Last of the Romans

This lot finishes off the Republican Roman project:

Unarmoured Roman cavalry by Crusader Miniatures.

I tried something of an experiment with the bases.  We have a whole load of bark chippings left over from gardening during what passes for summer here in Scotland.  I painted the light coloured ones a base deep red, in the hope that they might look like sandstone when finished.



I think it looks fine, which means that I have a ready made supply of cheap basing materials.



The shields that came with them are smaller than the previous time I bought these figures, so I purchased some Little Big Men 15mm shield transfers and used them.  The emblem is exactly the same as one of my legions, and I was able to fit it onto the standard as well.

Roman Army on Parade

My contribution to Greg's celebration of the 14th of July is my 25mm Republican Roman consular army for the 2nd Punic War:

Four legions, two for the Latins in white and two in red at the front - those are the Romans.  Complete with supporting cavalry and command figures.

Each legion comprises 24 Velites, 48 Hastati, 48 Principes, 24 Triarii and a command base of 4 figures: 124 figures per legion.

That comes to 496 legionaries.  I know there should strictly be double the number of Velites, but I couldn't be bothered.  Besides, I'd never use that many.

There are also 24 Roman Equites, 24 Latin Equites and 12 Latin Light Cavalry, for 60 cavalry figures.

Plus a base of 2 mounted generals for each wing, and another 2 for the overall commander (consul of the day). 

That makes a grand total of 562 figures, in 25mm of course.

And I'm not finished yet - I want another dozen light horse.  I'll order those in August.

Almost all of the figures are by 1st Corps, with some Newline Velites thrown in for good measure.  The lighter cavalry are by Crusader.  It took me two years to paint this lot, which is why I've just about had enough of Romans for a while...

Unarmoured Roman Cavalry

These guys are Crusader Miniatures unarmoured Roman cavalry (28mm):

I wanted some of these to use as light cavalry for my Republican Roman army.

The horses are larger than the 1st Corps figures I used for the rest of the army, so I've based them on 5cm deep MDF rather than the usual 4cm.

This also gave me the space to pack a lot of stuff onto the bases.

As with the heavier cavalry, the shield designs are by Little Big Men, for Aventine Velites.  I gave them the same design to make them fit in well with the heavies.

I found these quite relaxing to paint, especially after all those legionaries.

Here they are charging across the plains.

And here they are, running away.  Probably after meeting some of Hannibal's Numidians.

I'm going to do another unit of twelve at one point, with red shields.

I made these guys slightly less regular than the heavies, helped by the different helmet crests.  I varied the helmet colours as well.

Crusader makes some useful figure types that are otherwise difficult to come by.  As well as these, they have Leves without shields for the earlier Camillan army's skirmishers.  If I were ever to paint an army from that period, I'd use these cavalry, ranked more closely.  But for the moment, I've had rather enough of Romans...

Latin Cavalry

I finally managed to take photos of the Latin cavalry I've recently completed:

A full unit shot

Close up of the command figures

Close shot of the rear

A side view

The shielded side

Figures are by 1st Corps and transfers by LBMS for Aventine Velites.

Republican Roman Cavalry

These are the figures I finished in December.  I have 24 of them, painted RED!! because they are meant to go with my red Roman legions.  The next batch will have white tunics and shields to accompany the Latins.

First up: a shot of the whole unit

Figures are by 1st Corps

Close-up of the command figures at the unit centre

I used LBMS transfers for Aventine Velites; they don't make any for 1st Corps cavalry

A side view

I have another command base so that I can have two units of 12 if I ever need them.  These guys performed well on their first outing at Magnesia as part of Eumenes' command.  They destroyed a unit of Galatian cavalry.  My only wargaming superstition is that a newly painted unit (or RPG figure) in its first game will perform either brilliantly or with excruciating incompetence.  This unit was fine.

Another Roman Command Base

This is the second of two cavalry generals' bases for my Republican Romans:

I've taken angled overhead shots this time so that you can see how the basing looks.

Ultimately I will have a load of cavalry, half in mostly red with red shields and half with more white on them.  These guys give me the command base for the second lot; I already have the red commanders.

Figures are by 1st Corps.  Shield transfer is by Little Big Men, from a recent release for Aventine commanders.  They don't do transfers for 1st Corps cavalry, but I find that those for Aventine fit well enough.

More casualties for Zama

First up, we have figures for the Carthaginian militia spearmen:

Next are enough for the Numidians on both sides:

These are from wargames Factory's plastic Numidian infantry box.  I used the heads with helmets for the infantry, and those without for Numidians.  Shield transfers by Little Big Men, with the ones that look more like hide shields used for the Numidians.

More casualty markers

These two are intended for the Roman cavalry.  I've given them red crests and used Little Big Men transfers designed for Aventine Velites.

These four are for Hannibal's veterans.  I used the Wargames Factory Roman bodies and gave them Numidian heads and shields; transfers by Little Big Men as always.

Roman casualties

Two trays of casualty markers: dead Romans, the finest kind.  They are Wargames Factory plastics that I picked up at Wappinshaw - a damaged box of them for £10.00.  I've been curious for a while about these guys, and decided that they would make good casualties for my Republican Romans.  The only real difference is that they have helmet crests instead of feathers, but for dead 'uns, they'll do very nicely.  I've painted up six for each legion, using the same shield designs.  All I did was chop off the bases, something that's a lot easier to do with plastic.

The third photo shows another batch of the same figures.  For these, I used the rub-on transfers that come with the box.  I've never used them  before, and I reckoned that I would mess them up; I was right.  But then again, casualties should have mangled shields, so I wasn't too bothered.  These four will do for the Bruttians who fought for Hannibal at Zama.

Laelius and Standard Bearer

These are four shots of a couple of command figures I'm going to use for Laelius at Zama.  Simon bought them for a whole one pound at Carronade and gave me them as a reward for painting Romans.  I remounted them and repainted them to fit in more with the style of the army.  They've come up well for figs that only cost a quid.  I think the men are by http://www.1stcorps.co.uk/ although I have no idea who made the horses; I had those lying around.  The standard is by http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/ and came in a pack of various standards I picked up at Claymore a few years ago.  The shield designs are for Aventine Velites.

Legions en masse

All four legions of nasty grinding efficient destroyers of all that is civilised. Eventually I'll add another 24 Hastati to each legion so as to get the proportions right. And then I'll add enough Principes to be able to "morph" into Marian legions. But right now, I want to be Hannibal and wipe them out.