"15mm Late Roman Legion - Lanciarii Gallienci Honoriani" Topic

I started building a 15mm Late Roman army back in the 1980s – whilst I did quite well at buying the figures, the actual painting didn't progress so well and I never finished it. Recently I was introduced to Mortem et Gloriam and this has motivated me to dig it out and gat back to work.

I've just finished the first unit with a mix of tidying up that old 1980s paintwork and completely new painted figures. My idea was that as long as the shields, helmets and crests were newly painted and uniform and I put them on a nice base, everything would look OK and I'd save a load of time. In fact the tidying up went a bit further, probably took as long as painting new and some of the quality compromises are more visible than I'd wish. But it is finished and I have two more close behind so I feel I have a bit of momentum going.

I have some more photos, including some WIP for the shield pattern and making a new shield for the office and notes on the colours on my blog.

smallitalianwars.blogspot.com

Very neat and effective work, chap.

ooohh those are nice! I love some late Romans. Good work fella.

They look really nice.

Nice work!

I will say I am of the H. R. Robinson camp that disagrees with Mr. Barker on the armor. Mine get a metal color even if the figures were cast with what was intended to be leather.

Of course there is an Italian (forget the name) who argues that the lorica segmentata was made from leather and that most of the early auxilia were in leather rather than mail.

Wow! Excellent work for 15mm. I'm very impressed.

There's no compromise that I can see; they are truly delightful and all the more impressive as the images are MUCH bigger than life-size. Please treat us to more photos in the future.

Better than many 28mm.

I especially appreciate the time you've taken painting the edge of the bases. Awesome idea!

Thanks very much for the comments.

In reply to goragrad, I agree. I'm no expert in this at all but It seems extremely unlikely to me that the Romans would have abandoned metal armour for their infantry in pitched battles when they had previously used it for both legions and auxilia, the Eastern Roman Empire used it immediately after this period, their enemies used it and their cavalry used it right through. Set against that, there are images from the period that seem to show either this type of armour or classical sculpted bronze cuirasses – surely even less likely than leather. The most compelling argument of all though I that I had more than 100 of these old Minifigs figures that exactly follow the dress in Phil Barker's/WRG "Armies and Enemies of Ancient Rome" and wanted to make use of them so 1980's nostalgia it is. I'm thinking of mullets, shoulder pads and leg warmers for the command bases!

To wmyers. actually painting the base edges is quite quick. After adding sand, grit and small stones for texture, I paint the whole base, including the edges, with some brown emulsion paint. I dry brush first with yellow ochre and then a mix of yellow ochre with white, again including the edges. Going round the feet is fiddly and time consuming but the edges take seconds. The only additional step for the edges is a few thin lines of olive green. I use an old brush that has long ago split into multiple random points so, again, that is really quick. I didn't bother with the green originally but the edges of scenery bases stood out too much against the green of my battle mat so I tried it for those and then extended it to my most recent units.

There is a good argument that what gets shown on sculpture as something that looks smooth like leather is actually mail that was shaped to the body and was painted ontonthe sculptures and reliefs of the time. The pteruges or wings That would fit with the Romans still using metal armour of leather ir linen at the shoulders and waist belong to an arming jacket beneath the mail.
Two reliefs now in the Vatican museum show quite long mail shirts with long fitted mail sleeves. That is perhaps a better indication of what the soldiers actually war rather than the classicised pictures that the chaps in the WRG book were based upon.
I recall that Phil Barker nowadays would go for metal armour for Late Roman close order foot.
However, your legionaries look beautiful as they are! A pkeasure to look at.

Love those minifigs. Beautiful.

Fantastic job and great blog!