It's the Princeps of the Matter

 

Roman Princeps - HaT Industrie 1/32 scale plastic figures.

I am currently working on a unit of Roman Princeps troops, having completed the first 16 of 32 figures so far. The Princeps units formed the second line of formed troops in the Roman battle line. The Hastati formed the first line and when they were tired or played out, they would fall back through the second line of the Princeps maniples. The Princeps were better armed than the Hastati, having chain mail protection instead of just a chest plate that the Hastati wore.

Close up view of the Princeps

Because the HaT Roman Triarii figures are out of production, my idea is to have Hastati units in white tunics and Princeps units wearing red tunics. The Princeps will also have designs on their shields and the Hastati will have single color shields. Thus my first legio will have red shields, with the Hastati having plain red shields and the Princeps having red shields with a design. The second legio will have yellow shields.

In case you were wondering (and I'm sure that you were) I will use the Hastati figures for my Triarii. The Triarii will have chain mail painted onto the torso of the Hastati figure. This is done simply by painting every part of the tunic, save for the sleeves, with black paint. The black paint is then dotted with a metallic color to imitate the look of chain mail.

My general idea for the Roman army organization is to have a player command one legio, consisting of the following elements:

16   Velites (light infantry)

32   Hastati

32   Princeps

16   Triarii

96 total figures in a legio or 192 foot figures for the whole army.

I plan on having two legios in my Republican Roman army and a group of 24 cavalry on each flank of the army.

Thus my Roman army will have 192 foot and 48 cavalry for a total of 240 figures.

Roman army work in progress