Show here your Roman soldier impression

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Printable Version

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Show here your Roman soldier impression - Heruli - 07-30-2013

I'm from Denmark
the photo is from Hjemsted prehistoric park in south Denmark

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Paul Elliott - 07-30-2013

Gods! That catapult is a monster... nice impressions.

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Flavivs Aetivs - 07-30-2013

Is that a full sized Onager?

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Heruli - 07-30-2013

it is in the construction slightly oversized for it not to be moved, it weighs about 2 tons

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Antonius Insulae - 07-30-2013

This is my impression of a Persona Romanum, not my first, but the primus I'm posting here on RAT.
I'm a Roman general (Consul vel Praetor) of Res Publica Romana, exempli gratia at the tempus of the Belli Poenici.

I'm just starting this hobby and I don't have very much money to put in it, so I make all the equipment myself. That is actually the most fun part in this! I love making costumes, and I'd like to learn to make proper equipment as well as theatrical props.

I know which things are wrong in my costume, mainly material choices, but that is unfortunately so because I don't have money to buy them ready-made from real materials, I am not able to work with materials which need a forge, since I don't have proper tools, and also the real materials are sometimes too expensive for me or impossible to find at the moment. I apologize all that, but I wish you could still appreciate my work, since I've done everything from... well, basically from garbage, except the fabrics and some leather parts which I've bought.

Detailed description of the costume from head to toe:
Cassis (Etrusco-Corinthian helmet), made of cardboard, newsprint, wallpaper glue and paint, and bucculae (cheek-guards) from cardboard and metal paper, with linen padding.
Crista (crest), made of wood and feathers, support made of iron wire, side feathers of a swan.
Cloak (paludamentum / sagum / caracalla?), semi-circular linen red cloak fastened with leather strips to the breastplate.
Lorica musculata (cuirass), made of copper, hammered in shape, epomides (shoulder doublers) made of leather fastened with leather strips, nipple decorations painted with silver enamel paint. Unfortunately I didn't have wide enough plate of metal, so the front and back pieces of the cuirass are connected with side plates made of hard leather.
Zoni (commander decoration belt), made of purple silk band.
Gladius hispaniensis (sword), made of lather, carved and painted wood.
Vagina (scabbard), made of wood, leather, paint and copper decorations, supported by a leather balteus (baldric).
Subarmalis (armour undergarment), made of linen, with red and blue pteryges on the shoulders, two layers of pteryges on the hem, upper white, under red and blue. No padding on the subarmalis, since summer is quite hot.
Tunica, made of white linen, wool wasn't available during summer and would have been hot. Decorated with red stripes, should have been laticlavi (wide stripes), but I bought too narrow strips, so they became angusticlavi (narrow stripes).
Caligae (sandals), made of leather, five layers on the sole, some rivets there too.

I don't have greaves yet. And again I apologize the cardboard helmet and wooden sword which are only prop equipment. But I just don't have the tools and materials for making them from metal, neither the money to buy them ready-made. And actually I made this costume for a Finnish role-playing convention (Ropecon), which was last weekend, and I only had two weeks time to make this costume (the cloak was ready though). I won a second place in costume competition there. Although I guess that people here (serious reenactors) probably don't appreciate such competitions, nor theatrical props in general, but I just wanted to show this, since I worked hard for it and I think it at least looks nice.

Third Century (Again) - Paul Elliott - 07-31-2013

I've finished my work on creating a couple of third century impressions (alot of choice in that period!). This is the out of armour shot:

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Paul Elliott - 07-31-2013

I've finished my work on creating a couple of third century impressions (alot of choice in that period!). This is the out of armour shot:

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lord_mithras/media/Book%20Illustrations/SAM_8633_zps3bbc4269.jpg.html [Image: SAM_8633_zps3bbc4269.jpg]

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Show here your Roman soldier impression - Paul Elliott - 07-31-2013

Here are two third century photos: in ringmail with oval shield and spear and finally in segmentata (attested to 260 and probably a little beyond) with light pilum and Dura scutum.

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Paul Elliott - 07-31-2013

Quote:This is my impression of a Persona Romanum, not my first, but the primus I'm posting here on RAT.

I'm just starting this hobby and I don't have very much money to put in it,...

You made the scabbard? That looks nice! You're ability to create a replica sword that looks pretty real is also extremely commendable!

Good luck with the future, your attention to detail looks tremendous... now I'd love to see what you can do with authentic materials...

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Antonius Insulae - 07-31-2013

Thank you very much Mithras!

Yes, I made the scabbard, I make everything myself. I love crafting things.
The scabbard and caligae I'm very pleased of, since they look really nice, and are quite authentic. I also used the costume for three days, so it's completely usable too.

The wooden gladius is also nice, I actually fenced with it (which Romans of course never did, but I didn't want to carry a shield around for three days in the convention) against my friend armed with a curved steel dagger. My gladius took some hits and scratches, about 5 mm deep notches to the edge of the blade, but it was pretty durable altogether.

The sword was made from a 2×2 inch plank, which I first lathed to make the round pommel and hilt. Then I sawed the blade in shape, grinded it and painted with many layers or paint. I carved some spiral decorations to the hilt with a knife, since they were typical for a republican gladius.
I have three swords, two made from wood with this method, and one which has a metal blade made from a thin steel sheet, way too thin for actual use, but a nice decorational sword.

I'd like to get to real materials, but for example bronze plates seems impossible to find. And I don't have the experience nor tools for hard metal working, not yet at least.

Live and learn!

Show here your Roman soldier impression - AMELIANVS - 07-31-2013

Paul:All those photos are absolutely unspeakably wonderful :o!!!

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Appius - 07-31-2013

To be honest, just about everything about that impression is wrong. I'm sure you've put a lot of work into it and the result would make a great costume BUT you're headed down a deadend as far as reenactment goes. I do understand your budget is limited and this fact alone should make you ask yourself one question. What are you trying to accomplish?

You see, a good-looking high-ranking officer is an impression that is way more expensive than a common soldier. And making lots of equipment out of cheap and wrong materials means you'll have to throw away *everything* when you switch from making costumes to reenactment.

My advice would be this: think long-term. Choose an impression you want to create. Make a list of things you *must* have for that impression (e.g. tunic, belt, shoes, sidearm). Make/buy those items in quality you'll be willing to use two years from now on and in quality common consensus finds good enough. You could begin with, say, a tunic. Use 100% off-white linen (cheaper than wool but period enough), make the tunic wide enough (1 meter minimum in most cases), make it hand-stitched. It can last you a few years and you'll hear next to no complaints about it.

Show here your Roman soldier impression - Appius - 07-31-2013

Some photos from our last training session:

[Image: Tachov_03.jpg]

As always, about half the group were not present...