21 February 2025

AHPC#4:3rd Century AD Roman Legionaries

This week too I'm running with the Middle Imperial/ Late Roman theme from last week. This time I've brought with me a base of Legionaries, which can clearly be dated to the first half of the 3rd century by their old style semicylindrical shields. Also the broad leather balteus, from which the Spatha was suspended, which had by then superseded the earlier Gladius short sword. Most of the Legionaries are sporting the -in my humble opinion- rather fashionable Niederbieber type helmet, also dating to the 2nd to 3rd century. As for armour they're wearing a hodgepodge of Lorica Squamata (scales), Lorica Hamata (chainmail) and the rather famous Lorica Segmental (banded metal strips), that is featured in so many Hollywood movies.


The figures themselves are a mix of Armorum & Aquila Miniatures, which by now are rather dated but almost the only commercially available figures for the 3rd century. Then there's a single Wargames Atlantic miniature from their Late Roman Legionaries set. The set fits the 3rd century almost perfectly with the inclusion of the Niederbieber helmet, but I find the details on the plastic rather soft and the Spathae much too large. That said they paint up OK. Also included are three heavily converted figures from Victrix Limited' Late Romans. To make them suitable I gave them heads from Aventine Miniatures, sculpted on the broader Balteus and designed and 3D printed  Spathae/ appropriate scabbards and Pugiones, the famous Roman daggers. Despite being noticeably larger than the other figures I do think they work together rather well. Shields are a mix of Aventine and A&A.


Painting wise I tried to give them a somewhat uniform appearance by using broadly the same colours, without painting them all the same. Personally I find it highly doubtful that Roman Legionaries ever wore anything approaching a uniform. For the shields I went with free hands and frankly, I had a blast. While at first I found it a rather daunting undertaking, I quickly realized I quite liked the look. So much so that by now I have more of those shields already painted than Legionaries waiting in the painting queue. First world problems I guess.

4 comments:

  1. Fantastic legionaries, great work on the hand painted shields!

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  2. You have done an outstanding conversion and painting job ! Very inspiring, I am now painting a very similar project, with Palmyrene troops too, I can recommend Relic Miniatures shield decals for 3rd century Roman. Some of them are quite good, they are for Wargames Atlantic shields! Please more of this!
    Best Regards

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  3. Great paintjob, I love the variety of poses and brands intermixed! I am doing a similar project with Palmyrene reinforcements. I can recommend the shield decals by "Relic Miniatures" I ordered a couple of sets from Spain (they are based in Canada) and have them within a week and a half. Keep posting your Middle Imperial Romans :)
    Cheers

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