Roman Armour Test…

The painting continues. I've really got the bug here, so if I can't be painting models at least I'm painting something!

The fascination with painting Roman Legionaries is driving my digital work at the moment. This week I started another image. It was supposed to be very loose and quick but (as usual) I got stuck into detailing the armour, even before the rest of the image had taken shape. So this has turned into an armour study piece – though not finished yet. I love the Lorica Segmentata armour that the Legionaries wore and I enjoy painting it.

For this particular effort, instead of going standard colours, I'm trying out different light sources, with little to no reference. Not there yet but things are moving in the right direction. There's a light source behind the soldier that doesn't seem altogether natural…hmmm.

Messenger by Amirzand

Maybe one day I may actually get around to painting something in the style of one of my Deviantart heroes (above)…

More Roman Artwork…

Another scribble from my wacom pad as I practice getting my digital art skills up to speed, something fun based upon a photo from Flickr. Another step in the right direction and more fodder for my Roman project.

I'd actually like to get back to painting some models but the enthusiasm is not there at the moment.

I will be announcing my secret project in about a month's time and explaining what it's all about!

To be continued…

Auxiliaries Arrive…

After weeks of procrastination and downright faff, some new models appeared on the painting tray yesterday. I have added an Auxiliary spearman and a couple of bowmen to the growing number of Romans waiting for paint. These should fill the gaps in the ever-expanding secret project.

You may recall my challenge of creating some Auxiliary bowmen without wanting to spend too much or buy specific models. My solution was quite straightforward in the end. I bought a single Auxiliary spearman sprue (consisting of four models), then trawled ebay for bitz. What I ended up with was some Warhammer Empire archer arms which fitted the bill (almost) flawlessly. The scale of the arms is a tiny bit larger than the Auxiliaries, but given that I'm only using hands it wasn't such a problem.

To help disguise this minor glitch I shall probably add a bit of greenstuff to create gloves (or something similar), but I have to say they turned out rather well I think!

To be continued…

Roman Progress… Or Lack Of!

I was in hospital yesterday for a minor procedure and wasn't in good form on Monday. Over the weekend I was in the garden, continuing the rebuild of shed and patio, so no hobby progress has been made since last week. I haven't been able to manage much more this week than be sprawled out on the sofa – indoors in this lovely weather!! I did manage to re-watch Band of Brothers, Rome and am currently half way through season one of Carnivale. A small silver lining to being ill I think you'd agree.

However, a few weeks ago I shared my dilema for increasing the options available to my Romans. Today's photos highlight my cryptic solution and hopefully we should see some new models very soon!

To be continued…

Roman Boy Band…

They've been staring at me from the stowed painting tray like a boy band on a balcony, so I thought I should make like the paparazzi and get some mug shots.

As mentioned in the last post my Centurion, Typhus, got his weapons. Now the proud owner of a gladius and (rather battered) scutum he can at least defend himself now and hopefully inflict some more damage on the enemy.

The pilum wielding legionary, Marcus, hasn't warranted any alterations. He's done an ok job so far in battle, without being terribly outstanding.

Quintus – clearly the bad boy of the group – used to have a pilum too. However, it was posed rather poorly, not intimidating at all and that won't do. He also had a corker of a weekend, racking up almost half a dozen kills. I removed his pilum arm and replaced it with an armoured gladius arm instead. He now looks like he's banging his shield to taunt the enemy. Excellent.

I hadn't noticed until now that he has a patch over one eye. Quite ironic considering he didn't survive either battle we played on Sunday.

Crixus has been a stalwart of the ranks for a couple of months now, prompting a rather hasty paint job a few weeks ago. He got an upgrade too, going from a rather static pose of his gladius arm to something altogether more 'stabby'.

Finally we have the, as yet un-named, new boy – the Optio. I was considering calling him Cato, but there's a bit of an "…us" trend developing with my legionaries' names so I'm thinking he will have to comply… Cactus? (depends how good he is at fighting I guess).

