Spanish Scutarii

Slight diversion!  After packing up the Gallic army for an Australian buyer, I realized I'd sold off my last unit of Medium Foot from my Field of Glory Carthaginian army. D'Oh!!!  I dug through my pile of unpainted Xyston and discovered I had enough Scutarii figures to paint up 10 stands at 3 figures a stand. With the size of these shields, I'm not sure how well they'd fit 4 to a stand anyway.  If I paint another unit of Scutarii, I might settle on a single pattern for the shields to give the unit a more unified look.  Its tricky because you want these fellows to look a bit irregular and wild looking but you also want them to be easy on the eyes.  In any case, my Early Carthaginian list now has Medium Foot again and I'll bring these down to the club Saturday for our 600 point double match.

I've always loved the look of Scutarii units.  From time to time, I've considered painting up an ancient Spanish army but truth be told, they'd be roadkill in the Field of Glory system, just like Gauls.  Plus, I'm not certain I have the stamina to repeat this drill 6 more times to get 200+ figures for the army!  Speaking of stamina, how about a tip of the hat to Mr. Roach, who finished painting 341 28mm Scutarii in spectacular fashion.  The rest of us can only dream!

UPDATE:  Sebasto asked how long these took to paint and the funny thing is, I intended this to be a  "speed painting" feature since I rushed them for Saturday's match. Then I forgot to time the last steps so I discarded the idea!  Here is the speed version of a speed painting article.  To save time, the shields and figs were primed black and I didn't paint the back of the shields.  I  used black in the color schemes for the shields.  I picked 4 or 5 styles for shields and painted each style in a batch.  Shields were painted before gluing them on the figures. I picked 2 schemes for Scutarii, block painted them, heavy Devlon Mud wash, highlights on cloth but not on straps. Kept the basing very simple, which is in keeping with my Carthaginians.  Ballpark 5-6 hours start to finish.  There's room to trim further on this as I painted the faces.  Clearly that doesn't help! 

I have 150+ Xyston Gauls to paint up for an Impetus Gallic army once I finish the Pontics.  I have some ideas for balancing quality and quantity.  For example, batching the shields is a good idea with so many "custom" Gallic shields.  And I'll do a better job of keeping track of time!

Triarii

I put my Mid Republican Roman project on the back burner when I got my Pontic figures.  It's been  gnawing at  me that I have a MRR army without Triarii so when I put in another order of Xyston figs from Brookhurst Hobbies, I added these and got them painted in short order.

I've belatedly concluded that while I can run my MRR army without Triarii, their A discipline makes them essential by allowing them good odds for  double and triple moves. Like their historical counterparts, I plan to hold these boys in reserve until a crucial moment in the battle. With a little bit of luck, they'll move out in double or triple time to smash their opponent in the mouth or better yet, the flank.  At least that's the way I imagine it in my head. Reality is often different on the tabletop.

Cretan Archers & Balearic Slingers

Cretan Archers:  Cretan archers were held in high esteem in the ancient world as mercenaries and many Cretans made a good living by serving away from home.  Alexander the Great employed Cretan archers on account of their excellence with the bow.  Cretans carried a distinctive small bronze pelte or shield.  Purportedly, Cretans boys began training with the bow at seven although they wouldn't have the upper body strength to draw a composite bow at that age!    

These units will pull double duty in my Impetus armies.  The Pontic list does not include Cretan archers. In that army, the figures will represent ordinary archers who happen to have found and armed themselves with  small bronze shields.  The Middle Republican Roman list and many other armies of the period allow Cretan Archers so they'll appear as intended when I field those armies.  

Balearic Slingers:  These mercenaries from the Balearic Island were expert slingers.  They employed slings of three different lengths, depending on the range needed. Purportedly, they trained from infancy in order to earn their livelihood as mercenary slingers.  The Greek geographer Strabo wrote "And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling."  While the story is likely fiction, the idea that Balearic parents pushed their sons to train so that they might earn a living abroad is probably factual.   Lack of resources and lack of opportunities at home likely motivated the men of Rhodes, Crete, Balearic  islands to train in the art of war and serve abroad.  

These Xyston figures will pull double duty as the Pontic list doesn't have Balearic Slingers but does call for slingers.  Also, these are my first troops to be based in verticle.  Up, up and away!