The beginnings of my current gladiator project actually go back about fifteen years or so. At that time I was lucky enough to receive a set of six 54mm gladiators for my birthday. These were from a company called Alpha Miniatures in New Zealand and consisted of a Murmillo, a Provocator, a Secutor, a Thraex, a Hoplomachus and a Retiarius. For various reasons these have remained unpainted all these years; that is until now.
As detailed in previous posts, the Thraex, Hoplomachus and Retiarius form the basis of my fledgling ludus. Hopefully, the remaining three will join Familia Proximo in due course.
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| Murmillo front |
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| Murmillo rear |
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| Provocator front |
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| Provocator rear |
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| Secutor front |
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| Secutor |
At the time I thought that, as these were such nice models, my rudimentary painting skills could not do them justice. However, my current thinking is that it would be a shame not to play with them (they are toys after all) for want of a good paint job. As it turned out I'm quite pleased with the results; they wouldn't win any awards but they are more than passable for my wargames table.
My solution at the time was to buy a cheaper alternative to practice on first. Hence, I purchased a few of the Irregular Miniatures range. Whilst, these are quite nice they are not in the same league as the Alpha Miniatures.
So below is my first painted gladiator in his original 15 year old paint job. Compared with my recent efforts he looks decidedly pasty, so I have decided that this chap is a northern German and I have named him Arminius. He is actually a Secutor but for some reason I painted him as a Provocator. I think the combination of straps and slightly exposed man boob fooled me into thinking he was armoured! He will do nicely though and will join the rival ludus as opponents for my Alpha Miniatures.
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| Irregular Miniatures |
At some point in the past I also purchased a box of the Italeri plastic gladiators. At the time, the main attraction was that the set included animals but the gladiators will make fine opponents for my boys.
The first of these, on the painting table, is a Retiarius. I have re-positioned his arm to make him a little less two dimensional and added a home made net.
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| Italeri Retiarius |
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| Italeri Retarius |
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