Roman Velites - the Wolf at the Door

 

HaT Industrie 1/32 scale Roman Velites

This past week I painted a small group of ten Roman Velites. They are 1/32 scale (54mm) plastic figures from HaT. I didn't think that I would like them because they all wore wolf skins on their heads, which looks a little bit silly to me. 

However, once I painted a sample, I found that the figures were fun to paint. So I expect that I will likely buy another box of Velites and paint them in the near future, as part of my Republican Roman army.

The rear view of the picture at the top of the page.

The set includes two different "throwing the javelin" poses, one holding a sword, and one that is not wearing the wolf skin on his head. The latter looks more like a Hastatus figure so I will use that pose in a Hastatii unit or convert them into Triarii, "converting by paint".

The Velites were skirmish light infantry of a Republican Roman legion. The Velites formed the first of four lines. Allegedly they were from the poor sectors of the citizenry and could not afford to buy armor or larger shields. They would have been supported by the second line of Hastatii, who had a helmet, large shield and a small breast plate for protection. The third line of infantry were the Princeps - wearing chain mail and armed with the best weaponry. The fourth and final line of infantry were the veterans, the Triarii. They were the older soldiers with the most experience in warfare and wore chain mail, carried large shields and carried a pilum spear and a gladius sword.

My thought is that one of my legions will have one Velite, two Hastatii and one Triarii unit, each of 32 figures, or 96 total figures per legion. I will have two legions in my Roman army and maybe add a third legion if I'm able to fight a larger battle on a significantly larger table, such as one that might be available at a wargame convention.