Ancient Greek Clothing in Sixth Scale

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Since yesterday's post about kitbashing Greek hoplites with pre-existing elements (e.g., ACI armor and weapons, TBLeague bodies), it occurred to me search out some of the basic garments that would go with these. I did find them, and since anyone can make this with a modicum of skill and end up with garments that are more representative, accurate, and less expensive than what is commercially available, I decided to post a few photos here.

Keep in mind that these represent the simplest versions of these garments, and although ancient Greek clothing generally consisted of rectangular pieces of cloth and did not resort to (permanent) stitching, more elaborate versions eventually did develop with additional clasps or stitches creating more permanent closures of the open sides and something like real (as opposed to merely apparent) sleeves.

The long tunic (worn by charioteers, elite or mature males, and women)



The short tunic (worn by young or mature men, some sporty women; children wore it without a belt)



The exomis version of the short tunic (worn by working or fighting men)



The long cloak worn by men and women alike, an ancestor of the larger Roman toga (if you are using a standard sheet to improvise a toga for a costume party, you are actually wearing a Greek himation!)



The short cloak, a favorite for military, hunting, or traveling men



Hope this is helpful for anyone kitbashing ancient or fantasy characters.

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#clothing #male #ancient #historical #Greek #custom #kitbash

Shazzdan, the loincloth design you always show is informative but not particularly Greek. Or am I missing something. We certainly don't see exactly that in the artistic representations we he have to go on. On the other hand, this does look like something we see gladiators wear.

There were plenty of variants. An actual loincloth was just a wrapped piece of cloth with no tailoring.



https://www.wikihow.com/Put-on-a-Loincloth

A lot of ancient clothing consisted of wrapped cloth. Some of these have been posted before but it would be good to keep them all together in one thread.

The main problem is finding cloth that is light and soft enough to drape properly in 1:6 scale.

shazzdan wrote:The main problem is finding cloth that is light and soft enough to drape properly in 1:6 scale.

I completely agree.

And now a simple female outfit, the basic peplos (essentially a long tunic, usually with an overfold of various lengths), also made from a simple rectangular piece of cloth, and held together with pins or very simple stitches.

Looking good! Is this all part of your project you mentioned in the other thread?

Thank you very much! Yes indeed, that's the one. At some point I'd like to make a realistic/Classical Athena figure, and the Maria Hill head sculpt is the best I've found so far (suggestions welcome). Next step, aegis (which I'm going to interpret literally, as goat skin). But these examples here are more generic, for ancient clothing.

Haha, even in antique times, the people had to find ways to cover those hideous tbleague wrists.

I think that Maria head is quite fitting, looks very 'stately' and wise, that authority jaw helps too. For a more 'martial' look I could imagine the Kristanna Loken headsculpt, maybe with rooted hair.

Curious, what kind of hairstyle and/or headwear are you planning for this interpretation?

Ovy wrote:Haha, even in antique times, the people had to find ways to cover those hideous tbleague wrists.

I think that Maria head is quite fitting, looks very 'stately' and wise, that authority jaw helps too. For a more 'martial' look I could imagine the Kristanna Loken headsculpt, maybe with rooted hair.

I'm not too worried about the wrists, though I do wish they were better. I also wish the head matched the flesh a bit more closely, but this was back when HT was making their heads a bit too tanned (now they seem to be going the other way). Kristanna might be a good idea.

skywalkersaga wrote:Curious, what kind of hairstyle and/or headwear are you planning for this interpretation?

One of the advantages of the Maria Hill head is that it almost has the right hairstyle, so if I didn't want to modify it and rebuild it myself, it might work. Maybe I should get one of the knock off heads and slice off the bun so it could be attached and detached, and moved.

Here's a profile view of a knock off sculpt on eBay:

Oh, that's an idea! Always good to have knock-offs to mess up practice on, either way. ;D

I'm with Ovy on the wrists -- though not necessarily in relation to this figure, since it's really not that bad here, but just in general. It's not even the gap between the wrists and the hands that bothers me so much as the thickness of the tbleague wrists in general. Ah well... ;p

But back on topic - I really do admire your commitment to the ancient world, GF, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this and others like it.

Well, the Kristanna Loken headsculpt is quite tanned to, compared to the tbleague paleness at least. But she has a detachable bun. It looked glued on and I tried to remove it, now it can be attached and detached like Lego.

I guess one of your hoplites is willing to spare a helmet for his goddess?

skywalkersaga wrote:Oh, that's an idea! Always good to have knock-offs to mess up practice on, either way. ;D

I'm with Ovy on the wrists -- though not necessarily in relation to this figure, since it's really not that bad here, but just in general. It's not even the gap between the wrists and the hands that bothers me so much as the thickness of the tbleague wrists in general. Ah well... ;p

But back on topic - I really do admire your commitment to the ancient world, GF, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this and others like it.

As long as the knock off is made of PVC -- you don't want to mess with resin.

I also agree that they should work on improving the thickness/shape of the wrist -- and on the way it actually moves for that matter.

