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LittleBigMen Late Roman Shields

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Published on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 03:45

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Looking to paint my new Late Imperial Romans from Legio Heroica. One of the attractions of LIR is the shield patterns from the Notita Dignitatum (spelling optional). LittleBigMenStudios provide some of the best and most detailed shield transfers out there, but unfortunately don't have any for Legio Heroica. They do have some for Khurasan Miniatures though and Lord Mather has some Khurasan LIRs for me to compare. The figures are very similar, such that I would add some in for variety if Khurasan had a UK distributor, and the shields are a similar shape if a tad smaller, so the transfers will fit.

The next step is to work out which units the transfers are for, which is possible with a moderate level of accuracy given the aforementioned Notita. Using Luke Ueda-Sarson's excellent website on the Notita, I have identified some of the patterns, as shown in the table below.

	Not in the Notitia, apparently some sort of guard shield from the Column of Theodosius.		Bodyguard?	LIRI(KSM)7 15mm
	Can't Find in Notitia - looks like a bodyguard from the Chi-Rho symbol.		Bodyguard?	LIRI(KSM)5 15mm LIRI(GB_LARGE)3 25mm
	Schola unit?	Western		LIRC(GB_SMALL)2 25mm
	Herculani Seniores	Western	Legio Palatina	LIRI(KSM)2 15mm LIRI(GB_LARGE)1 25mm
	Ioviani Seniores	Western	Legio Palatina	LIRI(KSM)1 15mm
	Secunda Britannia	Western	Legio Comitatenses	LIRI(KSM)4 15mm   LIRI(OG 15'S)3 15mm
	Secundani Italiciani	Western	Legio Comitatenses	LIRI(OG 15'S)2 15mm LIRI(GB_LARGE)6 25mm
	Lanciarii Gallicani Honoriani	Western	Legio Comitatenses	LIRI(OG 15'S)5 15mm
	Menapii Seniores	Western	Legio Comitatense	LIRI(GB_LARGE)7 25mm
	Septimani Seniores	Western	Legio Comitatense	LIRI(GB_LARGE)8 25mm
	Prima Flavia Gallicana Constantia	Western	Legio Pseudocomitatense	LIRI(GB_LARGE)2 25mm
	Petulantes Seniores	Western	Auxilia Palatina	LIRI(KSM)6 15mm LIRI(GB_LARGE)10 25mm
	Leones Iuniores	Western	Auxilia Palatina	LIRI(KSM)3 15mm LIRI(OG 15'S)1 15mm LIRI(GB_LARGE)4 25mm
	Equites Cetrati Iuniores	Western	Vexillia Comitatenses	LIRI(OG 15'S)4 15mm
	Scholae of some kind	Western	Vexillia Palatina?	LIRC(KSM)1 15mm
	Equites Honoriani	Western	Vexillia Comitatenses	LIRC(KSM)1 15mm LIRC(GB_SMALL)6
	Equites Mauri Feroces	Western	Vexillia Comitatenses	LIRC(KSM)1 15mm
	Comites Iuniores	Western	Vexilliatione Comitatenses	LIRC(GB_SMALL)1 25mm
	Quinta Macedonia	Eastern	Legio Comitatenses	LIRI(KSM)8 15mm
	Falchovarii	Eastern	Auxilia Palatina	LIRI(GB_LARGE)5 25mm
	Don't know	?	?	LIRC(GB_SMALL)3 25mm
				LIRC(GB_SMALL)4 25mm
				LIRC(GB_SMALL)5 25mm
				LIRC(GB_SMALL)7 25mm

The oval ones are for Khurasan miniatures, the round ones for Old Glory (who presumably have LIR legionaries with round shields because they have read the Notitia rather than looking at the sculptures).

So unfortunately for me most of them are Western, and I fancied an Eastern army. Not many people will notice, but somehow it feels wrong.

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