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Thanks, Theo - that's my gut instinct as well but having you state it more or less exactly like I thought it reinforces the need to make a change. I actually went that direction first, then added the paint on top because I worried it wasn't distinct enough... Ah well - back to the painting table!

You’ll do fine, nothing to worry about. It’s still leagues ahead of my work and it would do most people proud to have it I need there army.

UPDATE:

Long overdue - I've been working nights on a second job this summer, which has absolutely wrecked my hobby time. I set aside a few hours the past couple days to assemble some models and swing the brush a bit.

More Nero...






A bit more highlighting plus lots more washes. Might try to create a bit more transition area between brown and black, but at this point I'm pretty happy. Still need to finish hooves, horns and nosering, then tackle the base. (If I'm lucki I might be able to knock it out this weekend still.)

Thanks for looking. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

That’s beautiful transitions on the muscles. I wouldn’t do any more to it out of fear of overdoing it.

Thanks, Theo - I took that advice and went ahead and finished this bad boy tonight....







And here he is facing off with Acerbus...


Plus the whole team together...


Thanks for looking!

Beautiful! Top view is my favorite... because it is less black. But black is sooo glossy!

Wirecat wrote:
Beautiful! Top view is my favorite... because it is less black. But black is sooo glossy!

Thanks for the feedback, WC - that's my favorite view too.

Pics taken on that particular shelf in my workroom are pretty close to the overhead fluorescent lights and since I don't have a proper lightbox set-up everything looks a little glossier there. You can see the difference in the top-down pic, which is taken with the model down on my painting desk.

UPDATE: Otho finished...






Thanks for looking - as always, any feedback is appreciated!

The feather colors are amazing, I think I’ve mentioned that before.

He sure has a bunch of scars . One would think he’d wear more armor after the first fight or two .

 Theophony wrote:
The feather colors are amazing, I think I’ve mentioned that before.

He sure has a bunch of scars . One would think he’d wear more armor after the first fight or two .

Ha ha - no kidding, though my understanding is that most gladiators tended to be a little on the "chunky" side so that their extra thick flesh could get cut up and bleed prodigiously without actually slowing them down too much to make for a better show in the arena. So those scars would have actually been considered a good thing for someone like Otho.

Thanks for the feedback, too - I do think you mentioned the feathers back when I posted a WIP, but I really worked hard to give them some subtle variations of color with blue, purple, and green washes so it's nice to hear that you think it's effective.

Nice work, his skin is pretty horrifying in a good way!

 aku-chan wrote:
Nice work, his skin is pretty horrifying in a good way!

Cheers - it IS pretty gnarly, I agree. Definitely makes him stand out on the tabletop...

As an update, here are some shots of our latest Arena Rex game (first one 100% painted!):

Set-up: Lupa, Micon, Nero, and Otho on my end, and Atrox, Marcus Furius, Gaius Pallidus, Hermes, and Antaeus on Gomez Jr.'s side.


The action after a couple rounds of movement and feinting: Atrox has dragged Micon into the backfield, Lupa and Marcus are facing off doing almost nothing, while Otho and Nero have charged forward to engage Antaeus.


Here Antaeus has just used his Hip Toss ability to flip spots with Otho and put him on the very edge of the pit (bad planning on my part). The good news is, Nero pushed Antaeus the next round and then followed up so his base was overlapping both his and Otho's - which allowed me to place Otho on the other side of Nero (who can't be pushed, as he's a Titan, making him safer there) and keep him from insta-death.


Atrox is just about to score two Drags from his damage tree here, allowing him to move to the left side of the pit and pull Micon in. That was the first defeat of the match, and happened before Micon could do much of anything.


Here Nero has just gone Wild during a Clear Turn - and unfortunately he ended up attacking his own teammate Otho rather than the two enemies who were also valid targets (dang dice!). Thankfully he only did a couple damage and ended up moving the action a little further from the pit.


And this is the end-stage of the match: Nero puts Atrox out of his misery, Hermes dispatches Otho, leaving Nero vs. Hermes for the Last Men Standing rules. Nero had his whole second card to put into play still and Hermes's Aegis of Fame ability (which makes his opponent have to burn a Favor dice every turn just to attack him) goes out the window when he's LMS, so the end result was almost inevitable but it was still an enjoyable game (as always). I think the way the game is balanced to almost always end up with 1 vs. 1 LMS is fairly genius - we've never had more than a single fighter alive at the end of a match, and things tend to come down to the action being one attack away from a victory for one side or the other.

In other news, I also got some WIP shots from this AM:

Aemilia - not who I was planning on starting next, but I got the tiger pelt idea and wanted to give it a shot ASAP.


And Euryale - who I intended to start on, but after a couple false starts on her snakeskin pattern had paint too thick in a few places... So into the Simple Green she went. I'll soak her until tomorrow, then scrub and wash and re-primer her and start over.

Thanks for the batrep, makes me even more interested in finally getting my gladiators onto the tabletop. Looking like Q1 2020 at this point, around 7 years after kickstarting

Pelt is off to a great start!

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Thanks for the batrep, makes me even more interested in finally getting my gladiators onto the tabletop. Looking like Q1 2020 at this point, around 7 years after kickstarting

Pelt is off to a great start!

