15mm Roman Army By Conor
Romans have always been a bit of a passion project with myself and I was quite keen to try my hand at painting the 15mm Romans from Plastic Soldier Company (Originally the scuplts were done by Corvus Belli).
These figures along with the rest of the PSC 15mm Ancients range are cast in a soft plastic very similar to that of Battlefronts newer FoW miniatures and whilst clean up can be a little challenging they hold detail well and make for very characterful models.
The box set is designed in conjunction for the game Mortem et Gloriam, a mass battle game that uses the traditional DBX style basing system that many historical gamers are used to. However these miniatures would be perfectly adaptable to different basing and game systems as well.
Being your typical 1st - 2nd Century Roman Army, the models depict the core units that made up the legions of Rome in this period. The bread and butter being the Roman Legionary, citizens of Rome armed with the very recognisable rectangular scutum (shield) and wearing lorica segmenta, a type of layered plate armour that most people are familiar with when they think of a Roman soldier.
The figures are armed with about a 50/50 mix of gladius Roman short swords and the rest throwing the pila, weighted javelin. This allows them to be effectively double ranked creating some really nice action posed units engaging their foe!
I depicted these with red shields and tunics whilst many people debate the true colours of Roman shields it is certainly iconic.
Cavalry elements of the Roman army were left to Auxiliary forces as Rome was not known for its horsemanship compared to other nations at the time. Since the days of the Republic the Romans made use of subject cavalry, notably from Gaul, Iberia and North Africa and during the later Imperial Period even as far as the Middle East. What made the cavalry of the Imperial era different to their Republican counterpart was the issue of standardised equipment as depicted on the models here very well. Armed in a very similar fashion to the auxiliary infantry, they are equipped with an oval scutum and spear, they would also carry a longer cavalry sword called the spatha.
As with the legionaries I chose a very bold blue as the colour of this unit's shields. I feel it makes them stand out but also works well to visually differentiate the unit on the gaming table.
The horses themselves were nice to paint as well, easy to create a good variation of colours and markings and are sculpted in galloping poses.
Command Stands were the final step in the project and were very fun to paint up. I wanted to use a chance to create some narrative on the bases here and imagine them in action as I look at them. The mounted legate/ tribune appears to ride before his men possibly giving a rousing speech whilst the foot commands are very stoic and appear to be surveying the battle. The details in the commanders armour was particularly good and allowed me to experiment with some different styles appropriate to the period.
I hope you enjoy this little showcase of my Early Imperial Roman 15mm project and I look forward to having the chance to paint more ancients in the future.
CJ
