Roman Legion First Attempt

Started by Jasper, 05 May 2017, 07:51:44 PM

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Norm

Very nice. I find small shields so hard to do (I have Normans on the painting tray at the moment), I suppose the knack is to be representative (towards the abstract rather than uber accurate).

toxicpixie

I recall reading In a painting guide that Ceaser, Pompey & Crassus' legions all used different coloured linen tunics and shield colours? That might be total fancy but it stuck as they looked good - all very Roman but all different. Would account for local attempts to standardise dress and gear in a non-industrial era as well. These ones were done in the north where we had loads of red dye, these ones from a region with ochre to hand, these ines we had a load of locally held indigo etc etc.
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Jasper

So here we are with my attempt at hinting at wreaths on the shields. Also started mixing up some of the metallic shades to add a bit more variety while staying uniform. Useless in close-up but I think the effect en masse is working ok.


mollinary

Hi Jasper,

I think you have really hit the spot with those. The colours are very well chosen to 'jump out' at you, and help bring the unit to life.  Providing variation while maintaining uniformity is a hard job, but well worth it in my experience. For Romans I think varying the metal of the helmets is an easy way of creating the effect, as the gamer is almost always looking down on the unit from above. 

Mollinary
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Womble67

Yeah I very much like the colours well done

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toxicpixie

What Mollinary said! And Womble :)
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FierceKitty

Those wreathes are genva apis, felis atqve vestimentvm ad somnvm.
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Techno

I think those look terrific:-bd

Not that I'm biased, 'cos I made them.  ;)

Great job !!!

Cheers - Phil

Jasper

Quote from: Techno on 06 May 2017, 11:19:18 AM
I think those look terrific:-bd

Not that I'm biased, 'cos I made them.  ;)

Great job !!!

Cheers - Phil

Thanks Phil and I must say you have done a great job on the sculpts because they have been a pleasure to paint. I only need to order the next batch of a few hundred to paint now :)

I have to ask though what it would take to get a sculpt of these guys with a pilum as they seem to be the only style of roman shields without one?

jimduncanuk

I would be interested in how you are planning to base your Romans for To the Strongest.

I have a pack of Early Imperial Romans just waiting for a paintbrush to pass their way.

I am expecting to base them on 40x20mm bases a la Warmaster so that would be two rows of 5 figures for close order troops.

I would group these bases in threes on a sabot base so a To the Strongest grid of 150mm squares would be fine.

These bases would be OK for Warmaster Ancients should I be so inclined and a T-shaped sabot would do for Warband Historical should that ever come out.

Any comments or suggestions?
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Leman

Think you've hit the nail on the head there Jim.

Jasper, the wreaths look very good on those shields.
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Matt J

When you first mentioned wreaths I thought you were asking for trouble  :)

But you pulled that off very well, bravo!
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Jasper

06 May 2017, 04:34:42 PM #27 Last Edit: 06 May 2017, 04:49:24 PM by Jasper
Quote from: Matt J on 06 May 2017, 04:15:15 PM
When you first mentioned wreaths I thought you were asking for trouble  :)

After I did a test on the first couple, I decided the effect was what I was after and as I knew I could never paint individual leaves, I resigned myself not to correct my mistakes as I went and just let them be part of the overall effect. After all these are headed for wargaming and not a display shelf :)

ps - At first I thought I was mad too  :D

pps - Thanks to everyone for your kind words of encouragement and assistance.

Jasper

06 May 2017, 04:47:01 PM #28 Last Edit: 06 May 2017, 04:49:06 PM by Jasper
Quote from: jimduncanuk on 06 May 2017, 01:34:54 PM
I would be interested in how you are planning to base your Romans for To the Strongest.

Well just before my wargaming buddy did his annual bunk over the pond to Toronto for 6 months  :'( we had a long discussion about mounting them for dual rule set use. My buddy was keen on mounting his for To The Strongest and DBM. Where I want to do To The Strongest but keep options open for the future - I have never been sold on the "DBM cause you can't retreat a mm your stand is dead stuff" - maybe take some kind of disorder test, but dead - no. Anyway, the nice thing about To The Strongest is the flexibility on basing, so we were thinking something like 60mm frontage and DBM depth +50% for troop types. We would 2 such stands to make one unit for To The Strongest - doing this would mean the legionnaires would be on 60mm x 30mm bases. Very attracted to the idea of using sabot movement trays for this, though we always hate the 4mm height rather than 2mm when you do this. I am tempted to put my legion on 30mm x 30mm bases with figures in 2 ranks and use 4 of these bases side by side for To The Strongest to give a unit frontage of 120mm. However I am also toying with going 3 bases at 40mm x 30mm. 30mm may seem a little deep for 2 ranks but it gives you just enough depth to make the base look something as well without losing mass effect of the figures.

Techno

Quote from: Jasper on 06 May 2017, 12:30:06 PM
I have to ask though what it would take to get a sculpt of these guys with a pilum as they seem to be the only style of roman shields without one?

We'll need to get Sir's input.  ;) (By that I mean Leon.)  ;)

Cheers - Phil