Company Ancient

Every company keeps one: the veteran chosen to carry the standard, a soldier whose entire battlefield role is to hold a pole upright while everyone around him is trying to knock it down. The banner is the company's memory — battle honours, names of the dead, the weight of a few centuries of service — and dropping it is a worse failure than dying. That gives the model its shape. It is a standing character piece rather than an action pose, built to be the tallest thing in a unit and to be seen from across the table. Fifteen files make this a multi-part kit, which suits a banner-bearer: the standard is the part most painters want to work on slowly, freehanding heraldry and lettering long after the rest of the squad is finished. A natural centrepiece for a veteran squad or a display base.