The (very) Late Imperial Romans, possibly the last army I'll paint

It's getting harder to paint, and to paint well. One gets older, and the eyes can't focus close enough for painting, the shoulders and back can't take the hunched over posture required for close work, and it gets harder to find enough time to paint for long stretches. As I started painting this Late Imperial Roman army, I came to the realisation that this was possibly the last army I would ever paint.

I won't stop painting altogether, but I don't think I'll be able to commit to such a large project again. I might still paint a few figures or models here and there, and there are always a few spare figures to add to existing armies, but I don't think I have it in me to paint like this anymore. Painting a whole army requires mass production, and that in turn requires a period of a few days to commit to nothing but painting. For reference, the largest project I've ever tackled was another Roman army, the Polybian Republican Army, and that was something like 221 figures painted in a 3 day period when I had a stretch of leave. I've only managed 102 figures painted in the last 3 days, with at least another 100 or so more to go before this army is complete.

Perhaps I'll switch to larger scales: maybe I'll switch to games that have fewer figures. In the meantime, clearing my backlog of existing unpainted miniatures will take up most of my time.

These Late Imperial Romans are (true to their name) a few years overdue. We started this project in 2015, but it's taken me this long to start painting them because I've not been able to find a stretch of time that I could commit to this project.


It took me three days to get the bulk of the infantry done, and I still have at least an equal weight of cavalry to complete, but at least the main core of the army is completed. I'll post a proper "muster parade" picture when I'm done flocking them, but for now, from left to right, we have LIR Legiones, with archers supporting spear and shield infantry in close, ordered, ranks; Romano-British infantry, with Legiones in the front rank (in a looser but still ordered formation), and pedyts in the subsequent ranks (in a more irregular and loose formation). There's a bunch of cavalry I've still to paint, but at least the heavy infantry core of my half of the LIR army (Cpt Arjun has the other half) are done!

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