He is made from the basic plastic legionary kit, with a couple of bits from my Greek Hoplite sprues. I chopped up a couple of Roman arms to get the angle that I wanted. It's stuck crudely in place with some greenstuff filling the gap and I'll go back and finish this off before painting. His staff is made from a Hoplite spear and is needing a top part before it is complete.

His plume also came from the Hoplites and I will sculpt a couple of simple feathers out of greenstuff to stick on either side of his helm to complete the look. Being a basic legionary figure his gladius is on the correct side for an Optio so it all worked out rather nicely.

Next post should include paint!

To be continued…

Expanding the Legion…

So the focus is back on the 'secret project' and after visiting Bull at the weekend I'm in need of building more models to expand my Roman Legionary collection.

In addition to converting my Centurion (above) to have a Gladius and Scutum (it's difficult to smite the enemy with nothing but a stick and defend yourself with nothing but harsh words) and finish painting him, I'm attempting to create an Optio.

Looking around the internet, Warlord Games do a set of three metal Optios for a fiver (above). Nice models but given that I have a box full of plastics I'd like to avoid the expense of buying more. It's very do-able, in fact as I write this he's mostly built already.

I also need to create a couple of Auxiliary Archers. That poses much more of a challenge given that (1) I don't own any Auxiliary models yet, and (2) none of the plastic Auxiliary kits available have any bows that I can see. Again, I want to keep the expense to a minimum – this will take some creative thinking!

To be continued…

More Historic Plastics…

The dabbling with historical miniatures continues. I recently acquired some metal Romans from Wargames Foundry, but today I have some pics of more plastics from Warlord Games.

You may have spotted the Hoplites (above) in the post Seven Models in Three Hours. I actually bought the Spartan box set but discovered that it's simply a Greek Hoplite box with some metal heads in it. I actually prefer the Greek helms to the historically correct Spartan ones (they look like plant pots) so I stuck with the plastic. The kit is pretty good if a tad fiddly. The only real criticism I have, and it's a growing theme with the Warlord stuff, is that the scale seems a little odd. These models are very skinny – I appreciate the Greeks may have been very athletic but this is bordering on under-nourished.

They look good though (or will when painted properly) and the price makes you smile with satisfaction too. Some nice bits on the sprues and I'll be investigating them more in the future.

As part of my Conquest of Gaul box set I bought after Salute I have these Gaul/Celt plastics. Again, great models, odd scale and a bit fiddly with the sticking. These guys are literally four piece models – legs, body/arms, head, shield. The thing to note here is that you can't just stick any body on any set of legs. Certain bodies have an extreme angle where they stick (the guy on the right) and similarly many of the legs have extreme angles too, which has the potential for some very odd poses if you choose the wrong body and leg pairings. Everything sticks together well though and they look great on the table… even unpainted.

I've been using resin bases from Fenris Games with these latest models. I love the 30mm round-edged bases that many of my favourite games employ (Warmachine, Malifaux) and really wanted to use them here, but 30mm is just too big. I discovered at Salute that Fenris do a 25mm resin version and they are perfect. They also do a deep recess version which I will be trying soon to see of I can get a coin in the base for added weight.

That's it for the plastics. I will be adding some command models to these in the next few weeks so keep an eye out for those – including a Roman Optio conversion. In the mean time I have included a photo (above) of the different models I've collected to show the variation in shape and scale… astounding!

See you at Broadside at the weekend!

Painting Update…

Given that it's been over a week since the last blog post – something that hasn't happened in a very long time – I thought that I should show my face.

The last week has been quite trying from a personal perspective; there have been several visits to hospital and lots of relaxing – little time to sit and paint in isolation. However, painting has occurred and here we go…

After the introductory game of Warmachine I was inspired to add more paint to my Cryx 'jacks. As you can see the Helljack is almost complete (top photo), just final touches here and there. Having painted up all his armour I had fun with the day-glo green paint, lots of layers and inks (more photos soon).

