VI Romans... in the snow!

To close out the year, we have a new unit of (shivering) early Imperial Roman Legionaries.

These fellows were 80% done back in June, when I put them on hold as they were surplus to what I needed for my Historicon games, and time was getting very tight for other troops that were needed. 

I finished them off this week, to slip in under the 2017 wire. 

Good choice wearing your cloaks in this weather - shades of Lake Trasimene!

The rear rank has their Pila at the ready. Figures by Black Tree Design. 

V Romans

Back to the Men pof Rome for today!

Black Tree Designs 28mm, "Auxilia advancing, drawn Gladius"

Part of the Legion of Green!  :-)

Once again, the excellent sculpting makes my painting look pretty good!

Tremble, enemies of Rome!

IV Romans

The fourth Imperial Roman unit stomps off the painting table...

Operating on the premise that not all Romans wore red, this unit (and the ones that follow) have Green as their unit color. 

The Legionaries shields are painted  Valejo Russian "Black-Green", with the bronze, it looks suitably "Imperial" in effect!

The upright Pila should be reasonably durable. These are 28mm Black Tree Designs figures once again .

The magic wash has created a "leopard skin" type effect on the pelt cloaks of the buccinator and signifer!

Legionary re-enactor from a unit with a royal blue base color.

III Romans

Next in the Imperial Roman series is this unit of Legionaries, wearing the lorica segmenata, which we tend to think of as the classic look for these troops.  This is probably more courtesy of Hollywood than history, but it is distinctive!

Oops, missed some brass on that front left shield; since corrected! I opted against painting or using shield transfers for the complex "wings and lightening bolts" designs that were commonly used in this era, in part because I just couldn't be bothered, in part because I actually think the plain shield looks better, and in part because these troops are designed as part of my Palmyran forces, so they may not have retained those symbols of Rome.

Regardless, they are still an imposing sight!

"Gladius drawn and at the ready!"  These are 28mm Black Tree Designs figures once again. 

Supposedly, the chief  advantage of the lorica segmentata was it s considerably lower weight than chain mail; the disadvantage was higher maintenance needs and cost. Believe it or not, you can buy a set on Amazon for under $200!

II Romans

The second Imperial Roman unit is mustered out!

Legionary Support Archers

While not the main arm of a Legion, the role of missile troops increased gradually over the life of the Empire. 

Black Tree Designs figures once again (as indeed will be all of the Imperial Romans). Too bad they don't do some Cavalry to go with them!

Et mittentis sagittam Legio 

(Having no working knowledge of Latin, that's supposed to mean something like "Archers of the Legion")

I Romans

A few days behind the schedule set out in their marching orders, the first unit of Imperial Romans strides off the painting table!

"Pila at the ready!"

These are Auxilia in chain mail armor. 

The  coat of "magic wash" really brought these figures to life!

These are Black Tree Designs figures, purchased during one of their many sales. They were raised chiefly to bolster the infantry arm of my Palmyran army in their fight against the Sassanid Persians next month at Historicon. 

Assyrian Light cavalry... and a BTD "everything" Flash Sale!

Just completed are some Assyrian Light cavalry figures I bought from Black Tree Designs during their post Christmas sale last year. These are the first cavalry from BTD that I have painted, and they are very nicely done.

This first unit has a Yellow/blue color scheme.

The BTD horses are very nice.... and also very large!

The size of the horses is probably part of why their cavalry doesn't go on sale very often.

The dark "Magic Wash" really worked well on these figures to pick up the details in the sculpting.

Third figure to the right must have taken an arrow to his horse. Not sure how he got bent over that far, but since corrected!

The horses in this unit have a very dynamic pose - but you can see how bending might easily occur with the two front legs in the air!

A blue-grey, orange, and white/silver color scheme for this lot.

I used some "weed tufts" on these bases... more on that anon!

BTD cavalry come 3 to a pack, and I only needed 8 figures for these 2 units, the spare one was mounted singly as a Leader of Hero for use in To the Strongest!

