Lockdown project - PSC Late Romans and Sassanid pacto armies

[jamie]

couple of 'lockdown projects' from the most recent UK lockdown - thank you to those on this forum who have helped with pestering re painting techniques and materials. First time back in wargaming for a decade or so - Huns the current pacto project and then Nikephorian Byzantine up next (thanks nik for your advice/helpful responses to pestering re this). posting by way of documenting before i varnish and it all goes wrong/imove on to the next project...

The Romans I generally tried to make the 'eastern' variant through shield designs etc (i'm pretty sure re cavalry designs i may have got that wrong but there we go).

Paints are generally GW contrast paint base with a shade wash and GW/Vallejo layer paints where I can't resist further finicking. Generally the PSC models have a decent amount of undercutting/definition, so washes/contrasts work well. The contrast paint alone i'm fine with leaving as - is for skirmishers/massed units - it does tend to look a little 'washy'/see through for me. I'm generally fairly content with the standard of the command bases, though this isn't the quality you can see elsewhere on the forum it'll do. re images for roman shields/standards i tended to default to the 'chi rho' (as you can see) as i wasn't entirely sure what else to use (with my current painting skill) - they seem to have come out ok. maybe the odd eagle/emperor/warrior saint(?) if my technique/confidence improves... (note that the whole unit designs are obviously little big man transfers...)

there's a blogpost on the 'Ontabletop' site to someone using GW contrast paints on a PSC late roman starter box for info/those who are interested:
https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1549229/

apologies re darkness/quality of the images - everything pretty much a work in progress...

Roman commands:





Sassanid commands (i had a theoretical colour scheme of red/yellow/green accents for varying levels of commander from mediocre up as well as the number of figures on the base - however this doens't allow spare command colours for a theoretical 'legendary' general,  i think i'll use the excellent magnetic colour coded shield on a base idea i've seen elsewhere on this forum in order to have more full/fun command bases in future):



Sassanid eles:


Roman infantry:








Roman cavalry (plus an attempt at a green stuff draco standard):




Roman army arrayed for death/glory/dark ages:

[nikgaukroger]

Looking good there 

[jamie]

thanks nik - reasonably pleased with them

sassanid savaran





skirmisher cav



whole sassanid army

[nikgaukroger]

Also nice 

[Rittervonbek]

I have those two armies sitting patiently in their boxes. If i get them half as good as yours I will be happy. Fantastic work.

[Nathan]

They look good and I always think a relatively light coloured basing scheme, as you have, gives everything a lift and helps the figures stand out nicely. I fancy doing an army with elephants myself - maybe once I have reduced the lead mountain to a more manageable altitude.

I struggle with my photos getting the exposure right. With individual units photographed against a white background, I have to overexpose by a couple of stops compared with the automatic metering and even then I invariably end up having to make further adjustments with the image editor when I'm cropping and down-sizing.

[jamie]

Thanks for the kind words all - Nathan thank you for the photographic tips for my next attempt - I think choosing a fairly dull/overcast day to photograph the models made me too reliant on too few artificial light sources ( though possibly more shadows worked in my favour to make the paint jobs look a bit more dramatic/contrasting)