Dominate Roman Army Finished!

The final pieces of this army has fallen into place with a bit of a flurry as I managed to finish the units started when I burnt my hand and lost the opportunity to finish them within the Challenge.

Finally have some commanders, three bases of them with each base distinct from the others so you can show who is the CinC.

I have given the three riders on each base the same colour cloaks as the main tie but other smaller details are the same as well where possible without making them look identical.

The figures were finished inside of March but the basing was only finished on Thursday morning.

One unit of cavalry with bow and are also swordsmen, this will mean they are better in close combat that firing though they can certainly soften up a target before putting them to the sword.

Whilst the riders just have the one pose the horses come with two poses to add a bit of difference to them. As always I have a mix of horse colours that help break up the mass a little more.

Yes more bow, I now have enough to supply most of the Legions and Auxiliary units with the a third rank of bow option. I don't know how good an option this is though it certainly makes it more difficult for them to lose cohesion through casualties.

I have used the same base colours though the bow and quivers are different colours to break them up just a little.

For a bit of colour these Axillary bow are a bit more colourful and as such can be used for other armies and not tied to this period of Roman's.

Nothing really special about these as they were a quick paint but as you will have gathered this army is a bit heavy on the bow side. Indeed unlike most Roman armies it's also heavy on mounted troops. In total it has 190 infantry against 71 mounted, who would have thought it?

No Field of Glory army is complete without a camp and I do like the opportunity to make it into something more than just a camp, indeed I have yet to add a tent to any of my camps,

I really like the donkey pulled cart, I have added three sacks of grain to act as load for the door devils to drag along.

Here it is moving away from the battle, must have been the dice that was at fault! I enjoyed the work on the pack horses as they had quite a mix of items and each is painted up different.

Can you spot the piggy? the base also got a lot more tufts than a typical base and it helps to break up the base a little and also give the appearance of travelling along a less cultivated location.

The whole army set out and basking in the Spring Sun. Had these figures for over three years but all but one unit has been painted over the last three months and a couple of weeks, not bad to say I have been painting up a load of other figures in the same time period.

Total cost of the figures at todays prices would be a little over £145, amazing how much it costs to put together a 15mm army these days. I now have to decide if I am to sell it complete or single units and what price. Whatever I get for it the money will be spent on our next holiday so quite fitting the sun was out for the photo's

Best Laid Plans and Roman's.

The end of the challenge always is a bit difficult for me. Last year I lost 4 days to Heroes ASL tournament and then my Birthday. This year I swapped the four days for just one (Mothers Day) but looks like that one day will spin out beyond as I have burnt my hand bad enough that I can't use it, at least for a few days but possibly longer de[pendant on how the blistering works out. So please read this post slowly as I can't type fast with one hand    ;-)

To go with the light horse I have also painted up a couple of  their heavier brethren. First up more Equites. These are really nice looking figures and again I wanted them to stand out quite a lot so went with a light blue cloak and a deeper blue shield.

These are armed with Light Spear and are Swordsmen so should be able to stand up to most of what they have to face.

Some of the few troops in the army that you can see any armour so needed a shot of it to show it off. I can add two more bases to make it a six base unit if desired.

The heavy hitters, Equities Catafractari, Lancers and Swordsmen what more could you wish for? Well the figures are armed with bow as well!

Again these can have an extra two bases which would make them expensive but so much more dangerous. The horses are a little bit chunky which obviously works with cataphracts. 

I was hoping to finish the Roman's off this week but that's looking unlikely at best, still I have enough figures painted to cross the 2K mark though getting them flagged is also looking a long shot but as I have loads of flags I may give it a whirl. 

Dominate Roman Light Cavalry by Essex

I have been working on getting the Roman Army finished within the challenge. Originally the aim was to get a good number painted during the challenge but as I got more and more completed I started to hope I may get it all done and if not get close to being finished. That hope may become reality if I can get some good time at the desk.

Four bases of Alan or Hun light horse with bow. Whilst I did not go for patterned clothing I went with a different base colour on all the figures so as to make the unit look as irregular as possible. Given the uniforms of all most all the other units will be the same these should stand out quite a lot anyway.

Being armed with bow and also classed as swordsmen these could be a bit of a surprise when they charge home into other skirmish units. My only quibble with these as I have with most Essex cavalry is just how slim the base is. Having to glue them to basing sticks is not something I am fond of having to do but neither is having them fall off the sticks as the mass of bluetac fails to hold the figure in place!

Equites Light Horse are armed with Javelin and Light Spear so again can have an advantage against most light troops. With these I wanted them to be a bit more punchy than the majority of the infantry and have painted up the shoulder pattern in a red colour and shields in a blue that pops. 

Indeed having looked at Kev's collection of ECW (and other fine collections) I am planning on doing a number of future projects in far bolder colours than I have used to date. The first will be the Gallic infantry awaiting in the wings for the primer arriving. Of course I have already started with a brighter pallet with the 6mm Ancients but this will be something different.

Another light cavalry unit the Illyricanti are the same as the Equites light horse but allows me two different looking units for variety. 

No matter the scale I always like to have varied colours of horses, never really like to see a full unit of cavalry with the same coloured horses. Even the Scots Greys would have different shades amongst them. Given that I painted the horse of all units at the same time I still was able to paint up batches in the same colour. The last ones I need to do is a cavalry unit, three command bases and a few baggage horses for the camp, these will be  being started tonight so maybe just maybe I will get this army finished before the end.

Essex Miniatures Roman Infantry

The Painting Challenge this year for me has been mostly about my Dominate Roman army. I did start it with one unit in last years challenge but then I dropped it to finish Project Waterloo, but with the troops for that finished I have been able to give this army far more attention.

