Today I have started work on half a dozen A&A Miniatures camels, with Roman riders. They're going quite well, except for a slight problem with the separate 'baggage' parts, which include little round shields - of a design not really appropriate for Romans, besides which, the riders are going to be carrying shields. So that's a little 'hiccup', which may be a bit of a pain to get over - carving off the small shields and making good the damage may take some time - and I don't much fancy the job. Leaving the baggage off is possible, but the models then look plainer than I'd like for troops which probably spent most of their time patrolling in the desert.
I think I have been seduced by the Third Century BC - the idea of Epirus and Rome is growing in me strongly - the Aventine Miniatures Republican Romans really are gorgeous figures. And they're planning to do a range of Pyrrhic figures too. I think I am a lost cause now - I have begun to think about paint colours and the like! My current preoccupation is with terrain - and thus figure basing (I like the two to match). My experience of Italy has been Tuscany in summer, and the overwhelming feeling is of brown, parched, grass - other than in the mountains. The 'temperate' bases I used for my Early Imperial Romans and Britons seem too lush and green for Italy, and yet the desert bases and terrain cloth seem too arid. But I don't really want a third set of terrain. This needs some thought. I could, perhaps, use either one, and make some large irregular patches of either 'arid' or 'lush' terrain to place on to make one look less green or the other more! So far that's my best idea. But it's early days yet. Lots of reading and planning to do before I can start.