For Round Two of this contest, I chose - quite possibly, just like the other three contestants 
- to paint the Roman Signifer, leaving the Murmillo gladiator for a possible last round.
My reasons for this are simple: At the outset of this competition, I chose to paint the figures in order of increasing amounts of skin they have showing. Painting skin is surprisingly difficult in the classic three-layer painting style, as getting the highlights and shades correct for skin (both in colour value and location of the highlights) is both very important and very touchy - everyone knows what skin should look like, so getting it right is important. Never having painted a 54mm figure before this contest, I took the coward's way out and decided to paint the figures in the order given, so I could get some exercise in painting skin before tackling the largely naked gladiator.
Having decided on the figure to paint, I twiddled around a bit with the figure (and the various other odds and ends provided) to find a pose that appealed to me. The figure was supplied with both hands separate, one holding the standard, the other a gladius (Roman sword). I also took out a few shields and a scabbard from the accesory pack provided.
After several different tries, I settled on replacing the sword with a shield, as if the Signifer is in a battle line that is not yet in contact with the enemy, but under some missile fire.
The sword was not totally lost, however, as I used part of it to add to the scabbard, which I also added to the figure. I think that the pose with shield (as opposed to the sword) adds some drama to the figure and tells more of a story - but that's just my opinion, of
course.
After performing these small conversions (cutting the sword from the hand, using a part of its blade as new handle, and attaching this to the scabbard) and test-fitting the figure, I went on to prime the figure.
