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 part II

elephant butts are huge!!!

Some more elephants from Marches elephant painting frenzy. This time they are punic wars, the four without howdah are renegade miniatures. the other two are grippingbeast before and after contact with the enemy...
I do have another four sassanid elephants and a crusader Carthaginian one for myself to paint. But i need a break...

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.

Celtiberians finished

Here are the 4 units of 24 Celtiberians I started a few weeks back. I did do a photo of them all together but my camera couldnt handle it or most likely my skill with the camera is still lacking, as a few of these pics are a bit blurry..

Celtiberian warband

Heres a nice strong 50 man warband of Celtiberians. No command figures as of yet, still waitng on the delivery. When they arrive and i finsish the rest of the boys, it will be broken down into 4 units of 24. Nice sculpts from Crusader miniatures. I have hand painted the shields, which I thought was a lost skill. I think they have come out ok though.

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!

Imperator

Here he is, the Imperator ready to lead the Samnit chosen band. I have kept with the white and silvered look, then added a bit of colour with the purple. I also decided to give him a hoplon and a rather nice shield transfer from Little big men studios Etruscan range to fit Aventine miniatures.
This chap and the linen legion should really stand out on the battlefield against all the colourful units and bronze armour.

Samnite Linen Legion

According to Livy, the Samnite infantry were divided into two corps. The first wore bleached white tunics and silvered armour. the second wore bronze and muti-coloured tunics. It was the custom of the Samnites to concecrate themselves before battle, and this is why they dressed themselves in white and whitened their arms , as this is the colour of religious purity. In the middle of the camp an enclosure was erected made of wicker fences this was then covered with linen. Here a sacrifice was made according to the ancient rites preserved on linen rolls. The chosen band was created firstly by the imperator selecting ten of the most eminent of the Samnites. These then in turn chose a further ten each until they numbered 16,000 men. These soldiers swore a sollemn oath over the sacrifices, which were guarded by centurions with drawn swords. These were called the Linen legion after the linen roof of the enclosure. They were given silvered arms and crested helmets to distinguish them from the rest.  They were the elite of the army and held the post of honour , the right wing.

Apulians in detail

Here are a few pics of the Apulians in a bit more detail

I am pleased with the results.

Next up Samnite Sacred Band!