished a few more Numidian units, which I'll post during the course of this week.  To make these (clickable) skirmishers a little different to the previous four units, I have deployed one of my Aventine dead nellies.

Friday, 4 October 2013

A few Romans more

I've been trying to match Andres's style of painting and finish a Roman unit that he mostly painted, some years back.   I'm nowhere near as good, but they look OK from 12" away, and that will have to do.  Andres is sending me shields for them.


I'm also about to complete one further unit of Numidians, and Caesar's personal standard bearer, to go with Andres' Caesar model.

A huge thanks to Caliban Paul for sending me a rare Companion Roman Command pack last week!

Monday, 30 September 2013

More crewmen and a captain


Nick also painted these archers for me, which I've just finished basing. Please do have a click, they came out very well! They will form the crew of my ships, along with their rather intense captain (below), who was painted some years ago by Andres at Einar Olafson.


Sunday, 29 September 2013

Augustan Marines


These chaps have been recruited from the brush of Nick Speller*, and will be part of the marine contingent for my Roman boats.  They are based on an image in the Osprey Roman Marine book, and may well be Greeks, as the Romans recruited heavily into their navy from Greece and Egypt.


The figures are Foundry Thebans, equipped with Roman auxiliary shields, and with metal armour painted as leather.  Steve from LBMS very kindly resized the transfers for me.

I only rarely base minis singly, but elements just aren't going to work, shipboard.  I am half tempted to work up some sort of Roman naval skirmish game.  Later, I will need to make a sabot for these, in case they get should get their land-legs.

*I applied the shields and an ink wash