I just went on the TSSD website (www.sdsoldiers.com) and they are releasing a playset and bagged sets of Romans and Barbarians in September......at least that's what the website says! They are only showing three molds right now(a roman in testudo, a roman with his gladius drawn, and a barbarian advancing. The two Romans look like mid to late First Century AD with the classic lorica segmentata, rectangular shield and Imperial Gallic Helm? (hard to tell from the pictures. The barbarian looks good supposedly based on the Osprey book ROMAN ENEMIES 1 GERMANICS AND DACIANS. I for one can't wait for these the only Romans from this era in 1/32 are the A Call To Arms, and while good, i didn't like the pose quality. Hopefully these Romans will be better and I can finally conguer my hobby room properly!! LOL
This is good news. Their line of WWII figures (Germans in Great Coats, etc.) are quite good so we can hope their Romans are up to this standard.
1/32 scale has been sorely under-represented when it comes to Romans. CTS carries a few different lines, but none are very pleasing. http://www.classictoysoldiers.com/
On the other hand Conte has been doing some of the very best work in the 1/32 scale, particularly in plastic. Their sets based upon the films Zulu, The Warlord and The Vikings are all well done, as are their WWII figures of US & British Paratroopers and Waffen-SS Grenadiers.
However, when it comes to the Ancients, only their Spartans (based upon the film The 300 Spartans) are available in plastic. They do have line of Imperial Romans, but in metal only. Conte keeps talking about releasing their Roman line in plastic, but ... perhaps eventually. http://conteco.com/
I totally agree with the relative lack of decent romans in 1/32. The Punic War and even Caesar's campaigns in gaul have a few sets, but there is only one good on for the early Imperial era( the aforementioned A Call To Arms set. Conte's roman are great but I've only been able to get 20 or so because of the cost. What I hope is that the TSSD sets sell well and they decide to produce auxiliaries. That is something I would love to see, some infantry, archers and cavalry to complete my army. Altogether, it looks like a good step in the right direction!
The TSSD website has updated their web-page with some new photos. The Romans look good,although maybe a bit stiff for me, and the "Barbarians" look very dynamic. I did have one sticking point. They have archers wearing a lorica segmentata. Now, any representation I have ever seen of archers either have them in chain or scale armor. I just don't know how accurate that is and am wondering if anyone has any ideas?
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Perhaps the archers were legionaries who picked up bows after losing a significant amount of auxiliary archers.
More and more though we are finding evidence that auxiliaries may have worn segmentata, after all it was considerably cheaper, easier, and quicker to make than chainmail. I believe we have found several examples of segmentata in Spain where we know only light infantry was stationed. Keep in mind that 30-40 years ago we believed only auxiliaries wore coolus helmets
Quote:I believe we have found several examples of segmentata in Spain where we know only light infantry was stationed.
Legion VII Gemina were based at Leon in Spain for several hundred years, with VI Victrix and X Gemina before them. The last dated find of lorica segmentata actually comes from Leon - from around AD300.
Sorry, what I meant is that by X date (later Empire) we know there were no legionaries, but segmentata was still found and dated to X date. I tried finding the link where I read it with no success, if I find it, I'll link it.
EDIT: Also what I meant to mention in my last post is that all Perigrini we elevated to citizen status, giving auxiliaries the same social status that the legionaries has enjoyed for the last few hundred years. And since we know the Newstead armor was used through 280 and possibly the early 300s, its likely that troops who were traditionally archers before 212AD when everyone became citizens, were given access to segmentata (assuming that segmentata was not available to auxilaries previously.
To Matt and Aurelius: The archers are most likely from Crete where they wore a scaled/leaf shaped mail resembling Parthian style and that may not resolute well in a molded plastic format. A segmeted replication maybe was just easier than mail, or maybe the modeler just doesn't know. Maybe possible some Cretan archers took to wearing lighter and less expensive Segmentata as a field expediency and we are not aware of it because there is no record, but damn they still look good! I think I am going to hold my breath and pound on the floor until one of my family buys me some of them!
TSSD has updated his site with more pics.
I wouldn't mind getting a couple of bags of the Romans (I have the Call to Arms ones and agree about the pose quality) but I think I will pass on the rest, although I do have a strange fetish for war elephants. :wink:
As for those Roman ruins, they weren't ruins when the Romans were around, were they?
I agree about the ruins included in the playset. In fact, I believe i saw them at a pet store to be used for aquariums! I suppose they could be older(Greek?) ruins, but why would Romans and Barbarians be fighting over Greek Ruins in the era represented? Or maybe I'm being to picky!!
When I was a kid I used to love 1/32 scale figures (of any period).
Airfix often used to make 1/72 and 1/32 versions of the same figures (especially Napoleonics).
When it comes wargaming figures, the 20mm plastics always seemed a little insubstantial to me. That was why I was glad to discover 25mm metal figures which I began to collect (especially as financial circumstances allowed). I even remember you could also get both 20mm and 30mm in metal as well.
These days these 28mm figures by many manufacturers are so good and detailed that I don't really feel the need for larger figures. 28mm (many approaching 30mm) seems the perfect size to me - especially in order to assemble decent sized units.
[size=75:2kpklzm3]Ghostmojo / Howard Johnston[/size]
[size=75:2kpklzm3]Xerxes - "What did the guy in the pass say?" ... Scout - "Μολὼν λαβέ my Lord - and he meant it!!!"[/size]
Their line of WWII figures (Germans in Great Coats, etc.) are quite good so we can hope their Romans are up to this standard.
![[Image: A-TTLGAvatar-1-1.jpg]](http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d162/Ghostmojo/Argus%20-%20TTLG/A-TTLGAvatar-1-1.jpg){kind=avatar}
