Gendarmes D'Elite

I did this small unit of Fench Elite Gendarmes for my games of Black Powder. This is the smallest unit of cavalry I've done to date, with only 2 bases, to represent the fact that they were quite few.

I used Hat's Grenadiers a Cheval to proxy them, as I'm not aware of any proper option for these gendarmes in 1/72 plastics. Because of that, there are a couple issues with uniform accuracy, such as the aguilletes, that should be at the opposite side, but this doesn't bother me at all. These guys have one of the most beautiful uniforms of the french cavalry, and I'm happy to have them join my growing collection!

Roman Heavy Artillery

Here is the last installment of this series of posts on my roman artillery. This one bellow is my heavy artillery piece, which comes in the same Zvezda Kit as my ballista, featured on the previous post.

It's considerably larger than the New Line Design's catapults I use as medium artillery, but to further differentiate it and characterize it as a "bigger weapon", I gave it a crew of 5, instead of 4, and placed it on a larger base. Also, the ammunition stones are somewhat larger than of those.

To complete my range of siege and support weapons for my roman army, I purchased another Zvezda kit with several interesting items, such as the battering ram below:

command base shown for scale

Both kits come with those wheeled wooden shields, used by troops to close in on fortified walls under cover from arrows and rocks. Note the 2 small holes on each piece, allowing the soldiers behind it to take a peek on what lies ahead.

Another interesting feature of this kit is the cauldron, here fixed on a frame to allow better handling. Such devices were used over the walls by defending forces to spill hot oil or the like over assaulting enemies.

And finally, a couple ladders to climb over the fortresses walls:

Roman Medium Artillery - Catapult and Ballista

Here is my second unit of medium artillery. It comprises one catapult, identical to those of my other medium artillery unit, and a Ballista, from a Zvezda kit.

Next up, heavy artillery!