Paul Mackay’s Epic Battles Celtiberian Infantry

Having been more than impressed by Paul Mackay’s miniatures in the past, including some truly fantastic Epic Battles regiments, we asked him if he might be interested in producing some painting guides for our latest epic release, Hail Caesar. He delivered in spades with a whole series of articles.

Previous articles in the series:

One: Numidian Skirmishers
Two: Carthaginian War Elephants
Three: Scutarii
Four: Libyan Infantry

You can also see Paul’s work in the likes of Wargames Illustrated and Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazines.

Paul: “Celtiberian infantry are fairly lightly armoured troops. Some of the miniatures, however, are modelled with greaves and small breastplates. It looks as if some of the Warlord Games studio miniatures have been painted to represent backplates as well. I’ve opted not to do this, as the sculpted folds suggest cloth to me.

Base Colours
For this tutorial I have decided to return to Citadel’s Contrast paint range, which I used for the vast majority of basecoats. Remember, for these to work effectively you will need to work from a light undercoat colour. I prime my models with Halford’s White Primer.

Highlights & Detailing

Skin: I highlighted the flesh with a mix of Vallejo GC Pale Flesh and Citadel Kislev Flesh. I also added a little Liquitex Transparent Raw Umber into open mouths and eye sockets to add further definition. I could not resist using Ivory to add teeth to one of the models sculpted as shouting

Tunics: For the red tunics I used Citadel Wild Rider Red; for the green a mix of the original colour and Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow; the blue a mix of the original base colour and Vallejo MC Ivory, and for the white the original base colour.

Helmet Crests: I highlighted the red crests in the same way as the tunics. I used Off White to highlight the white ones and Citadel Administratum Grey for the black.

Shields: I free handed a variety of designs on the shields before edge highlighting them. For this I used Vallejo MC Ice Yellow, Wild Rider Red, Citadel Dawnstone or Calgar Blue depending on the shield’s original colour.

Metallics: For the bronze areas I used Vallejo GC Bright Bronze. I then washed them with Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber. The red tone in this ink is a perfect complement for all ‘gold’ colours. I then used the original metallic base coat to add a few highlights. To finish, the swords and spear tips were then painted with Army Painter Plate Mail Metal.

Final Thoughts

Whether you decide to do any of the extra detail steps or not, when ranked up, the Celtiberian infantry figures will do any Carthaginian general proud as they stand in the centre of their line of battle.”

Libyan Infantry in Hail Caesar Epic Battles

Both Rome and Carthage had access to sources of allied warbands. One such source was Iberia, home to fierce and proud warriors, who had leaned to respect Roman martial prowess. Along with the Gallic warbands, Celtiberian warbands turned out to fight for Hannibal in huge numbers. Some of these troops fought for Hannibal for so long, they became near equal in prowess to some of the more elite troops under his command.

Allied Troops Division