morituri te salutant

One of my closest friends and regular wargames opponents is a professor of Roman History. So we’ve tended to avoid games set in this period, (I once made the foolish mistake of GMing Cthulhu Invictus). So imagine my surprise when I got a text saying that I should get the new issue Wargames illustrated as it has a Gladiator game and models, along with some photos of models he’d painted already.

Well colour me supprised. I needed to get hold of a copy of this magazine. I speak latin and studied Romans at University, I’ve even worked on Roman archaeological excavations, but they have never been a academic passion of mine. Yet who can not love the grandure that is Rome. Luckily Sainsburys had the magazine in, so away I go.

If I was to write a project just about me painting four models, as much as that would be a challenge it wouldn’t be very interesting for you dear reader. So I decided to set myself a small challenge (no endless vows and side quests) but an artistic one.

As I wrote in the first post, I’m not a purest when it come to Roman History and I love the Ridley Scott film Gladiator. So I’m going to try and copy the pallete of the film and in particular, the film posters

I’m going limit my colours to reds and gold to go for the pure majesty of Rome, copying the look of the iconic images.

So the next thing is to open the magazine and build the models.

Now that the spring clean challenge has drawn to a close and the temperatures have suddenly raised to the match Pompeii in 79 AD I thought I’d start work on the Romans.

The models are fairly simple, and I followed the instructions in the magazine.

I since they didn’t come with bases I went with 2p pieces since they fit nicely and have a nice weight to them

I want to give these models a very stylised look. So I’m using a slapchop method bit far lighter so it shows more and greater shadows. Going over first with a white and then a brilliant white should show the tones well.

If I didn’t have an idea in my head, I would be half tempted to leave them in this state as they have feel of the bodies from Pompeii

So using the magic of the colour pens the models are painted

Just bases and shields left to do.

I was so cuffed I’d painted four models I forgot to up date this project. But yes I have finished

I’m quite happy with them. And I’m happy to say the project.

The final look of these models put me on mind of  anime which in turn made me think of having a go at painting some infinity models in the same style.