Gothic Light Cavalry - The Last Lot!

Well, here they are - the last unit for my Comitatus project!

These Gothic light cavalry skirmishers bring this long drawn out process to an end and hopefully I'll get a solo game in this weekend to familiarise myself with the rules.

These are Italeri "Gothian" Cavalry figures with a couple of changes: Their spears have been shortened to resemble javelins, and the figure hurling the javelin has another added to the inside of his shield

Penultimate Units!

I just have to paint and base one more unit of Gothic light cavalry and I'll have finished my planned armies for my first game of Comitatus!

This post sees another base of Gothic shock cavalry (although they could conceivably be used as heavy javelin cavalry instead) and a unit each of Roman and Gothic archers.

The Gothic cavalry are again from the Italeri 'Gothian' Cavalry set, though I've had to modify a couple of the figures to my preference, namely the middle figure and the figure with the cape. The middle figure was the one waving a puny sword that resembled an overgrown butter knife, so I've cut that out and replaced it with a javelin from the HaT Roman Light Cavalry set. The figure with the cloak has had his spear cut down to a more managable javelin/dart size, and is bearing a shield from the Italeri Late Roman Infantry set, just for variation.

The archers' bases are slightly anemic as I was running out of figures, so instead of having the requisite 4 figures, these bases only have 3. I'm not that fussed as the base is still the same size and 3 figures is a little less crowded in the same space.

The Roman base has two figures from the Italeri Late Roman Infantry set and one from the Miniart Roman Infantry set, while the Gothic base has 3 figures from the Miniart set. Just for variation, I've added a small shield from the HaT light cavalry set to the belt of one of the Gothic archers.

The bowstrings look a little fluoro under the glare of the flash against a dark background, but in the flesh they're not nearly so bright!

Roman Light Troops

Here's another couple of stands of light arms for my Roman forces; a stand of horse archers and a stand of light infantry skirmishers.

The horse archers are from the HaT Light Cavalry set and the infantry are from Miniart with an interloper from the Italeri Late Roman Inftary set sporting a Mininart shield and a shortened spear. He also has an extra javelin glued to the hand holding the shield, ready to take after he's thrown the one already in his hand.

If you follow my Napoleonic blog, you'll know I had a disaster with my spray varnish. My remedy involved olive oil which has left the figures fairly shiny, especially with the camera's flash.

Cavalry

Here's the latest for my Comitatus project: Gothic shock cavalry and Roman light cavalry and horse archers.

The shock cavalry were my last entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which earned me 24 points, bringing my total up to 744 (144 points above my target! Whey-hey!) and finishing in 26th place out of 60!

The figures are Miniart, with a ring-in from the Italeri Gothic Cavalry mounted on a Miniart horse

The Roman light cavalry could have been entered into the competition, but I couldn't be a*sed editing and attaching the photos in time for the deadline, which is finishing in a matter of minutes as I write. All figures from the HaT Roman Light Cavalry set.

Gothic Heavy and Light Cavalry

This is my latest entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which earned me a total of 45 points, including a few points extra for the hand-painted shields. Italeri kindly moulds the pattern onto the shields which makes it easier, but also limits the patterns somewhat.

The shock cavalry stand includes the figure brandishing a sword, which I had to convert because the original blade looked like he was brandishing a table knife rather than a weapon! After carefully cutting out the original sword and making a groove in the figure's hand, I replaced it with one of the swords from the HaT Roman Medium Cavlary set and glued a sliver of sprue to replace his thumb which didn't survive the surgery. He looks a lot more menacing with a proper sword!

I'll be making a couple more stands of each, before going back to some more infantry, skirmishers and archers, then switching to the Romans to give them more skirmishers, archers and heavy and light cavalry. Before long I'll have enough on both sides to have my first battle!

Even MORE Romans!

Another stand of Roman infantry completed. This one is again mostly Italeri figures with a couple of Miniart ring-ins, all using the shields from the Italeri set for consistency.

I also indulged in a little surgery to convert one of the ridiculous poses Italeri have a penchant for, to something a little more realistic and useable in a shield-wall formation. I also repositioned the head of the figure 2nd from the left in the front row so he's actually looking ahead at the approaching enemy and not off to the side as he was originally sculpted.

Stupid pose just inviting a javelin to the chest!

Same pose with a little surgery to turn the arm  around

The whole formation with the converted arm figure front row, closest to camera.

More Romans

Here's my first use of Italeri Late Romans. I''ve mixed them with a couple of Miniart figures and replaced the heads of a couple with Italeri heads. There's also a mix of shields from both, too.

Italeri Late Roman Archer Stand

This is the first of my Roman archer stands. Both figures are from the Italeri Late Roman set. The next archer stand will be using the figures from the Miniart set.

I chose to make the stand the usual width, but gave it half the depth as I figured that archers wouldn't be formed up in depth like the infantry.

Experiments with Archers

Rather than have archers using bows with no bowstrings (maybe they just shout "twang!" and chuck their arrows?), I've experimented using a technique I've seen on various other blogs and fora, namely using a length of plastic bristle from a kitchen floor brush and pan set.

The bristle was cut in half and one length was glued from the archer's fist to both ends of the bow, then trimmed once the glue had set. I think I'll need to be a little more skillful with the glue, as there seems to be rather a large blob around his chin and shoulder.

"Twang!"

1st bristle added

Once he 1st bristle had dried, I added the 2nd.

Bristles trimmed and then painted.

Newline Romans

I've started on the second line of Newline Designs Roman infantry, painting them up in red tunics as the unarmoured second row of the second unit of Roman infantry.

I've also bought a set of Italeri Late Roman infantry to bolster the ranks. I find that despite the lovely production values, the sculpting of Italeri figures leave me a little cold; out of at least a dozen poses, I find only a handful are any good. The rest are awkward, or down-right silly! I'm planning to distribute a few Italeri figures amongst the Miniart ones and have even experimented in swapping the heads from some of the more stupid Italeri poses with the bodies of the Miniart figures with the apocryphal Attic style helmets.

Newline unarmoured infantry

l to r, Miniart, Newline, Italeri

Stupid Italeri pose

New use for stupid Italeri pose figure's heads!