DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. Hannibal's Army

I made this army along several years and finished my last group of Gallic warriors some weeks ago. I tried to keep the same style of painting and basing but many subtle changes happened. In the end of more than 1000 figures it is one of my favorites adventures into this crazy idea of mine of building full historical wargaming armies to set them quietly in the shelves. 

The powerful Cartaginian army of Hannibal Barca arrives at the plain of Cannae and prepares to follow Hannibal's orders for forming a large convex bow in front of the Roman army to absorb its impact...

Hannibal mounted on his brave Belleus. Next to him is Maharbal, Hannibal's 2IC. The army's command stand is Newline Designs. 

Not at Cannae, of course, but needed elsewhere namely at Zama, follows a group of Hat elephants. 

Protecting the back of Hannibal itself , two Newline Designs stands of elephants in a not very favorable position for the spear men in front...

Here, Hannibal is surrounded by his faithful Liby-Phoenician phalanxes. Later in the battle, these two groups will be placed in both ends of the battle line, and they will be crucial to defeat the bottle necked Roman legions in a pincer movement. 

Hannibal and his Citizen Cavalry bodyguards.

The left wing phalanx. The phalanxes are made mainly of Newline Designs figures but the front ranks also have some Hat miniatures. Every single shield is a different design making these units slow painting groups. In the end I even went to the Lybian ministery of tourism site to find some extra designs!
All other ethnical groups are the same regarding shields: only the Numidians figures have more or less the same pattern, all other, Spanish, Gauls, Carthaginians have different shield designs. So some 900 different patterns. The good thing was that this army was made along several years, interchanging modelling with other periods of history, otherwise I would be in a loony house. 

The right wing phalanx. Both command stands are Hat miniatures.

The biggest group in the Carthaginian army were the Gauls, recruited when Hannibal made his journey from Hispania to Italy. 

Here you can see Revell, Italeri, Newline Designs and Airfix all mixed in. 

Having a large contingent of Gaul figures is very helpful as they were long lasting enemies of the Romans. 

This group was the last to be painted and includes some blue tattoed bodies. 

The full Gallic foot contingent.

Gallic Cavalry. Again many Italeri, Hat and Newline Designs. Whenever I can I have a metal figure at least per stand to make it heavier and more varied. 

Numidian skirmishers. Hat and Newline Designs figures with shields covered with oxhide.

Numidian cavalry made out from the usual Hat and Newline Designs. I placed two commanders in  different stands anticipating Zama when there were rival contingents of Numidians in the battlefield.

The Spanish Caetrati are all Hat miniatures.

Balearic slingers from Newline Designs and Hat miniatures. 

Spanish Scutarii. These came from the two boxes of Hat miniaturers that contemplates these long lasting enemies of Rome.  

"Round shield" and "Long shield" Spanish Cavalry. The command satnds are Newline Designs and the rest is Hat miniatures.

Celtiberian spear men. Mostly are Newline Designs with some three stands of Hat Miniatures.

The Newline Designs miniatures paint extremely well and the figures are detailed and very well proportioned.


Next: Houses for Normandy, made in China and repainted in Portugal.

DBM - Battle of Cannae 216 BC in 20mm. The Manipular Roman Legions made up to now

The Battle of Cannae in the year 216 BC is one of the biggest events of ancient times and the most terrible defeat of the Roman army ever. In the end of the 2nd  of August in the plain of Cannae, not far from nowadays Bari, only the Triarii were alive and virtually all other were dead - around 80.000 men! The genius of a certain Carthaginian called Hannibal worked once more and again with a much smaller army. 

I´m still far from the end as I need a total of 16 legions and all I have up to now are these 6 you can see. So a bit more than 1/3 of the way done with only the weak Roman cavalry complete. This mean 500 figures already painted but still close to 800 to be painted. Many will be the newer Zvezda which are true beauties.

The Roman legion of the period is the pre-Marian one still with four lines you can see here: Velites ahead, followed by two lines both of Hastati and Princeps and finally one line of Triarii. 

Most of the figures are Hat from all their sets, but you can also find some NewLine Designs, Odemars and Italeri and even some Esci manipulus and officers from Empire days which suits this period too. 

Now the full Roman cavalry for the battle: one of the reasons why they lost as the Gaul and Numidian cavalry were much more and will brush them aside with ease. In this picture you can see the Allied cavalry, an Hat unit with a few Italeri mixed in. 

The Roman Citizen cavalry itself. All Hat miniatures again.

Now a quick review of the six Legions done up to now. The last row of this Legion has Triarii from Italeri with broom sticks spears replacing the original Pila.

Again a foot Esci imperial officer (on foot) enters this Legion as he still carries the bronze cuirass.

Here you can still see a number of different standards. Only the Eagle will survive with the later Marian reforms. 

The basing of this Legion was made with Basetex. Half of the command group is NewLine Designs.

                            

Again the command group has a few NewLine designs namely an officer and the Tubicem. 

I chose to paint each Legion with one pattern of both tunic and shield. Still there are many debates on the issue but at least  this method speeds painting.

Approaching their terrible fate...

Next: probably British for Early Desert 1940.

1/72nd scale Roman allied Cavalry

Several Hat ( and a few Italeri) all mixed - allied roman; spanish; roman cavalry. These ones, painted white/green,  are a 1/3 of the full contingent for Cannae. The other 2 groups will be painted in different colours.

1/72nd scale Roman Republican Cavalry

The 8 stands needed for Cannae just out of the varnish spray can. Each stands for 200 men, so this figures represents the 1600 citizen cavalry with Varro, 300 from each legion.

The figures are Hat. At the back you can see the Colosseum.

The shield patterns are difficult to find. Any ideas, besides the Osprey, WRG and Peter Connolly books?

1/72nd VI Roman Republican Legion

One more. 10 to go.

1/72nd scale DBM Roman Camp

Now the Roman camp. Also BUM based, is also largely transformed into what you see.

The defence poles around the camp. The ditch is ...well... around somewhere!

20cmX20cm like the Carthaginian camp.

There is a Zvezda 1/72nd scale fabulous roman camp and the old Airfix one which is also nice. They make a fantastic center piece for a diorama or skirmish action but they are just too big for a battle like Cannae, as it will take too much space on the tabletop, and this one is much cheaper.

  
The training pole. This place served for gladius hacking training. Probably some slashes were also applyed.

Some Triarii (Hat) just for scale.

I hope José Miguel Mendes (the famous JMM) also likes it.