07-30-2013, 09:42 PM
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.
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.
Antonius Insulae (Sakari)
