From JohnS - Late Roman Equites Honoriani iuniores Cavalry (40 pts)

These chaps have been cantering around on my painting table for a couple of weeks, time to get them across the line. 

To be used as Equites Alares in To The Strongest, they are carrying shields indicating they are members of  Equites Honoriani iuniores, as described in the Notitia Dignitatum. (I just like the design)

The miniatures are from Victrix and were easy to build, following the instruction sheet (what madness). They were a pleasure to paint with lots of fine raised detail.

 

 

I like the fact that the cavalrymen are all wearing different armour. Too many wargames armies look like they were supplied by a modern supply chain, everyone in the same gear, made in a giant factory.

 

I hope to get a few more cavalry on the scorecard by tomorrow night. This little lot -

28mm Cavalry x 4 @ 10 pts = 40 points

From Millsy:

The internet is an amazing place. Five minutes ago you mentioned there's a lot of us doing Late Romans, John, and at the time I was working on my own ones. Now I am minioning yours while we talk.

These are brilliant. I particularly like the horse tack which is much nicer than the ones I've been working on and there's more variation in armour too. Looking forward to seeing them in the flesh at some point.

40 more points added to your tally mate. Nice work.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnS - Late Romans and Late Halflings (140 points)

 Life continues throwing curveballs but I managed to get some Late Roman Cavalry finished.

 These are Gripping [Beast? Minion Dallas] Late Roman Cavalry. The sculpting is a little stiff but they do the job.  

I decided to give them a variety of shield designs, just for the cool factor.

They are based as 2 (of 3) elements of a To The Strongest unit, with the Hero on the oval base.

What you probably don't want to know is that I dropped the middle of these three elements just after this photo and snapped the lance and popped off the shield...

I have also been working my way through Mantic's Halfling Muster Battlegroup.

These are LARGE halflings, taller than GW dwarfs!

They have a cool "early 19th century English villagers" vibe to them.

They look like the local squire has called out the muster and they have answered.

Armed with their fowling pieces, they are ready to repel the louts disturbing their idyll.

The melee troops are armed with mallets, ready to tenderize.

As soon as I saw these figures I was reminded of a bronze faced maul my coachbuilder grandfather had, so bronze they are!

Once again I made the shield faces quite plain as these are not warlike people, they are armed with what is needed to do the job.

These smaller halflings (more GW/LOTR size) are a Paul Hicks sculpt.

Now available from Footsore, I purchased these in a Kickstarter many moons ago.

I have painted these as members of my ever increasing Halfling Empire Army for Old World or Warhammer Fantasy Battle. 

That's my lot for today. Apologies for the awful photos. One of this week's surprises was a need to temporarily move out of my office which means my photography set-up is adhoc.

5 x 28mm Cavalry @ 10 pts  = 50

16 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 pts = 80

2 x 20mm 28mm Infantry @ 4 5pts = 8 10 [these are 28mm halflings so I'm awarding 5 each]

Total 140 points.

Nice production this week John, and you're right - the halflings give a nice "green and pleasant land" kind of vibe, which I think was always Tolkien's idea. Their rural attire is also really good and you've done a nice job with them. The Late Romans are pretty cool too. 

Happy to confirm 140 points for this lot!

Dallas 

From Millsy: Late Roman skirmishing archers (100 points)

G'day All,

The weather has improved, the annual audit is done at work and life is good from a hobby POV. Things are moving along nicely once again in the Late Roman department now that varnishing can happen. Consequently I've got a bunch of skirmishing bowmen to share this week.

These are leftovers from both the Gripping Beast Late Roman and Dark Age infantry sets which I didn't want hanging about so painting them up for To the Strongest! made the most sense. They're sufficiently generic they could pass for any number of protagonists for the period I think which is always useful.

20 x 28mm infantry = 100 points

Next week will see the last of the Late Romans - a pile of cavalry, a little artillery and some command. I'm super excited to have them all done as I have a series of games on the horizon. Let's not think about how freshly painted troops typically perform eh?

