Roman Boy Band…

They've been staring at me from the stowed painting tray like a boy band on a balcony, so I thought I should make like the paparazzi and get some mug shots.

As mentioned in the last post my Centurion, Typhus, got his weapons. Now the proud owner of a gladius and (rather battered) scutum he can at least defend himself now and hopefully inflict some more damage on the enemy.

The pilum wielding legionary, Marcus, hasn't warranted any alterations. He's done an ok job so far in battle, without being terribly outstanding.

Quintus – clearly the bad boy of the group – used to have a pilum too. However, it was posed rather poorly, not intimidating at all and that won't do. He also had a corker of a weekend, racking up almost half a dozen kills. I removed his pilum arm and replaced it with an armoured gladius arm instead. He now looks like he's banging his shield to taunt the enemy. Excellent.

I hadn't noticed until now that he has a patch over one eye. Quite ironic considering he didn't survive either battle we played on Sunday.

Crixus has been a stalwart of the ranks for a couple of months now, prompting a rather hasty paint job a few weeks ago. He got an upgrade too, going from a rather static pose of his gladius arm to something altogether more 'stabby'.

Finally we have the, as yet un-named, new boy – the Optio. I was considering calling him Cato, but there's a bit of an "…us" trend developing with my legionaries' names so I'm thinking he will have to comply… Cactus? (depends how good he is at fighting I guess).

He is made from the basic plastic legionary kit, with a couple of bits from my Greek Hoplite sprues. I chopped up a couple of Roman arms to get the angle that I wanted. It's stuck crudely in place with some greenstuff filling the gap and I'll go back and finish this off before painting. His staff is made from a Hoplite spear and is needing a top part before it is complete.

His plume also came from the Hoplites and I will sculpt a couple of simple feathers out of greenstuff to stick on either side of his helm to complete the look. Being a basic legionary figure his gladius is on the correct side for an Optio so it all worked out rather nicely.

Next post should include paint!

To be continued…