Roman Legionary, 2nd Century AD - Seil Miniature review

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Guy

A Fixture
Joined
Aug 20, 2003
Messages
12,713
Location
US, Oklahoma
SH75009
Roman Legionary, 2nd Century AD
75mm white metal
Sculpted by Yury Serebryakov
Painted by Sheng Yan
15 parts + Brass plaque

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This figure is of a Roman Legionary in the second century AD and consists of 15 parts plus an etched brass plaque.

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The figure comes in Seil's sturdy black box with a color guide / sleeve around the box. All parts are sandwiched between foam and small parts are bagged separtly to ensure against loss. There is an additional color guide also included with the figure.

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Above are 2 views of the head and the helmet which fits snuggly right down on the head.

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The above photos show the leg section with side seam lines to be removed easily by file or knife.

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Above are the waist section that slides down over the leg section and the chest section which attaches to the top of the waist section.

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Above are the front and rear photos of the arms which attach snuggly to the chest section.

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Above you see the assembly process with the waist section down over the leg section and the chest section on top of the waist section. Good fittment of all parts here.

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Above is the front and rear view of the shield. The shield handle is another separet part.

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Above is the sword.

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Shield parts

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Spear

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Detailed base

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Etched brass plaque

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Color guide

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Additional Box art photos painted by:
Sheng Yan

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Conclusion:
An excellent kit of a Roman Legionary with minimal seam lines and mold plugs to remove. Highly recommended.

Seil Miniatures website - click here

 
Thanks vergilius. As you can tell, I am not a Roman History buff. The spear may well be called correctly as a Pilum. If so........my mistake.
 
It's dangerous to be dogmatic about 'who-wore-or-used-what' when talking about the Roman army. During the early Republic there were troops who used a stabbing spear, the hasta and where therefore known as 'hastatii' (literally, 'spearmen'). It's also clear from grave stelæ dating from the 1st century AD that both legionary and auxiliary troops used the throwing javelin (pilum, pl. pila). The fact that this figure has been given a pilum should not be regarded as being wrong - it's quite likely that by this period such troops were so armed.

This figure is wearing the 'Newstead' form of lorica segmentata armour, which differed in several important respects from the earlier 'Corbridge' form. The sculptor has caught all these various changes well. He has also modelled the late-pattern Imperial Gallic helmet extremely well. However, the shield has been painted as the one recovered from the site at Dura and this comes from a later period than the figure (mid 3rd century AD).

My only real criticism of this figure is that the sword scabbard is far too long. It's of a type known as a spatha and these were mainly used by cavalry soldiers (because they needed a longer reach) but were later adopted in general by the army. The problem here is that the man could not draw this weapon because it is longer than his reach! Either the sword should be shorter, more like the gladius Hispaniensis, or the scabbard should be slung much lower down.
 
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