Sorry I've been quiet for so long. Real Life (TM) has been far too busy, and I have had very little time for anything to do with wargaming - for instance my wife has been away at a conference in Innsbruck for a week - she got back in the early hours of this morning (and has taken the kids out, leaving me in peace for a while).
One thing I have got done is my terrain cloth - or a first stab at it anyway. I bought a big piece of cheap material (from a seconds shop) and stuck little patches of Woodland Scenics ground foam on it so as to more or less match my figure bases. Gluing the patches of flock on nearly drove me nuts! It looks fairly decent though - photos to follow later on. I want to paint up and base a few palm trees and a couple of hills too.
Keith at Aventine Miniatures has just sent me samples of their new Republican Roman Triarii - hence the title of this post! He's sent me a 'mixed pack' of eight triarii, all subtly different, and a pack of command. They are, quite simply, gorgeous figures. The 'grunts' are all in more or less the same pose, and at first glance look very similar. But actually, they are all different - some have chainmail (of differing styles), some have muscle cuirass, some triple disc pectoral, one has the rectangular pectoral. as you probably know by now, I am not a great believer in the idea of all Romans within a unit being equipped in the same manner. As far as we know, most men had to provide their own gear during the period these figures are meant to represent, so they really ought to be the mixed bag that they are.
They are 'true 28s' - i.e. 28mm from sole of foot to eyeball. I expect they'd fit in quite well with, for example Crusader Miniatures' figures, if you wanted to mix and match, though they'd look like dwarves alongside Renegade's. They're quite well proportioned too - and seem a bit less caricatured than a lot of modern figures. I rather like them - if it isn't obvious already! I'll try to get them painted up and a photo posted within the next few days.
I have narrowed my next project down to three possibilities - Republican Rome versus Pyrrhus, 'Arthurian' Britain, or the Wars of the Roses (The Perrys' new figures are about as irresistible as Aventine's Romans!). Arthurian Britain possibly appeals the most, but I am all too well aware of the lacunae in my knowledge of the period, and I really want to do it justice, so I've got a lot of reading and thinking to do. I'm also unsure as to whose figures I want to use - more research needed there too - Musketeer, West Wind and Gripping Beast all look good at the moment. In the meantime, probably, one of the other two projects will keep me painting.