With the enthusiasm for 15mm ancients unabated, I have cracked on with preparations for a campaign or two...
Firstly, my Romans received long overdue repairs. I was gratified to see the damage was not as extensive as I'd feared with only about 8-10 stands in need of TLC. Most had one pilum shaft broken off, one had three and a pilum head missing! The missing eagle was lying on the base. I did need to find another standard for one of the command stands.
New pilum shafts were provided by plastic broom bristles cut down; I'd contemplated drilling out and fitting wire, but some trials convinced me I would probably cause more damage....
I picked the plastic because it was light enough to stand vertical with some super glue gel and allow some bicarbonate of soda to be sprinkled over to set it. They are also a bit more flexible. After the join had set and excess carved off (carefully), they received a coat of gloss varnish - quick drying, then black acrylic, brown and flesh where required and a final coat of varnish. They are a bit thicker, bit I can live with it. The standards and eagle got similar treatment, although only one needed painting. There were also a couple of pilum heads missing, these too were produced from plastic bristle, this time with the tip squeezed and sharpened to a point.
I'd also been thinking of the number of Gauls and Germans needed, especially cavalry. A quick look at what was unpainted and accessible showed some infantry but no cavalry. There are more unpainted Celts somewhere, but finding them would take some time. I also realised that painting them would take some time....
So I found myself on eBay looking for Gallic cavalry......and I ended up buying some painted figures....
I rarely buy painted figures, but found some that were not too far from my black undercoat style. Thinking ahead, I also bought some Romans and a pair of jumbos for when I get around to the Civil War...
A host of new Gauls
I may have gone a little overboard....
Cavalry
As you can see, style not dissimilar to my own. A few needed spears replacing or ends of spear shafts adding as the \Romans from plastic bristles. Three stands were based two figures per stand, a stand was split and a figure added to the remaining to give two three figure stands, all mounted on a steel base. Touch-ups were confined to the odd colour here and there with a bit of flesh highlights on some. Bases were filled where necessary on the rejoined stands, then a few rocks and static grass added.
Infantry
The infantry were more of a problem, with a few being on double 8 figure stands, several on two figure stands and a minority on four figure stands. There were also some breakages; the odd spear but a few whole figures (the cavalry too may have had a figure broken off) - mostly Freikorps 15 it has to be said with the notorious brittle metal - some looked to have had previous (poor) repairs. One 8 figure stand was missing a figure, just a hole where he'd been!
The stands were wider than 40mm DBA, but I decided I wasn't going to rebase, even the double bases- these are not for competitions- so it was more a question of consistency. The two figure bases were matched and attached to a steel base with the gap being filled with a plaster, PVA and pain mix. Spears were reattached or replaced where necessary. One big base had figures with missing arms, broken ankles and a missing figure. I found some old 15mm figures and selected a couple of donor arms and found another naked figure and painted him. Glued as before with super glue gel and soda, bristle spears added from base to figure to strengthen, arms painted all as good as new.
I spent some time matching the colours where groundwork had been done, added rocks and grass flock, touched up the odd paint colour and shield design and a bit of flesh highlights here and there and the Gallic host had just about doubled!
I also found some very badly painted and based light cavalry (Pictish I think) and some Spanish MC.
These needed new spears with points and the groundwork redone, painted with rocks and grass flock. The existing paint was touched up followed by a black wash then selected highlights of the existing colours. One Spaniard had lost the plume, so got a liquid greenstuff animal crest instead. They have not turned out too badly from the horrendous bright green based wrecks they were....
There were also a couple of Museum Miniatures elephants - now replaced by 3D CAD - which matched the existing Numidian elephant. New howda crew were needed so some suitable LI were painted up and installed.
Some Greek lancers were also bought similar to the LC /Spanish but with much better bases, these needed little apart from lances sorting and touch-ups. All in all more figures than I could have managed to paint in the same time. Since then, more Romans, Germans, Spanish and Thracians have been acquired, most of which just need the odd touch-up. Some Romans need standards, others rebasing and highlighting / washes to bring up to standard.
Before I can start, I'm going to need to look at terrain. I have some more trees to base but need things like Roman fortifications, Gallic Oppidum and similar. I think I have an old Bellona hill fort and Roman camp somewhere.....
