"Airfix Ancient Romans/Britons rebase?" Topic

I have rediscovered my Airfix Ancient Romans and Britons in boxes in the loft. There are based for the 5th Edition WRG rules. Whilst this sort of works for Heavy Infantry and Medium Infantry, Light Infantry under the old WRG rules had 30mm x 30mm bases.

Should I rebase the skirmishers?and what is the best configuration for a Warband. Mine are 3 figures to a base 30 x 60mm. I am thinking of using the Hail Caesar Rules as I am familiar with the game play for the Black Powder and Pike and Shotte rules.

Some pictures of the Romans and Britons are on my blog.
abcwargamers.blogspot.co.uk

I can't help you with the basing but it is great to see those old figures again and I love the drawing pin shields.

never rebase. never.

I always thought the Britons looked more useful than the Romans.

Great stuff :-)Atlantic and Airfix mix. Very old school. Spotted the Airfix US cavalry horse.
I also used Drawing Pins as shields(and the ones with the flower pattern as well) to convert Airfix Robinhood figs

Alas, my Airfix Romans and Brits were from the period when the plastic mix was crap. The ankles all tuned to dust and the figures broke away.

I would rebase them … Rebasing is a good way of rejuvenating veteran figures and keeping all your collection up to the mark.

Phil

Hi miniMo. I was expecting the same thing once I started to handle them but so far so good. I think movement trays will help to keep my fingers away from the figures.

I am inclined to rebase them, but worried that will give me large units of archers and slingers and I don't think they quite deployed that way?

Agreed with the other posters: my earliest gaming escapades were the Airfix ancient brits (wall to wall Battersea shields) and my Airfix romans fighting over my mile castle and Bellona vac formed roman marching fort. With home grown rules, of course.

Very, very nostalgic. Thankyou.

Basing? No idea…

John T

If you can handle them at all now and they're not crumbling, you're probably save. Mine disintegrated with slight handling about 20 or more years ago.

I loved airfix ancient Britons …..bravo!

Many thanks to all of you for your comments and kind words. Glad you liked the figures and pictures.

If you're thinking Hail Caesar – the 30x30 individual bases are fine for skirmishers as they are, because skirmishers move with models up to 1" apart anyway. Most players base skirmishers to individual bases either 20 x 20 or onto a 20 or 25mm round.

If you're thinking light infantry – which in HC terms can fight as formed units or skirmishers – then 30 x 30 is also OK – although you need to make sure the total unit frontage fits in with your 'standard' frontage (I generally go for 160mm-200mm for standard sized infantry formations – which would be – say 6 models at 30mm frontage in a single rank or 12 models in two ranks).

Most folks go for 20 x 20 for light infantry – either based singly and on a move tray to make it easier to move the fomration, or on 40 x 40 bases of four in which case they just space the bases apart by a 'base width' to represent skirmishers.

Hi Rick
Many thanks for this, really helpful information. Looks like it is just movement trays to keep my fingers of the fingers, rather than rebasing.