Aulus Proctavius Alanicus of the East (campaign 16)

This dust stained, weatherworn general is Aulus Proctavius Alanicus. He won his toga fighting against the Parthians and the Jews, in and around Syrria. He also fought in a number of battles to put a Roman on the Armenian throne, It was during these campaigns that Aulus won the reputation as a stern and unrelenting soldier, who pushed his men to their limits. He became a master of organization and deployment and although he was a hard taskmaster, he got results and his men loved him for it. It was after yet another sweeping victory that to his supprise, his men hailed him as Emperor. A title that sat on him rather well, he thought.

ALA V Hispania

Here the dreaded cavalry of Tullus form for action in Gaul. I like these figures alot because they have a very distinct look all of their own...very spainish. They are from the Foundry 'Caeserian' range and so are alittle early for my Imperial era, so to bring them up to date I gave them an oval shield and a green tunic 'uniform' of sorts.
This piccie shows the cloak in detail of the commander, I have lots of this figure in all my cavalry units and wanted to make this guy alittle spacial, so I cloaked him.

Painting made easy

So here we are at last...all sorted out and organized. Already it has made such a difference and makes me want to paint more, which can't be a bad thing for a couple of hours work. Now I have all the shades of colour in their own compartments with a colour chart on the front of the drawer so I know where they all are. Oh well...It only took me twenty years of painting to get here...not bad really.

Getting sorted

With over a hundred paints to choose from, finding the right pot in a sea of masses took for ever, so I decided to sort it out! I had seen photos of another painters workbench on the internet and noted his clever drawer system and thought to myself I've got some drawers like that. Also I use the Foundry paint system, where each colour comes in a shade, a mid tone and a highlight colour for speeding up the shading process and finding these three tones in a box of white lids took hours. So I decided to sub-divide the drawers into compartments that could hold six pots, to make my life alot easier and alot tidier too. Excuse the blurred photos I had my 'making' head on.

Release the boar!

More pictures of those out of control Celts as the sweep their way down hill towards the Roman lines. I have great fun coming up with all the different shield designs and colours, but to add real detail I have used some transfers from the Little Bigman Studios. By just adding one or two of these in a warband, they can help take the eye away from those not so detailed.

Celts! hordes of 'em

I love painting Celts, they are so much fun to do. Every single one of them is different, this effect can be heightened by giving them various shields and different weapons. With the added joy of blue war paint and painting the different patterned clothes, Celts are one of my favourites to work on without a doubt. A mass of swirling, uncontrolled colour, is how I would describe them.

The Gaul of it!

"The trouble with these Celts is.....they never know when to give up!"

The unstoppable Pannonians

Again these shots show the cloak conversions and abit of Photoshop work I've been playing with. You can almost feel the ground shake as these heavy horse thunder by.

The mighty Stuba Bowmonica

Stuba rides at the head of his heavy Sarmation cavalry. For his character I used the Maximus figure from 1st corps. It seemed to have the look of a tough, well seasoned veteran I was looking for.

This shot shows the cloaks I made for the Sarmations which helps to add variety to the unit, which otherwise would of all looked the same.

Tullus Holdrianus Hispanus

Tullus takes the fight to Gaul, fighting with his personalized cavalry spatha he leads his Legion to war. Tom had fallen in love with this figure ever since he had first seen him and so it made sense to make it Tullus. Unlike my other Generals, Tullus always prefers to fight on foot. Another sign of his rising though the ranks, a fact he is very proud of as he still wares his Centurion's harness and dacorations to prove it.

The fighting bulls of Hispania

To help give the white shields a Spainish feel, I gave them bull standards. All Legions raised in Spain were given the bull as their emblem in Caesar's day and although the VII was raised much later, I thought it would be a nice touch.

The VII Gemina

The 7th Legion forms for battle.

Secundus takes to the field

I couldn't believe my luck when I found this figure from Gripping Beast, he looked just like me!. So he had to become Secundus and lead the armies of Britannia against the East....and victory.