Late Roman sub-general

 

This command element is a real mix: a Gladiator Games one-piece casting for the general, a modified Minifigs heavy cavalryman carrying the vexillum and a Minifigs trumpeter on a horse I found in my scrap and spares box.

The original premise of this army was to make productive use of figures I had bought dating back to the 1980s. By this stage the leadpile is rather depleted and I'm having to either make do and mend or order new "old figures" in penny packets with prohibitively high postage costs, rather negating the original point. The vexillum bearer is a good example of this. I had a couple of Minifigs heavy cavalry where the hand holding the lance had broken off in clumsy attempts to drill through it back in the day. I repaired this by drilling into the arm, making a loop of thin steel wire (from a wire brush) to secure the vexillum shaft then making a new hand from Milliput. The hand is a bit too big and lacking in detail but doesn't look too obvious on the finished item. I soldered the cross-piece, made the vexillum from aluminium foil and the disc with a  slice from a circular piece of plastic.

To secure the shield on the ground (the colour denoting what category of commander), after some problems with the army general, I initially tried a piece of the flexible magnet that I use for bases but such a small piece didn't give a strong enough attractive force so I reverted to a rare earth magnet, even though these are too strong. I don't suppose I'll be swapping the shield colours round that much really.

I need at least one more sub-general. Although I have bought the necessary figures for two command bases from Legio Heroica, along with my last two infantry units, at the moment I'm inclined to stick with the 1980s recycled theme and make something up with whatever figures I have left over.