Soldiers Roman Navarca, Battle of Actium 31 BC

For all of the wonderful things about painting with oils, the only drawback is drying time. To battle this I seem to have three or four figures on the bench at any one time. With my recent acquisitions of the latest Roman subjects from Soldiers came this figure (just when I think I'm caught up they come out with more - that new Senator will be a challenge in white no doubt). SR-46 depicts a Roman Navarca or Naval Officer from Marc Anthony's Fleet at the Battle of Actium in 31BC. As with all of Soldier's figures sculpted by Adriano Laruccia this figure is a real beauty. The casting is perfect and the sculpting couldn't be any better. As you can see from the box art this will be a colorful and different addition to my Roman collection.

So far I have primed all of the pieces and have begun the flesh (basic mid-tone highlights and shadows - wet on wet technique. The head and cape are not glued on yet as I want easy access to the details on the torso. The cheek pieces are masked so that I can work with the natural metal of the kit once the face is completed. A hint here for everyone. For a masking agent I simply go to the nearest can of latex house paint in the basement and use a bit to paint on the areas needing to be masked off. Once dry you can then spray your primer. Once the mask has served it's purpose simply remove with tweezers and move on. Everybody that owns a house has some latex house paint around so why spend money on a little bottle of frisket or similar. I replaced the shaft of his lance with brass rod as one can never truly straighten the cast metal shafts included in kits. I used brass as the shaft will be painted blue. Normally for shafts that remain natural wood I will sand down a wooden dowel to scale thickness and use oils to stain the wood.