Friday, 9 February 2024

From PaulOG: Caesarian Light Troops and a Hero (110 points)

Lower output recently with work travel taking a toll, so its good to be back at the brushes! Those on our antipodean paint and chat know that Cavalry is my hobby kryptonite, and the lads there have been demanding encouraging me to man up and get some done!  So here are my first: 2 units of Roman light cavalry to skirmish ahead of my Caesarian army.

These are OOP plastic Roman Cavalry by Wargames Factory; rather average models TBH but good enough for support troops. I did some head swaps and changed the shields - hand painted of course! - to give them a more dynamic look, which has helped a lot overall.


Overall they are ok, very useful on the tabletop, and have nudged me onto doing my Cavalry units. I did enjoy doing the casualty, complete with javelin in his back, and Alan even painted up a shield to match his own army. Thanks mate!

"Caesar Aeternum!" (Caesar Forever!) and take that you traitorous son of Sassanid!

Continuing the light troops theme, a unit of Numidian foot skirmishers to precede the Legionary heavy infantry. These are also OOP Wargames Factory figs, kindly donated by Alan to fill this gap in my army. 

Again, nothing special about these figs but they are fine for their role and painted accordingly.

And lastly onto this lovely Aventine miniature - so wonderfully evocative I felt compelled to make him a standalone Hero; battered, bloodied and undaunted in the face of the enemy.

Gaul blood stains on your tunic are hard to clean... 

Wounded and sans armour post medicae treatment, he has discharged himself from the hospice tent to fight with his Comrades for his beloved legion and Caesar. "Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". How noble, even Romantic, one might say with a more Victorian era interpretation of nationalism and brotherly love.

Vulneratus non Victus! (in fact, this is my traditional family motto!)

6 x mounted 28mm Figs (60 points), 6 x infantry models (30) and I would like to claim the Romance bonus for this admittedly non traditional interpretation: after all, "Legio patria nostra"!

From Millsy: Great work on these horsey chaps Paul. I nearly bought WF Numidians a couple of times but they proved too awkward for me to pull the trigger so I can understand how you were reluctant to paint these Romans. Having said that I love what you've done with them but maybe I'm just an old romantic? (see what I did there???). Five extra shekels for the hand painted shields brings you up to 115 points for this entry. Well done mate!

32 comments:

  1. Excellent figures Paul and taking on the Achilles heel of many painters, horses. These are all fabulous. The leader is really top notch.

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    1. Thankyou Bruce! I'm working on the next batch of horse now. These were a good intro, but I don't think I'll ever love painting our equine friends!

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  2. Great work Paul! Cavalry can sure be a challenge in any era...but this is matched by the satisfaction of getting them done! They look great, and I love the casualty.

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  3. Gaul blood does seem to get everywhere. Nice work on your Calvary.

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  4. Great stuff Paul, love the conversions and shields on the cavalry and the battered veteran.

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  5. Nice Romans here, the veteran legionary is great!

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  6. Very nice work Paul and congrats on facing off those cavalry. Love the battered hero. Awesome.

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    1. Many thanks Curt - more mounted allies to come!

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  7. Love what you did with the shield designs Paul!

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    1. Thanks Sander - always a challenge I find, but satisfying to do

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  8. These look great! I'm super excited at the way your Caesarians are taking shape - a battle must be on the cards soon. And the horses look excellent!

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    1. Thanks mate - looking forward to it also! Getting stuck into the Aux Cavalry now and then I reckon we are on!

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  9. Nice work on the bases and shields- and I love the hero.

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  10. Wonderful figures Paul and the wounded fellow in particular (real witch of the Westmorlands vibe to him, https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/thewitchofthewestmorlands.html)

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    1. Thanks Simon, I hadnt come across that before!

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    2. The Kate Rusby version is the obvious kicking off point I’ve half a mind to make a vignette of it for a future challenge

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  11. Excellent, specially the work on the hero. Love that hand painted shield slogan

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  12. Great stuff again Paul, I'm captivated by a series of audiobooks called Marius' Mules at the moment and together with your efforts they're tempting me to buy Cesarean Romans

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    1. Thanks Kerry - yes, I have listened to the first one and need to get back to the rest. Such as a great period as you can use the Roman Army for Gaul, crossing the Rhine, initial invasion of Britannia, and the Civil War!

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