Light Infantryman

I decided to start painting my Greek Myth army with a Light Infantrymen, because I knew they would be the least fun. Unfortunately, I have to report that painting these figures only confirmed my thoughts about these figures. They really are dreadful. Probably the worst 28mm figures I have ever painted. They have very little detail, and what detail they do have is so shallow that it makes it hard to pick out.

As a miniature painter, I pretty much rely on detail. My style is all about picking out details and then black-lining around them to achieve an overall effect. When there is no detail, my style doesn't work. Instead, out of necessity, I switch to an almost impressionistic style, that mostly consists of wet blending - painting different layers of high-lighting over wet paint.

At a couple of points while painting the figure, I honestly thought I would have to give up and throw it away. I just couldn't get it to look like anything. In order to get some kind of detail, I added the red and white trim to his tunic, which I think helps a lot. Originally, I had intended to give these guys plain bronze shields as I didn't have any transfers for their size, and I figured they should look more uniform anyway. However, seeing the figure, I realized it needed any help I could give it.

Oh well, only eleven more of these guys to go...

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On Saturday, I traveled down to London. While my wife and daughter went off to meet the in-laws at the aquarium, I went to the British Museum to spend some time in their Ancient Greece collection. The British Museum really is one of the great museums of the world, and their Ancient Greece section is pretty extensive.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around, snapping photos and reading captions. Most of that time, I was amongst the red and black vases. Over the last four or five years, I have become a big fan of this art form. Not only do I find it attractive, but it contains so many wonderful, visual representations of Greek Myth and warfare that I find fascinating. On this trip, I was especially focusing on the shield decorations of warriors on the vases.

Most of the ones I saw are reflected in the transfers I bought from Little Big Man Studio; however, one design, that I actually saw a couple of times, was new to me. It was a kind of star pattern. I saw it on one vase on a shield carried by a warrior fighting Herakles and on another on a shield carried by Athena.

I decided to simplify it quite a bit on the shield for my Light Infantryman, but I think it looks pretty good.