Looking Back... At The 2nd Century AD

Taking a break from the modelling desk, I recently decided to take a visit to the British Museum in London.

Wandering through the various ages I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Roman section, I'd wanted to look at some of the Roman armour that is on display there. However while I was there I made an interesting find, some ancient Roman miniatures which I thought I share.

Mars

Mars, un-armoured

Moorish cavalryman

Now if these pieces were listed on a well known internet auction site I'm sure they'd be described along the lines of, LOOK!!! RARE Roman Miniatures LONG OOP (Incomplete, see description).

The two figures of Mars would have originally have been carrying a spear and shield. Made from bronze they're both beautifully detailed pieces. The Moorish cavalryman, identified by his hairstyle and beard, has of course has lost his horse but again has some really nice details.

And finally, before Iana dragged me off to look at one of the museum's jewellery collections I managed to grab a photo of some early Roman figures. Not as detailed as the ones above but they still have a certain charm and remind me somewhat of the lead miniatures of the early 1980s!

Anyway these rather tenuously leads back to the present day and a game and range of figures that I've been watching. I've always wanted a collection of Roman gladiator figures to paint and when I first saw Arena Rex back in early 2013, featuring detailed resin gladiators, I was blown away by the initial sculpts.

In the end I didn't actually pledge for the initial release as I didn't feel there was enough detail on exactly how the final miniatures would look. I've been following the project ever since and as more information came out I'm kicking myself for not committing. General release looks to be mid-2014 and I'm hoping I can get hold of them here in the UK. Until then I might have to dig out an old Citadel pit-fighter...