The same week of my working session in Terni for the illustration for Ferrum et Gloria, we met with Diego to visit a part of Umbria, the region of Italy where live Andrea. Towns we visited underlined in red.

In a plain with a river, a jewel from Roman and Medieval times. Something was so perfect that you could think that was fake as a backcloth.

Larger town of the trip. Laid down an hill. White stones under the Sun.

Bronze tables with laws in Umbrian characters and language.

Land of truffles and other delicacies.

Roman theatre.

A dungeon boardgame from some years ago. To spent late evenings in hotel.

Where spill a famous Italian spring water. And with this beautiful white castle, closed on Mondays. And yes, it was Monday.

The city of paper makers. So we visited the paper museum.

Myself with a slimmer body: less 4Kg than before and a better health than three months ago.

Andrea while he is buying paper made in Fabriano to take notes for the rules, to draw with inks, or to paint with watercolours.

The most beautiful town that I visited in Umbria! A lot of Roman remains nestled in a perfect Medieval town.

A town full of gardens and flower-pots along the streets.

Town of olive oil production. Even Medieval, as usual, but with a public villa decorated with Liberty style and with Bohemian landscapes.

Then we returned to Terni for a playtesting…

The editing of Ferrum et Gloria first book carry on. I spent two more days in Terni with Andrea to realise more illustrations. Here some gladiators, three thraeces kinds in the making.

With this illustration style we need to change the previous cover. Here some moments from the start to a preview.

After this test we changed something for better as some details, the background colours and the myrmillo legs.

Realised the illustrations, now we are working on schemes, tables and sheets. Here my sketches as guide to the real ones. Still in working…

More work is needed. Andrea is editing the text and the book but I think that I must visit Terni another time, maybe at the end of the month.

At 19.50 Greenwich time the new Doctor Who series with Peter Capaldi will be aired. Here in Italy an hour after because of Rome time, and I think I follow it. So no Saturday night go out, however maybe tomorrow very early I will go to Terni for another work session on Ferrum et Gloria editing.

It’s Ferragosto (feriae Augusti) time again! The day of the year established by our emperor Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus to rest! And this is even the day to celebrate Summer. And Summer is bikini time too! As in previous years something on this topic, just like my Blood Bowl team painted by Filippo Simoncini…

And more. A clip from a great Japanese film about girls and machine-guns:

Buon Ferragosto! : )

Gladiators in 1/6 dimension are one passion of mine. I own two of them but the high prices keep me away from new purchases. In the meantime two new products are on the market. The first one is a delicious dimachaereus (a fighter with two curved swords) by ACI, the best maker for this kind of figures. Moreover it is almost historically correct. The only evident (and common) mistake is the metallic junction at the elbows. And the points of the swords aren’t inside as sabers but external as hooks. But you can just turn them and all is fine. The right sword could be more long than the left one, but you can be satisfied the same. Quality of the finish is awesome indeed. Available in two versions that are different as colours of metal parts. A really great piece!

I’m less pleased by the other gladiator by CMTOYS. It is simple: it is neither a gladiator as fight category, nor a Roman as dress. It is sold as “Roman Gladiator Coach”. I think it is a transposition of a character from that TV series that I dislike called “Spartacus”. A fantasy item, then.

Last Saturday I went to Terni to assist Andrea with the drawing of gladiators, illustrations for the edit of Ferrum et Gloria. He draws them on his graphics tablet. In the first stance he drew a retiarius. He started it with rough sketches and after he coloured and defined it.

The final result was good but for only this figure we spent 2 hours. And all is not so perfect as it can be. Two more hours on it? No! So he tried another way: building from free forms, adding layers of colours over layers of colours.

Well, it was good too but a little mixed. So another way, always with this composition way but utilising a limited range of tones.

This was the right way! The look is more immediate, the key aspects are evident. The drawing session ran smoothly and all was rapid, almost 30/40 minutes for figure. After a working day we have: retiarius, provocator, myrmillo, secutor, scissor, gallus. Andrea is refining them. Among other things we had a brainstorming about Ganesha Games in 2015, 2016 and more. Today more time is scheduled for other gladiators available on the first part of the rules. I’m on the way to Terni again, and this time we will spend some days in Umbria for an holiday together with Diego.