Imperial Roman Legionary Shield Transfers!

For about the twentieth time, I've started painting Early Imperial Romans again, having had a box of Warlord plastics bought as a Christmas present. To be honest, Roman legionaries are probably my favourite wargame figures of all. As a seven year old, I used to buy boxes of Airfix Romans with my pocket money; I didn't paint them, but I used to set them up on my bedroom carpet and move them randomly about. My mum hoovered a load of them up once because I'd left them lying about on the carpet way too long!



When I started painting this latest incarnation, I discovered some LBMS shield transfers tucked away in my chest of bits and bobs and decided to save a bit of cash by utilising those, rather than buying new ones. Unfortunately, after the first successful application of one of these transfers, subsequent attempts were scuppered by the fact that the backing paper started to split into separate layers when I was trying to peel the plastic coating from the transfers. No matter how I tried, I just couldn't get the plastic coating to come away from the shield design, which left me with three sheets of  very nice, but unusable, shield transfers!

I've always really rated LBMS, but it's quite annoying when the goods you've spent your hard earned money on don't work, so I decided to try the new waterslide transfers produced by Battle Flag. Just like good old fashioned transfers, you cut them out, soak them in warm water and apply them to your shield. Simple! Any adjustments you need to make can be easily performed with a paintbrush, although this is unlikely, as the transfer tends to drop straight into place around the hole you have previously cut out for the boss. You get 15 legionary shield transfers and a buckler for a signifier for £3.00. I'm not massively keen on the buckler and would rather have 16 scutum transfers. Perhaps they could do two versions of the sheet, one with buckler and one without. The only other specific preparation you have to do is paint your shield face white. So far, making shields has proved to be really easy, and the results are very satisfying. Compared to the fiddly and unforgiving process involved in using LBMS transfers, I think I'd rather have the Battle Flag waterslides any day. The equivalent LBMS sheets also contain 15 scutum transfers and a signifier's buckler, but retail at £4.00.

As for the quality of the transfers themselves, you can judge for yourself. The pictures below show the LBMS transfer on the right and the Battle Flag on the left...

You can see the Battle Flag transfers at the following address:

http://www.wargametransfers.com/