The First of the Newly-Raised Legions

A long time ago, even before I went to Poland at the start of the nineties, I painted an army for the original Tactica supplement's list for the Pontics. I used Essex figures, because those were pretty much the best available at the time, and I still have a soft spot for them. One of the options was the imitation legionary, so I painted three units of 24 figures, each with a different colour of plain shield, using the Essex 'Roman' Argyraspid figure.

I had always intended to pick up from where I left off with these, and use them as the basis for a newly-formed legion. Fast-forward another few years (!) and I finally got around to doing this with one of them. I took the guys with the red shields, 'distressed' them a little bit, and added another forty legionaries and assorted command stands to bring them up to strength. The original guys are lurking at the rear in these photos.

This is something of a test, and I think they have come out fine. I can do the same with the other two batches at one point, but I thought I'd give this a shot now so that I could use them as part of my cast of many for the upcoming Philippi game at the Society of Ancients conference in October.

They will probably be needed in the coming years of our campaign, because there is going to be a lot of Roman in-fighting. At one point I will paint up some Greek-type commands to turn them back into Imitation Legions again. I hope the uniform look and the plain shields make them look like raw recruits.

Next up: a mounted legate and some casualties for this legion, then it's some cavalry for Philippi: Roman Equites and Celtiberian auxiliaries.

Finished another Roman legion

Lucky Thirteenth:

Again, figures mostly by Companion Miniatures, with embossed shields (thanks to Happy Gordon in Newcastle!).

Progress has been faster recently, thanks to holiday time. There are eighty of these, plus a mounted legate and five casualty markers on dials.

Officers etc. are a mixture, mostly by Navigator Miniatures. This gives me thirteen of the fourteen legions I need for my mini-campaign of Philippi. Of course, if I had time to organise more I would!

The fourteenth legion will be something of a test. I have three batches of 24 Essex Miniatures Argyraspides with pila that I have been intending to use as the basis for Imitation Legions for our campaign, since we are going to need those in a while. Originally I got them for my Pontic army, but I have bought some more to beef them up. I reckon that I can add enough to a batch reasonably quickly to raise another legion; I already have the commands painted. Eventually I'll do that for three of them, and the plan is to produce another one from scratch to give me four of that type in total; they could then be used for newly raised legions. All I'd then need to do is paint up a few more with Hellenistic commanders and they can do double duty as imitations as well.

On the Painting Tray: August 2016

Romans, of course:

Companion Miniatures; white shields with red insignia. The legate is by Old Glory, and the dead 'uns are Warlord Games plastics. Or at least, they will be when they get their right arms...

I've made quite a bit of progress on this legion, because I have been on holiday time for a week, with another to go. Should see this lot done before going to back to work for a short time. Then I have more holidays. Just as well, since I've volunteered to run a three-part mini-campaign based on Philippi for the Society of Ancients Conference in October. I need all the painting time I can get for that...