Ok, no review here. There is one of them here on the planet already. No, this time I decided to do something different. Or different for me at least as of late . After some well meant prodding by Anders, I (make sure your'e sitting down) put brush to paint! It took me long enough but I finally found my "mojo". I didn't even have to hunt down Allotta Fagina! :lol: In any case, I wanted to paint the metal parts first and their surrounding area. The phalerae (badges of honor, the disc's on his chest) should be in silver but they could also be in bronze. I had already painted these when I thought to check my references and see if I was right. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong but I guess I could argue that they are bronze, just polished. It doesn't hold water with me either. Well then, how about this........I like the way they look and don't feel like repainting them? :lol: I tried painting his tunic an off-white but I think I failed miserably. When it comes to painting white.....I suck! I better learn fast though. I also have Pegaso's Teutonic Grand Master! The close up photos (the last 2) show all the character that this head has. There's more there too. One of the better heads I have seen on a figure. Iv'e also heard that this figure suffers from a bad case of "too-small-head-itis". I personally don't think this is true. The cloak he's wearing is rather large and makes the figure look larger than it is. You can also see some of the detail sculpted into his phalerae. In short, this is a BEAUTIFUL figure and so easy to paint. Well, give it a look and if there are any mistakes I need to fix before I move on, let me know.

Thanks for your time,
Jim Patrick

Jim,

Really nice job on the leather and armor. I look forward to seeing more of it.

Joe

Hey Jim!!

Great to see that you got your mojo back! Looks great too, the metallics rock!

How about sharing the paint mix for the chin guards?

Keep it up man!!

I really like it so far Jim, you can now move on without any hesitation.
I can't wait to see your flesh tones.

Excellent beginning, Jim!

You give me the inspiration to start painting this figure!

I like your idea with bronze Phalerae. If I'll do the same, this Primus Pilus will be different from my other Centurions!

Looking forward for your progress in painting.

Galeamin

Looks great JIm...........keep those brushes wet!

Jim-

Looks real nice so far!

I am working on the Teutonic Grand Master now myself. Looking forward to seeing how you do the whites too.

Keith

Jim-

Looks real nice so far!

I am working on the Teutonic Grand Master now myself. Looking forward to seeing how you do the whites too.

Keith

Jim,
Outstanding as always...
How did you get the brown leather tone?

All the best

Patrick

that's a great start Jim. Will love to see more

Stephen Mallia

Thanks to all of you the compliments. As to how I actually feel about the figure, eh....it's ok. There's a lot I need to do to improve in my painting skills before I'll sit back and say, "I like this painted figure". For instance, I'll wait to re-paint the white tunic untill all the other colors are there so I can "see" it better. At which point in time, I'll probably re-paint it :lol: . The shingaurds were painted with 878 Old Gold (2 drops) + 921 English Uniform (1) + 862 Black Grey (1). Highs were painted by adding 913 Yellow Ochre and finally 858 Ice Yellow for the highest highlights. The shadows were done by first adding more English Uniform then finally some Black Grey. I was trying to get some dirty, worn looking shinguards that would be a completely different tone than the phalerae. Worthy of note here, I didn't worry too much about the subtle blending between colors. I wanted a stark contrast because of my next steps. I then gave the whole shinguard (both) a wash (VERY light) of old gold. Just enough to give a hint of a shiny material. Finally, I went over both with a gloss varnish built up in (again) thin coats. That way it doesn't go straight to a gloss finish. I can build it up to a slightly satin finish. That's it. I'll go back and add more earth tones to weather it once I'm ready to do the groundwork and I settle on my colors for that.
The leather strips were painted with a base coat of 871 Leather Brown + 825 Cam. Pale Violet Brown. About 1:1. Maybe a little more 871. Ikept adding 825 to this until I was almost at a pure 825 but not quite. I then added 874 US Tan Earth for the highest highs. This is along the edges in it's purest. After looking at this, I'm thinking about adding some more to the outlining. Just a little more contrast. For shadows I started out with 871 then added 822 SS Camo Black Brown.
Well, not much painting going in my model room tonight. The DVD player is messing up and the family has informed that they are moving over to the computer to watch Shrek 2. Oh, the sacrafices we modelers make! :lol:

Thanks Again,
Jim Patrick

Trying some different colors tonight. I'm not so sure I like them or not. What do the rest of you think? The cloak is painted with Andrea's Reddish Brown. I roughed in the trousers with some brown shades. They look ok I guess but I'll probably go back and do some more work on them. I put the base coat of yellow ochre on the tassels hanging from the leather armor just to see the colors in there. You can see the white tunic a little better now but not too much. I also thought about doing the trousers in a dark/medium blue color (just to have a different color in there). What do you think about the color for the tunic and cloak? Leave them or use different colors?

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

Jim, Very nice job on the figure, I espcially like the leatherwork.~Gary

Jim,

First off, I like the color of the cloak. From what I see on my monitor, it looks very much in the scarlet range. If the cloak is anything close to a scarlet red, I don't believe it would be correct for this guy. My understanding is that scarlet cloaks were only worn by Roman generals.

Gary