Saturday 1 February 2020

15mm Republican Roman Hastati and Roman Villa

While commencing the Tibetan army project I thought I'd also make a start on a 15mm Republican Roman army, The idea here is to have enough options to span the DBMM lists from the earlier Camillan Romans through the Polybian list, to the reformed Marian army.

They will be organised into the four core urban legions of the earlier Republican era, starting with twenty-five elements of sword-armed hastati:


















The figures are Xyston and are large even for 18mm figures, but I think they look the part when assembled together in bulk and it is still quite easy to fit the required four figures on each base:


















While many prefer to field their legions with plain shields, I like the Little Big Man Studios shield transfers and believe they provide the figures with an additional level of interest:




































Even though they are simply-attired the figures are nicely sculpted with quite sharply-defined detail, making painting them very enjoyable:




































I have also recently completed the last of my Forged in Battle 15mm buildings, this time a Roman villa:


















This is a two-part model, with a main building and a separate courtyard:




































That gives me fifteen Roman buildings in total, and I am currently debating whether to affix them to a terrain board or keep them detached so they can be placed on top of one of several cobblestone squares I have. The latter obviously has the advantage of being able to remove buildings or move them around as required, but I am still leaning toward the idea of putting them into some form of permanent arrangement.

It's back to some more Tibetans over the coming weeks. We have a game planned for them in six weeks' time so I want to give that project a bit of a push and see how many I can complete before then.

17 comments:

  1. Your brushwork on the Romans is superb. Amazing that these are 18mm figures with the detail you paint. The LBM shields add spice to the units. I like the villa too!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. They are very large figures even for 18mm, which makes getting to the detail much easier.

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  2. Great looking building and Romans, well done!

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    1. Thanks Phil, it's going to be quite a large army so it was good to get a start on them.

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  3. Great stuff Lawrence. Do you have a colosseum? If not you need one!

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    1. Thanks Mark. A colosseum would be a great idea, even if it would dominate the table slightly. That way if we get stuck in a boring game we could play a few gladiatorial combats. Another barely started project I have stored away somewhere...

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  4. Great looking Romans! Excellent detail!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, they were a pleasure to paint which always makes things easier.

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  5. Lovely looking figures Lawrence, you have done your usual excellent work on them, and the villa is a very nice terrain piece too.

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    1. Cheers Keith. I have become quite a fan of the Forged in Battle buildings. Even though they are solid for the most part, they make great terrain pieces and are perfect for Ancient gaming.

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  6. I applaud your use of painted shield faces. We know they were decorated later, and for centuries, and we know about what was painted on the shields of contemporary enemies; I just don't buy the idea of blank wooden shields in the republic. We don't know what was on them; that doesn't mean we know there was nothing.

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    1. Thanks Fierce Kitty, that was my take on it as well. One would think that some form of shield design may also have been important for unit cohesion, to augment the formal organisation that had been implemented.

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  7. Excellent painting for such a tiny minis!! Great job!

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated.

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  9. Some great looking "little" armies coming together here Lawrence.

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    1. Thanks Tony. I still think of 28mm as being my primary scale, but the groups I play with are all about 15mm so at least I know these armies will get used.

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