Wolves of the Rhine

Hello and welcome back fellow Mitteners. Today I have been busying myself with those troublesome Wolf heads again. A good idea came to me while I sat there filing away the access flash on these bad boys. I will give them different styles of shields, some Auxiliary and others from the Legionary camps. This will make them look more ad hoc and specialist and hopefully more elite. They are old, tough veterans from a list of bloody campaigns and skirmishes as long as your arm and their personalized equipment should show this.
These wolves cut their teeth on the huge Barbarians that stalk the dark forests along the mighty Rhine river, they should have no trouble crunching up the youths of Tullus's Spanish army. We shall see....

Off to war!

This is me saying my final farewells to my latest recruits before they head off to war. Today, I started work on the Light Infantry from the Rhine (the wolf heads) and they look like they will be a lot of fun to paint. I'm having a few good ideas about how to make them stand out as an elite unit. All shall be revealed in the course of time......well, it keeps me busy and off the street anyway.

Roman light Infantry

Here's the first batch of 'lights' to roll off the old painting table. This unit of twelve was a nice small number to paint and didn't take long to do. It is made up of figures from both Gripping Beast and Foundry with the Centurion coming from Essex Miniatures. I don't really like their new range of Romans, but this Centurion figure and his variants is the exception.

Being Light Infantry, I have based the figures two to a base, this gives the impression they are spread out and fighting in skirmish order.

A close up of the New Essex Centurion, I thought his pose was perfect for a skirmishering officer. Also, to give the impression of rough ground the Light Infantry had to cover, I have placed bushes and scrub on some of the bases. A little touch, but it helps fill the base and add to the effect. These bases need to be flocked with grass to be finished. I will do this when I have painted up a few units, then flock them all together in one go.

More Dumnonii arrive on the scene

This is the second batch of blue faced Celts to arrive, better late than never I always say and I enjoyed painting this lot more than the first.

I love painting the checks and patterns on Celtic clothing and with my new fur/cloth cloaks, I had plenty of opportunity. I painted a couple of the cloaks as wolf pelts to add a little more variety and make a change to everyone just having bear skins.

I've had to put a hold on the Dumnonii war band for the time being, until I complete the Roman skirmishers. So at the moment they number about 36, where as I will aim for a least 45 to complete the unit. With the hard work of sculpting done, It just leaves me the joyful job of painting them, but there is still enough of them to make any Roman look twice and It'll be nice to see them on the field with their unique look.

In the cabinet, they really stand out against the other Celts I've painted and I suppose that's the way it would of been. With a race of people who were more worried about killing their neighbours than uniting against the common enemy of Rome, I think that tribal identity would have been of the up most importance to them. Being able to distinguish between friend and foe in the swirling maelstrom of battle would of had to been a must.