From MartinN: 3rd Century AD Roman Legionaries/ Limbo (70 points)

This week too I'm running with the Middle Imperial/ Late Roman theme from last week. This time I've brought with me a base of Legionaries, which can clearly be dated to the first half of the 3rd century by their old style semi-cylindrical shield. Also the broad leather balteus, from which the Spatha was suspended, which had by then superseded the earlier Gladius short sword. Most of the Legionaries are sporting the -in my humble opinion- rather fashionable Niederbieber type helmet, also dating to the 2nd to 3rd century. As for armour they're wearing a hodgepodge of Lorica Squamata (scales), Lorica Hamata (chainmail) and the rather famous Lorica Segmental (banded metal strips), that is featured in so many Hollywood movies.

The figures themselves are a mix of Armorum & Aquila Miniatures, which by now are rather dated but almost the only commercially available figures for the 3rd century. Then there's a single Wargames Atlantic miniature from their Late Roman Legionaries set. The set fits the 3rd century almost perfectly with the inclusion of the Niederbieber helmet, but I find the details on the plastic rather soft and the Spathae much too large. That said they paint up OK. Also included are three heavily converted figures from Victrix Limited' Late Romans. To make them suitable I gave them heads from Aventine Miniatures, sculpted on the broader Balteus and designed and 3D printed  Spathae/ appropriate scabbards and Pugiones, the famous Roman daggers. Despite being noticeably larger than the other figures I do think they work together rather well. Shields are a mix of Aventine and A&A.

Painting wise I tried to give them a somewhat uniform appearance by using broadly the same colours, without painting them all the same. Personally I find it highly doubtful that Roman Legionaries ever wore anything approaching a uniform. For the shields I went with free hands and frankly, I had a blast. While at first I found it a rather daunting undertaking, I quickly realized I quite liked the look. So much so that by now I have more of those shields already painted than Legionaries waiting in the painting queue. First world problems I guess.

As some of the figures were already started before the challenge, in fact they had lain partly painted in my cupboard for a few years already, I'm claiming the Limbo bonus for this bunch.

So what do we have here?

Eight 28mm infantry plus the Limbo Bonus should give me 60 points plus whatever our dear minion is prepared to throw in for the hand painted shields and conversions.

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Well Nick, I have no doubt that I speak for all Challengers when I say "holy crap, this looks f**king amazing!" Your brushwork is, as ever, top shelf stuff. The conversions are amazing - and you know this because, absent you telling me/us about the conversions, we would not realize they were present, so seamless and smooth does everything look. 

In particular I am impressed that you managed to squeeze Victrix models in there. While I appreciate the quality of the Victrix sculpts, their giant size has turned me away from making purchases as they seem to loom of every other type of sculpt out there. 

Seeing your Romans always inspires me to say "one, day, I'll paint some Romans!". One day...

I award 10 bonus points for hand painting shields (!!), conversions and general amazing-ness. 

70 points for you in total!

GregB