Roman Legion First Attempt

[Jasper]

Hi Guys - Attached is my photo of first attempt at painting some 10mm romans. I am actually looking for some advice from someone with some knowledge please. My intention is to do these as Caesars Legio X during the roman civil wars for starting an army for To The Strongest. I am stuck on what if anything should be on the shields. Looking at my few reference books and asking the Google God are not really giving me a definitive answer. Anyone got any info they can share please?

Also, more than happy to take on board any other advice anyone is happy to offer on painting or basing these

Cheers

[Leman]

TBH not sure there is a definitive answer on this one. The hallowed tome, The Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome by Phil Barker, published 1981 (4th edition), shows 74 early shield patters, of which the majority show a variety of thunderbolts, wings, wreaths etc. Unfortunately none of them are specifically ascribed to Legio X, although I doubt anyone would be any the wiser on seeing your figures. I must admit that as the years have gone by I am less bothered about such details, especially when one often ends up using the same figures to represent different units.As they are at present your figures look terrific. Have you tried the Little Big Men shield transfer company to see whether they have produced one for Legio X?

[toxicpixie]

No idea about the Shiels patterns, but they look very tasty!

[paulr]

Thirded

[mollinary]

Hi Jasper,

Those look amazing!  As you are preparing these for To the Strongest (my favourite rules, by the way!)  you might follow Simon Miller's lead. If you go to his blog  www,bigredbat.blogspot.co.uk    and click on Romans, then about the third or fourth entry down shows his own version of  Legio X. I think the bottom line is no one knows the shield design for this individual legion, but his figures certainly look good!

Good luck with your enterprise,

Mollinary

[Techno]

Very nice work, Jasper. 

Cheers - Phil.

[Subedai]

Yep, agree with the others about shield patterns, especially in 10mm. My advice -which is I say to anyone in such circumstances - is whatever base colour you choose, make it nice and bright. This will make your very nice looking figures look even better.

MickS

[DFlynSqrl]

I'm no help on the shields, but really likin' your troops!

[d_Guy]

Ditto!  And these seems like a good day for closeup pics as well.

[Jasper]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments guys and the useful advice and tips so far.

I am trying out a few wreath patterns on the style of what you suggested Mollinery. My hand shakes too much at this scale to do neat lines but quite pleased so far with wreath attempts. Will post updated photo when I get more done.

[Jasper]

Ditto!  And these seems like a good day for closeup pics as well.

The photo is just taken handheld with my phone, so sorry about the blur. If I could be bothered to get my proper camera out and ensure it had good depth of field setup it would show the detail better. It would also show all my mistakes better as well

[petercooman]

I'm no help on the shields, but really likin' your troops!

Seconded!

[Womble67]

Very nice indeed

Take care

Andy

[Ithoriel]

I think it's fairly safe to say that until we get to the Notitia Dignitata of the Later Empire we have very little idea of what the details of the legionary shields were.

We're not sure if shield base colours were standardised for a cohort, a legion or the whole army. We have indications that one set of legionaries could identify the legion of another by their shield designs but if these differed in detail between centuries / maniple/ cohorts we have no real idea. We do know that Legio X Equestris took a bull as it's emblem so a bull's head design wouldn't be entirely outlandish.  

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

The answer to shield patterns is that we don't know, so pick one of the common ones, or use several of them to differentiate the various cohorts.  Further we don't even know the shield colour, although the evidence points at red. Same applies to the tunic, Chester's roman guides use a white one. Oh - and Hi.

IanS