Well folks Cupid, in the shape of Ian Burton the head man at I&E has fired another figure in our direction and he seems to have hit the target. Love at first sight.

The new object of my affections?. A 90mm Roman Centurion, I just love him. The figure that is not Ian.

The latest offering is from one of the top sculptors in the world of miniatures, Rendall Patton and again he has produced and excellent figure. The figure is depicted coming down a flight of three stairs, with vine stick in his right hand and with the other hand on the hilt of his sword. He is wearing the classic long flowing cloak but the armour is a bit different in that it is a "fish scale" armour.

All in all looking very magnificent. I first saw this figure at the Darlington IPMS show and I bought one there and then. But Ian had not yet cast up any figures for sale so I had to wait, life is so cruel. My figure arrived after what seemed an age. The figure is a multi media release which is the posh way of saying that the parts are cast in either resin or white metal. They do have the common theme of being very well cast. There was a small amount of resin overspill too clean up but as mine was first from the mould this has to be expected. I have learned after watching Ian at work that the casting of the figures is a learning process and can involve some trimming to the mould to get it just right.

This for me shows that Ian wants his figures to be right and is willing to work at it. Back to the subject. There was a small panic as I thought that there was a arm missing but this is covered by the cloak, stupid boy. I always try to assemble as much as I can before I get the brushes out. In this case it was only the legs, but the fit of the other joints was so good that would not be a problem.

I did spend a lot of time getting the legs to body join right. The figure is coming down stairs and this needs to look "right" or the drunken Centurion look is very easy to obtain. Here putting pins in helped as I could twiddle the legs round to the position right and then glue into place, also while the pin drill and glue were out I also put some painting handles on the other parts. Painting started with the flesh areas. I like to paint with oils for these parts and if the opportunity is there I also like to paint direct onto the surface of the model. This is possible on the resin parts but the white metal does need an undercoat.

For this I used Humbrol Matt Pale Stone. This coat of paint brought the face to life. Tucked away in the helmet it did not seem much , but after the undercoat it just came to life a very wonderful sneer. This man is coming down the stairs to see the latest batch of recruits or a prisoner. For me this helps with the painting as it gives me more of a feel for the figure. My flesh mix is 50/50 Titanium White and Yellow Ochre, a dab of Scarlet Lake and some Mars brown. Applied thinly for shadows some more Mars Brown and the highlights more white. Deep shadows and highlights come later. Painting was made a bit more difficult by the prominent cheek guards on the helmet. Perhaps something that could have cast as separate pieces?.

The scale armour was next up and here I asked the advice of Dr Mike Thomas and he really helped with some excellent advice. Thankyou Mike. The scales of the armour and the leg protecting greaves were painted with Humbrol Silver and then given coats of Tamiya Smoke to get that steel look. I have used this method many times before and I am very happy with results. You can get a real control over the depth of colour, well worth a try if you have not used it before. The odd scale was picked out as per the good Doctors advice, it is very difficult to get the random look when you are trying!. The rest of the figure was plain sailing from there with my chosen colours

Roman Centurion