Roman Auxiliary Soldiers
The second unit in my Dacian Wars collection is this Auxiliary Cohort. The Auxiliary Infantry in the Imperial Roman Army were the workhorse units and formed a valuable part of its combat effectiveness. These chaps will be the first into combat when they come up against the Dacian horde.
The animation in these Warlord plastics really bring the unit alive with just enough variation to give the impression of aggressive action.
The downside with all that animation is trying to squeeze four figures onto a 40mm square base, however with a bit of trial and error it is possible to get them working alongside each other in a compact mass of spears and swords.
I'm really enjoying the challenge of capturing the expressions on my little warriors faces. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have always felt obliged to honour the work of the sculptor by bringing alive the detail he or she has managed to create.
The other key challenge I haven't enjoyed is the task of working with plastic spears. The detail is great but their fragility when being handled is exasperating and I am now committed to moving on to brass rod spears, and at some time this unit will need a re-bore of all those hand grips as I replace them with a sturdy wargame handling option. Oh well I am on the learning curve here!
The really pleasurable side to producing these two units is that my eldest lad Tom has felt inspired to declare he wants to get back into his painting by doing some 28mm Romans. So this blog is doing it's bit to bring new generations into the hobby.
Next up Hesse Darmstadt Artillery.
Really nice! I might try painting a box of those, over here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon. With all the Romans you have I'm a bit surprised you haven't played with these already.
DeleteI was under the impression that they were a lot smaller than my big 28s, but I heard recently that this set are larger than a lot of the Warlord range. I have a half-formed idea to convert some of them to revolting Judeans for the Jewish revolt.
DeleteWell with only my limited experience of comparing these with the Warlord legionaries, and Dacian and German infantry, together with a few Foundry figures that seem to be the most compatible, the legionaries are definitely smaller, about a true 25mm. I have some Aventine legionaries and they are big chaps, but these chaps don't look too outrageous against them.
DeleteI like these a lot. I have a box of these somewhere but have never bothered to do them as the Warlord legionaries are so horrible.
ReplyDeleteHi LH, thank you. I like these figures and they are a much better 28mm than the legionaries, but I think I can make them work together on the table and shouldn't be too distracting to the eye.
DeleteGreat looking troops! I agree with you in that I would swap out the plastic spears and replace with brass rod.
ReplyDeleteHi Jon. Thank you. Really frustrating as I thought they looked sturdy enough to stand up to regular handling. Never mind, onwards and upwards.
DeleteThese are lovely Jonathan, my brother is putting together a whole load of Romans at the moment. May do some myself?
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, Thank you. Well if you're thinking about it, I'd say go for it. I'm really enjoying the change of scale, period and colour palette. The only thing is that the units take about a week and half to turn round instead of a week for a 24 figure unit in 18mm, so I am adjusting my production plans for both collections to allow the time.
DeleteThey are splendid, great work Master of the Bronze!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. Master of the Bronze, wow what an accolade
DeleteVery nice JJ.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the auxilia getting some recognition for doing the "dirty work".
Vince
Cheers Vince. Yeah I agree but I bet they will be the first ones thrown into the fray. Plenty more where they came from.
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