From NoelW: A little less conversation and a little more action, please (442 points)

Last week’s post was a little tedious, so I promised myself a bit more variety this time round. As is the way of plans, they immediately went awry.

Ever since I’d walked the length of Hadrian’s Wall in my youth, I’ve thought about building Roman armies, but somehow never got round to it. In those days (the 70s) you could walk along the Wall itself for almost all its extant length, there were very few tourists and the protection/policing of the monument was almost non-existent. So we were able to camp in the vallum and amongst Roman ruins in a farmer’s field, both of which are now unlikely to occur. We also had a taste of what it would be like to be a legionary stationed in those wild fells: a thunderstorm one night ripped out our guyropes and kept my companions awake with fear our tent would blow away (I slept through). Another morning we woke to find the tent covered by inch of snow. But we did get to explore Corstopitum, Vindolanda, Housesteads and so on almost like private exhibits.

I digress. Last year I decided that Romans would be a new project. I fancied the Roman invasion of Britain, of course, but also the Punic Wars (which means two different periods and, effectively, two different armies. But I can live with that...) No 28mm range of Romans particularly attracted me, so I decided to see what the year's flea markets and tabletops threw up to start a Roman collection, planning to add or replace more attractive figures when I found them.

Upside? A cheap army. Downside? Building a very haphazard collection. You’ve seen the Caesareans already, and also some Libyans and Celts. But most of what I came across were the Imperial troops in classic lorica segmentata, mainly figures I was a little underwhelmed by.

This week, unexcitedly, I decided to paint a test Imperial figure. Just to see. Then I thought I'd test a figure with pilum and another with gladius. I found I could paint these up pretty quickly, given a couple of compromises. (For example, I use Citadel Flayed One Flesh as the base coat for both flesh and tunics, meaning both can be painted at the same time. Then I highlight the tunics up with white, and darken the flesh down with Army Painter flesh wash.)

This is easy, I thought. Let’s paint a couple more. And, suddenly, I found I’d 60 painted figures.

Here they are in the mass:

It’s a bit of an awkward collection. The few Victrix figures stand head and shoulders above the majority, who are Warlord, I think. Many of the figures had already been assembled when I bought them, meaning I had to live with some rather odd choices made by other gamers. So mixed in this mass of “normal” imperial troops there are figures wearing the heavier armour and helmets used in the Dacian wars, and a few rather odd poses, such as this guy with two gladius (gladiuses? gladii? gladioli?)

Presumably he was intended for the Colosseum. I also had a little trouble with some of the shield transfers, so a couple are a bit of a mess as close inspection of the photos will probably show. I’ll replace their shields when I’ve suitable alternatives.

But, as a whole, and as a massive starting point for that army, I’m actually very pleased with them.

Here’s some command figures:

I was particularly pleased with this Wargames Foundry command figure, who I gave a little extra attention to:

60 x 28mm figures = 300 points

Are Imperial Romans sufficiently different from Caesarean to merit a Squirrel point? They should never be on the field together, but they’re the same army in different periods. Yet another point for adjudication…

One big objective for me in this Challenge is to paint more terrain. I’m really lucky, for my wife often buys me mdf buildings whenever a celebratory occasion arises, and she enjoys assembling them, too. But it does mean I’ve now a backlog the size of a small village awaiting the paintbrush. So here’s my next venture into that territory, completely unrelated to Romans: three pill boxes from Sarissa. Two are concrete, one brick.

I love just about everything Sarissa do. These are great little models, with separate rooves, swinging doors, and removable central bases that can be used to house a machine-gun nest or similar (so that’s another project!)

Each pill box is approx. 4 * 4 *2 inches = 32 cubic inches, meaning that overall that’s 96 ci or just under half a 6” cube. 3 points each, perhaps?

Now to give you a little eye candy, I finished 20 Perry men at arms for the Hundred Years War. I’ve been working towards an Agincourt game ever since the centenary (Oct 2015), and by the end of the Challenge, I think I'll be almost there.

Most of these are painted as “generic”, usable for either side, though a handful sport the cross of St Denis and just one wears the cross of St George, so their allegiances are committed:

20 x 28mm foot @ 5 pts = 100 points.

Finally, to add a little more variety (and nothing to do with greed for Squirrel points), here are five figures from the Fallout boardgame. I’ve never played the game, neither on PC nor tabletop, but was asked to paint these for a friend.

There’s three Supermutants (perhaps a little too green, but effective enough),

one Brotherhood of Steel:

and, my favourite, Nuka girl:

She is standard 28mm, but the other four are between 42mm and 48mm, so I guess the score is: 1 @ 5 and 4 @ 7 = 33 points.

Summary: 300 + 100 + 9 +33 = Total: 442 points

                                                               

Boom! I think that qualifies as a points bomb! En masse your Imperial Romans are great,we come in all sizes so I have no problems with mixing Victrix and Warlord,y your Imperial Legate looks sufficiently patrician and is really nicely finished.
I feel you surely deserve a squirrel point for these , having them on the table with Caesarean legionaries would be like having Napoleonic and Crimean war on the table,oh the horror!
Really useful pillboxes and interesting sci first types.
Got to say the Hundreds year wars figures are really really nice, lovely finish!
So I agree with your points total,442 boom!

All the best Iain