Painting some Romans - starting with C3rd AD

[Atheling]

Fab stuff   

I love the "Palestinian" Club Men 

[Muzfish4]

Thanks, funny way to remember them as 'Palestinian clubmen' (I can recall at least one book showing them as bareheaded dudes in tunics with clubs) when they were a bunch of the better soldiers from a variety of formations give big ol' clubs to counter heavily armoured enemy cavalry.

The A& A miniatures are very good in giving a variety of helmets and armour to make it look like the chaps from different legions/cohorts/whatevers were still in their own kit. I though it'd be nice to try to tie them together with similar tunics and trousers - the sort of things that might get issued out when a new elite unit is formed. Knowing the military mindset though, it's highly likely the soldiers had their pay docked and were still held liable for any losses or breakages.

Anyway, I wasn't overly happy with the photos above so I decided to snap a few more of the completed unit:

[Atheling]

Thanks, funny way to remember them as 'Palestinian clubmen' (I can recall at least one book showing them as bareheaded dudes in tunics with clubs) when they were a bunch of the better soldiers from a variety of formations give big ol' clubs to counter heavily armoured enemy cavalry.

Yeah, they were supposed to have been put together to counter the Parthian and Armenian Cataphracts. I'm not sure how successful they actually were as the formations seem to have been quite ad hoc and lacking the esprit de corps that fighting in ones own legion with comrades you have known for many years.








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More lovely work 

[Muzfish4]

Managed to get a bit more work done on this by finishing up come command figures:

Officer:





Musician:





Might have to find a shield for this guy in the future but happy with how he looks for now.

Leadership Group:



Standard bearers of one sort or another next - plenty of variety in the A&A range.

[SJWi]

Muzfish, very nice. I managed to complete my A&A 3rd century army last Christmas and IMHO very nice it looks to.  The only figures I don't have are the Clubmen as they don't appear in the TTS lists. Probably too "campaign specific" for a generic list.

I think the A&A range is under-appreciated by many, and indeed I had forgotten about them for many years. In the last 15 months I have bought complete Roman and Palmyran armies from him, plus some of his Gauls for an "Infamy" force and Spanish and Numdians for my Caesarian Roman army.

Well worth checking out.       

[Atheling]

One of my top two ranges of Imperial Romans. 

Goodly work sir!

[Muzfish4]

Thanks for the kind words.

I have been looking at the flag bearing dude and of a mind to use test stating that his mob is a detachment of their original legion (gotta be Leg II Parthica to compliment the A&A eagle in a cage miniature). Without making too much of a rod for my own back I was thinking of just using text rather than imagery, How does this read to all the epigraphists out there:

Vex Leg II
Parth Sev
P Fid
Fel Aet

Please advise if you have any suggestions/corrections.

[AdamPHayes]

Yeah, they were supposed to have been put together to counter the Parthian and Armenian Cataphracts. I'm not sure how successful they actually were as the formations seem to have been quite ad hoc and lacking the esprit de corps that fighting in ones own legion with comrades you have known for many years.

I suspect they were not separate formations but a small portion of each cohort armed in this fashion when they were expecting to encounter cataphracts.

[Atheling]

Vex Leg II
Parth Sev
P Fid
Fel Aet

Please advise if you have any suggestions/corrections.

Do you have a copy of The Army of Maximinus Thrax, Jan Eschbach, Stefano Borinbook available from Karwansaray Publishers, the guys who do WSS, Medieval Warfare and Ancient Warfare magazines?
Link:
https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/the-army-of-maximinus-thrax.html


My copy is in a box at the moment but if memory serves it does have information about Parthia, though I could be wrong so I would wait to see if anyone can confirm that on this thread first prior to buying!

[Muzfish4]

I don't have a copy ... yet.

Was very interested but the lukewarm review by Harry Sidebottom in a recent AW gave me pause. Is it worth a look?

I have been nosing about looking for a cheap copy of Apemea in Syria (despite having little German) but most of the gravestones are on livius.org (where I got the idea for the draft epigraphy above) so that's not so urgent.

[Atheling]

I don't have a copy ... yet.

Was very interested but the lukewarm review by Harry Sidebottom in a recent AW gave me pause. Is it worth a look?

I have been nosing about looking for a cheap copy of Apemea in Syria (despite having little German) but most of the gravestones are on livius.org (where I got the idea for the draft epigraphy above) so that's not so urgent.

It's pretty good for painting inspiration. I'm so snowed under with literature I haven't had a chance to read it. The illustrations are not exactly hyper realistic but they do convey the "idea" and are pretty good overall.

I bought it because Karwansaray, producers of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, Ancient Warfare, Medieval Warfare and Ancient History so I took it that it would be reasonably accurate going on the publishers very good reputation. Also, I got quite a cheap copy in English on Amazon.

[Muzfish4]

Thanks for the info.  I'll keep an eye out for this one.

[Atheling]

Thanks for the info.  I'll keep an eye out for this one.

No porbs. From what I understand,the book has come under some criticism from Harry Sidebottom but even if the info is out of date/incorrect the illustrations have a great "feel" for the army and I think are quite inspirational for painting.