I really like the sculpts for these figures. Unfortunately I can only have the four bases and if I do I can't use the bow or slingers. Still they can be used in different armies so all is not lost.

I really like that they don't just have the one javelin so more look the part. These will be most useful for chasing away or fighting the opponents light infantry as their limited range and small number would make them next to useless against other heavier formations.

Fairly distinctive uniforms and I must say the availability of images on the net is rather slim so much of the painting has to be based around a fairly unhelpful Osprey as few of the images are all that clear on the uniforms making me think little is actually known of the uniforms of this period.

Keeping to the same base uniform as I like the idea that both units are somehow linked, here we have a unit of Auxiliaries I went for medium rather than heavy infantry as much to have a 6 base unit as 4 base units are very fragile.

Fairly basic shields, OK very basic, these are actually brighter in colour than I at first had in mind but they are growing on me. 

Ready for battle, here they are in the role of protecting the Auxiliaries as they close with one of Rome's numerous enemies, 

A second unit of slingers, to the ones I painted near the start of the challenge. Nothing much to say about these guys as they are fairly pedestrian.

Again went with some fairly bold colours, bright shields and deep red pattern to the tunics. One of the other Roman armies from this period allows eight bases of slingers so they can be of use.

My favourite unit of the bunch, and again on the bright side. The shields as the others are taken from the Osprey I mentioned before from a set of B&W drawings with colour codes.

This almost brings to the end the infantry I have for this army, just a few more bow troops. I plan to paint these up at the same time I finish off the cavalry and camp. That will bring to a close the whole army and I hope to get this done either as the Challenge comes to a close or soon after.

Dominate Roman Archers and Analogue Painting Challenge Update

The latest finished figures finished for the Dominate Roman Army is the bow armed infantry. I painted them up in a flourish but I actually need one more base of light infantry and the rest of the castings I have primed are in black so I may have a bit more work on my hands than I thought, but those are a little further down the line.

The only way I will need so may light infantry with bow will be when I add them to the Legions. Though they can also be added to the auxiliary infantry so I guess I will be painting more than one more stand as I have the figures.

All the figures are 15mm Essex and all have the same pose but by putting them at slightly different angles they look a little different. I went with a pale blue I had found in an illustration.

Despite the uniform being fairly basic it still took a lump of time to paint up all the detail that is blue as it was sculptured into the figure which is a nice touch but did make it a slower paint.

I am also allowed a more useful eight bases of Medium Bow which I think could be a lot more useful at taking bases off my opponents so will be keen to see how that pans out.

So this gives me fourteen more bases for the Dominate Army which will soon have all the infantry finished and I will be moving onto the cavalry in a few weeks time.

Showing the lights as part of the legions. The third unit is short by one base so did not parade. That's 86 figures painted for this army since the challenge began, far better than the 24 I mustered during last years challenge.

Talking of which I have twenty four bases of Thracian's almost finished and will be getting these in for submission this week. Twelve of the figures were painted way before the challenge so won't count for points but I can now max out on one of my armies with the Thracian option. 

I will also have passed my points total for last year and by the half way point too. This is without going for more than two of the bonus rounds this time round where last year I went for every round. I will also have painted up more figures in every scale/type I painted last year except 15mm vehicles but having painted up the same number in 20mm I can rest easy.

Lastly, songs played so far whilst painting/prepping Challenge figures 1977, so looks like I will just get to the end of the challenge before running out of songs on the pod.  :-)

Essex Miniatures Dominate Roman Legions.

I started this army in last years Challenge but got no further than the first Legion. I then lost sight of them until it was time to prep for the 2014/5 Challenge and found a box with about 100 prepped figures for this army. 

So I set myself the target of painting up all the prepped figures from last year and prepped yet more to drive this project along. The original unit is shown at the back of the image above along with the 48 newly painted figures.

I have to be honest and say that I was not enjoying painting these but started to feel better about them once I was getting close to the end. I took the easy option with these and painted up the shields in Black Grey as I had seen images of shields as such though probably not meant for the main troops.

These guys are much brighter and will stand out on the table. Again I used the internet as my source for the shield design.

This gives me three units of heavy infantry and will be the main part of the infantry component. By this period the Romans did not rely on their foot so much and had heavy hitting cavalry and as such about half the troops will be mounted when I finish the army though I have yet to prep any mounted for this army.

Not brilliantly painted but they look OK and I think the army will come together quite well once I get onto the cavalry. I am close to finishing a small unit of slingers and have a bunch of bow armed troops on the table. I will continue to bounce from one period to the next as I have a lot of different projects calling my name.

The Christmas break did not see me get as much time at the painting table as it could but I did get a reasonable amount and have a few more submissions ready for posting in the Challenge.

Dominate Roman Legion An Analogue Entry

Got my first unit into the 4th Annual Challenge off to Curt before I was forced to down tools due to a combination of Roleplaying and Office Party. I should have been out tonight as well but the cars died for one last time and we had to go shopping for a new one. Looks to be sorted but you know it will cut back the painting even further LOL.

Here we have 24 Essex 15mm figures that took paint fairly quickly and overall were not bad at all to paint. They are a mix of old Essex and new castings as I have been given a 15mm army about 18 months ago and I have been wanting to get them started for ages and this seemed the best time to get it on.

I really enjoyed painting the Draco but the other legions need to wait for the book to arrive before I will try painting them up though that could be any day now.

I am looking forward to doing more of these as they are not the typical Roman army, maybe one day I will paint up one of those but for now I will keep with something a little different.

I managed a couple of longer sessions so to be able to get them in before the few days break and pushed the basing a little as I should have left them over night before the final stage but went for it.

A watered down ink was used on the white clothing as pure white seemed so wrong. These will be used in Fields of Glory which is still our preferred rules and the system we were supposed to be playing tonight before my hopes were dashed.