Roman legionary and Spartan hoplight

[Epeeman]

Right, here goes -

Finally worked up the courage to post a picture of a couple my efforts on figure building - I normally build WW1 aircraft but like to have a go a figure from time to time for a change -

These are the Miniart 1:16 Roman legionary 1st century and Spartan hoplight.

Epeeman

[Paul RH]

Nice work..I keep meaning to get myself some of these from Miniart..never get around to it though.

[Epeeman]

Thanks, Paul -

I know you like ancient figures (especially Romans like me) so you should really have a go at these - I'm sure with your excellent skills they would really look the part.

Just be aware - the figures need a look of prep work especially tidying up the parts and usually lots of filler to hide all the joins. That said, bear in mind the reasonable price for such large scale figures. I like them - would love to see Miniart release a roman cavalry figure in this scale.

Epeeman

[cmatthewbacon]

Those look great... it'd be nice to see some pictures in natural light to get a better idea of how you've done the skin tones, which get a bit washed out in the flash. I particularly like the metalwork on the Legionary. Did you get the decal to work on the Spartan's shield or did you paint it? That seems to me to be the Achilles heel of these kits...

I find that if you apply Contacta or Humbrol Poly to both the mating surfaces of the limbs etc, leave it 30 seconds, and then clamp them together HARD, you can get enough molten plastic to ooze out that you minimise the need for filling...

Agreed on the cavalryman, by the way. They are pretty good at getting the maximum use out of the moulds, these guys, hence all the varieties of Greeks and Romans who are basically the same, and ditto some of the later periods - Cuirassier and Dragoon (I've done the Cuirassier), the Knights, and the Musketeers. I've got the French Musketeer and King's Guard to do (Athos and the Captain with the eyepatch, in my mind...), and I really wish they'd get round to releasing the promised Tsarist Russian officer of 1910, because a) that'd be something really different, and it opens up a whole host of possibilities for exotic pre-WW1 glamourous uniforms of Europe...

Great work!

bestest,

M.

[Epeeman]

Thank you for your kind words, M -

Agree the decals area very thin and break very easy. On the spartan figure I did use the kit decal. I first applied some decal setting solution to the surface of the shield. After carefully applying decal, followed up by using Revell decal soft which worked superb. After leaving on for a few minutes, I carefully used soft brush to gently brush out decal to match contours of the sheild. Once dry, coated with a couple coats of clear gloss. As regards the legionary armour - simply painted on 'steel'. Once dry, mixed up a wash of steel mixed with black and painted over all the metal coloured surfaces. After drying, dry brushed sharpe edges with silver to try and replicate look of polished iron. For note, I only use Revell Aqua Colour paints - I really rate these paints. Only let down by (compared to other paint makers) a more limited range of colours and find some of the metallics not so good. The best metallics being steel, aluminium and silver.

Apologies for my standard of photography - I'm just no good with my camera! I agree some detail has been hidden by the flash. I won't pretend my representation of flesh is as good as it coud be!.

I have built the French Guardsman - hell of a lot of work on this due to some very poor fit on some parts resulting in very large gaps that have to be fillled. That said, as before, after a bit of effort, built up (for me) into a reasonable figure.

Thank you for your filling tip. I admit to being a bit obsessive about filling as I hate to see a joint even if only feint. I will keep working on the join until I am satisfied that it is not visible. A visible join (I think) looks particulary bad on a model figure.

Epeeman