Mainz Gladius - Historical Accuracy Project

With this project I set out to try and create a historically accurate Mainz Gladius based off research, references images from replicas and actual artefacts that can be seen in the British Museum.

One of the hardest parts to the project was the handle, I'm still not entirely happy with how it looks and I'll have to do more studies to try and get a realistic looking "Ivory" material. It was quite normal for a Roman Gladius to have the handle made from either a wood or ivory.

This project was a lot of fun to do, it's satisfying to create something with the goal of trying to make it look how it might have at the time in ~15AD

This Gladius is more ornate than the standard Legionnaire's Gladius, I went in with the mindset that it would be an Officer's weapon like a Centurion or even a Tribune of a Legion.

The modelling was all done in 3ds max and the texturing in Substance Painter.