Gladius Romae Sum, Belisarius
Recommendations: 23
About the Project
Finally I get around to actually doing the Impetus Army I've been talking about for a few years now. The Last Roman, Belisarius. This Army will primarily be for the Forces of Belisarius in North Africa and against the Sassanids. A friend of mine is doing up a Sassanid Army and who knows, maybe next years project with be the Goths... As the excellent Song by Farya Faraji goes Gladius Romae imperi sum, Ubist nostrum imperium? Ne plora, mater Roma, Denuo florebis
Related Genre: Historical
Related Contest: Spring Clean Hobby Challenge 2024
This Project is Active
First Finished Models
Basing was done with fine sand mixed with some courser sand. First painted with Desert Sand then drybrushed with Skeleton Bone and finally a White drybrush. I used a dead grass that is so close to the base colour that in hindsight I should have found a different type but it's growing on me. Finally some dead grass tufts and they were done.
An Impetus Unit is 6 Cavalry minis on a 120mm x 80mm Base. To make the unit easier to use in other game systems and to avoid warping in the humid Queensland Weather my friend advised my to make two bases (60mm x 80mm) of 3 of three minis and put them together for games.
I wanted above all to keep them historically accurate and so I used a lot of red and off white, both cheap and well used colours. I mixed in some blue as well for the same reasons.
With the flash on you can sort of see the grass
The Kavallarioi
This is a force for Impetus based on the army Belisarius took into North Africa and against the Sassanids. In the army there will be eight units of Cavalry split between six units of Kavallarioi and two units of Buokellarioi. I’ll look at the Boukellarioi in the next post.
The Kavallarioi were the medium Cavalry although they are a bit more interesting than just that. They wore a maille shirt (chain or scale) and a helmet and primarily fought with a spear but they also carried a composite bow. Traditionally when we think of mainline cavalry we think of them either as melee troops in armour or as lightly armoured horse archers but the Late Romans combined these roles. They still used heavy shock cavalry but even those were modified by Belisarius personally to create bow armed heavy shock cavalry, the Boukellarioi.
I picked up three "boxes" of Victrix Late Roman Armoured Cavalry. They actually come in bags which I find a little strange but it must work for them. The instructions are available online and also on the cardboard on the bag. 
The Bows and Quivers are 3D Printed from Wargames Atlantic's range of things. 
I built a third of them with swords and half with cloaks, I want this army to be colourful and cloaks are a good way to do that.
Six units each of six Kavallarioi. For transportation and to avoid warping I will be basing the Kavallarioi on two 60x80mm Bases per units. So twelve bases of three Kavallarioi, confused yet?
I was really impressed with the quality of the kit, I've been doing a lot of 3D Printing the past two years and it's been a while since I sat down with some good old fashioned spures.
I need to make a decision about the shields but I won't glue anything on until after they are painted.
