Caesarian Romans: Legio XI Cohort VIII

Yet another Cohort rolls off the slow moving Unlucky General production line. My previous post on prepping Caesarians used this unit under construction so if anyone was curious you can see the finished results.

I admit I'm particularly happy with these shots as I think I've finally got my lighting right. They are all plastic Warlord Games figures but with Aventine Miniatures metal scuta except for the Tubicine and Signifer who have their plastic round shields as provided for by Warlord Games.

Speaking of the Tubicine, I extended the bear skin with Green-Stuff and think I got a seamless result. It makes him a bit different from the others of this Legion.

Did I forget to mention the Signum is also an Aventine Miniatures creation? More Vallejo acrylic paints are creeping into my palette these days and I'm now using them for flesh and metal finishes. I'm base coating the mail shirts with Humbrol Gloss Black and Gunmetal mixed and slightly thinned and am highlighting it with Vallejo steel (there are several steel blends available).

I'm even happier with this lot's brass helmets. I base coat them with a blend of Humbrol dark browns and introduced a red tint - only subtle but made the difference. In fact, I reckon if I just gloss finished it without metal it would have looked like brass. I then brushed it with Vallejo brass mixed with German camouflage black-brown which dispensed with the need to re-wash it with dark brown. I think I got a better sheen metallic finish whilst also attaining that old, field-dull look.

I know I remarked when posting shots of my previous cohort that I doubt I'd be so ghoulish to depict a severed limb - but it seems I am.

I just reckoned a man having his hand severed at the wrist would likely succumb to the pain instantly, dropping to his knees on the spot. So where is the hand? Well this time, it's right where you'd expect.

Okay, that's more than enough of him. I tried making the shields even darker in hue to break the legion up a little more.

The Centurion's heavily kit-bashed helmet turned out pretty much as I expected. I elected to make his modified helmet iron instead of bronze.

I simplified the unfinished replacement scuta further with my hand painted horse and just included the cohort number on what I hope looks at least a bit like rawhide.

This will be the last fully armoured cohort for my Legio XI. I will finish the last two cohorts likely over the Australian summer when I get back there and they will be largely unarmoured. In the meantime, I have a couple of testudo to build and four more boxes of legionaries from Warlord Games to make two more cohorts for my Legio III and two for an as yet undecided legion but with classic red shields. My next small build; however, is already underway and it will be my senior most command stand - the Consul.