Celtic Auxilieries for the Marian Romans

Just a quick update this morning with some shots of what I hope is the last of the Roman Auxilia troops from allied or conquered nations.  Here we have some Gallic warbands fighting in Roman service.

Here are some links to other earlier posts about the Marian Romans.  As you can see the army is becoming quite sizable, for a DBA army at least.

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/2017/05/dba-marian-romans-and-spanish.html

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/2010/04/marian-roman-army-completed.html

The figures are 15mm Testudo Miniatures

Apparently the Gauls did lots of work on muscle definition, because these guys are jacked!

The shields are a fiddly combination of Little Big Man transfers and paint.  I would hate to have to do a whole army like this, because the decals must be pain painstakingly applied to each side of the central spine of the shield.  Frankly, though I love the fine detail you can get from the transfers, in most cases I think it would have been easier to just paint them.

 

DBA Marian Romans and Spanish Auxillaries

The new army lists in DBA give the Marian Romans a little extra variety, so I decided to add some of the Spanish, and Numidian allies.  I assume the elephant was probably supposed to be from Numidia, but I have chosen a hang over from the Carthaginians, and in any event thought it would look best as an element in Scipio's army.

VVV decals were used to decorate the beast.  One of Scipio's Iberian allies guards the elephant on foot.

On the other side of the elephant, a warrior in captured Roman armor guards the elephant from the attack of lightly armed psiloi.

Iberian heavy cavalry - ineffective but pretty.

Here's what started this whole project.  I found some Roman Bolt Throwers in my collection of unpainted lead from Testudo miniatures, and couldn't resist getting them into action.  In their first outing versus an Indian army, they proved devastating to the enemies elephants.

Numidian allied light horse - the most feared horsemen on the battlefield.

Spanish light infantry auxiliaries.

And the heavies - really had fun with the shields!

The largish Xyston figures mix quite nicely with the Testudo Romans - next up, the Gallic mercenaries of Caesar.

Recents Works in Progress - a Varied Collection

Some spotters cleverly concealed in the field of my paint blotches.  They will compliment my growing Waffen SS army for Bolt Action.  You can see below a 105mm Howitzer in need of some front line assistance.

 The artillery is a 105mm Howitzer from Warlord Games, the instructions for assembly were never discovered on their site.  I found the assembly instructions for just about every other artillery piece they make, but this one remained a mystery.  I only hope I didn't put something on upside down!

The sandbag emplacement and the sandbagged ammo storage are pieces made by Baueda.  The other scenic pieces came with the gun.

This was a fun discovery to make.  I have been watching HBOs Rome this week, so was inspired to revisit my pile of unpainted lead and found these gems by Testudo Miniatures.  The Marian Romans in the 3.0 version of DBA are now allowed artillery, so I thought I would paint them up.

 I took these Samurai (and a lot more of their buddies hiding in a box) as trade for selling off a bunch of stuff for a friend, and decided to spruce them up and base them for L'art de la Guerre.  They have a good basic base coat, albeit with some fairly odd color choices for the armor.  I've had to add back banners, swords and arrow bundles, as well as work on the highlighting and other detailing to add some depth.  Three units done and about 15 more to go....

Lastly we have some French Dragoons in 1812 uniforms being painstakingly painted.  There is so much detail in these old metal foundry sculpts - probably not as nice as the new Perry sculpts, but their older work is nothing to sneeze at!  I have three different regiments being prepared for a Napoleonic variant of DBA that is just elegant and wonderful.  DBN - http://www.dbnwargaming.co.uk/  I really do love these rules when played with the optional rules for attrition.

More Romans arrive

I recently sold an army of Romans and Pyhric Macedonians but had enough left over that I wanted to finish up an army for myself, so here they are. Above are the Velites which are by Crusader Miniatures I believe. The one in the wolf's head may be a Navigator miniature but I am far from sure on that one.

Here we have the Italian ally spear and Auxillia, probably Samnites. The miniatures are by Old Glory.

The Roman cavalry general on the right and the Itallian ally cavalry on the left, all by Old Glory.

These are the Triari, the grisseled veterans of the Roman army and are painted after an illustration in the John Warry book on classical warfare that caught my eye back when I first started this hobby some thirty years ago. The shields are hand painted and then splattered by using a toothbrush rubbed with paint.

They are a frightening looking lot!

In contrast to the Triari, here are the Hastati, the young men, armed with pila and sword which were just making their appearance at this time.

Once again the shields are all hand painted and modeled after a design in the John Warry book.

Finally we have the Principes, still armed with spear at this point, but still tough as nails.

Early Roman and Italian Allies

SOLD!
The core of this army has sold but I may be able to offer one more Camillan army as well as a Gallic army in the near future so keep you eyes open for them.

Italian javelin men take the lead with spear and Tarentine light cavalry in support. These figures were originally intended to be part of a Pyrhic DBA army, but could work just as well as Campainian or Brutian allies for the early Romans as they began to expand their empire.

The Italians were lots of fun because of the variety of shield shapes and designs that they used. Their tunics were also nice and colorful with lots of geometric patterns.

A view of the entire army from the Snoopy blimp. All in all 3 elements of Italian javelinmen, 4 elements of Italian spear, 2 heavy Italian cavalry with some funky counterweighted spears, 3 elements of Tarentine light cavalry, 6 elements of Roman Leves or Velites, 3 elements of Hastati, 9 elements of Principes or triari, and 3 elements of heavy Roman cavalry.

A view of the Roman heavy Cavalry

The main Roman body; to the front, the Hastati, in the middle and rear, the Principes and Triari, all mud splattered veterans ready for battle. They really are a grim looking lot!

A better view of the Principes.

The light infantry support. I believe these are crusader miniatures, which are quite excellent.

A close-up of the grim Roman cavalry veterans with their shields stained with the blood of their enemies and the mud of the territory they have conquered.

My original intent was to sell these as two DBA armies, but after seeing them all together like this I am having second thoughts. Nevertheless if interested in acquiring these please contact David.l.Crenshaw@gmail.com

Marian Roman Army Completed

Marian Roman DBA army made from Testudo Miniatures. 1x3Cv (Gen) or 1x4Bl (Gen), 1x3Cv or 2LH or 3Ax, 8x4Bl, 2x2Ps. The Testudo figures are large, but very well sculpted with lots of dynamic poses, and done in a way that they rank up well. The Auxilia stand in the middle are converted psiloi figures meant to represent Gallic allies that have been partially re-equipped in Roman fashion.

The Legions. Testudo figures come with an optional shield either with or without sculpted designs. All of my shields have the winged design sculpted on them, so I was somewhat limited in how I could paint them.

Optional Blade General Stand

The Roman Cavalry general on the right with Gallic allied light horse and cavalry to the left. There really were no Roman cavalry figures available to me, so I converted figures from the command pack.

The camp made with tents from Bauda and more Testudo command figures.

Camillan Roman army

The Old Glory Camillan Roman's are quite a bargain. I found the figures to be quite well sculpted, especially in comparison to their Greek and Italians. I will eventually have a BBDBA army of these guys, and the number of figures you get with each bag lends itself nicely to a triple strength army. I got these on sale, but was unable to find a bag of psiloi, so I purchased the psiloi from Crusader. Can't say enough about the quality of the figures and the service I received from Crusader in the UK.

The army arrayed

Cavalry and Cavalry command

A view of the Romans that only the general should ever see.

The Principes - spear

The Hastati - blade

The psiloi