Better late than never IMO. It really is an entertaining game - I've never been bored or disinterested during a game - and the models are great.

UPDATE:
Here's where Euryale is now...


This is pretty much what I'm aiming for...


As always, thanks for looking - any feedback whatsoever is appreciated!

Thank You for battle report - very entertaining and informative. And thank You for a shot of Euryale in that jar - crop off the top with the screw guides for the lid and it is a ready illustration for a creepy story about geeks who have their drinks on snakes, not on rocks! Thanks for brightening the day!

Wirecat wrote:
Thank You for battle report - very entertaining and informative. And thank You for a shot of Euryale in that jar - crop off the top with the screw guides for the lid and it is a ready illustration for a creepy story about geeks who have their drinks on snakes, not on rocks! Thanks for brightening the day!

Glad you liked the little battle review, and the idea of taking a drink from a glass of snake and green cleaner is just disgusting... thanks for the image.

Also a little bit of an update...




Browns next, I think (wraps and tunic/loincloth both) then on to metallics. Trying to decide if a I want to try some blue woad paint on her anywhere...

As always, thanks for looking!

UPDATE:
A bit more work on Aemilia. Went ahead and gave her a little woad warpaint and added a nod to her ludus, Legio XIII.




As always, any feedback is good feedback. Thanks for looking.

UPDATE:
Aemilia done! Had a Vallejo squeeze bottle w/ a bit of a jam that ended up spraying her legs and base with a nice coat of gold that I had to fix, but overall pretty straightforward. Definitely like her cloak the best, and I think the woad painting is quite effective at arm's reach (looks a tad untidy up close TBH).




And here she is with her buddy Gaius Pallidus...


As always, thanks for looking! Any feedback is appreciated!

Another knockout of a model. Woad paint looks good to me, and the animal pelt came out great. Nice cohesive colors for the warband with the spots of red....though that could be bad around the bull .

I also love the fact that this game takes place in one location, so all the basing is the same and has little extra needed on them. Between the bases and terrain it really helps immerse the battlefield.

Thanks for the feedback, Theo. A lot of people have really strict color-coding for each ludus (warband, team, cohort, etc.) but I made the decision early to paint every model with a bit of red so when I mix and match them during games they still look cohesive. They still have their own style but there's at least one thread connecting everyone (I think Noxius is the only exception, but he's just a lowly slave so he doesn't really count ).

I was actually just laughing at myself about the basing today... The board, each of the terrain elements, and every single model all have ONE style of basing and I STILL forget the exact steps I took last time every single time. It's ridiculous - I'm just lucky that I sort of just splash paint around the bases so they don't need to be exactly the same.

I've been quiet as you posted WIPs, but the end result looks great, woad is solid, pelt is ace and I really like the shield and worn numbers. +1 on cohesive bases - similarly all my kill teams are based the same, and I think my Infinity models too, now that I think about it.

Whereabouts in CO are you? My mom lives there and I'm typically there every or every other winter.

 Boss Salvage wrote:
I've been quiet as you posted WIPs, but the end result looks great, woad is solid, pelt is ace and I really like the shield and worn numbers. +1 on cohesive bases - similarly all my kill teams are based the same, and I think my Infinity models too, now that I think about it.

Whereabouts in CO are you? My mom lives there and I'm typically there every or every other winter.

Thanks for the feedback, Boss. I appreciate it. I'm up north in Fort Collins. Where is your mom's place?

She lives in Boulder, spouse and I typically lurk Denver but they're interested in seeing more of the West. Good chance we'll be out next Spring / Summer, coincidentally when my Arena Rex should be painted .......

Game on!

Seriously - we're less than an hour from Denver and if you can make it work with whatever your schedule holds I'd love to throw down against someone other than my two boys... Pop back in here and remind me when you are in the state and we can definitely meet up for a beer and a game.

The transition from brown to black on that bull is truly phenomenal. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, that is what gaming should look like!

Cheers dude! I'll keep you posted

Gallahad wrote:The transition from brown to black on that bull is truly phenomenal. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! That was actually surprisingly easy to accomplish - if you go back a page or so you can see that I started with yellow and orange, then really just started using washes to adjust the colors (I did highlight a little, but only a few sloppy splashes of color TBH): Reikland Fleshshade, Agrax Earthshade, and Druchii Violet mostly. I painted the black parts gray, highlighted a bit, then started washing with black, which I overlapped with the washes from the brown section. Super simple to do, so I'm glad you find it so effective!

Fifty wrote:Wow, that is what gaming should look like!

Cheers, amigo - I appreciate the sentiment!

Boss Salvage wrote:Cheers dude! I'll keep you posted

UPDATE:
First time swinging the old paint brush in months. Got a bee in my bonnet about finally painting the Op: Icestorm stuff that's been sitting on my shelf for a few years now so I re-WIPed my previously yellow WIP Nomad alguaciles.

Still quite a bit to do, but I'm digging the turquoise. Threw together an easy-to-remember recipe and just got started (which isn't really my forte).

As always, any feedback is good feedback! Thanks for looking.