Biggus Brutus 54mm Figure conversions

The Marshal Petain Gentlemen's Club Secretary is the Scribe Quilp, at one time a minor collector of 15mm Peter Laing figures, now a full blown wargames addict... At the last meeting he introduced the club to the Gladiator rules set  Sons of Mars, using 54mm fighters.

It should be clear that I am also an addict, albeit one that is ruled by storage space.  Gladiators looked like an excellent project for this .  So much so that I had already ordered some Pegasus Miniatures figures in 54mm.


Having been experimenting with conversions and sculpting in 1/32 I wanted to "build" some of my own figures.  This involved the conversion of some plastic army men, price 99p for 50 figures, into authentic looking 54mm Gladiators, or at least as authentic  as I could make them. ..

Using the Osprey Warrior 39, Gladiator by Steven Wisdom, and scrutinising Angus McBride's illustrations, I wanted my sculpts to look as close to correct as possible.

I started with this guy, and shaved him back to a basic figure, losing all of the "lines" on the original sculpt.  This gives me the armature.

Next the middle stage.  I built him up in stages, chest and stomach muscles, leg muscles and the wrap. At one point it really looked as if he were wearing a nappy...


The sword was bamboo, stripped into a thin lath and then shaped into the blade of a gladius. I replaced this with a curved knife when I realised that the shield I had given him better fit a Thracian than the Secutor I had been aiming at.

Against a proper 1/32 figure he is small, but my Gladiator Ludis will take him on. ..


A lot of work went into this guy but he was cheap!  He is also unique!  Here I added greaves, the lorica arm guard and strapping as well as a paint job...

The finished Thracian Thorinus "Primus" Prince of the Dwarves... but scurrilous rumour has it that he really isn't a dwarf, just a wee chap...











The second figure I tackled was from another pose.  Balinus has a bigger sword and shield than his cousin, since he is a Secutor.

I started with this guy from my bag of 50 plastic army men, shaved him down with a sharp modelling knife to give me the basic armature, removing the arms, and began adding the green stuff muscles.

The first miliput stage, a lot of prodding and smoothing.  Added the helmet and arms.  This framework needs to dry before moving on.


Getting closer.  The sword is at an active angle, straightened the shield arm too.  I planned to pin the shield to one of the leg greaves to give it strength.


The Scutum looks like a proper battle-board, the right size for the Secutor.  A dot of green stuff on a small card rectangle forms the boss.

Phase two of the milliput.   A face shield, arm and leg armour.  The Scutum grip allows him to easily hold that shield, and it is braced against his forward right leg.

Getting closer.  Needs some detail work, but a nice paint job will cover a lot of sins... I love the pose on that sword arm, ready to thrust around the shield.  He also gets a poker chip base (100 for £3 on the market)

Still needs a dip, but he is getting there...

The Ludis also keeps Rupertus, a brown bear with a love for red wine... be careful of this guy, red red wine goes to his head...