Gothic Infantry and Roman Command Stands

I'm almost ready for my first game of Comitatus!

With these two stands, I have finished all the infantry and command required. I now need a couple more stands of archers for both sides and another Gothic light and heavy cavalry stand each.

The Gothic infantry are another mix of Miniart and Strelets figures which bring the total of infantry stands to six, or enough for 2 x 3 stand cunei, or attack columns.

The Roman command stand was one which I had a long hard think about. I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the Roman cavalry stands, so I used two figures from the light cavalry set coupled with one from the medium cavalry set as the general.

Both light cavalry figures were altered, one with a draco added in place of the spear and a head swap, and the other with a cross piece added to the spear and a homemade vexillum glued in place. I couldn't think of how to decorate the shields, but I knew I wanted to do something different. I considered a winged Nike holding a laurel wreath, but decided that was beyond my talents, so decided on a wreath and Chi-Rho combination ie. Christ the Victor. Then I remembered I'd seen something along those lines in a book I had read recently and found the image of Honorius holding a banner that said in translation "In the name of Christ, you are always victorious", which I thought would be an appropriate thing for my general to aspire to! I knocked up a teeny-tiny banner in Paint, coloured it in with my daughter's felt tip pens (no access to the colour printer at work while I'm leave!) and Robertus is your avanculus!

The Honorius panel in question. He really doesn't look like the sharpest tool in the box, does he? No wonder the West fell!

The caption is actually legible if you expand the picture.

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.

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.

Primum dispositis

My first post on this new blog; HaT's Late Roman Medium Cavalry.

I am planning to build an army of Romans and Goths to use with the Comitatus rules by Simon MacDowall. On order, I've got a set each of Miniart's Goths and Late Roman Infantry which I'll use as the basis for my armies. I'll probably get a couple of command sets from Newline Designs and possibly some other figures like Gothic archers and auxiliary Roman infantry as well.

The stand below is the first of at least 3 medium cavalry stands I'll make. Eventually, I'll also get HaT's light cavalry set as well