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

***

Great to see some more Romans rolling in Millsy. I have really enjoyed following this project during this edition of the Painting Challenge, and it has been great fun to have you as part of the Thursday crew!

As for the performance of freshly painted figures...well...I hope the dice gods will reward your efforts with favour and good luck! But in the event you end up marching off into miniature Adrianople, at least they'll be nice an varnished as they go down...

Another 100 points for you - thanks so much!

GregB

From JP : Marian Romans and some early Saxon warriors. (70 points)

Before Aventine shut down for a sad but well deserved retirement, I bought a batch of their Marians and Late Republicans (those suitable for Marians). These are marvellous sculpts. They are based on the practical reality that troops weren't all equipped uniformly but raher regionally, through to the 1st civil war. The unit I painted up is recruited in Cisalpine Gaul and has a number of Gallic features.

Next up are half a dozen early Saxon Warriors for Pillage. Victrix does lovely work and though I don't need more than 50 figures, it is sorely tempting!

The tally is 14 28mm figures for 70 points.

Now I'm eyeing some of my Border Reivers...

Cheers!

Don't stop spoiling us with your excellent Ancient paint schemes JP, go on indulge yourself in more Saxons! No seriously; these Marians and Saxons are very very well painted yet again, I do not know how you keep the levell of painting so consistently high throughout the project. Avantine did make some really beautiful and useful troops and this rough and ready look really does it's job! The Saxons are really well done as well.  Can't wait to see what you will do with those Reivers you've mentioned! 

 Cheers Sander 

From Millsy: Yet More Late Romans (120 points)

G'day All,

Another day, another batch of Late Romans! Sorry about that, LOL. Thankfully this is the last of the infantry blocks with just twenty of so skirmishing archers left to complete of the infantry.

Again, these are all Gripping Beast with Little Big Men shield transfers. I ended up settling on a minty green colour for one lot of tunics to break the monotony. Again I'm not that fussed with the final product just as I was unfussed by the red tunics. The paint job is fine, I just think the undyed wool looks better.

I'll let the pictures do the talking from here... two units of auxiliaries with "extra bowmen" upgrades for To The Strongest!

24 x 28mm infantry = 120 points.

Next up will be the remaining archers as skirmishers, a bunch more cavalry, a manuballista and a general to round things out. I should get everything done before the end of the Challenge which would be quite a satisfying achievement and allow me to move onto something else right away. Nice!

PS. Before people ask (I definitely would) I promise to do some army shots when it is all finished and share them as part of the final post of Late Romans.

Thanks for looking as always!

Cheers,
Millsy

***

Well, I, for one, continue to welcome the sight of even more Romans from you Millsy! I just love the Roman setting for wargaming, and your late Romans have been a real treat. More I say! More! 

I know we all look forward to that set of photos of the finished force, but let's get that field army completed - perhaps you still need a couple more infantry blocks? It all looks lovely - particularly the look you have been able to achieve with the Gripping Beast plastics. Well done. 

120 points for you!

GregB

From Millsy: More Late Romans (260 points)

G'day All,

I'm back with a somewhat delayed second batch of Late Romans after my first batch in the Empire bonus theme round. I've been crook with a virus (thankfully now mostly behind me) and these are a week late as a consequence. Thanks to my very kind minions, several of whom checked in when I was MIA and the stalwart DaveD for providing covering fire.

This time I've moved on to some auxiliary infantry with supporting archers, and some cataphracts with a general. These are all Gripping Beast plastics again, serviceable enough but not as nice as some of the metals from other manufacturers. Still, they do the job well enough and were significantly cheaper.

Cataphracts

It's taken me over 30 years of gaming to paint cataphracts. Having been on the receiving end plenty of times, typically to my detriment, it was past time I corrected that omission. The metallic aspects were quick enough to paint but all the coloured detail then bogged them down and took much longer to finish. I sometimes find that frustrating when something looks 90% done but is in reality only halfway there. No shield transfers was a bonus though!

