Painted Gripping Beast and Old Glory 25mm L'Art de la Guerre

Patrician Roman and Barbarians

Plastic Gripping Beast Romans, not based for Saga but for L'Art de la Guerre (and other DBX-based sets) were too tempting in the 44 figures for �20 range, as was a set of metal Old Glory barbarian types (technically Dark Age Scots, but who's counting..?) I saw at a bring and buy at less than half price - and this is the result:

Roman legions stand off on the painting table against a wall of Heavy Swordsmen warband

Partly based, I tend to do a couple of bases in full to inspire me to get the rest finished when painting a vast number of figures in one go

A "wedge" of Auxilia with LBMS transfers

The chap holding up his shield at the back is a converted archer figure

Too many archers in the box for ADLG - Saga must need loads of them I guess

Only 1 archer figure with 2 sets of arms in the box, but different heads go a long way to creating variety

Very late legionairies - some Footsore Sub-Roman British figures in here too I think

The flag comes with the LBMS set

The flag carrier is not a GB figure - none of them have claoks - so he may also be Foundry or Footsore

Foundy cavalry, as yet un-inked. I added plastic GB shields to them to allow me to use up more of the LBMS transfers

...as you can see...

The Warlord Games General - rather Australian...

Very pleased with the expression on his face here...

The Old Glory Warband - Scots, Vikings, whatever - they still could be Gothic foot in my world

A real mix of figures - 12 bases worth of close order foot, all with 7-8 figures per base.

These are dark age Scots cavalry from Old Glory - again, if I said they were Goths who would know...?

Armoured LH are a tad unusual, but ...

One day men you will take the field as Vikings...

The degraded Legionaries in line abreast - a deliberate choice to mix up the LBMS shields as much as possible, and get the coloured ones to the front

Armoured men in the centre, again including some Foundry and Footsore types in there for variety

2 Units in Roman Red - presumably making it easier for the enemy to identify the Elites ...

Fields in the background from a model railway printout

A rear rank of archers never goes amiss to provide additional fire support.

Eclectic Late Roman Auxilia with some of the most unusual LBMS transfers in the set

The officer is again a Footsore Post-Roman British chap

Painting the edges of the shields to match the transfers is a bit of a pain with the white shield patterns in particular, but the red and yellow ones are easy enough to match

More organised Auxilia, with identical army-issue shields.

Led by metal officers the plastic men advance in wedges on their 60-mm x 60mm bases across the fields...

The limited variety of facial expressions on the GB men doesn't stop them all looking quite annoyed about something

On the far right is another converted archer figure holding his shield up high to cover his comrade from archery

And another one, this time as part of a LI javelinman base. I should in retrospect saved all of the round LBMS shield transfers for these javelinmen, but I used some for officers on the Legionary bases and now I am having to paint up the second javelinmen base shield pattern...

From the front you can see how well the hand that shoudl be gripping a bow actually looks like it is gripping the shield handle thingy

Matt-varnished archers, next to the Auxilia. I've managed to break one of the bows already ...

Much clearer evidence of my cack-handedness in this closeup

This was a rather rushed Roman General figure, using a Warlord Games cavalry officer set and GB plastic shields. I'm not fully sold on this but it will do for now

Some of the poses are a bit odd

These Foundry Cavalry look much more in keeping with the style of the GB infantry

Again using GB shields, and also GB plastic lances too.

Red-edged shield transfers are much easier to key in with red paint.

...and again

Auxilia and Lancers face off against a very deep warband attack

Maybe the Elite Legions stand a better chance?