A long time ago I picked up a bunch of crumbly paperbacks on sale for a few bucks at the Sanbornville Public Library, including
One Spring in Picardy and enough of Alexander Kent's
Richard Bolitho series to get me hooked. Specific to this topic though was
The Centurions by Damian Hunter. As a kid the tale of Centurion Correus Appius Julianus pretty much kick-started my interest in the Legions of Rome.
While my first major foray into historic miniatures is the Napoleonic French I've always known I eventually would need to pay homage to the original "Eagles." I still have quite a ways to go in service to l'Empereur but I decided to spring for a few test Legionaries to try my hand before I commit to a Legion. I'd like legionnaires mostly equipped in mail and scale with a few segmentata thrown in for good measure, troops
similar to this sketch I did a while ago. After poking around I settled on Aventine's Range and procured a set of the
Later Legionaries in Mail and Scale with Italic H. They arrived promptly and in good order.
I was very impressed with the castings, I'm used to a bit of prep work with my Perry metals but these only needed a little removal of some excess material from the bottom of the bases. I was even more impressed the sculpts themselves, the detailing in the arms and armour is fantastic. While I would have liked a little more variety in poses and faces, and Aventine's hamata and squamata legionaries seem to have a copious amount of rump, these are only minor gripes. All in all these are some really lovely minis and I look forward to the opportunity to make a go at a full Legion.
After a couple nights on the table I have enough paint on lead to show off some WIPs. They need a few touch ups here and there and I need to finish the scuta but these pretty much represent the final product. I originally wanted to try out some different tunic colours than the bog standard red, but realized with all the hamata, squamata and subarmalis these particular fellows are sporting only a wee bit o' tunic is in evidence.
I'll post another set when I wrap them up.
Thanks for looking!
Cheers,
-JB