Roman Cavalry

 Benefit of being in red zone... you can paint a lot...

and bring yourself to finish things too...

anyway here is my first unit (or two...) of republican Roman cavalry in 28mm. They are Victrix miniatures plastic. First some photos...

Being plastic it means you must build them (some people do not like it... I like), but also that you can customize them to a certain extent. Victrix gives you 8 sprues in total, four of horses with four horses in each, and four of men, again 4 to the sprue. You have 16 cavalrymen in total, but 4 of them are officers, this is not a perfect choice in my opinion, but one that I can live on. The figures themselves have crisp detail and minimal mold lines, and are easy to assemble. As Ihave realized with Victrix you have to be careful with the assembly, it is not open as Warlord or Perry, but basically each figure + horse is an entity. Certainly you have less variation of poses than with Perry (were you can basically mix and match horses), but Victrix has a decent number of variation per figure. You can equip the line horsemen with standard spears as I did, javelins, or swords. You have also option for standard and trumpet (not used in this first half of the bag).  For once heads are plentiful (I was not overly happy with only 8 heads per sprue of 8 men in my Athenian hoplites) and you have choices between Beotian/Hellenistic helmets, or Italian Montefortino/Gallic Style (useful to extend the use of the set, my next unit, that I am painting now, will be equipped with later helmets to be used as far as the triumvirates). There are also some older heads that you can use to make them Etruscan (or early Roman/Latin) cavalry. All in all a good idea. 

Shields have received LBMS transfers, I really like them.

If the set has a negative point, is the officers. There are 4 and their variations are quite limited, but again, it is a an acceptable compromise. Now some words on size. Some people criticize Victrix cavalry as being too big. Well... I have already painted two boxes of Agema Romans and plan to use my Victrix together with them, so I took some pictures with a Victrix cavalryman, two Agema velites, and one Agema Hastatus. 

I do not see them out of place, actually they fit quite well. So happy with them and I hope some of the sterile polemics about Victrix size will be put to rest. 

Back from the dark... Early Seleucid Army

 Well, ladies and gentlemen...

It is almost one year I do not post anything... I am very bad. Let's say the world is not really helpful these months... still I am painting. Painting is one of the few things keeping me going forward these days. Hopefully the world will get back normal soon...

Anyway back to the subject of the post... lockdown has been useful in focusing me on finishing projects rather than aimless painting. One of these projects is a 15mm Early Seleucid Army, organized for Art De La Guerre. I like these rules because they keep some of the good feature of the DBx series, but avoid some of the more idiotic 'abstractions'. They also give you a decent size army, neither too big or too small. 

Back in time I had a surplus of Hellenistic period  troops from a work project. I started... slowly or better glacially... to paint them. I then lost focus.. switched to other things... improved my painting skills... and so on. Some of the original horrors were repainted, and then I was slowing pushing forward, until recently I finally got in stride and finished the project. Hurrah!!! 

It is a composite army, with figures from Gladiator, Essex, Old Glory and Museum. Once they are put together they look quite nice as you can see here...

The army arrayed for battle. The theme is the early period of the Kingdom, approximately  from the Diadochi Wars to the Elephant Victory over the Galatians.  If you are curious about the mat, it is from Wargame Print and printed by Pixartprinting.  Let's see the details of the army.

The Right Wing. there ate two elephants (Essex on your right, Old Glory on your left), Gladiator  guard cavalry, Museum Z scuplts Scythians and Old Glory  pletasts.

You cannot have a Hellenistic Army without phalanx... no? The Center is here. From right to left 8 stands of Gladiators, 8 of Old Glory and 8 of Essex (with silver shields, so Argyraspides). In front 4 bases of Essex skirmishers with bow. The General is on the back made with Old Glory miniatures.

The Left Wing. one unit of Magister Militum Thracians (forgot I have also these in the army!), one OG elephant, 2 Essex line cavalry and one Museum's Scythians base.  This is all.  I think the miniature mix well, even if the Gladiator cavalry (metal magic sculpts) are a tad smaller.  You can see more close shots below...

If you look at the general base on the background, two horsemen are OG, one is Essex.

And for today... I am signing off!