Some new flowering tufts adorn his base.

In case you don't get their email news, Black Tree Designs has a very short lived sale on just about everything at 30% off:

From now until midnight Thursday we have sales across the board. 30% or more Off pretty much anything that isn't a Dragon!

Yes it includes platoons. Yes it includes cannons and vehicles. Yes it includes chariots and cavalry. Yes it includes all the DW ranges.

Come on over but be quick!

UK Office - eoeorbisuk.com
US Office - eoeorbis.com

 

Sale ends March 30th

Maybe Jon needs some Assyrian cavalry to add to his marvelous Chariots, and perhaps now is the time for Jake to start his own Egyptian Chariot collection, eh?

Egyptian Chariots - Black Tree Designs

Literally "rolling" of the painting table are a quartet of Egyptian chariots by Black Tree Designs. When they had their sale on Ancients infantry this winter, the Chariots were, oddly, included. So who am I to complain about semantics? I needed more chariots to crush the foes of Egypt, Semitic or otherwise!

The first set is one of the several BTD codes for Egyptian Light Chariots. I imagine only the crew figures differ between the sets.

As is often the case with any manufacturer's Egyptian Light Chariots, it is often a challenge to fit the crew figures into the cab. The driver on the left of the picture has his foot braced on the opening of the leather cab, and is leaning back hard to restrain his team. At least that's my story!

The chariots, horses, and crew are all very nice sculpts, and they assembled quite easily otherwise,

Note the position of the Driver's foot...

On the other hand, perhaps the driver was just the victim of a well placed enemy arrow!

This second pair of chariots is one of the "Egyptian Heavy Chariot" codes; the only difference seems to be the size of the cab.

Much more spacious! One gets the feeling that the crew of the light chariots in particular

 would have been constantly bumping into and rubbing on one another during action!

I think I have the crossbar on  the yoke glued upside down (should be on  top of the long piece rather than underneath it), but eh, it works!

Regardless, Pharaoh is happy to have them added to his army, and all ready for my Historicon game !

No don't look at the messy blobs of epoxy I used to get these guys to stay firmly in place, LOL!

This top down view is interesting...

Note the difference in the cab size and crowding of  the crew! With it's dominant color of yellow, this unit will go to reinforce the under-strength chariots of Division Ra.

Egyptian Spearmen: Black Tree Designs

As noted previously, I took advantage of one of the periodic but spectacular sales by Black Tree Designs to add some more figures to my Egyptian army, which is greatly outnumbered by my other Chariot era army, the Assyrians. 

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The first half of the order came right away, but the back ordered troops took over 2 months. As I expected this and don't need the figures on the table until July, it was a non issue to me, but it might be to some if they needed a unit right away. 

As you can see, the figures are quite nice. They come with the flattened wire spears. Those buggers are SHARP, so you don't want to mess with them!

This first unit are Spearmen of Division Ptah (= Green) in my scheme. 

The second of two units. The yellow color marks them as belonging to Division Re in my scheme. 

The pose of this unit reminds me of ones seen on reliefs and wall paintings!

I have used a dark olive-green shade ("Timberline Green") for the Crocodile skin armor. OK, I know it would really be dark brown, but allow me a little Hollywood here!

These BTD figures had the stripes seen here modeled on their linen "kilts"... so I painted them in the "Divisional Color", like the linen headdresses. 

    Now I just have the 4 BTD Chariots left to paint, except... a few weeks ago a friend sent me a pretty good size force of (largely) painted "old school" Canaanite types gratis, including at least 10 chariots!  They will need some repairs and touch up, and a small portion are unpainted lead that will need to be done. However, when that is complete, the Egyptians with their new allies will be far better equipped to resist the might of Assyria! I will be running an Egypt vs Assyria game at Historicon with "To the Strongest" in July. If I  have the bulk of the Canaanite troops ready, it could be a pretty impressive pair of forces on the table!