Thanks Jaime, I appreciate that.


Ciao

Roc

Anders, thanks man, I'm trying.


Cheers

Roc.

He is looking great so far Roc...........look forward to the next pic

Roc, my friend, I was on vacation but I am here again. Your figure seems to be a gold medal. Again a very good work. I am also very interested in your next pic.

Regards,

Rafa

Thanks Guy, always appreciate your comments and help.


Cheers.

Roc.

Rafael, my friernd, it's good having you back and thank you very much for your kind words of support.


Ciao,

Roc.

hey guys, just finished painting our Mule's sandels ,they are drying in the oven,
hopefully, time permitting , I'll be able to post some pictures by the end of the week.

Cheers,

ROC.

This is the diet of the Roman, kind of makes you feel sorry for our poor, tired old mule.

Apart from at the banquets of the rich, meat was rarely a part of the Roman diet.
The diet of the Roman army, shows us much about the Roman ideas of nutrition. The Roman word for wheat is frumentum. And it was the same word which eventually came to describe army rations itself. Generally the army ration consisted of little else than wheat. The soldiers themselves then ground the grain they were given and made it into things such as porridge or bread.
Whenever possible the monotonous army diet was naturally supplemented with whatever came to hand. Pork, fish, chicken, cheese, fruit or vegetables. But the basic ration of frumentum always formed the basis of the diet. So much so, that if in times of supply difficulties the grain would fail to reach the troops and instead other foodstuffs (even meat !) were handed out, there would be discontent among the ranks.
Naturally the officers of the army enjoyed a more versatile diet. Archaeologists working along Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain discovered records for the household of a commander of a fort from around AD 100. These records listed choice cuts of pork, even piglet, chicken, venison, anchovies, oysters, eggs, radishes, apples, lentils, beans, lard and butter.

Thanks Roc.......this is part of figure painting I enjoy as well. Sometimes when looking for references, I get caught up in a book and end up reading the whole book.

Hey Guy , I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.

I agree with you, the research is as much fun to me as painting.


Cheers,

Roc.

Hey guys, I think these picture are much better.
The sandels need more highlights and shadows.













Cheers,

Roc.

Beautiful work Roc........excellent work

Thanks Guy, our mule is slowly but surly nearing his destination.

Cheers,

Roc.

The shield and spme of the equipment.








Tomorrow, I will weather the shield covering with washes of Sepia and raw umber,
and I will add some rust to the metal parts of the equipment.

Cheers

Roc.

Roc. Muy buen trabajo (this is the second lesson)

Roco, as usual... WOW

Jaime

Jaime, gracias mi amigo, your words are very inspiring and thank you for the second Spanish lesson, before you know it you will have me speaking Spanish.


Ciao

Roc.

Beautiful work Roc...........how did you paint the handles on the equipment?

Hi Guy, thanks buddy.

this is how I painted the handles on the equipment:

Used oils directly over the floquil primer, because the primer absorbs the oils and I wanted a very dry wood,

Base = a mix of Mars yellow + transparant ochre +titanium white and toned it down wit a bit of Burnt Umber.

Medium shadows = pure burnt umber

Deep shadows = Windsor blue.


Grain of the wood = added little irregular lines with burnt umber , next to the
burnt umber added irregular lines of Mars yellow mixed with
titanium white as to replicate the grain of the wood.
with a
an old flat brush, very gently, using a very light touch
went over the entire wood , being careful not to disturb
the grain.

shadows = brush on a little Sepia into the brown grains to give them a
some more depth.
Highlight = touch up the light grains with naples yellow+ a touch of white.

when completely dry, usually after a couple of days, I will give
it a wash a thin wash of Sepis to tie everything together.

Cheers,

Roc.

I have just painted the Pilum and it is drying in the oven,time permitting, I will be able to post some pictures by the end of the week.

The following is a description of the Pilum:

The javelin or pilum consists of a long iron head with a small point, and a wooden shaft. On the most common type, the bottom of the head widens into a flat tang, which is riveted into the widened top of the wood shaft. The second type has a socketed head, and a third type, less well-known, has a spike tang. In the first century AD, some tanged pila are shown with a spherical weight, presumed to be lead, behind the joint block. Apparently the weapon had become lighter over the centuries, and the weight was added to increase its "punch".

