Rome wasn’t built in a day and this lot of Early Imperial Romans aren’t going to be painted that quickly either!
I’ve just completed my first batch and I’ve learnt a few things along the way. I’ve never batch painted before and now that I have I have to say that I found it rather therapeutic – moving from one figure to the next doing exactly the same thing.
This first batch was a bit of trial run through really; I wanted to see what colours would work for the flesh and things like leggings, so I didn’t quite do exactly the same on each one. But I think the best way to batch paint is to make everything the same, that way you achieve the aim, which is to get them painted as quickly as possible. next time I’ll make all the flesh and leggings the same colour, and then change on the next batch.
I kept the process simple. The flesh was just a basecoat followed by a wash, with everything else getting an extra highlight on top.
The only other thing worth mentioning is how I did the horses. All the miniatures had a zenithal prime – Black, Cold Grey, White – and for the horses I applied three coats of Citadel’s Contrast Darkoath Flesh. As you can see, it turns a nice brown colour with some nice shading. I’ll use the same colour for the next batch of cavalry, but I want to make the odd one or two a bit different and I’ll probably use Contrast paint for those too.
Having looked at the pictures I think I need to do the hooves in a different colour, maybe I should have actually looked at a horse before I started painting them!
Taking the pictures was a bit more of a challenge, due to the small size (10mm) of the figures, and blown up too large they look pretty terrible, but I found a compromise in the end – small figures need small pictures!
I’ve left the bases for now. I haven’t exactly decided how to base them or how many to a base. I thought I’d wait until they’re all finished and work it out from there to fit the rules.
Well, that’s about it really. I knocked them out quite quickly and have the next batch ready for priming, so I should get around to them pretty soon. I’m trying to limit my work in progress box to something I can manage in a month, but hey, this is me, I’m slow and there’s always something else that needs doing first!
The Solo Meeple 
All very nice, Justin! π You’re making good progress there and these figures really do look good! When I have armies to paint I tend to do them in batches of five to ten to feel like I’m making progress. Funnily enough, I’ve only just mentioned your figures in an e-mail to my mate John, as he’s busy working on his Roman legions for the Punic Wars at the moment!
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I thought my ears had been burning, lol!
Yeah, I think it’s about finding the right balance to avoid monotony whilst making speedy progress. I think no more than ten for me.
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Nice progress you are making on your legions. Soon you’ll be ready to cry, “Quintili Vare, legiones redde” or some variation on the theme. π
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Lol, thanks. Maybe a replay of the Battle of the Teutoburg is a good place to start – at least I’ll have something to shout if I lose!
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That is true, you would, which is always great! π
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Almost forgot to say, all of this makes me want to rewatch (for the Nteenth time) Robert Graves’ “I Claudius” series that they did as a teleplay for PBS years ago.
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Can’t say I’ve ever seen that, I’ll have to try and root it out, thanks.π
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If you do, I hope you enjoy it. I looked up “I, Claudius” on Wikipedia and saw it came out in 1976. I found it very entertaining and have re-watched it several times.
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Wow, yes. Iβve just looked it up myself, Derek Jacobi, yes Iβm sure I recall seeing it at some point. I was a bit of a Roman History Buff in my youth and Iβm sure I watched some of it, at least the clips Iβve just watched rang a bell anyway – I shall investigate more. Thanks for bringing that up π
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They look great! Never done any 10mm but you have nailed them. Good luck in the woods!
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Thanks. I’d never done anything anywhere near that small before and I was surprised by how good they look when viewed at gaming distance. It’s trying to avoid the temptation to add too much detail that keeps getting me – I feel like I should be doing more!
Still a long way to go before I get them to the table, though. You could say I can’t see the wood for th trees at the moment π
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I feel your pain! I’ve fallen in love with GW Contrast paints; just splash the stuff on and watch it do its stuff!
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Lol, thanks.
I wasnβt a fan of the Contrast paints to start off with, but Iβm starting to get a liking for them, but Iβm not using them as originally intended. I use them more like a glaze or a stain, they certainly donβt save me any time.
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