While I'm on the topic - more or less - we might as well have a bit of a look at my Airfix Romans. Thes have been modified and organised for DBA and/or HoTT. First of all - dust off the box lid...
...and open. As you can see: quite a bit of modification led to this array.
Below, Legio I. Four heavy infantry with red shields.
Legio II, White shields. The bases have been 'flocked' with coarse sand from the beach, with baling twine scrub grass.
Below: the legions in line. These units from the core of this Roman army.
After that, the troops got modified quite a but. The four elements following received pin javelins and round thumb-tack slields, and so became Auxilia. You will see that the pins have been thrust through the hands of the figures. Then the ends were flattened into spear-points. The shields are unpainted except for the 'bosses'
Below: blue shield velites - javelin-armed light infantry.
The velites got the same tratment as the Auxilia - pin javelins and thumbtack shield pushed through their left armes.
Roman light horseI'm not sure about the horses - they look like Atlantic horses to me, possibly from the American Civil War set. The lower half of the riders were ACW Airfix '7th cavalry' painted as though bare-legges, with high sandals.
Roman heavy horse.
Below is my 'first attempt' as a Roman ballista. It is rather too large for a field piece really...
... and the frame for the horse-hair torsion 'springs' for the arms of the weapon I'm considering redoing instead of the casings shown. But overall, I wasn't too unhappy with this early attempt to scratchbuild artillery. The handles of the windlass or winch were made from a wheel with the rim and most of the spokes removed.
The bolt is simply a short mail, or brad, with the jolt end cut off, and paper stabilising fletches added at the blunt end. I think the guy standing at the back
Overall this army comprises:
8 elements Heavy Foot (Blades)
4 elements of Light-heavies (Auxilia)
2 elements of Velites (Psiloi)
1 element of Light Horse (Light Horse)
2 elements of Heavy horse (Cavalry)
1 element of Artillery (Artillery).
If playing HoTT, I can add a huge Roman soldier figure as Mithras, or Mars, as a 'God' figure.
Below: the legions in line. These units from the core of this Roman army.
How wonderful to see so many converted and painted Airfix Romans..... the ballista is brilliant. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that bolt!
ReplyDeletePretty weighty sort of missile!
DeleteAh ! the old Airfix figures that takes me back ! , Tony
ReplyDeleteI remember when I bought these things: the model shop's entire stock of 6 boxes. Unfortunately, I was careless about what happened to the chariots (never thought about chariot racing games). The Syrian archers I gave away or sold to someone - forget who.
DeleteAhhh Airfix Romans! Where would we have been without them? Great looking army.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the late Saxon mailed spearmen convert from ACW! figures using a low heat soldering iron. (I'm glad they haven't survived so I can believe they might have been better than they probably were) My favorite cavalry were light cavalry ftom Waterloo Hussars with pelisse turned to short cloak and paratrooper heads, pin spears, thumbtack shields and bowcases/quivers from I forget what. Ah happy days.
Airfix were quite good for conversions. I recall seeing several articles in old Battle Magazines suggesting such conversions for armies and enemies of China, I think. The horse though I think are Atlantic.
DeleteFor my currours in my Wars of the Roses Armies (actually 100YW figures), I have used Airfix Waterloo Royal Horse artillery draught horses for my mounts. They really look the part. That was the subject of a posting some time back...
Link to WofR posting:
Deletehttp://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/species-wars.html
Brilliant...I love it. Those were the days...make do with what was at Hand..great fun. The ballista (Chieroballista?) is neat..oversize but for 1/72nd but still a nice bit of scratchbuilding. The nags ..they look like Atlantic ones
ReplyDeleteI think I might make a smaller one of those ballistae - and maybe a cart to mount it on... Horses are Atlantic. Preferable would have been the Airfix Napoleonic RHA draught horses, but these Atlantic ones do the job. Don't know what happened to the riders...
DeleteVery nice. If I remember correctly, the Battle articles covered a range of Ancient armies and there was also a series in Military Modelling. I still have them. They used the Robin Hood figures to make staff and other slingers. Cavalry was always difficult. I also remember struggling to get any Romans and had to wait until we went on holiday to another town and could buy 2 boxes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought those 6 boxes (some time in the late 1970s), six boxes were all I ever got. Devil of a box of Ancient Britons to be had, neither. I probably could have ordered some in, but in the end moved on to other things. I finally got around to finishing these guys off in the early 1990s. I have since picked up several ancient British chariots, and hoped to replace the wheels with spoked ones from, say, Napoleonic French Artillery. That has proved barely practical, if at all. The solid wheels will be used for generic carts for logistics elements in various European armies.
DeleteVery impressive Legions! These take me back to happy childhood days... :D Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. What I originally had planned for these Romans was something completely different. :-)
DeleteSuperb Ion, you have painted them beautifully!
ReplyDeleteWonderful. Inspiration for me to get on and finish my Airfix Roman DBA army. Love the ballista, looks like it actually works.
ReplyDeleteEncouraged by your comments on my blog, I decided to take a look at your Romans. They look wonderful with some excellent conversions. I do hope that you start a campaign which will be interesting to follow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment, Bob -
DeleteI have in mind a '3x3 Portable Wargame 'campaign' based on the Roman Civil War between Optimates (Pompey, white shields) and Populares (Caesar, red shields), other troops allocated as seems right. I even have the battle maps sorted, based on real ones as published in Terry Wise's little book.
Unfortunately, I don't have an OPFOR for this army overall. They were going to be Britons, and might yet be, as I have the Airfix chariots. I was going to replace the wheels with spoked ones, but that scheme rather ran into a bit of a snag.
Cheers,
Ion
This resurfaced in my feed and got me thinking. Did I complete an army using Airfix Romans? Well I found a post on an army for their Ancient Britons: https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2020/12/ancient-britons-for-basic-impetus.html
ReplyDeleteAnd I found some information on Romans figures I was working on: https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2017/10/romans.html
But it looks like I never finished them, or if I did I didn't do a post about them. Now to find where they are.
I looked up the links: very nice armies. I do admire those spectacular Romans. I might keep a weather eye out for some Britons - if Airfix aren't available, I might go down the Zvezda or Streletz-R track - see what they have. Thanks for the eye candy!
DeleteCheers,
Ion