Blue Romans

Blue Romans. Not sad Romans. No, I'm not going to talk about alien Romans, something like in the Trigan Empire or Dan Dare where there were some humanoids with unusual skin tones although... Nor am I talking about saucy frescoes at Pompeii.

I decided to paint a unit of Romans with blue tunics and plumes. The Romans did not confine uniforms to the more familiar red. A glance at an Osprey book on the subject showed blue and yellow tunics and plumes, although also natural colored plumes. This reminded me of the wonderful Timpo swoppet Romans with their many color variations and of which I have about a dozen. Unfortunately one becomes hesitant of wargaming with Timpo swoppets as many fall victim to broken arms and legs.

This unit includes the Toyway Romans with both oval and rectangular shields, segmented armor and chainmail. I also used CTS and Italeri with new Timpo spare shields as they had lost their old ones. There is even a converted broken Timpo swoppet. Some other odds and sods also made their way in including the immense officer!

Although the italeri figures got complete paint jobs the Toyway figures were not completely repainted as the flesh colored plastic was just shaded with a GW wash (not entirely successful on bare plastic) and eyes painted as well as a tunic color change. The shields were already blue. The armor was given a black wash and was highlighted with gun metal and silver paint. Some things that do bug me are the bendy spears so i might replace those eventually. The resultant figure and equipment mix is probably not entirely historical but the unit was blooded in the recent wargame between Mat and I. (Incidentally, Mat wiped them out).