A dozen Roman auxiliary archers have stepped off from the Basing Depot and will be mustered into the Emperor's service. They'll be marching off to the forests of Germania shortly.
I continue to like the Victrix figures, they look good, are well proportioned, and take paint well. The assembly was a bit of a chore, and while they do come in a pleasing variety of poses, there were one or two where I felt, "that doesn't look quite right". However, they'll do. I painted them fairly quickly, I'm not sure it qualifies as "slapchop", whatever the kids mean by that, but they are I guess what one would call "wargame standard". I painted them with the same light blue tunics that I gave to my existing auxiliary infantry, to suggest the same legion or affiliation.
They're based individually but the washers I can use can fit into my Warbases sabots, and can be stored in a box lined with magnetic paper.
The Victrix early imperial archers set comes with 12 figures from the western empire and 12 in the distinctive dress of the eastern empire. I'll save the eastern figures for a Middle Earth project, and while it would be nice to have another 12 of these painted, I am not sure how reliant the Roman armies were on archers - I suspect they were a fairly small and specialized arm, but not sure. Probably for now a dozen for a small tabletop army are sufficient.
Speaking of Middle Earth, it also occurs to me that these figures could be used as Gondorian militia archers, as opposed to the Games Workshop Gondorian archers in their full armour, but that's another thought.
I noticed that quite a few of the heads are sculpted wearing moustaches. It reminded me that in Rosemary Sutcliffe's
The Legion of the Ninth, the hero commands some auxiliary archers and they are described as being from Gaul, and one thinks of ancient Gauls as being hairy fellows. Or maybe a coincidence? Pray speak up in the comments.
Next up, some definitely hairy ancient Germans.
Thanks for looking, blessings to your brushes.
I wonder just how much of the Roman uniform doctrines were asserted over their Auxilia units? Moustaches make so much sense in my mind and beards too. (I seem to recall in the early episodes of HBO's Rome series that Caesar's scouting elements when he came back to Rome were hairy looking, non-uniformed "barbarian" types - yes, tv, but they must have gotten their inspiration from some source or another? (Saying that, it's hollywood so maybe not LOL)
ReplyDeleteLiking the look of these Mike. When do we get to see them in action?
Nice work Mike.
ReplyDeleteLovely figures , sympathetically painted. Excellent work. I look forward to seeing them in action.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland