The Battle of Strasbourg - Update #1

Although these pictures are a few months old I wanted to post an update on the SBS for this vignette I have been working on. If you saw my first post you will remember that this will be a two figure vignette, one on foot and one mounted. Progress has been slow but this where we stand at the moment.

I began by painting the horse a basic mix of Mars Black and Burnt Umber. The armor was given an initial wash of Burnt Umber followed by a second wash of Burnt Umber with a bit of Mars Black added. The groundwork was given initial washes of Burnt Umber and Greenish Umber.

All of the leather was then painted with a mixture of Mars Brown and a touch of Yellow Ochre. The armor was lightly washed with Mars Black to further bring out the detail of the various plates.

The next step was to apply a thin wash of Burnt Umber to all of the leather. This ages the leather, tones down the bright base color and begins to pop out the stitching details. I have also applied some brown glazes to the horse to "warm" the tone a bit.

All of this work is designed to give a broad feel to the look of the horse and his armor. details will now begin to picked out and cleaned up. The armor plates will be NMM on these figures. A lot of my time has been taken up recently with experimentation using acrylics. This piece will be a mixture of both oils and acrylics as I try to hone some of my skills with the new medium. Cloth will be acrylic but the flesh and armor will all be oils. I have attached the rider's legs to the horse and my next post will show progress on him and the foot figure.

Something New - The Battle of Strasbourg 357 AD

 

My next little Roman project uses two Soldiers kits sculpted by Laruccia. The scene depicts two combatants at the Battle of Strasbourg (Argentoratum) in 357AD. The foot figure is SR49 a Roman Infantry Officer and the mounted figure is SR-63 a Roman  Cataphract (Scola Scutariorum Clibanariorum). The setting is just prior to the battle.

 

Strasbourg was a battle fought between the armies of Caesar Julian and the Alamanni tribal confederation under King Chnodomar in what is known today as Alsace France. The battle was a hard fought but decisive victory for the Roman Army. The Cataphract Cavalry didn't fare well in the battle so our cavalryman's smile will soon be gone.

 

This piece is just in it's infancy, especially with so many other projects on the burner (3 busts and two other figures). I am excited about this one though as I haven't completed a mounted figure in quite some time.

Heavy Roman Infantry Weathering

I promised some shots of my last vignette once the weathering had been completed. Despite the fact that many of you may be tired of seeing this piece already I wanted show it in it's final glory. In addition to adding dirt and stains, a few scrub plants were added as well. I also replaced the name plate as I had inadvertently forgot to over strike the date with a correct one when I first printed it. I think the final result is much improved over the last photos. I hope you all agree.

 

 

Heavy Roman Infantry Vignette - Completed

At long last this piece is nearly complete. Except for some weathering on the shields and any minor touch ups required it is done. I really need the arrows to dry before getting anywhere near the shields with a brush. Just realized that I didn't over type the date so a new name tag is in order as well.

This vignette of The Battle of Resaena was quite a bit of fun despite the time required to complete. Enjoy!

Heavy Roman Infantry Vignette - Update 10

Posts have been few and far between lately. This matches my output as summer has been in full swing. Work, my daughter's annual summer visit and HEAT have been the number one culprits but taking step by step photos of the shields as they progressed was the order of the month to get us to this point. I have completed the basic artwork of the three shields with weathering, damage and application of a few arrows saved for last.

Both shield designs are from the Dura Europas find and depict a war god motif. A different technique of building the design was used on each shield to see what would work best for future shields. All work is done in oil paints as always.

A base of Deep Cadmium Red with Mars Black stippled into the bottom half as a shadow tone. This provides the basic color canvas to begin the design. The outer edge is stitched leather and will be saved for last.

Mars Brown and Titanium White mixture used to create the figure's outline.

Yellow Ochre and Titanium White to create the cape outline. A lighter tone was used for hair.

Titanium White was applied for the horse. Note that every tone is applied with a tiny separation between colors to indicate an outline but with less contrast than a pure black outline.

Titanium White added to earlier mix was used to highlight the cape. Burnt Sienna was used to flesh out the muscle tone and create a more traditional period artwork appearance to the figure.

The horse was fleshed out a bit more and details added all around. Final highlights and shadows added, now on to the second shield that was painted at the same time.

The same idea for the base, Chrome Green Deep base color with a bit of Yellow Ochre up top and Mars Black below to create highlight and shadow tones. This was all done wet on wet with a stippled effect to create random patching of color.

Mars Brown was used to create a base outline for the entire figure.

Mars Brown and Titanium White mixture used to create base tone for flesh areas.

Medium Cadmium Yellow, Titanium White and a touch of Yellow Ochre used for shield, tunic and halo. Golden Ochre used for cloak.

Orange was used on the trim, Medium Cad. Red for the stripes and shield designs, Chrome Green for the sleeve and tunic edge. Burnt Sienna was used for legs. This artwork was simpler than the previous in technique. A final outline in Black to pull it all together.

These shields were painted in the field and were not intended as fine art pieces. They were good but they still needed to be used for their intended purpose. Weathering and battle damage will pull everything together. I'm getting close to completion.

Heavy Roman Infantry Vignette - Update #9

And here are the figures with the shields attached. For these two figures I find it easier to paint the shields attached to the figures. This isn't always the case. Both will have distinctive designs.

Heavy Roman Infantry Vignette - Update #8

Here is a quick set of 360 degree photos of the two figures as completed prior to attaching their shields. Both are complete except for dirt and weathering which will be done after the figures are 100% complete and attached to the base. My next post will show these two with the shields attached.