Sword & Sandal Movie Style Legendary Romans UPDATE 26.1.25

[guitarheroandy]

I've always loved the 1960s Italian 'Sword & Sandal' movies - dodgy plotlines and wooden acting notwithstanding! Years ago I bought a whole warband of Crocodile Games Wargods of Olympus Athenians to do a Sword & Sandal style force intending to set up a 'legendary antiquity' campaign using Dragon Rampant at my old club but for many reasons that never happened, so the models got put in a box.

Fast forward a few years and I find myself hankering for some solo games at home, but have very limited space, so have decided to do two Dragon Rampant warbands using half-sized reduced model units. The theme will be the wars between Rome and the Etruscan city of Veii in the 5th century BC but with a Sword & Sandal vibe. Here's the test model for the Roman Fabii clan. The shield design was hell to paint and I'm not 100% happy with it, but as decals of this design aren't available to fit these Anvil Industry shields (or any other shields come to that!) I'm gonna have to stick with freehand!

The model itself is beautifully sculpted and makes my 'dip & highlight' technique work like the proverbial charm!

As I only need about 20 models per warband, I'm hoping this won't be too lengthy a project to get onto the table, although it's just one of three I'm simultaneously working on sporadically!

Each warband will be a mix of these Crocodile Games models plus some Lucid Eye Republican Romans (not quite 32mm but the closest I could find in size to these monster 32mm size Crocodile Games models) and I've found a couple of killer 3d print models to use as heroes. Watch this space as I'm currently working up the first two units for the Fabii clan...

[Ran The Cid]

Can't wait to see what you do with the rest of the forces.  The shield came out fine - its good work even when blown up to 12 inches on my screen!

If you can get Gorgon Etruscans, they might work as well.  They are Steve's sculpts also & are tall and beefy.

[Little Odo]

Agreed, that shield turned out beautifully, and the rest of him ain't too shabby either. Nice work. Looking forward to seeing him and his companions in action.

[SJWi]

That bronze is superb. How do you get that finish?

[guitarheroandy]

That bronze is superb. How do you get that finish?

Thank you, yes, I like the effect.
It's GW Retributor Armour, washed in Army Painter Strong Tone Dip, then highlighted up with the base colour plus a final highlight of GW Auric Armour Gold. It is a very 'gold' bronze but to me that just adds to the movie feel...

[sgzleada71]

Looks fabo  but you haven't painted his eyes  .........
Etruscans will impale the poor blind man.   

[LouieN]

Great job on it.  Very heroric. 

[cadbren]

Looks fabo  but you haven't painted his eyes  .........
Etruscans will impale the poor blind man.   

Just the opposite, this is an animated action pose and the figure was captured perfectly in the act of blinking.

[guitarheroandy]

Looks fabo  but you haven't painted his eyes  .........
Etruscans will impale the poor blind man.   

 
I haven't painted eyes on a miniature since about 2001! Life's too short to end up with a staring bug-eyed Roman (which is what he'd be if I did!)
And anyway, Horatius (he of 'the bridge' fame) only had one eye... This is Fabius the Blind!! 

[guitarheroandy]

I've completed work on the second of three Roman Fabii Clan Leaders. While doing the second figure I realised where I'd gone wrong with painting the shield of the first. Instead of painting the background red then drawing the design, I should have painted the shield with a very dark brown background, then done the design and painted round it in red. So having learned that, I redid the first one's shield, which now looks a lot neater and I'm much happier with it.

I've also repainted the shield and rebased the Crocodile Games Theseus figure (which I painted when I bought the figures a few years ago) who will be the Warlord of the Veii faction in this project. The shield used to have a dark blue background but the white is so much better. This pale blue and white colour scheme with white shields will contrast the Veientes so very nicely with the Fabii Romans, I think.

Work continues apace on the final Fabii Clan Leader, a unit of Fabii Sodales (companions - hoplites, basically) and a unit of Clientes (client warriors) with bows. I'm enjoying this immensely. The large scale figures are a joy to paint!

[Pattus Magnus]

Interesting insight about how to approach painting the shields, the second one looks excellent (although I would also have been quite pleased with the first). I love the shades you achieved on the textiles. The red cloaks in particular look great!

[Easy E]

A Peplum themed campaign would be epic. 

Nice looking models! Lot's of little details to make them look Hollywood.

[Irregular Wars Nic]

Fantastic painting. Sounds like a great project!