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.

Carthaginian Generals

Glenn's army gets four stands of generals: three stands of subordinate commanders and one stand for the army's leader.

The three subordinate commanders are all from Aventine.  After painting all those enormous Renegade horses, I thought the Aventine horses looked a little puny, but they look nice once painted.

The overall commanders are from Relic, and these are some stunning figures.  I especially likes the peturges and the horse barding.

And that completes the Carthaginian army.  390 foot, 69 mounted, and 4 elephants.  It took me seven months, but it is done!

Yesterday I primed all the Romans, and today I have started painting them.  I figure the Romans should paint up much more quickly than the Carthaginians, whose various contingents forced me to break the army up into eight different sub-projects.  I can complete the Romans in one batch, or maybe two (one of cavalry and one of foot).  Glenn will be driving to my home to pick up the armies this summer, and I plan on making the deadline!

Carthaginian Elephants

The first thing everyone knows about the Second Punic War is Hannibal and his elephants.  Glenn decided on four elephants for his army, and these were impressive models.  They required a lot of assembly and some finesse with the five minute epoxy, but I think the results are worth it.

In addition to the elephant crew, each beast gets two runners on a separate base in front.  The runners can be removed to show casualties.

This leaves only the generals left to paint, then on to the Romans!