Aims for the current project

Looking back over September, the aim of the current work has been unstated since I finished the Wb. 

I began with a "rebase sub-romans" project. I then decided most figures were unsuitable, and that I could replace them with more suitable minis from my late imperial spares, mainly HaT. (Back in the early oughties I put a lot of effort into the old Atlantic Romans converting them, but their time is up.) I've packed the unusable minis away in a bag labelled "junk" but you never know, I might be able to use them in some future project.

During October I worked on the 7Hd and 4Bd side of things, while reading sources, and came to realize I could extend the project to a morph of all of mid, late, patrician and sub-roman sides.

I used OneNote to record needs, existing, and available, and found this reasonably manageable. 

bench update 29 October 2022

After much counting and comparing needs with haves, today I've trimmed and pinned 7 cataphractii/clibanarii and washed them, plus a draconarius on his unarmored mount, plys 5 heavy legionarii that have turned up from odd places. The cavalry are Zvezda Cataphracts.

I plan to use the dark prep coat then metallic approach I used for the original later roman II/78s. I wasn't thrilled about it, but it's a reasonable approach to super-armored minis, and of course, I need to be consistent.

speed painting! last 4 late Roman heavy foot ready for shield designs!

Reassured by the check-in, I whipped through the final four. It seems that the sculptor was none too sure about lorica sleeve length. I used black to provide a separation, as I had done on older efforts. Otherwise these were pretty straightforward. 

I took the chance to touch up the other four on the paint stick as well.

Next I have to choose a couple of either generic, or distinctly eastern Roman, shield designs. I have another set on order from littlebigman studio so will probably wait for those.

legionarii review

Time for a check-in on the plan. I now have six legionarii elements. Two more partway. 

Middle Imperial Western need 4 with 2 more as individual options. They are among the most Bd-heavy armies. Their eastern  counterparts also need 4 with 1 more optional. So with the two in the works, I will have enough for east vs west, middle period. 

The other period combinations such as patrician vs sub-roman all require fewer than eight.

when two colors go to war

I've been reworking those blue-red-blue shields to try to get better definition into the blue 10-point stars. Those colors hate each other! I don't believe the Oxford color key, but I believe the Munich color scheme less. 

I'm told Bernard Cornwell came up with silver stars, that would look great on blue, but sometimes blue is used to represent silver...

That aside, a few more dabs of barely-thinned red and blue and they should be done!

bench update 16 October 2022

During the week I've done a touch here, a touch there... and I'm now close to having the minimum two elements of 4Bd tidied up. As mentioned these just needed shields refreshed. 

The blue-on-red shields of leg XX Val Victrix were really hard to tackle. This (front right) is near enough. I just need to put iron bosses on all shields and coat with varnish.

Also today, I followed up base varnish on the extra 4 minis cleaned up, with base dark sienna. 

bench update thoughts on next bits

I'm really tempted to work on II/81a cataphractii but the main project is rebase/revive on my old army, so I plan to tackle the legion component. There's not much wrong with what I begin with:

These don't look great as human sculpts, but they do the job. (HaT, late Roman heavy foot.) My main concern was that I had mixed them in among other minis in the last rebasing. They need to simply stand as they are, as early C5 legionarii, that can double as middle imperial legionarii if need be.

I think the main issue is shields. Once I decide on that, I can do some stripping and reworking.

Oct 9: Result! The Victrix 4 (bottom left) look great.

bench update 08 October 2022

Aside from trimming the flag, these elements are complete!

1. The controversial deep Wb General. 

This chap is designed to (a) fit into the II/81b sub-roman army and (b) stack onto the C5 Germanic Wb elements I already have.

2. 3x4Wb

In the II/81b context these deeper bases fit alongside the deeper-base 4Sp which will also be used as 4Ax. In any of the "all foot" C5 Germanic armies these are the extra three elements I've needed, as I already have eight shallower depth bases. I'm still trying to persuade myself that the deeper bases are justified.

3. 4Sp/4Ax for II/81

These lads are mostly dressed in homespun tunics, but a few wear limitanei mail or leather, one has a full hand-me-down clibanarii suit, and one has stripped his top off! Helmets vary wildly as expected of a force that wears inherited gear. 

4. Ps for II/81b or d

The older style light foot caps have been replaced by the same semi-phrygian cap favored by all foot. 

5. Wretched masses 2x7Hd for II81b or c

Front rankers have a shield, others do not. In their d option I would need to add two more such.