Young Miniatures 90mm Roman Officer 1st A.D. wip

[krom1415]

Young Miniatures 90mm Roman Officer 1st A.D. wip (phot update no 1)

I'm just preping the figure and I must say he's gorgeous, superb fit, great casts, all lubbly jubbly but I'm having trouble trying to locate where the straps go for his sword sheath, also is his plume round the wrong way i thought officers had the plume facing the flat to the front not from front to back, I'm also having trouble sourcing info on his ciurass, would it be metal or could it be leather as thats how i'd like to paint it

Here's the fella I'm starting with, my first

http://www.cinecreatif.com/index.php?id=9&idproduit=4445

 

[megroot]

Here is a site where most figures are from the roman and medieval time era.
A link to your figure: http://forums.delphiforums.com/medrenfig/messages/?start=Start+Reading+%3E%3E
As you paint with acrylic, there are alot of mixes for these gem.

Good luck, and above all: HAVE FUN

Marc

 

[Einion]

...I'm having trouble trying to locate where the straps go for his sword sheath...

Boxart not helping?

...also is his plume round the wrong way i thought officers had the plume facing the flat to the front not from front to back...

I'm not sure but I think the current thinking is it might have been either.

I'm also having trouble sourcing info on his ciurass, would it be metal or could it be leather as thats how i'd like to paint it

AFAIK there's no evidence that muscled cuirasses were leather (other than in Hollywood films!) Might be best to check on MedRom forum which has a core group of interested members. There may already be a thread reviewing this model with historical notes.

You can of course still paint it any way you want (just like lots of modellers do) but if you take the historical part of 'historical modelling' seriously - as I presume you do otherwise you wouldn't be checking first - then one should make a good-faith attempt to portray things the way we know they were, or likely were in the case of things where there's no clear evidence or multiple interpretations. So in this case that means polished surface, minimal oxidation/wear on the plate metal.

Einion

 

[krom1415]

Great reply
Thanks alot Einion

 

[Martin Antonenko]

On the picture of the box is shown a legatus or praefectus, recognizable by the muscle-coat of mail, the sash, that wore only commanders and especially by his boots (calcii equestri) which identifies him as an "equitus" (knight).

But in his Hand he holds the helmet of a centurio (cross plume).

For this uncorrectness he is only named as "Roman Officer".

To build a historic right figure, you have to change first the plum.

After that the bondages from his arms have to be removed, for high roman officers never wore something but in hollywood-films.

The muscle-coat of mail MUST be painted in metall (silver or gun metall) or in bronze or gold.
(Or silver with bronze/gold decorations).

NEVER in leather - only in Hollywood roman commanders wore such a stuff.

The other coloures oft he box art are also incorrect:

The Boots should by painted in red for he is a commander.

The tunica in "dirty white" with red stripes.

And the "paletudamentum" (coat) also in red.

That would be historically correct.

The "bracae" (trousers) he wears are historically high contested, for they were original barbarian and I don't think, roman high commanders wore barbarian clothes - I would remove them, too.

Eight weeks ago I finished my conversion from a centurio to such a praefectus, following I give you a picture of that:

 

[krom1415]

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply Martin, I think I'm forced then as I do not want to convert him to go with my interpretation of this Roman Officer, a mix of real and fantasy, I will try a bronze cuirass

 

[Martin Antonenko]

I think, if you will use the right colours, it will be a fine figure als well.

If you have any questions for details, ask here again.

Greetings

 

[krom1415]

These large scale fella's are a bit more involved than I supposed hats off to you all
It all started well enough, I made a great colour for the leather, ok on his trousers then got stuck on his cuirass

Would you say this is a fair representation of colour for a bronze cuirass?

 

[megroot]

I made my bronze colour as follows.
First undercoat with burnt umber acrylic.
Then i mix some golden printers ink with burnt umber.
That is my base. Put it on the figure and let dry. Shading is done with burnt umber and raw umber.
Highlighting with more golden printers inkt.
What you get is this:
That is a bronze color for me.

Marc

 

[krom1415]

He looks good megroot, I like the warmer tone of the bronze on your figure, great job.
I'll try a burnt umber colour, cheers.
I'm just trying to do his face, eyes etc

 

[Mark S]

Hi.Mark.
I just had this crazy,radical idea.I don't know whats come over me but I just thought how about you paint this figure how you would like it to be.
Just paint it the way you like and don't let anyone tell you how it SHOULD be!!
You stated in your original post that you'd like to paint the cuirass as leather~do it!
If what you want from figure painting is flawless accuracy then continue to seek advice from those who were obviously there at the time,otherwise try just enjoying yourself! - that's what I think it's about.

 

[krom1415]

thanks Mark for the grounding advice, much appreciated I'm having problems with my Virgo nature trying to get everything as it should, and failing miserably well its my birthday today, 49, and very depressed as I only feel 29
However I agree, I did get this roman so I could enjoy painting again, rather than the stress of painting everyone elses, but I do like a smack of realism, thats what attracted me to these larger figures. His cuirass looks like a mixture of leather and brass atm, so depending on what it looks like at the end I can adjust the fluff then
I'm determined to get a wip photo of him today, just to see what he looks like up close as I'm awaiting my new glasses so I can see straight

 

[Mark S]

Mark,if your 49 and feelin' 29 you're doing OK.
It was my 47th last week but I can't say I'm feelin' 27.
But you're only as young as the woman you feel!
Anyway-Looking forward to the WIP pics!

 

[krom1415]

Ok, dont laugh just trying to cover the white bits really, still got some round the back of the cloak etc bits to do before I can glue him together and start shading. I did highlight the trousers but I think it needs some more
I'm having problems with andrea paint, does anyone else find it dries so quick it starts developing lumps in the paint

 

[megroot]

Hi.Mark.
If what you want from figure painting is flawless accuracy then continue to seek advice from those who were obviously there at the time,otherwise try just enjoying yourself! - that's what I think it's about.

Yes, but you can have fun and enjoying by painting it as accurate as possible. I find this a rare statement to say that people giving advice as they are there.
You can read books, visit museums and look at the excavations...then you should see that the books are not so wrong.
And history books, are most at the time based on facts, not fantasy.
If you want fantasy, paint fantasy figures, maybe you can paint a roman in purple and pink and put it on the fantasy....there is nothing wrong with that.
But when somebody would like to paint as accurate as possible, dont give him this kind of advice....
Just my two cents.

Marc

 

[theseeker]

Good start. I like your leather tones. You are very aggressive with using black on the cloak. Black is a very difficult color to highlight and you have to add some other color to your basic mix to achieve the right outcome. However, I applaud your efforts.
In the case of Andrea paints, I have had similar issues with some bottles. I have since switched Vajello for my acrylic needs and found them to be much better in overall quality.
Keep it up!

Rocky

 

[krom1415]

Update of the face, comments gratefully recieved
theseeker, thanks for that

 

[theseeker]

Krom,

Outstanding painting on the face IMO! I cannot grasp acrylics when it comes to faces. I believe that you have a gift my friend.

Rocky

 

[JGREEN]

Good job on the face! It's coming along very nicely.

Jason

 

[krom1415]

Thanks Rocky that sure inspires me to keep going, these bigguns take some doing thats for sure
I'm not happy with the face, as he's still a bit rough, and I have not grasped the layers quite right, but overall he's looking pretty good.