And thanks.

Ovy wrote:Well, the Kristanna Loken headsculpt is quite tanned to, compared to the tbleague paleness at least. But she has a detachable bun. It looked glued on and I tried to remove it, now it can be attached and detached like Lego.

I guess one of your hoplites is willing to spare a helmet for his goddess?

I have one, from the original batch, will take a closer look at it and explore.

Yes, I have some helmets that could be borrowed for the purpose. Attic is difficult, although there are some Roman ones; Corinthian may be more classic, all puns intended.

You know, I've been working on my fantasy figures for some time now and I thought it would be nice to dress one in a way that looked different and then I get on here and I see this thread. Ain't that amazing? Thanks for the photos and the how to, I'll most likely make use of one of these.

Theboo-bomb wrote:You know, I've been working on my fantasy figures for some time now and I thought it would be nice to  dress one in a way that looked different and then I get on here and I see this thread. Ain't that amazing? Thanks for the photos and the how to, I'll most likely make use of one of these.

Thank you very much! I hope it is useful. You can also use fabric markers to draw patterns and decorations on the cloth -- just make sure you wait for them to dry thoroughly before letting them make contact with a body (ideally, you want to iron the cloth to make extra sure that the fabric marker dye is set, although not every cloth is iron-friendly). These are all very simple, but can serve as a basis for pre-modern clothing and you can always experiment with more complex shapes or even sew or fabric-glue extra pieces onto the clothing.

As for the use of fabric markers (and in one case little pieces of gold-colored duct tape) for ancient/fantasy clothing, here are a couple of examples:


more HERE

and


more HERE

Hope this helps.

Kaustic Plastik posted yesterday that they were going to make Hoplites:

Kaustic Plastik
18 hrs ·
From our prototype Laboratory, by Danilo Leo. So do you like to have some Hoplites in your collection?





I held off buying any ancient Greek warriors. I wasn't really tempted when ACI made them, since their Romans had largely been 'monkey see, monkey do', jumping on the coat tails of Kaustic Plastik but not really knowing what they were doing. Their mix and match gladiators were a prime example. (ACI's Roman Legionary was their standout figure, even if they did copy the lorica segmentata from a 1:1 Indian made replica).


However, if Kaustic Plastik apply their usual attention to historical detail then these could be ones to get.

KP's attention to historical detail is not exactly the best. They have only produced one Roman that is close to authentic.

Thank you, Asta. I think KP has tried harder than most other sixth-scale companies to get historical details reasonably right. Issues with the historical reconstruction there are substantially (though perhaps not exclusively -- I can't recall every detail) questions of historical interpretation, where there are different schools of thought. Since KP has relied on the expertise of Italian archaeologists, their opinions are naturally reflected in the products. Ultimately, there is far more good or right here than otherwise, and (as we can say for just about any company or product) we can at least get plenty of nice parts for kitbashing and customizing. My main concern is the fairly persistent problem with quality -- their products often fall apart while being handled and require frequent recourse to Gorilla super glue (if I recall, that was even suggested in a recent warning slip in one of their most recent sets). Anyway, I look forward to what they do with their hoplites, although I'm not exactly loving the style that was shown.

extremely informative !!
thanks for sharing !

GubernatorFan wrote:Thank you, Asta. I think KP has tried harder than most other sixth-scale companies to get historical details reasonably right. Issues with the historical reconstruction there are substantially (though perhaps not exclusively -- I can't recall every detail) questions of historical interpretation, where there are different schools of thought. Since KP has relied on the expertise of Italian archaeologists, their opinions are naturally reflected in the products. Ultimately, there is far more good or right here than otherwise, and (as we can say for just about any company or product) we can at least get plenty of nice parts for kitbashing and customizing. My main concern is the fairly persistent problem with quality -- their products often fall apart while being handled and require frequent recourse to Gorilla super glue (if I recall, that was even suggested in a recent warning slip in one of their most recent sets). Anyway, I look forward to what they do with their hoplites, although I'm not exactly loving the style that was shown.

Fabio said it was the quality of the glue they were permitted to use in the factory.  The plates on the belt feel like they're tacked on like post-it notes!

It's not so bad once you know what to expect, as then you can glue the pieces on properly before you start putting them together. It was a little disheartening to have bits fall off after spending time assembling.

They posted another photo:




There's something about the quality of these, maybe the graininess of the photos or the size of the wooden stands, that makes them look 1/12 rather than 1/6.

What a wonderful thread! It is nice to see others with such a care and regard for the actual historical fashion of ancient Greece!

These outfits look perfect! I have not nearly down as much in this scale, though I have made an exomis, khiton, khitoniskos and himation in 1/18 scale for the Boss Fight Greeks. Including for my 1/18 Herakles! I have not yet made female fashion, sadly, but plan to.  

An older version. He is lacking his club and doesn't have a more suitable shield (which I took from a Boss Fight Achilles as Herakles's shield, as per Hesiod, looked similar).