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So here is my idea for a more 'Roman Empire' themed army. I have a couple figs almost finished and the Chapter Master is my focus right now.
BTW, I am a painter, not a photographer.

I plan to paint the leather belts down the front of him in 'Tau Sept Ochre'. I used this color already on his gun holster AND the leather wrap on the handle of his axe.

The jewels on his shoulder [off screen] and the Axe is 'Blood Red'. I plan to use the same color for his wax seals and 'Bleached Bone' for the ribbons.

His body is covered in 'Burnished Gold' and then heavily washed in 'Devlun Mud'. This is true for everything on his body.

The eyes are 'Scorpion Green' over 'Ice Blue' and 'Devlun Mud' washed with the rest of the body to make them stand out.

I plan to do his entire cloak in 'Bleached Bone', drowned in 'Devlun Mud' and then highlighted up to the original color.

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There is also one of the Sterngard Veterans next to the Chapter Master and one of the Terminators.

The Terminator is not finished in that pic. I did more shading and cleaning up of the gold getting on the main body and shoulder seen in the pic.

Thanks for your time and comments.

Tim

Very nice, I myself plan on starting a Roman Army (with actually imperial minis found at warlord games) which counts as High Elves.

Some questions however,

are you going to use any more Romanesque items such as large, rectangular scutam or gladius-es? Or are you just going to stick with the color scheme as your main connection between Space Marines and Romans?

As to your color scheme, did you basecaot your figures white? I ask because I spray paint black, then use iyanden darkson with a glaze of burnished gold to get my gold.

Also I like your muted red and gold, are you going to be incorportating any weathering/ battle damage on them to further the effect of an army on campaign?

I will definitly keep an eye on this

Excellent work. One piece of advice is to maybe add a deep purple to your chapter master. During the Roman Empire, purple was an expensive color for clothing, and often only worn by royalty/emperor.

If you are using any power swords, do you plan to cut them down to a more gladius shaped short sword?

That color scheme is insane looking. Gold is very hard to pull off well and you seem to have done it quite nicely. The models also look really brutal.

Can't wait to see more pics.

Rudeness excised by Mannahnin. Politeness is expected everywhere on Dakka, but the Painting & Modeling forums are held especially sacrosanct. Please bear in mind that courtesy goes a long way, particularly when discussing someone's artistic expression.

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SeverePatronage wrote:Excellent work. One piece of advice is to maybe add a deep purple to your chapter master. During the Roman Empire, purple was an expensive color for clothing, and often only worn by royalty/emperor.

If you are using any power swords, do you plan to cut them down to a more gladius shaped short sword?

During that era, it was next to impossible to make purple dye, not like today where all paints are mundane and synthesized.


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"which is extracted from sea snails, and which was possibly first produced by the ancient Phoenicians. This dye was greatly prized in antiquity because it did not fade, rather it became brighter and more intense with weathering and sunlight."

"purple was expensive: the 4th-century-BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor.[1] The expense rendered purple-dyed textiles status symbols, and early sumptuary laws dictated and forbade their use"


Wikipedia quotes by the way.

Wow, be a Dick much?

OP, looks pretty cool, is that a Nurgle head with the horn cut off?

There's still a lot of mileage in classical themed space marines so give the op a break.

I don't personally see the 'roman-ness' tbh, don't get me wrong, great minis but not necessarily roman..... Yet

About purple dye, most senators had a set of purple dress robes and some of them were far from rich. The houses of the palantine would often fall on hard times and some were not even highborn, having bought their titles. To go further The military position of Legatus was held at one time or another by near all the senator class (often just to avoid assasination, feuds or indeed bankruptcy) i cannot be sure but i would not AT ALL be surprised if they rode to battle in purple robes. Famous Imperators (Appointed master of an imperial campaign force) Pompey and Sulla certainly did.

Not from Wikipedia....

Sounds to me like people are confusing several points here.

1) Purple WAS outlawed as a color for commoners during many years of the Roman empire. Often this was ignored by those with connections/power/money.

2) Senators and Military Personnel of high rank were typically gifted with robes/cloaks of purple when instated in there office.


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To OP: sorry for hijacking your thread for the history lesson.

