Respite from the heat means more Late Romans!

Well, after a week of record high temperatures, it's finally cooled off. The last week has not only put a hold on my painting with temps around the 40c mark, but has also killed off a large part of our veggie patch, and with the nights only marginally cooler than the days, I've been missing more than a little sleep. Enough whingeing though, a mere heatwave is nothing compared to the floods and cyclones being suffered by Queensland. The cool southerly turned up at about 3 this afternoon, and with it i put my head down and finished my latest lot of commission work, two units of 28mm Late Romans.

The commission is to build up a Roman force for the Augustus-to-be Julian's army at the battle of Strasbourg (or Argentoratum if you're so inclined) in 357CE. I've already completed the first of four planned legions, the Primani as well as a unit of archers representing the Sagitarii Gallicani Iuniores. This latest batch consists of another heavy legion, the Fortenses, and a light infantry/skirmisher unit, the Exculatores Britanniciani. The Exculatores are the light order blokes pictured above to the right. More pics from various angles, along with pictures of the Fortenses are below.

All the figures are from Black Tree Designs, really nice dynamic figures which are a pleasure to paint. The shield patterns are hand painted representations of designs for these units found in the Notita Dignitatum. I added some dried blood (stippled on GW Dark Flesh), some cuts and tears, and a final coat of Devlan Mud tied the shield pattern together. I've painted the bases for this commission using a very muted, muddy colour scheme, which to my eye is in keeping with the area around the Rhine near Strasbourg. Next up on the commission front are a couple of units of Auxilia, the Batavi and Regii, as well as some more archers.

I'm now planning on getting stuck into my 20mm WWII project, as i've got a load of work to do to meet my Feb 28th deadline for my 2011 Project build over on the Guild forums. In the next few weeks, i've got the following to complete:

1 x Two Storey lasermodellbau building
1 x Riva Bella Casino 2'x2' terrain board
1 x Beach front 2'x2' terrain board
1 x 8 man Commando assault team
2 x 8 man German grenadier squads
1 x 2cm Flak 38 AA-Gun and 3 crew
1 x 10.5cm field gun and 3 crew
2 x German command figures (or Big Men)

So, pics of these will be coming up soon!

Ben