I have slowly been getting my painting mojo back. Boy, has this Challenge been a slow starter! I started working on these 28mm Gripping Beasts before the new year began, but I have just been finishing them recently. I thought I'd experiment a bit, so I gave them a back undercoat and a white zenithal, and then had the luminous idea to airbrush them in silver, trying not to hit the areas that would not be metal (which, on these figures, frankly isn't a lot). However, I forgot that I would be using speedpaints again. And as you know, these are fairly translucent, which is the whole point of them. This, of course, meant that all colours applied over them ended up as metallics. Which again meant that I had to do them again, either by applying a new white undercoat or by layering them up with acrylics. I'm pleased enough with the end result, but my shortcut sure took me the long way around!
Anyway, here they are. Their name is Greek in origin, being derived from kata and fraktos, meaning "completely covered". Sometimes, we find the term clibanarii also (probably from a pun, meaning something like "oven-men"), and historians are still divided on the question whether these were different types of cavalry or simply two synonymous terms for the same type of horsemen. There were numerous units of these super heavy cavalrymen in the late Roman army, although not much of their is history is very certain. They probably first appeared in the East, and at first the Romans used cataphracts levied from allied or subject peoples. They were regularly employed by the Sassanid Persians; there is a famous description in Ammianus Marcellinus' book XXV. They were probably armed with the long lance, the kontos, although they have also been described as using mattiobarbuli, heavy darts. In the Roman army, they increased in numbers as time progressed, but there were not very many of them at any given time it seems. However, just like the Grenadiers of the Old Guard, any wargamer should have at least one unit of them!
These Gripping Beast plastics look the part. I think they are accurate enough; I have my doubts about the saddles, for since the Romans probably did not yet use stirrups at this time, I feel the famous horned saddle would have been a better choice. Using a standard saddle without stirrups while wearing 40 kilograms of armour und being just a little top heavy might result in some highly undignified and unsoldierly experiences with the forces of gravity... Still, the figures were relatively easy to build, even for a clumsy oaf like me, and the result is pleasing enough I think. (Yes, I noted I had forgotten to paint the front of one of the bases, this has been corrected 😉). They go together well with the Victrix late Roman infantry I painted last week. As they are part of the same army, again no squirrels...
So, there we have it. Twelve 28mm cavalrymen should net me another 120 points and bring me to about a third of my target. Onwards and upwards!
12x 28mm horse @ 10 points = 120 points
Martijn
Wow Martijn those are some very well painted cataphracts! But more importantly: I am glad to hear your mojo is slowly returning, thank your time!
Cheers Sander
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