The Bonejacks are a little way behind but the two Deathrippers have seen paint this weekend. One is prepped for his green glow, the other has just had some metallics done. They're slowly starting to look like the making of an army. Exciting times.

Elsewhere in the Warmachine/Hordes universe I've constructed my first three Legionnaires for my Everblight army. Not necessarily the best unit choice for Legion, these guys do look very cool and should be quite straightforward to paint. I have another three waiting in the wings but looking forward to getting these guys finished first. They remind me of the GW Dark Elf Executioners, who similarly looked cool but fell a little short on the gaming table. If I refer to these guys as Executioners by accident in the future you'll know why.

As you know I've been spending a lot of time on my secret project with Romans, Vikings and Celts. In a battle last week with Fugs some heroes have emerged that required a little extra paint attention.

After being skewered in a number of games by Roman pila, this Viking hero has been dubbed Ragnar Pincushion. Some alterations to the model were required (arrows in the shield) and he got some more paint and some blonde streaks. His fortunes haven't improved much since but there is hope.

This Roman hero is Crixus. He has played a major role in Fugs' battles this last week, yet only had a black undercoated to wear for the entire campaign. After skewering poor 'Ragnar Pincushion' and holding the line against marauding Celts, Crixus had earned some new paint. Whilst still not amazing to look at, he does now fall in line with his fellow legionaries.

More updates soon…

Seven Models in Three Hours!

The red team, the blue team and the… err, gold team

With a day of gaming planned for last Sunday I had put together the necessary models during the week. Saturday evening we went to see Ironman 3, getting back around 9.30pm – it was at this point that I decided I didn't want to take plain grey plastic models to Bullcher's the next morning, I wanted to take painted models!!

Those of you who are regular visitors will know that I am a slow painter. A month for a single model is probably the norm, I'm also something of a perfectionist and cannot let models painted like crap leave the paint table. You see then that the prospect of painting seven models starting at 10pm was a bit mad and out of my comfort zone to say the least.

I spray undercoated them in black, finishing off with a brush. I then basecoated all the models in Burnt Umber before applying individual colours one at a time across all seven models. This was definitely 'painting according to Bullcher' as it was more about getting quick colour on there than any form of detail or accuracy. The paint went on so quickly it's not even "inside the lines" for the most part. The final touch was a quick brown wash to finish off (a gesture for my own peace of mind). The quickest painting I've ever done, since my days at tournaments at least.

However, it has to be said, once on the gaming table the painting did its job – the models looked far better than they would have as plain grey plastic. I will probably go back to some of them and paint up the models properly.

Roman Veteran Progress

Having been away for a long weekend this Easter there is little evidence of progress on the painting table. Keen to get some colour on my new plastic Romans, I used a couple of hours yesterday evening to get started. Naturally I jumped in with the Centurion.

I went to town on his cloak, trying to apply my usual techniques to a model that was significantly smaller than I'm used to. I discovered that I have little use for my size 2 brush, so most of the work was done with my 00. My hat is off to any of you gamers who paint smaller scale models, I'm not sure my patience (or eyesight) would stretch much below this size.

Several layers of Dark Flesh, Blood Red, Blazing Orange and Sunburst Yellow later I was washing the cloak and tunic down with Baal Red, then some brown in the folds.

While that was drying I moved onto some of the leather elements with Burnt Umber, Snakebite Yellow and a touch of Bleached Bone. This too was washed in the brown, hence it's all looking very shiny at the moment. Elsewhere I added some Oily Steel and Vermin Brown to block out the armour and skin and give me an idea of where things were heading. Looking ok so far, but we'll see how things progress.

The rest of my Roman posse looked on patiently. I have filed, based and undercoated one Legionary, but the other two are looking quite raw with their polyfilla-ed bases and mould lines still on show.

I'm starting to feel that I should have based them on the slightly larger 30mm bases that I use for Warmachine and Malifaux. The models would look a little more lost but each one would be a mini diorama. I'll reserve full judgement until these guys are finished and I can build some others to compare.

