The Ancient Britons

The Britons were a collection of tribal societies living in the southern portion of the island of Britain during the Iron Age. Their culture was Celtic in character, sharing language and traditions with other continental Celtic peoples.

By 60 BCE, British tribes had begun interacting with the expanding Roman world through trade and diplomacy. Then in 43 CE the Romans launched a full-scale invasion under Emperor Claudius. The Britons resisted fiercely. The most famous uprising occurred in 60–61 CE, when Boudica, queen of the Iceni, led a large-scale revolt that sacked several Roman settlements before being decisively defeated.

British warriors fought primarily on foot, but noble elites often rode on horses, or in light chariots. The Britons use of the light chariot made a significant impression on Julius Caesar, who wrote of the terror the chariots caused due to the noise of their wheels and the speed of their horses. Warriors would ride the chariots into battle before dismounting to fight whilst their battle taxis hung around nearby ready for extraction and retreat (not an exact translation).

Despite initial resistance, by 90 CE much of southern Britain was under Roman control, though rebellions and unrest continued for decades.

The Britons 15mm STL Files

The army list here is intended to represent the Britons from ca. 60BCE – 90CE

Where possible I have sculpted models to be self supporting. Where needed, I add supports during my sculpting process rather than afterward. The integration of supports into design allows me to reduce the number of supports needed, and to position them more favourably. My supports need to be removed with clippers or a scalpel. All models requiring supports are also supplied in an unsupported format.

Some infantry models are also supplied in 13.5mm scale strips. Strip mounted models are supplied on strips intended for use on 60mm wide bases. If you wish to print my 15mm sculpts in 13.5mm please scale them by 0.9.

Map credits:
Basemap and geographic features from Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com). Map built in QGIS.
Historical overlays digitised by the author from historical sources for educational and illustrative use.