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!

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! 

Miniart Archers - Painting Challenge Entry #8

Here's a small half-stand of Miniart archers I completed for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. My output has definitely slowed, but I'm hoping to have some more Roman medium and light cavalry and some more Germanic infantry (possibly Germanic cavalry, too!) before the challenge is over in mid-March.

I've used the same brush-bristle technique for the bowstrings as I used in my first archers' stand, and set the off-centre, so that when they are standing formed up with the other archer stand they won't be in any danger of taking out the front row!

Whereas the Italeri archers are definitely Romans, the Miniart figures could conceivably be used for Germanic forces 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.