Roman Onager

Years ago I purchased a "Roman Stone Thrower" in 28mm. It was a nice metal kit with seven or eight crew. The model seemed to be a medieval catapult with Roman crew. Over the years I would pull it out and work on it a bit, then put it back in the 'TBD pile'.

The stone thrower had wheels, which I have never seen any evidence for on a Roman onager and the crew were a bit chunky (think Michelin tire man).

During my recent painting spree I decided to take a look at the onager again. Sometime in the past I had assembled (mostly) and primed it and the crew. I was unhappy with the wheels... they weren't well cast and they seemed out of place to me, so I removed them. Removing the wheels lowers the height, which makes the crew a bit to tall and the winch 'wheels' sit on the ground. I used some balsa wood to make a frame to raise the onager back to the proper height, added a few details and mounted it on a base.

I decided to not use all the crew, while I am sure an actual onager had more than the five I am using, mounting more on the base made the whole thing look like a Chinese fire drill (chaotic).

This is a work in progress, I am still not happy with it, but here it is in all it's glory

From the left side


3/4 view from right front

Tim, they call him...

Crouching Romans

Here is a cohort I recently finished that I am proud of. The figures are made by Foundry and I was always intrigued by the crouching pose.

I originally had ambitions of making these guys into a testudo, but it occurred to me that I really liked the way they looked and they would be wasted as a testudo.

These guys were the first cohort I painted that kicked off my 'painting spree'. As I painted and organized them I hit a pretty big snag; they had no command figures!

I quickly scoured the Foundry site and found they don't make a crouching command. An email to them confirmed this. So I would have to make my own.

The Centurion was simply a matter of attaching a transverse crest.

The Signifer and the Cornicen were a bit more work.

First, I had to cut away and remove all traces of the gladius in their right hands. Both hands had to be re-oriented (bent) to accommodate the signum in one case and the cornu in the other. I had to rebuild the Cornicen's left hand with green stuff since he wouldn't have a shield.


Then I had to remove their heads and do a head swap for one with the animal pelts covering the helmets (wolves in this case). I spent some time researching wolves to come up with an appropriate color pattern (I will have to take a picture of the wolf pelts, they really turned out nice).

Lastly I had to modify a signum and cornu to fit and put the whole thing together. I am proud of these guys; they look nice and the conversions were not too difficult and have a lot of character.

Tim, they call him...

Roman Banners

I am trying to come up with some banners for my Caesarian Roman army. I want to give the cohorts a distinctive banner as well as something for the legion (besides the eagle). I have drawn up my current choices and options. I would appreciate any opinions or suggestions.

Click on the image above to enlarge it.

Tim, they call him...

"...And who will tell my Legions, who loved Caesar, that it was not murder?"

OK... here is the deal... I need legionaries, 64 of them (actually I need 128, but I can borrow some). So today I have six sprues of Warlord Games plastic Roman legionaries in front of me. I am goning to take them out to the parking lot and prime them. Then the painting will begin. I have the better part of three days to finish this. Let's see if I can make a go of it.