A Brief Interlude – The Romans have arrived!

Interlude

“A pause between the acts of a play.”

Or in this case, between posts

They’re here, the Romans have invaded Much Wenlock, well, at least my house, and I’m wondering just what I’ve let myself in for!

Whilst I’m busy putting together a lengthy review of Gloomhaven I thought I’d just put out a quick post about my new arrival – A 10mm Early Imperial Rome Starter Army from Pendraken.

Who would have thought that such a devastating army could be contained in one small bag – 90 Legionaries, 30 Auxiliary Infantrymen, 30 Auxiliary Bowmen, 15 Cavalry, 10 Officers, 10 Musicians, and 10 Standards – I think I need a few lessons in speed painting!

The miniatures are excellent quality – how things have come on since the last time I got my hands on 10mm miniatures; I’m amazed at the detailing of something so small. My pictures really don’t do them justice, especially as I’m still having problems finding a new flash for my camera – it really shouldn’t be this difficult!

There’s a bit of work required before painting – Flashing needs removing and there’s a few imperfections here and there, such as what appears to be a mould line running down the shields, but I find metal easier to work with than plastic so it shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Taking a closer look the legionaries (a mix armed with sword or pilum) are nicely detailed for their size, which is probably going to make painting a little more work than if they were bland figures. If there’s detailing there then I’ll want to pick it out, I just can’t help myself! They’re all wearing Lorica Segmenta, the classic Roman armour of the Early Imperial period, and carrying the rectangular Scutum shield.

The cavalry pieces are particularly nice and I’m looking forward to painting the horses – I wonder what colour horses were popular with the Roman Army? – I have a few techniques to try out here, one of which is staining. Prime black and give it a heavy drybrush of white, then use a wash to stain it – if it works it should prove pretty quick.

The Auxiliaries are either armed with sword or spear. These appear to be wearing something like Lorica Hamata, basically mail. This was phased out some point during the period I’m interested in, as Auxiliaries began to be armoured like the legionaries. They carry the familiar long oval shield.

The Archers, or Sagittariorum, come in two poses, kneeling, and standing. They are also armoured the same as the Auxiliaries, which points to them being Thracian, and armed with a recurved bow – a powerful weapon for the time.

The officers, musicians, and standards I’ll need to do some research on as I know very little, but they give the appearance of being right for the period.

I’m sort of left wondering what to do next. I need to work out how I’m going to base them, but here I’m torn. Do I go with the number of figures per unit and basing size that is indicated in the Hail Caesar rules, or do I work off my own scaling, as I always used to base wargame figures to reflect reality – each figure represents a certain amount of men, so a cohort should contain a representation of 480 men and when formed in line they should cover x amount of space. I’m still figuring things out at the moment, and if the latter is just too much work with added complication, then I’ll jump at the former.

I’ve been thinking about colours and will probably go with the traditional red tunics for this lot, though there is some doubt being cast on whether red was the common colour, and I’ll probably go with hand painting the shields, red with yellow lightning bolts.

I wanted shield transfers but I’m struggling to find some that will fit these miniatures, so if you know of where I may be able to get my hands on some please let me know in the comments – it’ll save me a whole heap of time.

I need to do a bit more research for the colours of the Auxiliaries, but for the shields I’ll go with a simple quartered pattern, which should be easy enough to paint.

I’m going to start with a couple of individuals, so I can see what techniques work best. I initially thought a base coat, wash and drybrush would suffice, but I’ve been seen a few other approaches that I might try.

I’ve never really batch painted before. Okay, I did a little on the Star Wars Legion Troopers, but they were of a different ilk. They were much larger and more detailed, so they weren’t exactly quick to paint. Whereas here, I want to be able to rattle them of at pace. It should be an interesting endeavour – every day’s a school day, eh!

Any hints or tips on scaling, basing, or painting of 10mm miniatures, please pop them in the comments, any help will be much appreciated, thanks.