It's those pesky Romans again

I've had a very busy week this week, so not much was achieved on the painting front. I managed to finish off the fourth contubernium in my Early Imperial Roman century and the signifer. These guys are in the middle of throwing their pila at the enemy. This century is coming along nicely now, and I am hoping to finish it within the next few months alongside some more of my older fantasy minis.

Here's a picture of the century to date; 4 contubernia, centurion, signifer and cornicen.

I only have two more officer sorts to realise now - an optio and a tesserarius (not to be confused with those little cubes that make up mosaics). The optio was second in charge in the century and "led" from the back. He was there to keep an eye on the rear rankers in case any tried to run away from the face of the enemy. The tesserarius was like an NCO; he was entrusted with the night watch and passwords for the century. Both of these minis will have to be conversions as plastic versions of these do not come with the box sets. I have some images on which to base an optio but have no idea on the tesserarius. I guess I'll just have to make him better than the rank and file, but a little different to a decanus - perhaps I'll just use a normal ranker but paint his tunic red to make him stand out?

Next week should see a few more villagers completed. I have half-a-dozen farmer/woodsman type minis that came from the same range as the rest of the villagers to date.