Roman and Italian Cavalry

I spent the two weeks after finishing the Carthaginian army in prepping, building, and priming all the Romans at once.  My deadline for finishing these armies is only two months away, so I must make up some time on the Romans.

And so far at least, I am on track to finish with a little time to spare.  I started with the cavalry contingent of Rome's army, which includes six units of Italian horse and three units of Roman equites.  All figures are Aventine, shield transfers are Little Big Men Studios, spears are Northstar, and bases are Litko.

Here are the six units of Italian cavalry.  Once again the domed shields gave me trouble, as the transfers just will not lie down tight on the curved surface.  I also found the horses very fragile.  One had a miscast leg, and three others had legs that broke during painting.  Now I do not handle the figures very roughly during painting, so these are indeed fragile pieces.  I don't know if Aventine had a bad batch of metal, or if this is a recurring problem.  I suspect the former, as the Carthaginian cavalry had no such problems.  I patched things up as well as I could, and I think they should serve well for gaming.

The Italian cavalry figures themselves are very attractive and, so far as I can tell, historically correct.

Here are the three units of Roman equites.  If anything, I liked these figures better.  I used all white shield transfers, and the result is a pleasing uniformity of colors.

Now that all the Roman cavalry is done, I am moving on to the infantry.  I will try to paint all 188 infantry in one large lot, which should speed up the whole process.