Milites Votadinorum III

Some new additions for my Late Romans painted over the past few weeks.

The new Arthurian Cavalry set from Curteys Miniatures which I got from Salute is finally ready. Best figure of the bunch is definitely the Sarmatian-style attacking one. Seeing as they're unarmoured cavalry I gave them the shield design of an Equites Dalmatae unit enlisted under the Magister Equitum's Gallic Command.

Although they're a command group I decided not to give them a standard of any kind and just gave all of them long spears, even the trumpeter.

The figures themselves are very good. You can see a definite positive evolution in the sculpts of their Arthurian range. While their older infantry did have somewhat stumpy feet and off-set eyes, these figures aren't plagued with these problems.

I also got a bag of Arthurian Cavalry from Old Glory. Kind of bought them sight unseen but they turned out to be quite a surprise. While some of their miniatures can be hit or miss these are fine looking figures. A couple of the same poses but with different heads but the metal is soft enough to change their right arms into other positions so you get some more variety. I painted up just one of them for now so I could see just how well they paint up and how well they fit in with the Curtey's. On both those questions I can say "great"!

I'm going to give the Old Glory figures shield designs from the Comes Africae. To me they give off a barbarian vibe, so my idea was to buy Old Glory Gothic and Lombard Cavalry, perhaps even mixing some Irregular miniatures in there as well so they might also serve as African Vandals. (Although they should look okay for Vandals, Visigoths, Suebi or Alan allies, I think.)

This figure in particular will be a mounted noble for Dux Brittaniarum, while the other eight will become two units of Shock Cavalry. (The tenth one, the trumpeter, will not be used) If I read correctly then Speidel thought the Equites Stablesiani were the bodyguard units of the provincial governors. So I don't think it's a bad design for a noble.

Lastly I painted another warrior unit, this time with the shield design of the Petulantes Seniores. The next warrior unit I paint will be the Celtae Seniores, both were brigaded together according to the Notitia Dignitatum.
A detail I picked up from Luke Arson's site was the design itself, how it was a debased version of the twin-headed zoomorphic motif common in the Notitia. Seeing as the Celtae Seniores had the twin headed design too and how one picture of the similar looking design of the Cornuti Seniores was drawn with simple heads; I believe that the Petulantes Seniores too had those twin animal heads but got lost lost in the copying process. That's just my theory of course.
That's why two of the shields have those headlike features added to the known design.

These two unarmoured models were from the command set. The left one is the trumpeter; I cut away his trumpet and gave him a spear instead. The right one was the standard bearer; his banner pole was trimmed down and turned into a spear.

Milites Votadinorum II

Here's some progress on my warriors for my Sub-British army. The first photo's are without the shields so you can have a clear look at them, obviously. they are metal figures from Curteys Miniatures and picked these up at Salute. I screwed up the drilling with one of the unarmoured soldiers so now I turned him into a lefty to hide his hideously deformed right hand under a shield.
There are only four different armoured figures (without counting the two of the command section) but with some creative swithing of spear arms I think I pulled of enough of distinctiveness for each individual figure.
One of them seems to have gotten sculpted with some tight trousers which look okay when coloured with flesh tones to simulate bare legs.

A cavalry unit is also ready although they still need their shields.
More of them are standing ready and primed; one warrior unit and one elite; an archer unit; and a priest.

Here are the units with their shields; the Batavi and Heruli Seniores, who according to the Notitia Dignitatum were always brigaded together.
I chose these because they fought under Caesar Julianus at the battle of Argentoratum and hopefully I can build this entire Roman force that was present there.

(Dammit, I was to quick to take pictures. Forgot to flock the bases of the Heruli Seniores)

Milites Votadinorum I

Here is my starting army based and ready to be undercoated, just waiting 'till the weather clears up to start spraying. Two groups of warriors on foot and one mounted.
Milites Votadinorum or Milwyr Y Guotodin (if my Welsh is good enough).

Next are some pics of the new light cavalry command figures released on this Salute. The figure on the right is for the highlight, he holds his spear with both hands without a shield. He can be a descendant of the Sarmatian auxiliaries who were stationed in Brittania in times long past. The flagbearer will get a spear instead too, so will the hornblower is his free hand. The leader comes with a choice of sword and spear hands.

RB20 Light Cavalry Command

Ultimately these will be backed up with levy units and additional warriors and elites.
For levies north of Hadrian's Wall I chose the new Picts of Curteys Miniatures that came out on Salute this year. All that needed changing were theur Pictish shields for some nice round Sub-Roman ones.

Here are some pics of the new unpainted figures along with a comparison shot between different manufacturers.

Pict01 High King

Pict03 Command 1 standing

Pict05 Warriors standing with spears 1

Pict06 Warrios standing with spears 2 (cloaks)

All in all I'm mighty pleased with these figures. You can see a clear evolution in sculpting from their little bit older Arthrian foot troops to the figures presented here. Also, almost no flash whatsoever! Big plus.
I hope they will continue their Pictish range, because I need skirmishers looking like my levies; and hopefully there'll also be some armoured Picts in the future.