Pilum heads are 14" to 30" long, with pyramidal or barbed points c. 2" long. The iron shanks are about 1/4" thick (round) below the point, swelling to c. 3/8" or 1/2" square at the base. The tang is an inch or more wide, and can be rectangular or slightly flaired. (Before forging the tang, it's a good idea to fold up c. 6" of the shank, then flatten, to strengthen the tang and allow more width.) There is no evidence that the points were specially hardened--they penetrate simply due to their shape. Likewise, the iron shank cannot really be described as "soft", it bends on impact because it is thin.
The wood shaft is made all in one piece, generally ash, though oak or hickory are also acceptable. Overall it is 4 to 5 feet long, making the complete weapon 5-1/2 to 7 feet in length. Most of the length (or all of it, for a socketed pilum) is round in section, about 7/8" to 1-1/8" in diameter. At the top of the top of the shaft is the tapered, square-section "joint block", 5" to 8" long. It is slotted to receive the tang, and capped with an iron ferrule or collett which is secured by 2 little iron wedges. (Since the ferrule is also tapered, it works best to allow a little of the wood to project above it, to be splayed out by the wedges.) Two or three rivets hold the tang in place; a socketed head needs only a small nail.


The pilum is a very dangerous weapon. The small point could penetrate a shield and wound the man behind it, or even pierce armor. It has often been said that the pilum was designed to get stuck in an enemy's shield, forcing him to discard it, but of course its primary function was to kill. However, the shield-disabling capabilities of the weapon would be a very visible and important side effect! A shield with a pilum stuck firmly in it would be very cumbersome, due to the leverage of the shaft. An oncoming Roman would be able knock the shaft aside to pull the victim's shield out of place, or simply step on it (if it's close enough to the ground) to rip the shield out of the hand. If the pilum is loose in the hole it has made, the buttspike will dig in and act like a doorstop, possibly very suddenly. There would only be a few seconds from the time the pila hit to the moment when the Romans arrive with swords and shields ready, not long enough to set a shield down and yank out a pilum. One can well imagine the effect of hundreds of pila crashing into a line of barbarians who are just starting to charge. As well as those wounded and killed outright, many men will suddenly be tripping over pila and shields, or trying to stop and back up to remove pila from their shields (or bodies!). This will disrupt the entire formation--the pilum is a charge-breaker.

Finally, no matter what the javelin hit, its iron shank was supposed to bend, if only a little, so that an enemy could not throw it back. When the Romans were finished winning the battle they could gather their pila and straighten them.





Back in the early Republic, c. 5th to 4th century BC, the pilum was made in "heavy" and "light" versions. The light one seems to have been the socketed style, with a long narrow iron shank and a small point, with a socket at the bottom to connect to the wooden shaft. The heavy version generally had a shorter, stouter iron shank with a barbed head, widening at the base into a large flat tang which was solidly riveted into block at the top of the wooden shaft. By about the 2nd century BC or so, the tanged variety also has a version with a longer, slimmer iron shank like the light pilum, though it seems the overall construction was still "heavy". The general concept was to throw the light pila first, probably at a range of about 30 yards, then the heavy ones just before the final charge. The men farther back in the ranks may have held onto theirs at first, and moved up to the front as the men who started there got tired and moved back to rest.


Gaius Marius is credited with a design change about 100 BC. He found that the iron shank was not bending very often, so that the enemy were able to throw the pila back at the Romans. So he had one of the two iron rivets that held the parts together replaced with a wooden peg which would break or shear off on impact, causing the head to flop and making it unusable. After the battle it was a simple matter to replace those pegs. One problem is that on many of the surviving pilum heads from this general era, the edges of the tang are bent to form flanges which essentially wrap around the wooden junction block. So they aren't going to flop if one rivet is missing! But of course few of these can be dated with certainty, and there do seem to be pilum heads with simple flat tangs which would function as the story says.






Cheers

Roc

Excellent work Roc!! He is really comming together!