15mm Republican Roman Triarii

I have spent most of June on the next batch of Republican Romans, with twenty-four elements of Triarii now completed:

I divided these up again across the four standing legions, with the figures again from Xyston and the shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios:

There are two sculpts in each pack and, unusually for Xyston, the facial features on one was quite indistinct so took a little extra work, but is not overly visible underneath the distinctive Triarii helmet anyway:

I gave each unit a command element with the original standards carried by Legio I-IV. The standard bearer is a very nice sculpt with teeth just visible on the bear pelts, which makes them a little more interesting:

As I intend for this army to span a few Republican Roman eras through to the Marian reforms, I also completed four command elements with the aquila standard. I was four figures short in the final count, so this seemed to be as good a place as any to put the four lictor figures from the command pack, carrying their fasces (and you have to be careful how you type that):

That's now another twenty-eight elements or 112 figures completed toward the army, which means there are now seventy-eight or 312 figures completed thus far:

The Principes are on the painting table at the moment and I am hoping to have them completed before the end of July, which should put me at just over the halfway point on this project. Given that they have sat patiently in storage for the past ten years I'm loathe to start a new project as I fear it may be another ten years before I circle back again, so will keep going while I still have momentum.

15mm Republican Roman Pilum-armed Hastati

After recently completing the Tibetan 15mm army I wanted to return and finalise the next tranche of Republican Romans in the remaining twenty-four elements of hastati armed with pila (plus one additional element armed with swords):

The figures are again Xyston, with Little Big Men Studio shield decals:

These are again really a large 18mm figure and tower over the recently completed Tibetans, but the extra size does allow for some nice detail:

I really wouldn't want them to be too much smaller anyway as applying the shield decals is a painstaking-enough process even on these larger figures:

That's another twenty-five elements completed, with fifty elements or two hundred figures in total, toward this army:

It is going to be a large project when completed, and I estimate around eight hundred figures in total. The triarii are up next, and then I have a few other projects backed up which I might dip into depending on how the mood takes me and whether my motivation for Romans continues.

15mm Tibetan Army Completed

The twelve elements of dismounted cavalry marked the end of this project, so I thought I'd gather the units together for a few group shots:

All the figures are from Khurasan Miniatures, with all from their Tibetan range except for the nomadic cavalry which are from their Mongol collection, and the two heavy rope-pull stonethrowers from the Sung Chinese range:

I painted up the maximum number of armoured cavalry allowed by the DBMM army lists, with thirty-three elements in all including the three C-in-c and sub-general elements:

We normally play 400 point games which would allow me to field most of these which I'd like to try depending upon the opponent, although it would probably not make for the most interesting of encounters and no doubt just be a case of line them up and roll forward:

In total, the army is comprised of the following:

3 armoured cavalry general elements
30 armoured cavalry elements
14 nomadic cavalry elements
18 nomadic light horse
12 elements of dismounted heavy cavalry
6 elements of spearmen
6 elements of bowmen
8 elements of Himalayan skirmishers
2 heavy roper-pull stonethrowers

All up this represents 299 foot and mounted figures and 177 horses, or 476 figures and two artillery pieces in total, and took me around three months which I am quite pleased with.

Some of the army has already seen one game, and we are lining up another for them once gaming has resumed, so it will be nice to roll some dice and see them in action again.

15mm Tibetan Dismounted Cavalry

The last unit in this army is twelve stands of dismounted cavalry, which can then be used as a superior spear-armed foot unit:

One of the elements represents a dismounted Tibetan king with a couple of standard bearers, just in case the C-in-C needs to himself dismount at any stage. That said, it is something I don't think I'd be going out of my way to do, especially as one has to pay the additional points for them being mounted in the first place and it is quite easy for them to lose their horses in combat once they are on foot:

As with the rest of the army, the figures are again from Khurasan:

That's the Tibetans completed then, and I'll try to arrange a group photo before I move on to the next project.

More 15mm Tibetan Armoured Cavalry

This is the last of the armoured Tibetan cavalry, with another fifteen elements including a genaral completed over the last few weeks:

As with the rest of the army, the figures are all from Khurasan Miniatures:

The Tibetan army is a tough force, and won many victories between 618AD to 840AD, with many conflicts between them and the Chinese. My favourite is the story around the Tibetan emperor Songsten Gampo who sent expensive gifts to the Chinese in support of his request to marry a Tang princess. He was rebuffed and was so annoyed he attacked and defeated a few Chinese provinces, thought better of it and apologised, which the Chinese accepted and then agreed to the marriage.

He sounds as though he had a temper, as his younger brother was burned to death following a dispute with him, but he was the emperor that set the Tibetans on the course of empire-building that was to last for two hundred years.

Here is the third general completed (with a prong missing from the standard unfortunately, but hopefully not too noticeable):

Plus two of the other fourteen elements:

I now have a dozen elements of dismounted cavalry to finish, and then this army will be complete:

I'm not sure why, but in spite of the lockdown my progress appears to have slowed over the past few weeks. Very strange as we're not leaving the house much at all, but then I think with everyone home all day every day there are more distractions on the domestic front, especially in terms of odd jobs that would ordinarily go unnoticed. The other thing is that a few university assignments have been due. I have to say I think I enjoy the study far more without assessment, but I'm well over two thirds the way through now so will see it through, and at least I feel as though I'm doing something productive rather than watching repeats on television.

15mm Tibetan Nomadic Allied Cavalry

Rather than having to field an army of primarily knights, the Tibetan army list provides an option for Chi'ang or Sumpa nomadic allies, or Uighur mercenary cavalry.

This seems like a good option to have available depending upon the opposition, especially as they are regular troops of decent or superior quality, so I set about putting together fourteen elements of these:

The figures are again from Khurasan, but from their Mongol range. I selected these on the basis that they should fit the nomadic bill nicely:

There is a choice of six riders and three horses, available either as steppe or Mongol ponies with the latter having a broader head and shorter legs so I chose the former as being more generally applicable:

These are very nicely detailed figures, but are more 18mm than the true 15mm figures of the Tibetans. They have also been done by two different sculptors, but are as I say from two completely different ranges under the Khurasan banner:

They also will not be mixed within the same unit, so the size difference should not matter in the final analysis:

Only around another fifteen elements of Tibetan heavy cavalry plus a few dismounted figures to go now, and that will be the first army completed for 2020. Strangely, and in spite of the enforced isolation most of us are going through, my production rate does not appear to have increased. I can only put that down to my wife also spending more time around home and finding an increased number of jobs that need doing, some of which had been carefully hidden away from all but the most discerning eye and which of course one now cannot find a tradesman to do. 

15mm Tibetan Rope-pull Stone-throwers

The TIbetan army list has the option for two artillery pieces in the form of some large rope-pull stone-throwers, and Khurasan had a model which fitted the bill nicely so I couldn't resist incorporating them:

These were from the Khurasan Sung Chinese range and were, to my eye, modeled by a different sculptor as the figures are slightly rounder in stature, but height-wise they fit in nicely with the rest of the Tibetans:

The only issue with these are that the rules call for them to be mounted on a 40mm x 40mm base, but there was no way I was squeezing on of these onto something that small so went with 40mm x 60mm instead. The frontage is the main thing, so hopefully that should be easy to work around:

Nice models, although all the figures appear to be standing around waiting for something to happen. Hopefully they will be a little more active when they are in the heat of battle.

That's the artillery component finished, now on to some allied nomadic cavalry.