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Very believable paint job, they look great! Your ability to jump from one project to another is also commendable, once I start painting something I cant switch or I'd go mad. Mainly the reason why I'm currently wading through Grots at the moment...

good stuff.

Ooh those pirates are fantastic!

Thanks chaps, they really do look like pirates now they've got their stripes and spots. I'll be doing more of these so long as my supply of cutlases and pistols holds out! Talk like a pirate day was it? And noone round here told me! They weren't even talking like pirates themselves (no more so than usual this is penzance).

ARr Swab the decks or I'll keel haul the lottayas with the cat o nine tails, Ahoy there splice that mainbrace me jolly jack tar Arrrrr.

Well that's got that out of my system.

They look great! Uk was distracted by referendum. Also, that just shows why Hastings is a better capital of pirate-dom than Penzance (long running argument between our towns for Most Number of Pirates world record, for the uninitiated ) Arr, and so forth.

Lovely metal work on the Knight Panther.

Wow what a slow painting month. I'll be honest the world news has been totally distracting me from painting, its fascinating watching the world at the moment and I've been trying to learn as much as I can about how it might effect us here. Are 50-90% of us about to die horribly? Its a compelling question and one that makes painting little plastic figures seem dull. I know I know apparently it could never happen here, but judging from history things don't always work out the way people expected.

But I felt like some painting anyway so I got a sprue of republican era roman soldiers to give me something stimulating and new to work on. These are the ones:

My late repulican legionairies are ready to paint! How cool are these guys they look just like they did in my old illustrated roman history book. I decided to cut them off their silly little bases and put them on proper ones. They can serve as retro mercenaries in the empire army now! I believe these are equiped as the legion was at the end of the republican era when julius ceasar was entertaining ambitions of power and empire. I am suprised by how short their gladius's are but I can see the point (pun) of it. They bludgeon the enemy with their huge shield and then shank em while they are wincing. And of course if you are going to have such a heavy shield you con't want to be wieghed down with a heavy sword too. It also makes sense of why bows play only a secondary role in classical warfare. The short bows of the time would struggle to put an arrow past that shield. So long as the line held and the bowmen didn't sneak round behind them...

These are really nice figs! although they shouldn't have their gladii in hand, their sheaths containing one still...
These short gladii make totally sense in context with the main weapon of the legionaire: That was his pilum, a very special, harpoon-like spear. It was constructed to be thrown on short distance into the enemy's line. If it didn't apply wounds, it would be nailed into their shields, yet, making them useless. (Shield protection is a very active task, anticipating your foe's hit and trying to counter the strike with the shield's buckle.) The legionaires then would connect to the enemy, stabbing them with their short swords on minimum distance, where their big shields gave maximum protection and long swords or spears were useless. (Spears and lances were the main infantry weapon throughout all times before the introduction of firearms.)

Don't underestimate the power of ranged arms in antique warfare, though. They had armabustas of different sizes, from classical size up to the famous ballistae. Their auxiliary troops used the sling and stone, which is a weapon at least as dangerous as any bow in trained hands. They were facing not what you would call shortbows, but the mighty composite bows of the parthian cavalry. Their bows had a penetrating power and a cadence that would make your infamous english longbowmen running back into their sherwood forest, crying for the sheriff. I saw a composite bow (from later, mongolian times, though) in a museum that had the power of 500 libs! You had to lay down on the ground and use your legs to fire it.

Having the nerd rant out of my system, I am one of those admiring lurkers of yours, I find your style of painting very inspiring, and your technique very convincing, since I first read this blog I have positively enhanced my own skills because of. Also I love your choice of colours. I am looking forward what you will do of these brave roman guys! (Tipp if you want to be accurate: this kind of helmet was brazen, not iron)

Yep I was thinking brass helmets - the romans in my history book had them. As for the swords well I've started painting so maybe they will have to have two swords each! Or maybe I will get the scalpel out and lop them off.

I have a bow - its a 25lb draw so I cant even imagine what 500 would feel like... I suppose what I meant was is that the roman army only used bowmen as auxilaries and prefered to get stuck in up close. The parthians on the other hand... didn't they beat the roman army a fair few times? They must have rode around the shield wall and shot them in the back.

I'm glad you enjoy my painting. Hopefully I will have more to show soon. I'm feeling the roman vibe but I have a lot of real life on my plate until the weekend.


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I was thinking red shields with yellow detail, dark blue/black plumes and biege tunics - like the legions in my history book.

What they lack in numbers of men, they make up for in the number of swords...

I've used a 50lb bow before. That was enough. Well enough for 100-150 metres and a soft target. 500lb is more than many crossbows, would not like to be holding that when it snaps...

Sounds good, Weety. Look forward to seeing them.

