Seeing the back of my Celts!

At last, the final warband is complete! Above are the backs of yesterday's nobles, and below the new unit of warriors. Most of the warriors in this new unit are Renegade Miniatures Celts, a fine range once the swords have been cut down or removed. Almost all are eBay repaints. The standards are a converted from an Aventine Roman one, and from part of a charm bracelet.

The chap front and centre appears to have suffered an accident (misplaced basing material from the original painter). I like to think that he has spotted a pilum coming his way!

I still have a good few chariots to sort, and, over time, I'll need to re-base my existing Celts to match the new basing style.

Celtic nobles

This (clickable) photo is of one of the two Celtic units, that I've just finished.  In my rules, a Celtic player can choose to either have the nobles mounted (horses or chariots), or dismount them to stiffen one of the warbands, giving it a slightly higher save than the others.  This unit depicts said dismounted Celtic nobles and their retinue, which is why most of the front rank warriors are armoured. In use (tonight), there will be another 24 warriors behind this front rank.

This unit marks a departure for me, as the troops are all based on a single stand, 18cm wide by 6 deep. I've come to think that there's no point in basing Celts on smaller elements.  I mean, it's not like they are going to form column, to march up a road!  

Minis are mostly Renegade and Black Tree designs, but with A&A shields with LBMS transfers. I painted half from scratch, and the others are eBay repaints.

My own Velites Finished

Here are the 32 velites from yesterday; thoroughly finished.  These will probably be my only contribution to the Roman legions in our game (although I have an emergency reserve of 32 part-painted Renegade Principes in case we are struggling; I hope not to go there, though).
 

The shields are a mix of Renegade and Aventines, and the transfers, mostly VVV and some LBMS.  I was particularly pleased with the way the grass came out.

Renegade Velites

 

Here are 32 Renegade Republican Roman velites.  I've had them for a year or two; they were going cheap on eBay, and I couldn't resist a bargain.  However it turns out they do need considerable TLC.  Most of the shields fell off, because they have been glued on after painting; don't you just hate that?  

I'm painting them as "insurance" for Zama, in case Keith or Craig can't get quite enough Aventine velites painted in time.  I've given some red tunics so they will better match Keith's and Craig's minis.  They will look OK, when finished, in about a week's time I hope.

More Celtic Reinforcements

I treated myself to a day off "Zama" and based these figures which were painted for me by chum Nick Speller around 6 months ago.

 

They are the third "open order" warband he has painted for me.  Most of my other celts are based 8 to a 6x6 base; these chaps are in 6's, have slightly smaller shields and are predoninately armed with javelins.  In C&C(A) I think of these as "Auxilia", with the others being "Warband". 

Figures are a mix of Black Tree, Renegade and Miniature Design Studios.

Elephant Size Comparison Shots

I promise that this is the final post featuring elephants for the time being! I'm going to compare the Empire Models (Indian) elephant, on the right in each photo, with three African elephants from other ranges, in part to convey the sheer mass of the former. Indian elephants should be much larger than African forest elephants, and Empire's certainly is!  All photos are clickable.

The African elephants will all feature at the Society of Ancients Zama game, next year.First (above) we have the Gripping Beast Carthaginian elephant http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=154 . This would convert very well to become a Ptolemaic elephant at Raphia; it is very much smaller than Empire's Indian, but then it should be! The bulk of the Indian elephants at Raphia apparently gave them a considerable advantage.The second elephant (above) is an African from Essex http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/frames25mmcont.html . I feel this is the least satisfactory of my Africans, and won't be buying more; it doesn't look much like I think an African Forest Elephant should appear. It is very plump and rounded, with 'orrible thickish legs.Finally, we have a heavily converted Renegade elephant http://www.renegademiniatures.com/numidian.htm
. The basic Renegade elephant is an unhappy composite between an Indian and an African elephant, with features of each; however, extensive work with greenstuff makes it into a rather satisfactory African Forest nellie, in my view at least, and it is my favourite African at the moment (not least because it was the cheapest, at £6).

Altogether we will field 11 elephants for the Society of Ancients Zama game next April; my six, another 4 from my mate Dr Simon, and one that still needs to be sourced. In our first game trialling the battle, they managed to inflict a surprising amount of damage against their Roman foes; rather more, in fact, than they should have!