Author Topic: Increasing my Late Roman Cavalry: Victrix Xmas Cataphracts (last posts) (Read 6297 times)

WorkShy · « **Reply #15 on:** 29 December 2023, 04:08:17 PM »

After painting 26 units of Late Romans for WAB over 15 months, I was a burned out by June 2023. So I took an extended break from painting. I had one clear thing missing: Victrix's cataphract sets. I was planning to buy two packs, since the typical pack has 12 cavalry. Oddly though the actual Cataphract pack released has 16. So, I’ve got 8 spares to play with.

I’ve used 4 of those to produce a Romano-British heavy cav command group. Yes, it’s another damned Arthur fantasy.

First up is the commander. Victrix don’t give you a command frame in the cavalry packs, so I’ve sliced off the top half of an Victrix EIR General and glued it to the bottom half of a cataphract. Helmet and draco crest are from the Unarmoured infantry set. Cape from a WA Irish Sprue. Second up is his trusted younger sidekick. Straight Victrix cataphract body with helm from the heavy cav set and draco crest again. Different cape from WA sprue.

Final two are a bannerman/musician and draco bearer. Same crest and shield designs to tie these together. It's a good set with loads of kitbashing options using other Victrix or WA sprues.

Grumpy Gnome · « **Reply #16 on:** 30 December 2023, 07:17:48 AM »

Great work! 👍

Basementboy · « **Reply #17 on:** 30 December 2023, 09:40:55 AM »

Looking good!

WorkShy · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 December 2023, 10:23:34 AM »

Thanks.

Painted another 4 more conventional cataphracts yesterday. As always, I think they look best in larger units. In units of 12+ they should look suitably "heavy".

I hadn't actually used the contus arms for my first four. I found that some of the arms are a bit awkward to fit since they are multi-part. Not totally clear why Victrix decided to do that but asssume might be production requirements to keep the sprue flat. At least Victrix have the contus being used with two hands (vs. say the Footsore Cataphracts I have which use them only one handed). Overall, I think the set is better than Footsore, Gripping Beast, A&A cataphracts. Possibly only Aventine really have something to compare.

I would have loved a half-cataphract option. Would have made it more suitable for Early Byzantines. Still got 4 "spare" minis so I'm going to attempt to make a half cataphract using the standard Late Roman horse, cataphract horse and some greenstuff. I expect that to go very badly ...