Aquilifer
Hello again everyone. I have finished another unit - the last unit of Romans in my planned 1,000 point WAB force. And my elbow isn't sore. This is a first - it doesn't even feel bruised. I managed to do most of the paint without leaning on my elbows - only leaning on them for the really fiddly bits. Less sustained pressure seems to have done the trick.
So, I painted the aquilifer that I'm using as the Army Standard Bearer (for the moment anyway - he may end up as a member of the First Cohort of the legion, if I get that far!). His shield transfer is one of my own, home-made versions - sadly Little Big Men Studios don't make transfers for the small round shields that A&A supply with some models. Sometime, I'll post a tutorial on making transfers - it's a useful skill, and not that difficult to do, given a decent photo-quality ink-jet printer. Oh yes, the aquila itself is from Warlord Games, grafted onto an A&A command figure. Actually, thinking about it, the aquila is actually the exact one in the photo in the Warlord Webstore - I'd never have guessed it'd end up adorning someone else's figure!
And at the same time I painted up a unit of Roman soldiers, to represent a cohort of auxilia. By this date there seem to have been very few differences in equipment between legionaries and auxiliaries. I've differentiated them by not using any figures with segmented armour, no pila and no rectangular scuta. And of course, the shields are different. The shield transfers on this unit are, of course, from Little Big Men Studios. Photographs of the aquilifer and auxiliary cohort are in the Third Century Roman Photo Album.
So, next up ought to be the last unit of Sassanids - the Savaran or noble cavalry. They should be pretty spectacular. Of course, I am sorely tempted to deal with my new elephant, out of turn. But my tidy mind tells me I ought to finish the 1,000 points first.
And I am thinking about my rules - I've had a couple more ideas, which I need to write up. And then, I have a lot of 'donkey-work' - all the boring bits - to write before they're useable. I'm also thinking about extending these two small forces into something better resembling armies.