And talking of compare, for those 40k gamers who need a point of reference, here's a Legionary next to a Space Marine. The Roman's looking a bit scrawny in this pic and the marine a little more true to scale.

For those of you wondering, the scenery in these photos is actually the ruined chaos temple kit that I bought at Salute last year – I knew it would come in handy… eventually!

Review: 28mm Plastic Roman Veterans

A bit of a departure here for me. I'm going to review some models!

The kit being inspected is the Roman Veterans box, a set of 20 plastic 28mm Romans by Warlord Games, to accompany their Hail Caesar ruleset.

Now, before we get started – I don't do 28mm and I don't do historical. At least up until now. I play Warhammer 40k, Fantasy, Warmachine, Malifaux… you can see where I'm coming from. Most of the miniatures I own are 30 or 32mm 'heroic' scale models so in comparison these guys are like hobbits.

So why am I looking at this stuff, never mind buying it and painting it?

I've noticed a lot more plastic kits appearing on the market these days and from distance they look pretty good. I was intrigued to see how they compared to what I know, plastic Space Marines (© Games Workshop).

I placed my order on the Warlord Games website last Thursday mid-morning; I got an email to say it was being shipped on Tuesday evening this week and it arrived the next day. Not the quickest of deliveries, but not bad at all.

I only wanted to dip my toe in so went for the 20x Veterans box rather than something with more models in it. It has options for a Centurion and a Standard Bearer and Musician with the rest all Legionaries. I was disappointed to see that it only comes with 3 different body sculpts for the troops which, when building 17 of them, makes them look rather repetitive. In addition there are only a handful of alternative head sculpts so again repetition occurs quickly.

Being veterans these guys are battered and bruised and so is their gear. Lots of damage on shields and bandages on heads. I liked this and it's perfect for the application I have in mind for them.

The plastic itself seems good quality. As you can see I stuck my test models onto weighted 25mm bases, and standard plastic glue gave no problems with that or attaching limbs or shields (not like Privateer Press 'plastic' models). It all went together very easily and I could have added more with leg armour and other extras available on the sprue.

The detail on the sculpts is good. I especially like the Centurion and can't wait to get some paint on him. I would have liked to see shield motifs sculpted onto the models but I guess if you're doing multiple units and need different images a plain shield is best. The models came with a set of waterslide transfers which look good – won't be using them myself as I'd rather paint them on by hand, but if you had 20 to do the transfers might be a less laborious option.

I realise I've been spoilt with the quality and volume of extra 'bitz' on my 40k plastics all these years.  These models have limited poses and there's a lot of repetition but that's not to say I'm not impressed. I've a lot of faith in the quality of Warlord Games' gear – they have the pedigree to back it up – and these models do not disappoint. The quality of the product, sculpt and price per model is great and I will be dipping my toe in again at some point.

Price: 9/10
An absolute bargain, 20 models for 16 quid, fantastic!

Plastic Quality: 9/10
No problems at all, variable levels of flash and mould lines but good overall.

Sculpt Quality: 8/10
I have limited experience of this scale but they look great to me!

Poses: 7/10
Limited to sticking arms and heads on and limited alternative sculpts, but alright.

Extra Bitz: 5/10
A few bits here and there but I guess they're more of a 'nice to have'.

Overall: 8/10
Considering these are the first 28mm, non sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk plastic miniatures I've ever bought I'm really rather impressed. I am coming from a totally different perspective that most gamers who will be buying this product, my expectations were very high so the scores may seem a little harsh. I was looking for some Roman Legionaries – they certainly seem historically accurate (based upon my recent studying) and I doubt that I could find anything better out there at the moment. Very happy.

I'll do a post or two as I paint them and that will be the real test!


UPDATE…

With the realisation that the scale of these guys is on the small side I have to amend the overall score to reflect the disappointment I felt.

Overall: 7/10