Roman Conversions

Dated: September 18, 1999.

The following are scans of some pretty amazing conversions by Dan Peterson.

This first is of Roman auxilliary archers. (As you know, Romans didn't want to grow up to be anything but legionaries, so they hired out for everything else such as archers or cavalrymen.) These figures are made up of up to 5 pieces. Try to guess what the components are. Answers are under the picture.

The pasty light brown skirts are from ESCI Muslim warriors.
The light brown trunks of the first and last archers are from the Revell Anglo-Saxon archer reaching behind his back.
The 2nd and 3rd archer bodies are from the ESCI Roman archer
The 4th body is an ESCI legionary body, a bow has been soldered to the left hand and an arrow put in the left ring hand. The ESCI bodies have had a soldering iron taken to them in order to simulate a chain mail appearance.
The head of the 2nd archer is from an Airfix ancient Briton with the wings taken off.
The orange quivers are from Revell Aztecs.
The grey heads are Airfix archer heads.

This next one is of Marius' mules. Marius' Romans had so much "luggage" to carry on their backs that they called themselves mules.

Bodies are ESCI Romans, shields appear to be Revell Roman shields, yellow bags are from Airfix Highlanders.

Here are two of our velites. The shields are from the Hastati or Princeps. The spears are broom straws, the thin nylon straws that make up a broom. They are flattened at the end by a soldering iron to give them the spear point. Two units of auxiliaries on Trajan's Column have oval shields and bearskins over their helmets like republican velites, that's what these are.


Two triari with broom straw spears.


Toy elephants! The howdahs are made from balsa wood, the shields apparently Revell Roman and Atlantic Greek. The elephant blankets surprisingly from tissue paper colored red. Some of the frontal scale armor were done individual scale by tiny scale! Very nice indeed!


Some more Romans with swapped heads.


ESCI Standard bearer with standard soldered in different position.


Phalangites, all Atlantic Greeks, have 640 done.


At this point the scanner has kinda gone haywire and the colors have come out funny. The first archer is the Revell Anglo-Saxon one with a swapped head. The second guy is the kneeling ESCI Roman legionary. Both have correct ESCI bows. The last figure has a Revell Aztec quiver.


The imperial cavalry man is a Revell Aztec with Airfix head and ESCI barbarian warrior shield. The horse looks like an ESCI horse.


The top two figures are early Imperial Romans with the three feathers lopped off and a plume added.


Here is another pachyderm.


More phalangites with sarissas in different positions.


Webmaster's note: Mr. Dan Peterson is an author and military historian. He is the author of The Roman Legions, a Europa Militaria book. He is also a re-enactor in Roman and Napoleonic armies. In real life, he is the director of a US military museum. Many thanks for Mr. Peterson's scans, they are shown unpainted to show the different components of the figures.

Hit back button to go back