"Painting 1/72 Romans tips needed" Topic

Hello
It's my first entry here, however I've been reading this message board for quite some time.

I'm going to start my first ancient project – Italeri (ex-ESCI) Romans and Caesar Romans respectively. That will be my first approach to painting figures of this era. My goal is to make these miniatures looking better than my WWII era ones.
That's why I ask you for an advice – how to start painting on reasonably level.
Basic steps and techniques I'm aware of and I will try to use are as follows:
- white undercoat
- dryrbrush gunmetal on metal parts, then baadab black wash over them and chainmall highlighting drybrush
- painting faces, flesh
- painting tunic, other gear, pilum, gladius
- painting shield and attaching it to a miniature
- overall wash of devlan mud.

Is it acceptable or should I try a different approach?

Sounds fine to me. FWIW I would paint metal silver before the black wash rather than gunmetal as GW wahes stain heavily on the upper surface – or use inks diluted in klear/future which is my own preference.

Sounds like you have a fairly thought out process already. Why don't you do a test figure or two and see what you end up with.

It's pretty much what I would do – except maybe use a black undercoat – since there is a bit of metal armor on the figures. I would also use Minwax Tudor Satin stain over the block painting. Dean

Unfortunately no Minwax in Poland, the Army Painter stuff of similar effect is available. Do you mean to use it instead of overall wash, right?
I'm thinking about using MIG oil wash instead of Citadel one or use a dilluted Vallejo Glaze Brown – I have a little of experience with it however I'm unable to find the best formula – sometimes is too thick, sometimes too thin.

Take a look at these miniatures, DAK though, they were "washed" with abovementioned glaze: (I know, they are medicore at best)

– too thin I think

They look fine to me.

According to the Complete Future page "In the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland you can find S.C. Johnson's "Pronto" in "Tesco" stores."

Dilute your GW/Vallejo, etc washes with this and you will find they flow much better. Experiment on a few figures and then mix up a batch.

Yes, I do mean in lieu of the wash/stain. Army Painter and Minwax stain are very similar – at least the results. Dean

P.S. Your DAK guys look really good – shaded, yet all the fine details (like badges, etc.) can still be made out clearly.

Yeah, those DAK figures look nice! Are those 1/72 plastic?

Yes, they are – Italeri – new tooling and ex-ESCI.

Do I dillute glaze/wash with Future (Pronto) only or with a drop of water and a drop of Future (Protno)?