Dan Becker's Gauls and Republican Romans 28mm Figures

A unit of Gauls on patrol exits the woods onto a small hilly farmland. The cavalry ride at the front aided by small bands of young javelinists at the flanks. The leaders urge them on and the musician with a carnyx (trumpt with a dragon head) sounds the signals. The main infantry follows in back.

A unit of Republican Romans exits the woods onto the same hilly farmland. The cavalry and velites (javelinists) also scout the front while the heavily armored infantry at the rear. Roman leaders accompany the signifier (standard bear) and musician to urge the troops on.

The Gauls scramble for high ground. They know that the hill will give them an advantage if they can charge down hill in masses.

The Romans also scramble for high ground. They hope to form a shield wall and launch their pila (metal shanked javelins) downhill at the Gauls.

Both sides gain the hill at the same time. They quickly form their battle lines.

The Gauls put unarmored warriors in front. They will be able to charge. The armored nobles are in back to help push and hold the line. The cavalry and javelinists are at the flanks to harass the enemy.

The Romans arrange their infantry in three lines. Light hastati to the front, veteran principes in the middle, and the elite veteran triarii in the rear. Cavalry, velites, and allies hold the flanks.

The battle lines clash!

The Gauls give a push. Their ferocious warriors go berserk! The axes and spears fly.

The Romans hold steady. The veteran soldiers push back with their shields. The leaders and the trumpeters keep the morale high.

The fight continues with no end in sight. The light troops and cavalry attempt to overrun from the flanks, but the trees and the hill are slowing them down. This photo shows the entire Gallic Boxed Set

This photo shows the entire Gallic Boxed Set from Fighting Hedgehog, manufactured by Victrix Ltd. All the 28mm miniatures fit very neatly on a 10 by 30 cm (4 by 12 inch) plank of plywood. This dense arrangement is great for transferring them from storage box, to display case, to gaming table.

This photo shows a second view of the entire Gallic Boxed Set. The minis are also grouped on bases of six to eight eight figures. The minis have ferrous round washers which stick to the magnetic vinyl rectangle below. This enables to move groups of similar figures into battle lines for gaming.

In total, there are 6 Gallic cavalry, 3 command figures, 8 juvenile javelinists, 16 warriors, and 12 armored warriors for a total of 45 figures.

This photo shows a unit of six Gallic cavalry. There are three horse body types and three rider body types. There are about a dozen heads with various historical helmets.

All figures are painted with Army Painter Speedpaints and various Vallejo Acrylics for metallics and highlights. Some of the base colors are made with Dr. Ph Marten Bombay India Inks which paint up similarly to the Speedpaints, but with more color variety than the Speedpaint mega set. I am looking to get new speed paints from Army Painter and Vallejo soon. Great new products are coming out in this hobby.

The vibrant and historical shield designs are from Little Big Men Studios.

This photo shows a unit of leaders and two units of skirmishers. The leaders all have great weapons, standards, trumpet, and heads to choose from.

This photo shows a second view of the leaders and skirmishers. My favorite skirmisher is the one holding up the decapitated trophy skull. That looks bad ass!

This photo shows two units of unarmored warriors. I gave most of them spears and a few with swords. The Speedpaints and inks give a quick, easy, contrasty base color to their clothing.

This photo shows a second view of the 16 Gallic warriors. Again, very nice shield artwork from Little Big Men Studios.

It is very nice that the figures are sculpted with separate capes. The three capes can go with any body type. This is a boon to getting variety in the unit.

This photo shows two units of armored warriors. Most of these bodies are distinguished from the warriors by the chainmail. Some of the bodies have Greek style varnished linen armor. This is an interesting armor type, and is likely historically correct as the Celts did invade Greece and the Galatia area of Turkey.

This photo gives a second view of the Armored Warriors. Lots of cool helmets in this group.

This photo shows the entire Republican Roman Boxed Set from Fighting Hedgehog, manufactured by Victrix Ltd. Like the Gauls, I put the entire army on a 10 by 30 cm plywood plank to help facilitate moving them around. This army also has magnetic vinyl bases which hold groups of 4 to 8 soldiers to help move similar warriors around the battle field.

This photo shows a second view of the Republican Roman Boxed Set.

There are 4 cavalry, 8 velites (light javelinists), 4 command figures, 8 Samnite allies, and 24 milites (armored infantry) for a total of 48 figures.

This photo shows a unit of Republican Roman Cavalry. There are 4 horse body types and 4 rider body types to choose from. I love the commander to the right with his bronze muscle cuirass. There are about a dozen heads with very nice helmets to choose from.

This photo shows three units of Velites, light infantry with javelins and pila. These are the skirmishers who would harass line formations and then run away.

There are 4 body types. The wolf head and cape can be added to any figure so this allows you lots of variety. Very nice design.

This photo shows a second view of the Velites, light infantry.

The bases are simple flat washers. There is some coarse acrylic paste to try to hide the plastic puddle base. Then the base is painted and flocked with some static grass and colored coarse sand.

This photo shows a unit of Leaders and a unit of Samnite Allies. The four leaders can be made with any of the weapon, trumpet, and standard arms. I made two with swords, one with trumpet, and one with standard.

The eight Samnites have cool armor and shields. I don't know if cool is the proper historical term.

This photo shows a second view of the Leaders and the Samnite Allies.

Like many instances of Roman history, the Samnites were enemies of Rome, but when they lost, had a peace treaty and became allies.

This photo shows a unit of the Roman infantry maniple, literally "a handful". These models come with two body types, three types of weapons and dozens of heads. Half of the bodies have chainmail armor, and the other half have Greek linen style armor. I have grouped them onto one by four bases so they can be grouped in various ways.

I believe the designers intended you to have four groups of six, but instead I made them into the three rows of foot soldiers the forward hastati (lighter linen armor, colored white here), the middle line of principes (colored yellow ochre here), and the last line of triarii (heavy nobles with chainmail colored red here). This maniple style of fighting was later replaced by the leader Marius with his large formation known as the cohort.

This photo shows a second view of Republic Roman infantry: hastati in white, principes in yellow, and triarii in red.

You may notice that the units have a dusty look. This is what happens if you spray a clear matte varnish on the unit and the humidity is too high. It gets a foggy dusty look.

Here in Austin, Texas, we were having a warm spell, and I waited 5 days to get a low humidity day. I sprayed on the first day when the relative humidity was 47%. However it was not low enough to prevent fogging as shown here.

Luckily, I waited a few more days and resprayed them when the humidity was 35%. The second coat melted with the first, and now these are as vibrant as the others. Phew, no one likes to mess up a group of minis on the last step!