Dacian Auxiliaries

German Auxiliaries

I made these German again because of their size compared to other figures. Also they have black shields, a German theme I have given my 'Rhine' Legion.
Being German I also gave them longer spears to add to their German flavour. This helps to make them a little different from the other Auxiliary units.

Rheatian Auxiliaries

More old Essex Miniatures.

German Auxiliaries

I made this unit German because of their large size. These are Early Essex Miniatures (no longer available). I like these old Essex Figures because a lot of their Auxiliaries have cross barred re-enforced helmets, a detail lacking in modern sculpting.

Gallic Auxiliaries

The green shields just seemed to say 'Gaul' to me, I don't know why. So they became a Gallic Cohort.

I love the way the sun caught the shields, for a moment, they almost looked life size.

Slaves!

Well what can I say about this lot... they want locking up!

One gets an idea and that's It, they're all off all over the countryside causing havoc. The figures are 1st Corps with a couple of packs of Gripping Beast mingled in.

Thracian Auxiliaries

These are Gripping Beast Cesarean Romans with Early Imperial Shields. I use them as Auxiliaries at the moment. The shield design was taken from the Thracian Osprey book.

The Might Of Rome

A Cohort of Auxiliaries from Britannia. This was my first Roman unit to be painted all those years ago back in 1997. Arrr happy days.....
On cleaning out my computer today, I found an old folder of photos taken about three years ago. I thought I'd post them before I delete them and share them with the world before they are gone forever. There now follows a mass of Roman might and hopefully a little inspiration too.

Rough ground for Skirmishers

A tray full of Skirmishers

I collected all my Skirmishers together on a tray so I could go through the whole lot and add extra grass tufts from Silflor Models. These grass tufts should help the bases look like rough ground.
Just after taking this photo I bent down to get something off the floor. On standing I knocked the tray against the bed post and most of these guys ended up on the floor.
A heart stopping moment and one which every collector/gamer lives in fear of. The good news was that there was only two casualties, a spear and a shield on my wolf-skinned Roman base...It could of been a lot worse!

More Roman Mosaics

Snapshots of history

Roman slingshot, I placed my hand in the shot to give a sense of scale. After seeing them in books, I thought they would be larger than they were.
A suit of Roman chain mail remains frozen in time as It was left thousands of years ago.
For all those painting Celts at the moment, here is a reconstruction of Celtic Cloth.

A wall to keep out Celts

Here is the wall that was built around Verulamium after the Boudiccian revolt. Note the characteristic layers of red tiles in the flint stone work.

Verulamium Museum

Here are some images from the Fantastic Verulamium Museum. Verulamium or St Albans as It's known today was the second Roman town to be raised to the ground by the forces of Boudicca in AD 60, after Verulamium was looted and burned, she moved on to Londinium.
This stunning Mosaic floor belonged to a grand house that was built after the Iceni revolt had destroyed the town.
It had under floor heating and a section of the floor has fallen away to expose the hypocaust below. The level of craftsmanship involved to produce such a piece of work was breathtaking.

Celtic Skirmishers

Here is another quickly painted unit of Celtic Skirmishers. I used the excuse of painting some more fantastic Warlord Games plastic celts to produce another unit.
The Noble is mounted on a small native pony to keep pace with his mobile force of javelin men.
Tufts of grass from Silflor Models were added to their bases to give the effect of rough terrain.

I liked the effect so much, I decided to go through my entire collection of Skirmish troops and do the same.

Vickers team in France 1944

Here is the finished Vickers machine gun. I added some flowers from Silflor Models to add to the realism.

Steady Lads...Steady!

Germanicus encourages his soldiers. "Their bodies, while grim enough to behold, are powerful only for a short-lived onset and lack the stamina to bear a wound". For a short Mediterranean man, coming face to face with a giant from the dark, untamed forests of the North must have been utterly terrifying to say the least.

Victers Section

Finally!!!! I've finished some more Brits after being snowed under for two months. I feels sooo good to be painting again I can't begin to tell you. I think It must be good for the soul. Anyway, here they are ready for action, finished!

I like these bigger bases as Its gives me a chance to create little dioramas. Bolt-action Miniatures produce a wealth of ammo boxes and spare rifles etc to really help me get creative with them . I added bits of broken balsa wood to act as Debris and gave one of the Vickers team some added protection in the way of sand bags, these were sculpted from 'Green stuff'.

Those damn dirty natives!

I couldn't help myself the other day and had to paint some ancients again. These are hard plastic Celts from Warlord Games. I love them because they are so fun to put together and paint. I like to use them as skirmishers a head of the War bands, so stick them two to a base.

I find them more satisfying to paint than 'Metals', I think It must be the fact I created the pose of the figure, I'm not sure.