Asterix: SPQR

Just a small update this time. I’ve gotten everything in SPQR box made and now I’ve gotten most of them sprayed. Love this part, even with just the base coat on them it starts to bring out the detail and tie together everything I’ve done. I’m quite pleased with how it all looks

I’m quite pleased with the Romans too, they look really good. The only problem is that the Asterix Romans wear the imperial roman armour and not the chainmail that they should be wearing, historically speaking.

But I’m focusing on the Gauls I’m not converting all these Romans into a different type of armour! A Roman is a Roman and will be punched by the Gauls regardless of the armour the decide to wear. #inspirational

So I really wanted to get Cacophonix into this village. He’s normally pictured with the little harp but I couldn’t find anything to fit in place, or anything to convert for it. However when I came across the above picture I saw that the SPQR Gauls have that exact instrument.

So I picked a body that had a tunic (long sleeved this time) and gave him the instrument. The only thing that needed adding was his cape. I rolled out some grey stuff and give it a little movement so it didn’t look so flat. I’m not sure how I feel about the cape, I think I’ve already left too many fingerprints and it might be too long. I’ll see how it comes out after it’s painted maybe the prints will just look like texture or maybe they won’t be so noticeable.

Not my favourite of the models so far but at least I managed to squeeze him in!

(OTT ate my project, so I’m considering rewriting this as part of my project work today)

So I always wanted Geriatrix in my army but it seemed like a complicated mini to create. I was first thinking about printing him but unfortunately there were no STL. files for him. My only option was to convert, I’ve spoken to Thomas Miennes therefore I am qualified to do this.

First step. Grab a Mini and begin to dry fit. Because of the ball joint on the torso the Warlord Gauls the range of poses you can get is really good. I pushed the torso really far forward and it gave a great impression of how Geriatrix holds himself (While not leaping around punching Romans or dancing.

Next step was to give him a head. There were a few Gauls wearing a kind of small skull cap like helmet, I used this head to try and replicate Geriatrix’s bald head and long hair on the back (a hairstyle I like to call the Bill Bailey.) After I got the head placed I carefully trimmed the edge of the helmet so you can’t see the join and hopefully looks like he isn’t wearing a helmet. The helmet flairs out at the back so I’m planning on using it as the long part of his hair.

The next step was the very important walking stick. The original plan was to take a spear and clip it. I was going to use the clipped spear as a guideline and then greystuff onto the spear to make the stick more knobbly (Behave) However as soon as it was on the model it actually looked perfect. Hurray for things looking good with less effort than you thought!

I was pretty happy with how the model looked so far but there was a huge gap between his torso and legs. I had a bit of stuff spare so I filled it in and that made things look much better.

Then I looked at the picture. Geriatrix has long sleeves, not short sleeves.

So I had to model them on. No one else would ever notice this but I had to do it for me

So time to add some grey stuff (thanks to Gerry for his “stuff” videos.) Its time to sculpt details to add the details onto Fullyautomatix.

I took a slice out of both of the tubes and mixed them together. I took a biggish chunk so I had a lot to work with, I had never properly worked with this stuff for sculpting so I needed spare.

So the first step was to add an apron to Fullyautomatix. A rolled out a long piece for the strap around his neck. It took a bit of poking with the hobby knife but it was a good start.

From here a rolled out a long square and used it as the main piece of the apron. I stuck it down and then began to blend the straps onto the main apron. After that I trimmed the edges to make it fit better.

I think it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. Hoping it looks good painted!

Next up is the main character himself. *

Theres an easy option for this. The heroes box has a model of Vercingetorix which has a very familiar winged helmet. But it just didnt sit right with me. Hes too tall, hes too flash, he has a beard and a cloak. Doesnt fit for our hero at all. Although the script is amazing it’s not what I’m looking for.

So a little conversion work needs to take place. I cut him down and did some repair work and I can honestly say I love how it came out. I was worried about him being to small but I think it’s just right.

I forgot to take pictures of the process but I’ll tell you the tools I used.

1. Hobby knife
2. Wanhao 3d resin bath printer
3. File from thingiverse

I converted raw resin into that mini. That counts right?

Next up is the constant rival/best friend to unhygenix, the blacksmith fullyautomatix.

I took a shirtless gaul, there’s no shortage of them, and used him as a base. Going to need some brown stuff to get work done on his apron but his hammer I can deal with now. I broke his sword (intentionally this time I swear) then took a spear mangled it and added a bit of spruce. Voila a simple but decent looking (better when painted hopefully) blacksmiths hammer.

After building a few more warriors I found my next villager. The fishmonger unhygienix. It was a happy accident his sword broke off and I noticed a resemblance.

So the plan is I need to get a decent model of a fish (because that’s what he fights with obviously, why use a sword when you’ve got a tuna nearby). Also I will need to get some grey stuff to sculpt his belt and for his ponytails.

I always wanted to get into ancient gaming and when the videos appeared for SPQR on the site I thought SPQR seems a good place as any. I had just gone to the 40k weekend and it was great fun but there was some amazing converting going on and I wanted to try my hand at it on these gauls.  I wasnt sure what to do for them though.

Then I saw the gaulish heroes The druid looks identical to Getafix for Asterix and Obelix. It reminded me of reading the comics and watching the movies. I never really realised how much those silly comics had affected me. I always enjoyed ancient history and myths and I think Asterix certainly played a part in it. I always identified with Asterix (I’m not a tall person now and used to be much shorter.) So I have decided to create the whole village (or as much as I could) I may kit bash, scour the internet or 3d print the models if need be.

The clash of heroes starter set is good value, especially from your local friendly neighbourhood OTT store. It would provide a good base for the army and some miniatures to begin with. In addition I bought the gaul hero box, I could get a Getafix and maybe an Asterix.

So first off I decided to start with Getafix. It was a long difficult conversion. I had to glue him to a base.

Difficult stuff