28mm Republican Roman Cavalry

 

I painted this unit of Republican Roman cavalry for Victrix last year. They are actually metal Aventine Miniatures figures which have been especially designed to fit in with the fantastic Victrix plastic Republican Roman range. They are available as part of the army deals on the Victrix site or separately on Aventines. They are finished off nicely with LBMS transfers, which are splendid as usual. 

 

 

 

 And here are a couple of WIP pics.

March of the ELEPHANTS part1

Its been a heavy month has March. Heres 4 of the reasons why! 4 beautiful beasts from aventine miniatures Pyrrhic range. They are all metal, none of that new fangled resin nonsense here (more rumbling on about resin in a future post!). these are a joy to paint and I hope I have done them justice. The Shields are LBMS the bases are Litko. These weigh in at 500gs each with base and they will soon be bulldozing through the opposition in Californ-i-a.
These arn't the only nellies I have painted recently, i will show a few more tomorrow.

a few more Apulians

Another nice phalanx of Apulians, again I have finished them off with the marvellous Little big men studios transfers. this time using a selection of Etruscans designed for Aventine miniatures and Italians designed for Grippingbeast. They all fit very well on these Crusader miniatures hoplons.

My favourite is the chap in the front row with the red cloak, who quite by accident has a matching shield and tunic. Gok wan would be impressed!

Command stand finished!

Here it is a finished at last! My General for my all to slowly growing Republican Roman army escorted by an Aquilifer, Vexillarius and to show he is the boss two Lictors. Lictors were members of a special class of civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates who held the right and power to command. essentially a bodyguard. The origin of the tradition goes back to the time when Rome was a kingdom, possibly acquired from the Etruscans. They carried axes which that symbolised the power to execute.
I really enjoyed painting these and think it shows in the vignette.
Thanks to Keith of Aventine miniatures for the following extra info on Lictors;

The degree of magistrate's imperium was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him:

• Dictator: 24 lictors outside the pomerium, 12 inside. The latter rule was ignored starting from the dictatorship of Sulla
• Emperor: originally 12 lictors, after Domitian 24 lictors
• Rex and Consul: 12 lictors
• Proconsul: 11 lictors
• Magister equitum: 6 lictors
• Praetor: 6 lictors, 2 within Pomerium
• Propraetor: 5 lictors
• Curule aediles: 2 lictors

Sometimes, lictors were ascribed to private citizens in special occasions, like funerals or political reunions, as a show of respect by the city.

Vexillarius

I managed to finish the vexillarius last night, you can probably tell by the not so great design on the banner that it was getting a bit late...
I may repaint it at some point or maybe buy LBMs transfer sheet for it. For now i just want to get them based up and finished, which will hopefully tonight.

Republic Roman CnC update

Just a quick update on the command, here are the finished figures but I have since decided to lose the armed slave and replace it with a vexillarius as I think this will look more fitting on the CnCs command base. If there is enough room on the base I may still add the slave. But before I can finish it off I first need to crack on with the Campanian Hoplites you can see in the background. I have 10 finished just another 30 to do...

WIP Aventine Republican Romans CnC

We moved house back in September and once everything was sorted i was able to start on my hobby room.
The hobby room is not yet totally how I want it but the good news is I have my desk and lighting good to go. Above you will find a WIP picture of the first figures I have painted since the move. These are now finished apart from the basing. They will be based on a large round base, i just can't decide whether to include the armed slave or swap it out for another standard bearer? 
Now the room is functional expect a lot more productivity. On the desk at the mo are Punic cavalry and a large phalanx of Campanian spearmen.

Triarii unit finished

You may well be getting a little bored of seeing these dudes by now, but I thought I would do another shot, this time including three more spearmen and a leader. Originally I was going to do fifteen man units but I have settled (for now) with twelves. Something different coming very soon

Finished the Triari!

I have finished my first batch of Etruscans and what lovely figures they are to!
They took a while to paint and as you can see I eventually went for the more colourful red and white plumage, which I am glad I did.

These boys are the start of my Republican Roman WAB army and will represent the Triari of the Italian allied legion. Not sure what size to make the unit as I haven't played with the manipular rules yet. I was aiming for 15 but now I am thinking of down sizing to 12 so I can have more units to get the right checkerboard look. After a few games I may well change it if I lose ;0)

I am toying with the idea of making some terrain tiles and what the above figures are standing on is a test piece.
I am happy with the earth colour but not to sure whether to paint grass or glue on static grass? 

Now on to Aventine miniatures to order a few more!!

Aventine Etruscans WIP 1.2

That last photo was a poor show, so I thought I would take a cople more as the figures are worth the effort.

I haven't got any further with the painting but hope to have the unit of 15 finished this week. Just need to decide on the colour scheme...

Aventine Etruscans WIP1

I started working on these last night and I have to say they are some of the best figures I have painted for a long while. lots of lovely detail which makes them slower to paint but in the end they will be worth it. I just need to decide what colour to do the shields and the adornments on the helmet. I was thinking of white shields and red and white feathers and horsetails but now they are nearly finished black looks good, or am I just being lazy?
Anyway I have promised myself that I must finish these and the Tarrentine cavlry before placing my order for a legion or three....

ps excuse the poor quality pic, better ones to follow soon as they are finished

Happy birthday to me!!

Today I am officially a year older, although this brings many problems such as greying hair and sagging breasts. It also has the benefit that I get presents!! Last night I (well the mrs) put in an order with Aventine miniatures for a unit of their Tarentine cavalry and some late Etruscans. Aventine miniatures late Etruscans Triarii, picture from avantine miniatures website

Tarentine Cavalry, picture stolen from aventine miniatures website

I have not painted any Aventine minis before and look forward to seeing them up close, hopefully they will be as good as the pics suggest. If so then i will buy plenty more!