Painting Progress - Roman Auxiliary Cavalry

Just to show that I'm not a one-shot blogger, here are a few more pics of work in progress on my Roman Army. I'm also painting Ancient Britons and should really focus on one or the other, but no, for some diabolical reason I had both lots out on the desk at the same time.  I think I'll post the Ancient Britons pics in my next blog-post.

The Roman Auxiliary cavalry have turned out very nicely.  I painted 6 figures about ten years ago after an inspirational trek along Hadrian's Wall.  Recently I decided that I really needed a decent sized unit to look suitably impressive for my 'Hail Caesar' games.  It's funny really, but my horses (or ponies) ten years ago are quite different in colour to the ones I paint now.  I think the reason is the internet.  Nowadays I can go on Google Images or whatever, enter 'Ancient British Pony breeds' or so forth and lovely glossy photos pop up at me.  Ten years ago, pre-internet, I can only guess that my ideas of horse colours came from Channel Four's Horse Racing on TV!  All dark chestnut and black!  Thank you Internet :-)

The figures are Wargames Foundry with Little Big Men Studios shield transfers intended for Warlord Games Figures.  I found the transfers to be a very close fit, with just a tickle of paint required at the tops and bottoms of the transfer to blend them in to the paint on the shield.  I had painted the shields bright yellow previously and didn't want to paint them white for the transfers as I didn't want to risk going over the lining in that I had already done.  The shield transfers look a slightly darker hue as a result, and not displeasing to my eyes anyway.

Here is a close up of the figures.  Sorry about the static grass on the figures. I should have lightly brushed them before taking close ups.  At least it's loose and not stuck to the figures!  Anyway they have clearly been pursuing British tribesmen through fields of freshly cut arable grassy stuff...

Here are a couple more pics for your enjoyment.  I will suss out how to get the best from my camera too.  I did use flash but I'm not sure using the macro helps.  Practice will make perfect.

Oh yes, you will have noticed on the next pic  that I have yet to paint on the standard details.  I'm still researching this for one reason, but also I'm hoping to find a suitable transfer to put on to save me from having to paint lettering over what is actually quite a nice standard.  I like the way the chestnut wash flowed into the folds prior to highlighting.  If you know of a company who make suitable cavalry standard transfers please do let me know, thanks!