New quarter, new figures.

So, I have completed a few more figures to get the second quarter of the year off to a good start. A strange mixture of Argonauts, Romans and a Back of Beyond Russian.  All of these I class as characters rather than rank and file and so, in theory, I should spend more time on them. I'm now aiming to get as many figures done in the first six months of this year as I did in the whole of 2012.  Next up I want to finish my unit of Chinese warlord cavalry.  At the same time I want to base and undercoat my Aventine Praetorians; the next shipment is already en route from Northern Ireland!  Then I really must finish either the Prussians or the ACW Federal troops.

Copplestone castings Bolshevik girly

The warlord cavalry are a bit dull, colour-wise, so I need something bright to paint at the same time so am going to do Marcus Aurelius' co-emperor, Lucius Verus.  He liked a good time (unlike the philosophising Marcus Aurelius) so maybe that is the excuse I need to paint the Warlord slave girls who are far too tall for the Warlord soldiers but would look OK with the Aventine figures.

Accurate colour reference is so important, even for slave girls.

They are more Spartacus the TV series than anything remotely historic so I will paint them as such.    In fact, this serves to highlight the greatest enemy of historical accuracy in films.  It's not the director, it's the costume designer.  I seem to remember the costume designer for Spartacus said that they made the crowd in the arena's clothes very colourful as plain old white and natural linens were too dull.  The producers of the recent (and not very good -except for Jenna Louise Coleman who was just gorgeous) TV Titanic mini-series explained how she chose a particular palette for the costumes so they looked harmonious.  Grrr!  Stop being arty!  I know it makes your job more interesting but how about just trying to recreate costumes as they were in the period?  Don't design the clothes so as they make the sets look good or, worse, reflect the characters personalities.  

One thing I am struggling with at present is finding a good metallic gold paint.  The Citadel acrylics I have been using are horrible and don't dry brush at all well (the "grey" metallics, oddly, are fine)  The Vallejo bronze I use for my ancients is a bit better but maybe it's time to look at the good old Humbrol range as in days of yore.  Anyone else know of any good gold metallic paints?

Off to London tomorrow so maybe a trip to the banana coloured bunker that is Orc's Nest is called for.  On my list is the Hail Caesar Dacian Wars supplement, the new Albion Triumphant 2 - The Hundred Days Black Powder supplement and the plastic Caesarian Romans.