This is a good excuse to remember that these plastic toy soldiers are toys before anything else. The figures shown below are 1/72 ESCI figures, manufactured in the early eighties. Together with my brother, we used to play games with such minis, until one day we began to paint them (with Humbrol enamel colors). We followed the illustrations of the box to be as accurate as possible.
This was the box cover for the legionaries:
And the box cover for the Barbarians... No historical, but Hollywoodian accuracy :) You may notice that the shield is painted after an illustration in Osprey's MAA 121Armies of Carthaginian wars - it is a celtic shield -, and that the first character on the left is painted after Osprey's MAA 129 Germanic and Dacians... a figure that doesn't exist in the box !
Now that my painting skills have improved (yes, a little), I like to paint them again, using the most up-to-date documentation. Here you are the result :) The legionaries are dressed for the Mediterranean climate, not the cold of the forests in the Danube region ! Let's admit the barbarians came to Rome...
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| From left to right: Goth warrior by Hät, ESCI barbarian, Hät Germanic warrior, ESCI barbarian |
Roman legionaries by ESCI.
Germanic warriors by Hät and ESCI.
Lovely painting..and well done on getting the gaps in the shield bosses covered. The female on the "Barbarian Warriors" box art.. a bit risque for the mid 80´s :-)
RépondreSupprimerI think that the risk was not so high as today :)
RépondreSupprimerBy the way, I sent you an email, did you receive it ?
Yep..did you get mine :-)
SupprimerYes I did, everything's ok, I send the pack as soon as I can.
SupprimerTrès sympas ces figurines!
RépondreSupprimerMerci.
SupprimerThese bring back so many memories!, those esci sets were the first 1:72 minis i ever had. Great to see them painted so well. Great stuff!.
RépondreSupprimerI am old enough to have played with the Airfix Romans first, but I must say that the ESCI were my favorite, probably because they were the first ones to wear the famous lorica segmentata.
SupprimerVery enjoyable post. My friend and I specialize in the old school 1\72 plastics.
RépondreSupprimerThank for the nice comment and for the link :) I went to visit your blog, high quality and highly interesting.
SupprimerGreat work. The Esci Romans have always been my favorite EIRs.
RépondreSupprimerThanks Nick. I began to paint Strelets EIR, they have nice models too, the Praetorians for instance. I'll show you some one day - the auxilia will come first :)
Supprimertop
RépondreSupprimerherrliche figuren bemalt hast einfach klasse
Danke Guido. Ich habe deine US infanterie gesehen, sir sind sehr sehr gut!
SupprimerVery beautiful painting
RépondreSupprimerThanks Michael.
SupprimerESCI, c'est à la fois mes premières figurines, mais sans doute aussi les plus belles. Très classiques sans doute, mais à part italeri sur certains sets (qui d'ailleurs en a réédité quelques uns d'ESCI - la boucle est bouclée), ce qui sort aujourd'hui n'a rien à voir.
RépondreSupprimerQuand je vois les légionnaires strelets et leur allure de gobelins, je pleure :-)
Salut Comitatusgaulois. Les ESCI ne sont pas mes premières, j'ai commencé avec Atlantic (pas des vrais romains :)) et surtout des Airfix - leurs légionnaires étaient pas mals, et servaient d'auxilia à côté des légionnaires ESCI justement. Il me semble que c'est le même sculpteur qui a fait les figurines ESCI, puis Italeri, et maintenant Waterloo1815... j'ai jamais vérifié, mais les ressemblances entre les figurines sont éloquentes. Dommage que Waterloo1815 ne sortent pas de références en antique.
RépondreSupprimerPour ce qui est des strelets, je te trouve un peu dur, elles sont certes typées mais on peut faire des trucs pas mal (à voir dans un prochain post).
Et puis les Caaesar sont très très bien aussi (malgré les armes tordues à cause du plastique exagérément mou).