Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Poor Bloody Infantry and Horrible Huns

As promised, here is the remainder of my Late Roman army completed up to now. The Basic Impetus Patrician Roman list calls for one stand of Hunnic Mercenary horse archers and a base of Roman Light Infantry, so that's what I've done :)

For the Huns i used Gripping Beast figures. I love the figures but really am not too keen on the horse sculpts. Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with how they came out, though i'm actually trying to find some decent replacement horses before i paint up any of the other Gripping Beast cavalry. I tried to go for some bright-yet-muted colour schemes on these guys, with the rationale that as they're in the pay of the Romans, they would most probably be pretty well cashed up and so would be wearing their Sunday best to show off their status. I strung the bows using some very fine gauge wire picked up from a sewing store.

The light infantry base is the first of two Roman infantry units in the army, the remainder being made up of Frankish allies. I've chosen to represent a poorly equipped, ragtag pseudocomitatenses unit. The Pseudocomitatenses were the static border units (Limitanei) which had been pressed into service with the mobile field army. The Black Tree Design figures gave me the right mix match of figures, and i swapped a couple of the oval late roman shields for round barbarian ones just to add to the lack of uniformity. This particular unit is the Defensores Seniores. The shield pattern is hand painted, the Defensores design copied from the Notita Dignitatum.

The wonderful mini-diorama style basing work of David Imrie really inspired me in this base. I really wanted to represent the image of a ragged shield wall barely holding against the enemy onslaught. The arrows in the shields are an idea taken from Mr. Imrie yet again. Perhaps you see a pattern developing here :)

Anyway, just put the last bit of paint on my next unit, some elite Equites cataphractarii, so a unit from the other end of the army's social ladder.

Enjoy the pics and please feel free to leave a comment.

Also, just a reminder that i am looking to take on some commission work. Any enquiries please email me at fiene.ben@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. supurb work ben,

    I would suggest the A and A or Musketeer horses, I love the late roman ones they have, not sure if the gripping beast riders would fit though!

    cheers
    matt

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