On the Painting Tray: December 2015

Romans, of course:

Finishing off another Caesarean legion. Figures mainly by Foundry, I think.

This legion is mostly completed. They have embossed shields, and originally I was going to paint these with red designs on yellow backgrounds, but they didn't stand out well enough. So I changed my mind and went for black on yellow. I have managed to be a bit quicker with this legion because they were already mostly painted, and quite well too. These were among the large batch Roy gave me when I arrived in Cheltenham, and I am hoping to do them justice.

I am also intending to take them to Bletchley for the Pharsalus Battle Day in April. I have another mostly completed legion coming down from Glasgow when we move house in a couple of weeks' time, and I also have another two legions' worth of smaller figures from Roy. I think they are Essex and are meant to be Early Imperial, but they are all in lorica hamata so I have ordered some Gripping Beast oval scuta to turn them into Caesarean/Early Principate types. They already have a basic paintjob, so it won't take much to finish them off: some inks and touching-up along with the shields should do the job. If they stand alone as legions they should fit in okay. I may well mount them on slightly thicker bases to help the illusion.

Added to the six legions I already have finished, that will give me ten 80-figure legions quite soon; I reckon I should be able to get at least another couple done before April, giving me something like 1,000 legionaries. I reckon that lot should look the part. The plan at this point is, hopefully, to link up for Bletchley with Simon of the Big Red Bat fame for a large game using his To The Strongest Rules.