Did you try looking at Scibor's stuff. He has some Roman-esque bodies, heads, shields, and shoulder pads. The down side is that his "power" armor is about the size of termi armor, so the models are a bit larger. There is a thread on here that was recent that shows a Roman scibor model next to a normal SM model. Maybe not usable for troops but as HQ's and special models they would be awesome.

For gladius's using the GK falchion should work nicely. I think it would be awesome to make "cavalry" from bikes with maybe a horse head modeled on the front, some trimming of a empire horse could work. Or maybe a thunderfire "catapult". How about this idea, take privateer press's new gun carriage model put some GW bits on it, make the horses look a bit more cybernetic, do a gun swap, and BAM Landraider carriage.

Sorry just finished studying latin and watched gladiator earlier so it fresh in my head.

Good luck on your army.

excellent work,the guy on the left is my favourite.

I think you need to include as many royal colours as is possible.

Rich reds, deep blues, extravagant purples and beautiful, silky looking golds.

im2randomghgh wrote:

lictors_lovemachine wrote:
So here is my idea for a more 'Roman Empire' themed army.

O...M...G...
You don't pay attention, do you?

THE GODDAMN ULTRASMURFS, THE MOST COMMON ARMY IN THE UNIVERSE, ARE BASED ENTIRELY ON THE ROMANS!!! HENCE THE PSEUDO-LATIN NAMES!!!

I don't think it's any secret that the Ultramarine as inspired by the Roman Army, I'm sure the OP knows that. Maybe he doesn't want to do an Ultrasmurf Army, or maybe he wants to do an Army in traditional Roman Legions of red/scarlet, instead of Ultramarine Blue. If you were trying to suggest the OP use Ultramarine bitz because of the Aquila and Laurel wreath iconography that's a good suggestion, but not the civil way to express it.

Frankly I don't see the need to insult the OP, and yelling in large all caps.

Back to the original subject, I think the figure look great. You've done a great job with the gold, it looks realistic. At first I thought the red was too muted, but I went and refreshed my memory on the Roman Legions and say that the red was that muted sometimes (at least in some modern recreations).

I think that finding Scutum-style shield bitz to represented and Storm Shields and adding helmet crests to at least the officers will help reinforce the Roman theme.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/scibor-monstrous-miniatures/scibor-monstrous-28mm-science-fiction-miniatures/28mm-spartan-sf-warrior.html

@grass4hopper I WAS suggesting he use the laurel bitz...just spaz'd because I am tired as hell of UltraSmurfs.

Also, I am kinda impulsive (hehe, you prbly realized that, just read my signature )

Perkustin wrote:There's still a lot of mileage in classical themed space marines so give the op a break.

I don't personally see the 'roman-ness' tbh, don't get me wrong, great minis but not necessarily roman..... Yet

... .

I agree. The models are very nicely done, however they don't convey "Roman" to me.

When I read the thread title I expected to see SMs with lorica style armour, centurion helmets, those dangly things in front of their crotches, and other such clearly Roman accoutrements.

Kilkrazy wrote:

Perkustin wrote:There's still a lot of mileage in classical themed space marines so give the op a break.

I don't personally see the 'roman-ness' tbh, don't get me wrong, great minis but not necessarily roman..... Yet

... .

I agree. The models are very nicely done, however they don't convey "Roman" to me.

When I read the thread title I expected to see SMs with lorica style armour, centurion helmets, those dangly things in front of their crotches, and other such clearly Roman accoutrements.

QFT

The link that (i think I remember) posting before has some Sci-fi spartans, (which you could use) but that site also has roman models. Will post a link.


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I was mistaken. They were templar figures :(.

Here's the links though.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/scibor-monstrous-miniatures/scibor-monstrous-28mm-science-fiction-miniatures/28mm-templar-sf-knight-6717.html


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NVM I found a roman model

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/scibor-monstrous-miniatures/scibor-monstrous-28mm-science-fiction-miniatures/sf-caezar-of-rome.html

Everything looks very pale; they look like pastel Easter Marines. I'd suggest going bolder with some intense red, purple, and gold. Have your veterans be "Praetorians" and give them purple cloaks and the like. Drive that Roman theme into the ground!

The gold is so heavily matted and pale that it looks yellow.

Off topic, but I'm kind of surprised you chose Spartacus for a Roman themed army. Cool idea though, I like it.