Friday, January 9, 2015

Roman Commanders

Here are the command bases for my Imperial Roman Army. 5 bases are good enough for even a large battle, and I can only see myself needing more if I ever want to play a civil war scenario. In that case, I'd need double the legionary units, so coming up with more commanders would be the least of my problems...

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This bigger base below portrays the big man himself: Julius Caesar. We can see him being advised by a trusted Centurion. A signifer stands close behind, while a legionary guides Caesar's horse.

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Coming up with his iconic red cape was tricky. I searched through my pile of 40k bits, and finally found a small banner that, once adjusted in the borders, looked good enough for the job. He now looks ready to crush the celtic uprising and take all of Gaul, for the glory of Rome!

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6 comments:

  1. Hey mate, love these models! I'm just starting a 1/72 roman legion myself, so I've got a few questions for you! The models come on little plastic bases. Did you remove those before you based the models on their Hail Caesar bases? It's hard to tell from the pictures. Also, how are you preparing the models prior to painting? I'm currently using a plastic undercoat spray, then giving them a coat of black spray undercoat. Really great work.

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    1. Hi, Charlie,

      Welcome to the amazing world of 1/72 collecting! About your questions:

      - You shouldn't remove the bases from your models. First, it'd be a chore to do so. Second, you'd be reducing the contact area of the model with the mdf base you're going to glue it on, thus making its grasp on it much fainter.

      - I first give them a bathe of warm water + dish soap, after removing the mold lines. This helps remove any demolding oils that might be present on the plastic. After leaving the models resting in the warm water, I carefully wash them, so to remove all the dish soap, and then prime them white.

      It's better to prime a model with a clear color, such as white or light grey when you have too much light areas to paint. These romans, for instance, have a lot of exposed flesh, and painting it over black prime is very hard, demanding several layers, which end up covering detail.

      I don't undercoat my model once primed. I go directly to applying each specific color to it.

      If you'd like to know about making basings, you can check my tutorial on it (find it on the Topics label).

      Hope this helps!

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    2. Thanks, I liked your basing tutorial! What paints to you use to prime and paint your models? 1/72 plastics can be hard to get the paint to adhere.

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    3. I use mainly Citadel, Vallejo and Formula P3. But the actual technique to preserve you minis from chipping is not touching them (!). That is, once you're done painting, glue them to their bases, spray varnish and from then on only hold them by the bases, avoid at all costs touching the models. You want them to last decades, not months, so you need to be delicate on handling them.

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