mercredi 16 décembre 2020

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 16

One step hotter... Imagine, for a moment, that you are surrounded by thousands of people speaking, screaming or shouting. Your feet are in the sand, a bright sun shines above you, really hot at noon. You have a strange sort of helmet on your head - you don't hear very well and you can't see everything. And moreover, another guy like you starts to strike heavily on your shield. A real nightmare...

For day 16, let's get a closer look at gladiators!

 

 

The man below is a Secutor (meaning 'follower' or 'chaser'). His equipment consists of a large shield, a gladius, and a characteristic helmet with two eye-holes. It is believed that this helmet was designed to make the Secutor the usual opponent of a Retiarius, armed with a trident: its shape would prevent the man from behing thrust in the face, and made him not easy do catch.

Emperor Commodus (2nd century AD) is known to have fought as a Secutor in the Coliseum in Rome.


This man is a Myrmillo. He wears a helmet with a huge dorsal fin, a large rectangular shield and a gladius. This crest is an evocation of the momylos, a sort of sea fish that gave his name to this sort of gladiator.


 That's all for today, see you tomorrow for the next day of the calendar :)


16 commentaires:

  1. Je ne connais pas ses minis - ils sont tres chouette

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    1. Ultima Ratio est un fabricant récent (apparu en 2013), leur boîte de gladiateurs date de 2019 - cf. Plastic Soldier Review:
      http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2718

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  2. Once again you have brought these figures to life with your fine brushwork, shading and highlighting! I have this set and hope to have a go at them sometime. I won't even try to compare to yours!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you very much. I hope your own gladiators will be on display on your blog soon !

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  3. As a former reenactor on a Gladiator Lidia I know that Experience (well, espectadores were never thousands really by us)
    Helmet was indeed heavy as well as Scutum...And even being a simulations, sometimes It really hurted!

    Great Gladiators Philotep

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    1. You were involved in gladiator reenactment? Excellent, I would love to see some photos, do you have any ? What sort of gladiator were you ?

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    2. I had some difficultie to find any pics..our association already dissapeared..Bit It was truly fun..

      Hace a look at our old website:

      https://ludusaugustus.wixsite.com

      Ludus Augustus (named in Honour of Caesar Augustus Who also have his name to our City: Colonia Caesaraugusta:Saraqusta: Saragossa: Zaragoza

      I am there by some picturedñ..Used to play lighter types (retiarius or hastarius, sometimes we also played funeral iberic fights as another possible influence in the original Gladiatorial Games, similar to etruscans) I am One of the Two iberians with Caetra and steel helmet on pictures...
      Sometimes i also played the thraex or secutor, but that was exhausting...Much resistance needed, just to hold shield and Breath under helmet...

      última Ratio set is quite good and accurate..The referee fig looks exactly the same as our own reenactor (Who casually is also my own uncle!)

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    3. Hi Sceavus! I tried to follow your link, but it seems that the pages don't exist anymore (error 404), too bad...

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  4. Réponses
    1. Thank you! It's getting harder and harder to find a new idea every day... but tomorrow's post is already written :)

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  5. Les figurines sont splendide j'avoue que celles ci m'ont tapé dans l'œil !

    Amitié
    KéHenCo

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    1. Merci beaucoup! Oui, elles étaient vraiment chouettes à peindre, et impeccables côté moulage.

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  6. These gladiators are super! Your skin tones are always so rich.

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  7. I think I have all sets of gladiators except this on. Maybe some day! You did them honour with your painting Phil! Excellent work!

    Greetings
    Peter

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