With the character of Flaccus becoming a bit of a legend in the campaign, I thought it was only right that I select and paint up a figure for him in the game.There were a few I had my eye on, but finally went for this one from 1st Corps, the horse is from Foundry along with his standard bearer.
7 comments:
Good job! Flaccus certainly does not look or act flaccid, ha ha ha!
Seriously, where did you obtain spare Foundry horses, or is there now a cavalryman without a mount somewhere?
Ave!
Over many years collecting, I have loads of spares of pretty much everything. In the old days, Foundry would send bags of figures for large orders, there were always spares every now and then. Also I would phone up and get them to send extras when they messed up on orders. Thus I have a few spares floating around, they all get used in the end though.
Inspired by your blog, I now have some EIR Eastern auxiliary archers on the way.
I have some ideas about modelling two of their command, e.g. using a Roman-looking centurion in scale armour, and an archer converted into a cornicen, but am not so sure about the signifer.
One option would be to convert another archer figure, or at least a Syrian- or Palmyran-looking figure, with optional fur pelt, while another would be to use a standard auxiliary signifer.
Overall, the challenge is to try to bridge the appearance gap between archers in long brass scale armour and robes on one hand, and Roman-looking command in shorter tunics on the other.
Finally, for the cohort's standard, I am thinking of replacing the auxiliary-style spear tip with a large, three-bladed arrowhead. However, I have no idea if that would be too far-fetched for Romans or any other historicals, for that matter.
Ave!
Great stuff! out of interest where have you ordered them from? I know that 'Black Tree' do a nice Eastern archer and the ones I will be painting up soon come from Foundry. I managed to get them eight years ago before Foundry prices turned into those of Games Workshop, which was a good move on my part.
As for the Standard, I always think a vexillium looks good on light troops like Skirmishers and Archers.
I know it's a bad reference, but I liked the green Archer standard from Braveheart. I know Braveheart was a joke as far as history was concerned, but I would paint a mild, faded, green Vexillium for my Archers I think. Green also being the colour connected with light troops in later years. Also with a vexillium you could paint the three pointed arrow head design onto the actual Vexillium itself, killing two Gauls with one sling shot. Just a thought.
I bought twelve vexilliums from newline design, one of the only companies left where you can still order seperate figures. I think they were from the Marian era though. They are great when you have loads of units on the board and for commanding officers to have a seperate standard on their base.
They are by Foundry, and I got them off of eBay. In terms of army composition, I probably should have gone for legionaries first, but there did not seem to be all that much interest in the archers, so they ended-up being a bit cheaper per figure.
Besides, there were enough for a whole unit at once, except for command - three packs of Eastern, and one pack of Western! I tend to buy figures at a discount, so it can take a long time to accumulate complete units.
Thanks for the vexillum idea! I'll have to rewatch Braveheart to see the green standard, and I'd better check out Newline. I may still replace the spear tip with an oversized bronze arrowhead, though.
Now that you mention green, one of my first Airfix units of two decades ago was a unit of Eastern auxiliary archers in brass armour and green robes. IIRC, Peter Connolly's The Roman Army showed some auxiliaries in green, and that was good enough for me at the time.
This time around, though, I think that I may use off-white with a coloured border. Most of the inspiration is going to be from the Rome's Desert Frontier Osprey, but also from what WRG's Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome has on Palmyrenes.
Ave!
I've rechecked the item page in eBay, and see that they are western aux. archers! So much for my original plans. I suppose that I'll now have to look for some easterners for a second unit ...
Ave!
Eastern auxiliary archer recruits are rumoured to be on the march from the city of Ibei.
Once they arrive, there will be enough (except for command - again - argh!) to raise two units of westerners and one of easterners.
I have been looking at lists of named aux. units, and have found few, if any, that would have come from the west. I am thus wondering if the famous 'western' auxiliary archers from Trajan's Column might simply have been yet more easterners, but in western-style uniform.
Ave!
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