Hello everyone. This is going to be my first post in this forum. Here are my gladiator figures in 1/32 scale from Italeri. I hope you will like them.

http://www.welcometolilliput.com/2013/06/gladiators-132-scale.html

I consider myself as a beginner in modelling so I would appreciate it very much if you could give me some advice. Thank you!

Hi Ali,

That's a great collection you have there and some nice painting. Just try to avoid too bright colours when painting historic miniatures (the bloke in the blue looks a bit 'bright') as they only had vegetable dyes in ancient times so could not produce the vast array of 'vivid' colours that we see on modern clothing and garments today.

A very minor observation from an otherwise tremendous collection - well done!
Gary

Thank you very much Gary. I think I agree with you regarding the colors. Especially the guy with the ax did not come out as how I predicted I will definitely keep that in mind for the next time.

Best regards
Ali

Fantastic results from the Italeri figures. For a beginner, you´ve done a great job .... what paints did you use and how did it work with these figures? I always thought they were that sort of plastic that didnt accept paint well. I like your background as well .... an allround very professional presentation. You could teach some of them here, that have been around for years, a trick or two!

Dear Frank, thank you very much for your feedback. I have used acrylic paints from Vallejo, and I have also applied Tamiya's light sand texture paint to the bases of the figures in order to create a sandy appearance, as if they are fighting in an arena. Even though I have built a couple of vehicles from Italeri before, it was my first time with Italeri figures and I think they were quite reasonable for their price.

Regarding the background, I just used a couple of cheap and easy tricks I have found a stone wall texture image from the internet, changed its color a little bit and copy-pasted several of them side by side to create a wall image. The ground was even easier I have just searched for an earth-looking texture image and printed it right away. I took the photos in my bedroom and at the end what you saw came out

Thank you again, best wishes! Ali

It wasn't so much that they couldn't get bright colors -- the red dye used for soldier's uniforms, for example, came from the madder plant -- but that the bright colors were often the most time-consuming and expensive to produce, and wouldn't normally be available to individuals in that social strata. That shade of blue is well within the range obtainable with woad, but it was too expensive for fabric used for a gladiator's clothing unless the sponsor was using it as a display of ostentation (like the British Empire, which, with the red coats its soldiers wore, was making the statement "we're so powerful and rich we can afford to equip our common soldiers with expensive uniforms") or in a special event where they were recreating the appearance of a specific enemy of Rome.

As a stand-alone figure with no background, that blue would be highly unusual for a gladiator to wear, so the point you raise about that figure is still relevant -- just not for the "can't produce bright colors" reason; the colored fabric samples we have from history have undergone centuries of aging and fading, and the old vegetable-based dyes were generally much lest colorfast than more modern aniline dyes.

Thank you Sean, that was really informative. I didn't know that the uniforms of the British soldiers were used to give that message.

Best regards. Ali