jeudi 11 octobre 2018

Early Imperial Romans: Auxiliary Archers

My brother and I have painted an Early Imperial Roman army some years ago, in a time when washing only had to do with the dishes in camping - only flat colours, without any lightening. But we were very proud of that army, in which we mixed Esci legionaries with Airfix Romans as auxiliaries.
One of its weaknesses was the lack of archers, since we only had one pose of archer in the Airfix set.

Years later, Hät released a set of Auxiliaries troops for Imperial Romans, and I bought it  because I was first interested in getting more poses for my Germanic warband. I was a bit disappointed with the archers that were too different from the Airfix - I thought it would be in contradiction with the uniformity I imagined for the most powerful army of antiquity.

Some more years passed, a few books about the Roman Empire had been read, I began to realize that uniformity, as we can imagine it today, was not a practice in antiquity - soldiers of the same corps were similar but only to a certain extent. And last week, as I was painting Germans, I suddenly remembered that I never used the Hät archers, and that they would probably look great together with the Airfix ones. I only had to find a good (and if possible, original and accurate) color scheme to paint them. Don't ask why, an off white tunic immediately seemed to be a good idea.

This is my unit of auxiliary archers for DBA, two 4xBw elements.







I guess you easily recognize the Airfix minis in the following pictures (the second from the left). They look good together with the Hät, don't you think ?





And last, this is a picture comparing two newly Airfix painted archers with the equivalent in the old standard. I would say it was worth repainting them.


Hope you're not fed up with the off white tunics :)

22 commentaires:

  1. The off white tunics look great, the minis do work very well together.

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    1. Thank you. I find that off white much more interesting than titan white. But I think this auxiliary unit may be still too uniformed.

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  2. I never tire of the way in which you paint off-white tunics. Figures look superb!

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  3. Brilliant Figures. Well Painted. BB

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  4. Réponses
    1. Hi Tony. From an expert in ancient armies, I feel honoured.

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  5. Nice group, old Airfix guy is still quite valuable and the new painting is very good. Funny that last examples with plain green robes is the same way my old airfix auxiliareis look too..

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    1. Thank you! Most minis, even the oldest ones, are worth a try, but these Airfix... I like them a lot!

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  6. Ça me donne vraiment envie de me remettre à cette période...Magnifique!

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    1. Quand tu veux! Etant donnée la qualité de tes créations, nous ne pourrons qu'être conquis.

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  7. Love this historically accurate painting with white/light grey instead of bright red. Good job Phil!

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    1. Thank you X_BriX. I would not certify that this color scheme is accurate, but it looks credible I think.

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    2. As far as I'm concerned white was most popular (each solider had to supply himself in clothes). According to some archeological data red was used too, but would be really dark, almost brown as bright red dye was extremely expensive. I read somewhere that only soldiers that would get uniforms were Rome's navy(marines) they would be supplied with dark blue. I'm not sure tho.

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    3. I've also read that undyed linen was probably the most common, as was the red (not bright red). I would not believe that the navy wore dark blue, which probably was very rare if not impossible before the use of indigo.

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    4. You might be right as I've read only one article about the navy.
      Again, I'm not historian, I only paint miniatures :D

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  8. The same for me, I don't pretend anything about accuracy, I'm just trying to do my best :)

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  9. They look great Phil,

    And yes, the Airfix figures work in very nicely with the HaT ones.

    Nick

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