Final Two Cohorts Now Done

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The 15mm Marian Romans for To The Strongest are coming along nicely: about two thirds of what I need to field the army are now done.

I’m representing a legion with five TTS units, with each unit therefore representing two cohorts (these are the days before the Augustan super-strength first cohort). As I like to minimise the number of markers on the table, each unit is two bases (neatly making one base represent one cohort) with a formed unit being the two bases neatly in line with each other and a disordered unit represented by the two bases being separated and at an angle to each other. Latest off the production line are the final two cohorts (or one TTS unit) for the first legion I’m going to field.

In keeping with how the legions operated in Gaul under Caesar, I’m intending the core of the army to be six or seven legionary units: four or five from one legion, two or three from another. Naturally I’ll therefore be painting up two full legions (240 legionaries in all!) which will also allow me to play out the civil war battles that followed the Gallic wars.

The figures are from Baueda, bought in the UK via Magister Militum, painted using GW Contrast paints. The shield transfers are the Baueda-specific designs from Little Big Man Studios. Bases are from Warbases.

Next up will be the Legate Legionis in charge as a command stand, and a semi-permanent camp for the chaps to rest in after each battle!

More Marian Romans

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After leaving the painting table alone for a week, it was back to work on my 15mm Marian Romans. This army needs seven units each comprising 24 legionaries i.e. 168 legionaries in all. That’s a lot of quite repetitious painting!

Four of seven now done

I’m using Baueda figures, sourced through Magister Militum in the UK. They each come as one piece, so no hassle attaching shields or spears and, as you can hopefully see, have plenty of character and some variety.

These are painted using GW Contrast Paints. I began by undercoating in the Grey Seer undercoat rather than the Wraithbone White that I usually use. Running out of Wraithbone on another project made me try the single can of Grey Seer that I’d bought intending to experiment, and I was glad it did: I find the grey undercoat very much more forgiving than Wraithbone, and I don’t feel there’s really any difference in the colour you end up with. I will go grey (oh, in so many ways!) from now on, I think.

The shield transfers are from Little Big Man Studios: excellent but a session or two on its own to do them. As the shield has a heavy metal boss down its middle, the transfers come in two halves, each of which have to be carefully cut out. That’s 44 transfer halves to cut out (two figures don’t carry a scutum) and mount.

As usual, I need to remember to clean the excess flock off the figures before I photograph them. Just a question of brushing them down with a soft brush, but somehow I never remember. It all comes off anyway when you start using them!

So four down, three to go…and only one more unit with red shields and plumes. Onwards!

Third Batch of Marian Romans

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Taking Mr Bloggs’ advice, I decided to crack on and paint the third of the minimum five legionary units I need for my Marian Roman army.

As he said, that way when I come back to them I will have already painted over half the legion, so the task won’t seem too great.

A bit of excess flock to remove, but these are effectively cohorts five and six, or should I say V and VI. For the record, these are Baueda figures ordered in the UK through Magister Militum, and painted mainly with GW Contrast paints.

I’m now going to give myself a break and paint some ECW artillery!

Second Batch of Marian Romans

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Here’s the second batch of Marian Romans, painted more quickly now that I’m more familiar with the figures.

These definitely took less time to paint, and even the shields weren’t quite so challenging…although now that they are photographed I can see loads of little bits that need touching up.

So that’s two of the five units needed to field the first legion. The real question is whether I can stand to paint another lot so quickly, or whether to take a break and paint something else!

First of the Marian Romans

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More lockdown painting, and the first of the 15mm Marian Romans for To The Strongest roll off the production line.

I decided to go for the Baueda range, available in the UK from Magister Militum. It’s a comprehensive range from a manufacturer that I haven’t used before, so a nice change from Battlefront, Museum etc.

The reason I went for the Marian Romans as opposed to the Early Imperial army that I’ve always promised myself, was the fact that all I have to paint up is the core legionary units: the rest of the army I can field from my existing Gallic/Celtic force. Also means that I have some elements of an Early Imperial army already painted!

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First up was the senior general command stand: the Legate, his standard bearer and a bodyguard type. I’m very happy how these came out, although it did take a lot of re-touching to get them there!

Next up was the first unit of legionaries, representing (in my head at any rate) two of the ten cohorts required for a full legion i.e. a full legion will work out as five TTS units.

I’m also pretty happy with the way these turned out, although using a mat varnish has made all the metalwork very dull. The mail coat and pila are GW Leadbelcher, the helmets and shield bosses are Tamiya Bronze. They do certainly look “hardened” as a result: none of this namby-pampy polished metal you see in all the illustrations!

Moving on to the shields, these I completed using shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios. The transfers are custom designed to fit the Baueda figures and, as a result look very good indeed. Be warned, however, that the transfers have to be hand cut out to the shape of each shield half: the central boss preventing one transfer per shield. That means that each unit requires the application of 46 hand-cut-out transfers: time-consuming to say the least!

As the first unit completed, this was very much an experimental painting process. I was going to make these two bases cohorts one and two, but judging by the improvements I’ve made at the start of the next batch, they will probably become cohorts nine and ten! I must just remember to mark up which pair of bases belong together as I go along…