Roman Painting Tutorial:

Welcome to the painting tutorial for using Vallejo Acrylic Paint to paint one of our Legionaries.

First make sure you have cleaned and removed any grease from the figure. Then use a primer spray, 'Grey Aerosol Primer' 28011. Shake the can strongly for a few minutes before spraying.

Place the figure on a board and turn the board as you spray so that you get an even coat around the entire figure. This method avoids finger marks on the figure.

When you have completed the spraying, turn the can upside down and spray away from you to clear the nozzle before storing the can. This helps prevent the paint clogging the spray nozzle.

Shield: You should have primed BOTH sides of the shield. Then use an old flat bristle brush to dry brush White paint over the embossed design (wings) on the shield.

While this drys we will start on the soldier. You can leave the shield near a heater or even a hairdryer to speed up the process. Do not overpaint when wet as this will mix the paint layers.

In order to prepare the armour for drybrushing we must first base coat it in Black paint. So just apply a little water to the paint and paint the banded armour and waist straps. Do not worry about painting over some of the ajoining areas. We will be overpainting them later.

Let the paint dry for a few minutes

Mix Silver and Gunmetal paint in a 2 to 1 ratio. Drybrush the armour carefully. Always apply a little at a time. You can always add more but it is a lot harder to remove excess paint. Let dry.

Mix Skintone and Medium Flesh to give the Roman a tanned skintone.

Use about equal amounts, depending on your taste.

Mix and apply to all skin on the soldier, including the face.

Due to the grey primer, you will need to give a second coat of skin to make sure no grey shows through.

Let dry.

Now mix Mahogany Sand paint with an equal amount of Matt Medium (540), which improves the resulting smooth finish.

Then apply it as a wash over the skintone.

This is subtle but does add a more realistic look to the skin.

When dry, drybrush the Skintone and Medium Flesh mix over the skin areas but add more Skintone first to lighten the mix. This will highlight the raised areas and inprove the contrasts.

Back to the shield again. Use Carmine Red (908) mixed with a little water to paint the red part of the front of the shield.

The wash will add the red into the grooves in the wings, where it would be extremely hard to paint directly.

Let Dry.

You can then Dry Brush more White on the wings emboss part again. This will bring up the decoration while leaving the grooves red.

Let Dry.

Use Carmine Red again, but direct from the bottle, to paint the red area. Care should be taken to avoid marking the wings, but you can always retouch any mistake later.

Let Dry.

While you let the shield dry you can paint the garments on the soldier with Carmine Red. Give 2 coats of this to make sure that no grey shows through.

Give a wash over the red areas with a mix of Burnt Cad. Red (814) and Matt Medium. Use only a small part of the red to the Matt Medium. Let Dry.

Paint the sandals and belts with an Orange Brown first then give a wash of Smoke (939) over the top when dry.

Do not paint the helmet or base yet as your fingers are holding the figure and will damage the paint if applied yet.

Back of Shield: Give a simple base colour of Desert Yellow first. Repeat once more to make sure that there is no grey showing through.

Now for the interesting part, Apply a wash of Smoke & Woodgrain (equal mix) and Matt Medium (Its optional but it does slow down the drying while you make the designs of the woodgrain). Swirl the tip of your paintbrush on the back of the shield (see photo on left.)

Add a base coat of Silver + Gunmetal paint to the dagger, sword blade and metal circles on waist straps and then apply a wash of Black over them. Apply wash heavily in one stroke then suck back excess paint with the brush again. This gets the wash into all the grooves.

Add an equal mix of Bronze & Old Gold to all the gold/bronze areas, like the hilt of the sword, armour decorations, scabbard decor, etc. Apply a wash of black over it.

Remember to also add that mix to the shield boss as well. Also paint the edge of the shield rim with the Silver and Gunmetal mix. Give a wash of black on that if you want.

Base: Apply Reflective Green (890) to the base first. Drybrush Olive Green and Deep Yellow, then add a light drybrush of Deep Yellow on top to add extra highlights.

Eyes: Paint the eyes with Mahogney Sand.first then add two dots of White (off white if you wish) to either side of the eyes.

This is optional. Some people liketo paint the white first then apply a dot in the centre but that can result in a unsettling stare.

Finish the helmet the same way as you did the armour, and apply any highlights with the Bronze and Old Gold mix. Give a wash of Black over the entire helmet as well.

Scrap off the primer off the hole for the hand in the shield and the part of the hand for the shield. When they are clean apply a drop of epoxy glue to the hand and attach firmly.

Note: You may wish to leave the boss of the shield unpainted until after you have attached the shield in case you damage the paint.

You are now finished and your Legionary is ready for battle.