Well I did mention in an earlier thread that I had this figure lurking in my grey army and after finishing one of the Metal Modelles mounted figures (which seemed to take a pleasant age) I wanted a 'quick' paint job so I rummaged through the box 'til I found this fella again. 
It is the well know 'Scissors' gladiator in 54 mm by Pegaso. Quality of casting was everything you'd expect, but only when I started painting did I find out how good it really is . . .
The only slight change was to modify the head so that he was looking left and slightly down - Remembering the chat that Mike Blank gave at this years 'Euro' about altering the attitude of a figure with very tiny adjustments to the head [especially] to convey different emotions and attitudes. This chap already had a whole heap of bad-ass and it was surprising how a slight change in stance moved him away from the 'straight up and down' of the original. (That's a lot of explaining for a tiny change, but I really do urge you to try altering the head position with the next figure you're working on to get the idea of how effective it can be.
Priming was done in Citadel black spray for a change (I've started playing with black primer instead of my usual white) The rest of the painting was in Vallejo and Andrea acrylics which have slightly different 'matt' finishes. Metallic paint was my now favoured Darkstar mixed with dark blue/grey/black/green and brown. Only the final highlights used the pure metallic paint. Lots of washes and back and forth with scratches and stippling built up an acceptable (to me at least) effect. I added some acrylic varnishes to further differentiate the surface textures.
(I decided to leave the nipple rings in the end although I'm not sure of their purpose.
)
The base is Das pronto covered in 'Hull texture powder' which is a very fine grit used by the tank boys for texturing turrets and the like. Most sands are too large for this scale IMO, but I've found that this works very well if not quite in the way the manufacturers originally intended.
I had intended to add a drip of blood coming from the sword, but after some experiments with a kitchen knife and a bloody piece of meat (yes really!) it was obvious that this wasn't appropriate for a figure standing away from his victim so I settled on some stain on the sand below the blade.
Great figure that I'd heartily recommend
Cheers
Paul
It is the well know 'Scissors' gladiator in 54 mm by Pegaso. Quality of casting was everything you'd expect, but only when I started painting did I find out how good it really is . . .
The only slight change was to modify the head so that he was looking left and slightly down - Remembering the chat that Mike Blank gave at this years 'Euro' about altering the attitude of a figure with very tiny adjustments to the head [especially] to convey different emotions and attitudes. This chap already had a whole heap of bad-ass and it was surprising how a slight change in stance moved him away from the 'straight up and down' of the original. (That's a lot of explaining for a tiny change, but I really do urge you to try altering the head position with the next figure you're working on to get the idea of how effective it can be.
Priming was done in Citadel black spray for a change (I've started playing with black primer instead of my usual white) The rest of the painting was in Vallejo and Andrea acrylics which have slightly different 'matt' finishes. Metallic paint was my now favoured Darkstar mixed with dark blue/grey/black/green and brown. Only the final highlights used the pure metallic paint. Lots of washes and back and forth with scratches and stippling built up an acceptable (to me at least) effect. I added some acrylic varnishes to further differentiate the surface textures.
(I decided to leave the nipple rings in the end although I'm not sure of their purpose.
)The base is Das pronto covered in 'Hull texture powder' which is a very fine grit used by the tank boys for texturing turrets and the like. Most sands are too large for this scale IMO, but I've found that this works very well if not quite in the way the manufacturers originally intended.
I had intended to add a drip of blood coming from the sword, but after some experiments with a kitchen knife and a bloody piece of meat (yes really!) it was obvious that this wasn't appropriate for a figure standing away from his victim so I settled on some stain on the sand below the blade.
Great figure that I'd heartily recommend
Cheers
Paul
Encouraged by the progress I'm prepping a few more figures ready to play with at Bugle Call
