Light Troops

Here's the latest stands submitted to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge; a stand each of Newline Gothic archers and Miniart Roman skirmishers.

I've used the bow-string technique I tried earlier on my Roman archers to jazz up my archers. I reckon it's worth the effort and certainly makes the clone effect of the same poses less noticeable! The Newline figures are very nicely sculpted and produced, but they do lack a little in variety of poses and animation.

The Miniart figures have the opposite problem to the Newline figures, though. Wonderfully dynamic poses with woeful production values! I persist with them because they're the best in this scale for historical accuracy and realistic, dynamic poses. 

I'm really conflicted about these guys; they're really great from a distance, but butt-ugly close up!

These chaps earned me 30 points, with a couple of points extra for the bowstrings, which brings me to 25th place int the challenge and 12 points away from my target of 600 points. After getting nowhere near my estimated total in my first outing, it looks like I'll actually exceed it this time! WooHoo! 

Gothic Command

Here's my latest stands in my ongoing Comitatus project; Gothic infantry and cavalry command stands.

The infantry stand features Newline Design commander, draco bearer and buglers. The commander is supported by warriors from Strelets (with shield mod) and Miniart.

The cavalry stand are all Miniart, though the commander in the middle has a plume added, and one of the warriors has had his lance replaced with a draco standard from the Italeri infantry set.

Onward Christian Soldiers

A long time between posts!

As part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I've painted up a command stand of Newline Designs Romans. I've painted up the infantry commander and his retinue as an extra infantry stand incorporating a command element, so that it will add its strength to the infantry line, but acts as a command bonuses to those units around it.

As befits a commander, I've given his bodyguard inspirational Chi-Rho designs to their shields so that all know that God is on their side!

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!

Newline Designs & Drum and Flag

Well, I've put in the order for the command figures and some extra Roman infantry and Goth archers from Newline. Now to wait.

Newline Roman infantry
(image from Newline website)

I probably should have just ordered one set to see how compatible they were with the Miniart figures, or at least done a bit more research, but I went the whole hog and ordered a bunch. Oh well, we'll see how compatible they are once they arrive!

Drum and Flag are selling the HaT late Roman light cavalry for $AU 15.16 including postage, whereas the same pack is going for $27.00 at Hearns' Hobbies! How can that be possible? Buying something from the other side of the world and having it flown over the globe is $12 cheaper than going into the city and buying it from a local shop! I suppose the brick and mortar hobby shop will soon be a thing of the past if things go on like this.


I like to support local independent businesses, but that's fairly much a no-brainer IMHO; next purchase will be from Drum & Flag.

Magna Consilia!

I've got these chaps on order from Britain via the Drum & Flag e-bay store:

They should be turning up any day now.

I've seen these at Hearn's Hobbies locally, but the crazy thing is I can get them cheaper sent from the other end of the world!

I suppose it depends how quickly I want to get my hands on them; If I pay the premium, I'll have them in my hands now, otherwise I'll be waiting a couple of weeks for them to come in the post. Anyway, the question's academic as my hobby funds have temporarily dried up recently!

Gothic Command

Roman Command

These are the command figures from Newline Designs (images from their website) which I'll need for the Comitatus rules system. The rules call for individual command stands to offer inspiration to the nearest units, as well as to issue challenges to single combat to one's enemies if so desired!

As the Miniart Gothic set doesn't have many skirmishing figures, I am also considering investing in some archers by Newline Designs, too.