Show here your Roman soldier impression

[Appius]

Well done on your impression. From where I stand you appear to be far and away the most accurate in your group. Get yourself a subarmalis to go under your mail and you should be fine. I particularly like the fact that you have the small javelin as well as the thrusting spear, which is something completely in keeping with the evidence and at the same time something which far too many auxiliary re-enactors ignore.

I think though that some of your legionary companions need to revise their ideas on what Roman tunics looked like, as well as providing some evidence-based justification for why they think it is appropriate for mid-first century AD legionary soldiers to be depicted wearing trousers. I would also have to say that that dagger sheath in your last photo is an item which is banned in most groups, due to it being one of the most inaccurate pieces of kit which you can lay hands on (and which I sincerely hope Indian junk factories have finally stopped producing). I think I might also be right in thinking I saw a stainless steel segmentata.

Crispvs

Thank you for the comments.

As for the subarmalis, well, I do have one on. Two layers of linen, three layers of wool, two more layers of linen. It has even got two layers of pteryges, each made of four layers of linen. But it is an old one, designed for my old butted hamata which had far shorter sleeves and was shorter too, so it is almost invisible in the photo I've posted. I guess I should not be putting modifying it (or making a new one) off much longer.

Regarding the tunics, yes, they already know better. The balding one already has a wider one and the grey-haired gentleman in planning to get one. The shortest one owns half a dozen tunics, linen and woolen ones, narrower and wider... But it was a cold and rainy day and we do live north of the limes, so long sleeves were a good choice.
The same goes for trousers, I think. I'm a barbarian auxiliary, it should be OK for me to wear trousers. And by about 70 AD, which is the baseline we're aiming for, even some legionaries probably wore bracae. At least Graham Sumner (in his Roman military dress) mentions legionaries probably began wearing trousers during northern campaigns in Gaul and Germany, which was more than a century sooner. So I would hope one out of three legionaries wearing shorts would be acceptable.

Both segmentatas are Deepeeka and neither of them is stainless. They're probably too polished, though.

About that pugio... Again, he knows better now and nobody else will buy it again. But he's putting his available money into building a 3 metres wide ballista so buying a new pugio this soon could make his wife sort of angry.

If you have any other advice on what to improve, I'll be glad to hear it. We do know about some of the problems but it is (nearly) always good to hear some input from someone outside one's own group.