I've used a 50lb bow before. That was enough. Well enough for 100-150 metres and a soft target.

And that is the reason a) the romans, as most military forces in former times, had close combattants,precisely spear and shield as their main force,
b) the english bowmen were something no other medieval force could copy,
c) only the introduction of firearms changed that.

To use a bow effectively you need to be trained and experienced. It is said that you had to be bowman in third generation to be good enough to use the english longbow. You needed a lot of training to draw, aim and fire in one smooth movement. A "real life" longbow could have about 200 libs. I saw one from bronce age in southern denmark thaw was made of a young fir, being about three fingers in diameter. A certain german archeologist (I forgot the name, met him years ago) that has specialized in bow shooting had to train about ten years to be able to use such a bow alone, not to speak of being precise. But he was able to reach the 500 meters, ballistic even 700 meters.

The origin of the roman legions was a kind of conscription army, like most armies of the latin/greek world of early republic. It was easy to train someone to use shield and close combat weapon, plus a spear is a very cheap weapon. So bowmen, like sling shooters (wich is even more difficult than bowshooting, I am told) did only see service as auxiliary troops. Armabustas were easy to use even for untrained users, but it takes time to load it.
Once the romans had found their combat tactics very effective against most other armies of their times (typically using the old "phalanx" tactics) they stuck to it even when they changed into a professional army. As they never suceeded in defeating the parthians (one of their most prominent "victims" being Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Caesars "triumvirate", they incorporated a lot of parthian mercenaries as auxiliary troops, though.
If the composite bow (easier to pull, smaller, thus easier to handle, yet powerful) hadn't been so vulnerable agains the comparatively cold and wet european climate, it surely would have shaken the european theater as strongly as the use of stirrups (ore in former times, the horse itself)...

Ooh some Romans! I have been wanting to collect a small army of those guys for ages now. Tis going to be fun seeing how you paint them all up.

Yeah I'm going to enjoy them. History is great. I might get some celts as well.

We're watching 'Split Second' with Rutger Hauer. Classic film I totallly recomend it to everyone - its set in a 21st centuary london which seems to be a foot underwater. Lots of daft giant guns and monsters and hilarious dialogue.

Ave ceasar everyone. I love these warlord miniatures romans I must get more. I wonder if they do auxilairies, or gladiators! that'd be cool.

Heres the prototype. I enjoyed the brass.

"We need to get bigger guns. Big fething guns" Classic

Nice looking Roman, they'll look excellent as a group

Aha! Someone else who's seen split second. Hilarious film. Its a dark apocalyptic odd-couple buddy cop comedy spoof B movie monster flick.

We were discussing Rutger films a few weeks back at work and I was recommending Split Second as well worth a look - like you say the dialogue is hilarious in places, and Rutger is such a bad-ass

Yes, such a bad ass! And his girlfriend is carrie fisher from sex in the city, and its got pete postilthwaite (is that how you spell it?)

Talk about bad-ass: that roman is bad-ass! The sheath is what I love best -not because you cut the spare sword away (which I appreciate) but because of the brazen framework! Second best the face! A grizzled veteran serving as optio, now that his 20 years of service are nearing their end. He surely will not accept the farmstead in Aremorica, but sign in for another 20 years, if they promote him to centurio. His "boys" probably nickname him "old spittle", both because of his soft and mediating style of communication, and because twenty years of hand milled grain pulp for main dish have taken their toll on his teeth... As you see, that little man totally speaks to me.

He does seem to be missing one or two teeth and has that grizzled veteran look! Its just the way the model looked to me so i put two tiny dots of beige in the top row to give a gap tooth look. I might fill in the rest of his mouth with a little dark red wash. He also might get a shield design but I'm dubious about transfers and have none so it'd have to be freehand.

The other three are nearly at his level now - they just need their brass doing.

Roman patrol is ready! Its been fun. I ought to get back to the knights now before I end up buying more of these. Wait till xmass.

Very cool looking patrol there

Now how about scratch-building a ballista for them?

I could make one out of matchsticks and cotton...

Off you go then.......

Lovely little squad. now to their 5996 battle brothers... (Their number is legion, you know...)

Very nice

Romans are very impressive - as are the pirates, the Empire, etc, etc

I ain't dead...

Just resting. But I'm feeling a glimmer of the muse today. If I can fit it in after all my chores and cooking minestrone I might open up the desk and paint an elf. Hell its been a month since I painted now so I'd better had. I watched dungeons and dragons yesterday and despite being a terrible film it was actually quite good and it had Richard O'Brien in it as the owner of a maze! Got me to thinking about elves and dungeons etc... So watch this space

I'm watching this space.

*Blink, blink...

Did someone else hear something in the parlour?