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
Five: Celtiberian Infantry
You can also see Paul’s work in the likes of Wargames Illustrated and Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazines.
Paul: “Italian Allied infantry are equipped in a very similar fashion to Greek hoplites. The Epic Battles figures are all modeled wearing greaves, have a variety of helmet types and several are wearing body armour. With three strips per Allied sprue, you should have plenty of them to call upon on the table top.
Base Colours
Starting from a white undercoat of Halfords White Primer I decided to base coat all the models with Vallejo Xpress Colors. I applied this to the majority of the models; the only exception was any areas that would end up bronze (helmets, greaves, several shields, all he shield rims, and the sword cross guards and pommels), which I base coated with Vallejo MC Flat Brown. I also used this colour for the scabbards, belts and the spear shafts. Using a single colour for multiple areas speeds up the process immeasurably.
If you don’t have that particular paint any brown in your collection (though preferably a darker one) will do the job equally well. A brown provides a nice base for you to work from for the bronze and also helps by providing some built in dark lining between areas of different colours on the miniatures.
I then used Black to paint the spear tips, I find silver metallic paints work best over a black undercoat.
For all the other areas I used the following base coats:
Skin and Hair: I used two coats of Dwarf Skin for the skin and painted any hair and beards black.
Shields: I painted any shields that were not going to be end up bronze with either Seraph Red or Legacy Blue.
Tunics: I variously painted the tunics with either Templar White, Seraph Red or Legacy Blue.
Helmet Crests and Feather Decoration: I used the following colours for these: Templar White, Seraph Red and Hospitallier Black.
I have deliberately used quite a small palette to speed up the process, which also keeps the tutorial fairly simple to follow. If you were to add the metallic areas on the miniature at this stage the result would be a nice tabletop standard finished unit. To speed up the process even more you could ebven apply the metallics straight over the white undercoat.
Highlights & Detailing
Skin and Hair: I highlighted the skin with a mix of Vallejo GC Pale Flesh and Kislev Flesh. The hair (including beards) was highlighted with Citadel Dawnstone.
Tunics and Helmet Decoration: I highlighted red areas with Citadel Wild Rider Red, blue aresa with Citadel Calgar Blue and white areas with Vallejo MC Off White. For the black feathers once again used Citadel Dawnstone.
Bronze and Spear Points: Before applying any metallic paint I varnished the figures with Vallejo Matt Acrylic Varnish. I painted all the bronze with Vallejo GC Bright Bronze and then applied a wash with Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber before highlighting it again with the original bronze colour. I then painted the spear points with Army Painter Plate Mail Metal and then highlighted with Citadel Stormhost Silver.
Dark lining & Freehand on Shields: To finish off I applied a thin line of Citadel Rhinox Hide wherever two colours met to give them some extra definition. I then free-handed some designs onto most of the shields of the front rank.
Final Thoughts
The Italian Allied Infantry is probably my favourite looking unit in the Punic Wars range. I hope this tutorial will be helpful when you come to paint your own figures.”
Italian Allied Infantry in Hail Caesar Epic Battles
The Italian Allied infantry – be they Oscans, Samnites, or any of the other Italian peoples not yet fully under the dominion of Rome, are capable warriors, if motivated correctly! Bearing large round shields and long spears, and clad in bronze helmets, breastplates, and greaves, they have a certain resemblance to the Grecian Hoplites of old – but are no less effective despite their slightly antiquated appearance.
Allied Troops Division
