Hail Caesar - Greek Javelin Men

So I've now gotten some paint on my skirmishing javelin men, they kind of painted up the same way as the unarmoured hoplites, but with the shorter javelins I didn't break a single one during painting. So that's a big plus.

This time I also tried something new for me, I based them om single, round bases so they would really look like skirmishers. I plan on using 4 to 6 in a single small unit, depending on what looks best and not too big to represent a small unit, as I only use 2 bases for a small formed unit, 4 or 5 might look the best and still have the overall same size.

I also added some very simple shield designs to this lot of figures, turned out quite ok in the end, it will do at least.

Review of Victrix Greek Peltasts, Javelin Men and Slingers

This is the second box that I got from the Victrix line, I thought that this box would be perfekt to represent the skirmishers that I need for my little Hail Caesar army.
A big difference for this box is that there are som pictures on the Victrix homepage so that it's possible to get some inspiration on how to build them and then you could also pick up some of the excellent shield transfers that they have as well.

The box itself contains 56 miniatures, where 48 is for Peltasts/Javelin men and 8 slingers so for my purpose it's going to be more than what I need for this. The miniatures are spread out over 10 sprues, 6 of javelin men and 4 with slingers.

When you open the box you are met with a well filled box, lots of sprues, but no building instructions or other information other than what can be found on the box itself. There is not much need for it, and I prefer a lower price point to some leaflet, but I guess it could pose a problem for anyone that's all new to this miniature thing or the period as how to use them.

The sprue is more or less the same as the Unarmoured Hoplites, the thing they have done is replace about half the sprue where the hoplite shields, spears and heads is and changed the shields, replaced the spears with javelins and some heads with no helmets.
This then leds to the same problem I had with the hoplites, the connection that the hands has with the arms. The plastic is the same as before, and I had the same problem getting the hands to stick. But the problem was not quite as large here as the javelins are much shorter and not as prone to get stuck in every thing.
As much of the miniatures are the same, the statements I did about the hoplites still stand, the bodies are good, the clothing a bit odd in a some cases, and it's a nice assortment of parts that you get on each sprue. The unarmoured heads are nice though, there are som good variation here, and you get 9 heads a sprue, giving you some spare and there is nothing stopping you from using some of the helmeted heads. The new javelins are ok, they are on the thicker side of things, so they should hold up to gaming, but if you want more realistic sizes to things you should think of something to replace them.
One thing to note when you put these together, and that is the shields, they are supposed to have the flat side out, not the one with a rim, that's the inside. I knew of this and still got one of eight wrong, so keep this in mind. Especially if you get the Little Big Men transfers, I've heard that they will not fit at all if you do it the wrong way around.

The slingers comes 2 on each sprue with a choice of a few heads and sling arms. They are nice and looks good, and the left over heads could provide with a few more choices on the rest of the miniatures.

The kit then is good for what it is, a lot of miniatures for a cheep price, I give this set a 3 out of 5 javelins. You get what you need, and you get quite a lot of variety in poses and looks. But it's not the greatest thing you have ever handled.

Hail Caesar - Greek Hoplites IV

So I've now completed a unit of the Unarmoured Hoplites that I did a review of here.
Apart from the problems of getting them to hold together they turned out quite fine, the cloth was a bit odd I think on a few of the sculpts, but it was well defined and took inks well.

They will make a fin addition to my second division of hoplites.
I now have some Skirmishers on my painting table also from Victrix, a review of that box will come shortly.

And here is the grand total of hoplites so far, soon there will be enough to play a small game against my romans. Notice also that they have been based now!

Review of Victrix Unarmoured Hoplites and Archers

After having painted all the Warlord Hoplites that I had, I got an order in for some more, but since I wanted something more than the rather simple one from Warlord, and I wanted some more variety I got myself a few different boxes from Victrix.

The first one I cracked open was the Unarmoured Hoplites and Archers, since I had a hard time finding any sort of information on them when I look into them at first, I thought that I would at least do a simple review of them if anyone else has the same problem.

So first things first, the box contains 56 miniatures and 48 of them are hoplites and 8 are archers. The hoplites comes on 6 identical sprues  each having 8 different bodies and a bunch of extra parts, heads, spears and shields. There is also a trumpet, some hands with swords and helmet crests to add to some of the heads, not all crests will fit all heads, and not all heads can even have one.

There is no separate building instructions for the minis in the kit, only what you can read on the back of the box, perhaps not the greatest thing ever created, but if it gives me a few more minis for my money then I'm fine with it

Overall the hoplites are all right, the details are mostly ok, and there are not to much flash. There are some lines running down all around the miniatures, and since they show quite a lot of flesh they are very prominent if they are not removed. Same goes for the spears and heads, but here they are better placed so does not present as much of a problem.
The plastic used is a bit strange, it glossier than any other Victrix kit I have handles before, and does not take as well to the plastic cement I used to put them together, perhaps I got an odd package or there have been a change in the plastic.

This presented a bit of a problem for me, since the spears are added on with the hand already on the spear and the connection point is therefor really small, and well, they have spears sticking out everywhere, so during painting of the first 12 I think I've broken of every single spear (and associated hand...) at least once. I think I'll need to pin the next batch... Not a prospect I look forward to.