Auxiliaries

Not sure I am happy with the pink clothing but too much off white undyed wool was something I wanted to avoid so here we are. I'm doing another unit in either light blue, green or brown so we'll see how that goes. Suggestions would be welcome! Two of the archer stands are top ups for units I didn't have them for hence the mismatched edging colours. I've managed to find some shortcuts on the basing so these weren't as tedious as my first entry. Apparently you can teach this particular old dog at least some new tricks.

12 x 28mm cavalry = 120 points
28 x 28mm infantry = 140 points

Total = 260 points.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

***

Glad you are back on your feet Millsy, and treating us to some more wonderful Romans. I love Romans! I think you have found the perfect description for Gripping Beast's plastic late Romans - "serviceable" indeed - they do the job, they don't hurt the bank balance too much, but they do...leave a lot to be desired. I tried working with them a few years back and stumbled, as they were just...meh...but every alternative I explored was too much $$$, so I may yet be back to them... 

Such issues can, however, be overcome with excellent painting and basing, and both are clearly in abundance here! They look great - and I particularly LOVE to see Cataphract-type cavalry, as it is just so cool, and I'm sure it will be on the giving end of those heavy cavalry attacks for a change. Great work, and a great example of how the whole effort means so much to the finished product on the table. 

260 points for you too!

GregB

From HarryV Libyan Skirmishers (180 Points)

 Hey everybody, 

This week's submission is 36 28mm Libyan Skirmishers for my Carthaginian Project for a total of 180 points. These Libyans were recruited from the nomadic, tribal peoples of the vast region of Libya. 

 

These guys are made from the Warriors of Carthage box from Victrix, along with fellows from the victrix peltast set and other random sets to make up the numbers. You only get 12 in the warriors of Carthage box, so numbers needed to be found elsewhere. Fortunately you get extra Libyan heads so conversions are easy. 

Hannibal had around 2,000 of these warriors in his army from my research, so at a 1:50 scale that gives 40 models, so I am about 4 figures short, but oh well. 

I couldn't find my stash of surplus round shields and did not have enough in the packs to give them all round shields. Therefore some of these fellows have picked up thureos shields from Carthage's substantial armories. Of course, after priming them I found my extra round shields. 

Some of these Libyans also have acquired/looted helmets as well. This was mainly to make up for the lack of Libyan heads I had available. 

Our limited sources of these gentlemen describe them wearing exclusively red tunics, along with wild and shaved hairstyles. I believe the hairstyles would have been unique to each tribe, however the victrix set only has one expression/face per hairstyle, so the different tribes are mixed together for modeling purposes. 

The victrix warriors of Carthage box is a little frustrating as it combines three very distinct troop types in one box. I would really prefer separate kits for the different troop types, like a dedicated box just for Libyan skirmishers. now that I am out of Libyan heads I can't really make any more of this troop type. Also you only get one head per hairstyle, where you would think the skirmishers recruited from a tribe would be grouped together all with the same hairstyle. 

These are all for the "To The Strongest" Ruleset. 

Next up are many more infantry along with more heavy cavalry which will be ready towards the end of February. Following that I have some really cool stuff (I think) for the Carthage project which will remain a secret for now. 

Every time I see HarryV in the title I expect to see HYW English, but I am more than satisfied with these Libyans!  Excellent work on kit bashing, painting and basing these skirmishers.  As Phil Barker would say, do not discount the humble light infantry skirmisher with javelins.  These troops are. both cheap and effective.  In one of our TtS games, Irish beardless youth managed to get round the flank of the Roman legions and win the day.  I got a chuckle out of your shield drama (been there) and the issues with the heads.  FYI, I know some gamers have used Perry Mahdist plastics as greek javelin men, so maybe's there's another source for you.  I am hoping that the promised "really cool stuff" includes Heffalumps.