Then we come to the quality of the details, they are good in most part, the cloth is a bit weird I think but the faces and everything else is top notch.

The archers are nice as well, they do have the problems with attaching the hands, but the bows are significantly smaller so should not pose the same problem with breaking of all the time. I also think the cloth is better sculpted.

All in all I give this kit a solid 3 out of 5, not the greatest thing I've handled, but good enough for a massed army and by far the best alternative that I know of for this kind of miniature.

Hail Caesar - Greek Hoplites III

And so we have come to my last batch of Greek Hoplites for this time, more or less the same as last time, just with red shields this time around. It´s still the Warlord miniatures.

And then we have them all, just before I started basing them, a projekt that has not gone beyond this stage as of writing this...

Hail Caesar - Greek Hoplites II

So, I had a few more of Warlord Hoplites, so I got into painting them as well. The colors are all the same, I just changed the facing on the shields.
So far I haven't decided yet if I want to keep them in units with the same shield colors, or if I should mix them up a bit

The force so far on temporary bases

Hail Caesar - Greek Hoplites

During the summer I got into looking at my Hail Caesar troops I did a few years back (see here for that army), and got to thinking that it would be fun to have two armies that could fight a bit at least.
And since I've gotten some Warlord hoplites in one of their sprue sales I got into painting them.

And here is the first 12 of them, as I have 3 bases of 4 minis each for close order infantry this is what a unit will look like.

The basing will come, I just need to get a few more so that I can make a big batch of my basing stuff.

More to come!

Imperial Roman: Army Overview

Just wanted to make a quick update.
I took what I have in my army so far and just took a picture, and here it is.

It's starting to look like something now, soon barbarians everywhere should tremble in their boots!

Imperial Roman: Auxilia III

So I've finally completed my two units of light auxilia, this has taken some time, mostly because I was an idiot and first only made enough miniatures to do two bases, for some reason I thought they was supposed small... But no... So I had to paint some more but here they are!

I've made these by combining some parts from Warlord Games and their celts and some many parts form Wargames Factorys celts and some of their vikings as well. So, there is quite a mishmash of different things =)

Overall they turned out ok, the Wargames Factory bits are not the best, there isn't that much details to use and well... They are quite bad, but since I had them I thought I should use them.

But enough of that, lets show some pictures

First unit

And the second unit

Also took a little picture of the two units and my other auxiliary unit

Right now then I'm a bit stuck, I have more Romans to paint but I placed an order for some metal command models of different kinds, and they have been delayed and should arrive in 3-5 week. So until then I'll pause this project and look at another little thing I have fooled some other people in my local gaming club into joining.
More on that in another post :)

Imperial Roman: Auxilia II

I've now completed the second unit from my Auxiliary box. In this unit I used most of the metal command miniatures that you received in the box, and I've also made some slight conversions by using a few left over swords from legionaries and added them to the auxilia minis, just to make them a bit different and have a more "close combat" unit that has already thrown most of their spears or have had them rendered useless by the close fighting.

Some pictures is needed I think;

This also brings my first command to completion if you see to the little army list I posted here. Next on my table is a few miniatures I'm going to use as my light auxilia unit. It's going to be a more kind of "hired help" kind of unit.

Imperial Romans: Legionaries III

New year, new unit. So this is my third unit of legionaries and what I think is going to be the first one in a new command. To this command I'm thinking of adding another auxiliary unit and then call it done.


My thought is right now to do an army with a composition something like this:

• Commander 
• Legionaries x 2
• Medium auxiliary x 2

• Commander
• Legionaries x 2
• Raw recruits 
• Auxiliary archers x 2
• Small unit

• Commander
• Legionaries x 2
• Light auxiliary x 2

• Commander
• Medium auxiliary cavalry x 2
• Numidian cavalry
• Skrimishers with slings x 2

This if of cause going to change, probably something like fifty times before I'm done, but at least it's a goal for now. This list is made up from the Hail Caesar book, and the EIR list they have in there.

Anyway, pictures of new unit that you are really here to see =)

In this unit I've added some parts from the veteran sprue, so some damaged shields and extra armour here and there. I also got a vellum from a Wargames Factory kit I had out in my garage, I think it's from their Celt Warband box. It made an excellent marker for my command in any case.

Next up I'm trying something for a light auxiliary unit and I also have the other part of my medium auxiliary unit in the works. So lots of things in the works, hopefully something of it will be done as well =)

Imperial Romans: Legionaries II

So right before all the holidays I got another unit of my legionaries done. They are done with all the new spiffy sprues I got form Warlord so now they have a proper command unit!

Other than that I wanted to create a unit that was all using their pila, so that I did, all the swords will go towards another unit.

Other than that, they are painted with mostly Vallejo colours, one layer, Army Painters dark wash and some highlights with the base colour on some parts and then they are done. Looks good enough on the table, but it's not the minis I would take to a painting competition ;)

As this is now completed I thought it was time for a small "army" picture, with what has been done so far. It's not much, but it's a start,

With this I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I'll do my best to have something new when the new year isn't that old.