Hi Folks

Continuing in my quest to show you my thoughts on releases , this time its from Altores Studio who continue to be very prolific in their release schedule , the last batch included knight, roman's of all periods of the empire and that is what we will be looking at in this walkabout the resin......

A Roman Legionary of the 3-4th Century AD

The release was announced here on PF :

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/altores-studio.112808/

and of course in social media .

The release depicts a action packed figure of the late Roman army so lets have a bit of background

The army of the later Empire was widely regarded as a motley collection of half trained , poorly equipped, incompetent peasant farmers associated with increasing numbers of Germanic barbarians

In fact, the main reason for the evolution of the later military system was precisely because the early Imperial army had proved incapable of dealing with the changed conditions and the new threats to the Empire which emerged during the later second and third centuries.

The later army doesn't seem to compare very favourably with the expansionist force of earlier days since by its very nature it was a defensive army ,there was the increasing proportion of 'barbarian' troops serving Rome in the fourth century.

Lack of body armour (mail was very much in use) makes later Roman troops appear 'primitive' next to their earlier counterparts, but this only represents the normal fighting kit of troops from beyond the frontiers which then spread to those recruited from within the Empire. This does not mean that the later Empire was IN decline - artillery was still very much in use at this time, while heavily armoured cavalry, the cataphracti and clibanarii , were employed in field armies throughout the Roman world and testified to the continuing skill of Roman armourers.

So even in the later period of the empire the army was a fighting machine and one that was using troops from the provinces to good effect .

Of course books are many here are a few I plucked from my bookshelves , all well worth a look:

Continued in next post

Nap

lets have the details of the release:

Title: The Roman Legionary 3-4th Century AD

Reference: F75-059

Scale: 1/24th 75mm

Material: Gray Resin

No of pieces: 6

Sculptor: Igor Kordyukov

Box Art: N/A

As with all of the releases no matter what scale parts are in a good box with the picture on the top of ( in this case unpainted ) of the built model.

Graphics are very good with of course the distinctive yellow colour being used for text as well .

Parts consist of Main body with torso , the right arm with sword, dagger , sword scabbard , cape , 2 heads , shield and base .



Prep
As with all of the releases Altores have considered the fact that modellers want to paint so prep is minimal and all casting plugs are easy to get to and remove

Main figure..Casting plug on left foot behind locating post .
Heads...slight sanding on base of location posts
Shield...Excess resin from lower edge
Cape...3 casting plugs to remove from lower edge
Right Arm/weapon...Cut off post from pommel , slight sanding of blade , straighten if needed ( use a hairdryer...but ask SWMBO first !!)
Dagger/Scabbard...Remove casting posts and fit .
Base...Excess resin underneath

I again have a lot of pictures so will cover the Main figure here first

The pose is very action packed the both legs showing good movement the right foot pushing off ground , knee raised and bent slightly, the right arm is just the mail clad upper the left being the full arm less hand .

Wearing a mail shirt which is well sculpted , under this we have clothing with cleanly done folds all correct in position in respect the pose , this clothing extends to just above the knees and has protective strips being worn , possibly heavy cloth or more likely leather.

Trousers are being worn with the lower legs being wrapped as seen in the style of the period , the definition of this is sharp and the folds on the trousers again are good .

Boots are on the feet , again very well shown nice lace details .

At the neck there is a scarf being worn to prevent the mail from chaffing the skin , again nicely sculpted .

Around the waist we have a wide belt with a nicely detailed buckle , with his sword belt being worn over the right shoulder.

Casting comment ...in all areas this is crisply done and shows the sculpting skill well.



Continued in next post

Nap

On now to the remainder of the pieces

Head(s)

Altores have kindly provided the option of different heads , both with different features and ages , a crested helmet has a younger face , the other older with a small beard, the younger face exhibits his teeth showing the other has them grinding together in fury at battle .

Both have cheek pieces , good undercuts at the sides , even with these and the helmet access to the faces is not too bad at all , both helmets ( in style called Intercisa ) have neck protection sweeping down at the back , details of the helmets are very good indeed with the crest having good textures , the crest flows down the rear of the helmet .
Facial features are as said different in ages both are well sculpted , nice cheek features .

The choice to use which one is of course yours either will look good , the fitting is simple and the neck sits well into the main figure well.

Crested helmet



Uncrested



Right Arm with sword

This is the lower arm holding the sword in a thrusting downward movement towards an unseen enemy .

Fit is again easy into the area of the mailed upper arm of the main figure , the clothing has good folds , leading down to the hand which is something that I think Altores sculptors are very good at , the hand grips the sword handle accurately , the pommel on one side the blade on the other ( see comments about dealing with any miss shaped blades ), the sword is a type called a Spatha



Sword Scabbard/Dagger

Again the quality sculpting and casting continues the details on both are very good indeed ..enough said really and with fit being easy to do in place they look really good.



Cape/Cloak

This is a large piece of resin and the first thing to say is fit this before the head!!! , its been cleverly sculpted joined at the front with a clasp , the folds are excellent and well done , its sculpted pulled into the body when in situand looks really natural and fits snugly in place.



Shield

This is the large oval type , no decoration on the front allowing the design of your choice to be painted in , we have a well formed central boss ( often used as a weapon itself ...Ouch!!) , the shield is covered in a material with good detailed stitching around the edge .

On the review the shield resin was marbled but this presented no issue as the resin was exactly the same all over in depth.

The sculptor and casting are even more well thought out when looking at the rear of the shield ...the left hand is cast holding the handle ..and it looks like he is actually gripping ..like it , finger details are very good .

Note: the shield fits to the levelled part of the left on on the main figure . this gives a better surface hold .

Details on the inside of the shield includes 3 small throwing darts ..lethel weapons and certainly a surprise to an enemy .



Base

This is as we expect textured and oval shaped , again use this on its own or incorporate within a larger base , there are 2 locating cutouts for the feet ( the right one was slightly off when dry fitting so you might like to remove the post , fill the cutout and pin the foot ...not too difficult )



Final thoughts

Well the resin march from Altores continues with another good addition to the range , quality is there and its a good subject to release , popular period of history and of course plenty of painting challenges with metallics , leather and cloth .

This will please the followers of Altores and modellers who like the ancient period ( there are more Roman figures which I will share soon )

RECOMMENDED

For details on this and more from them :

E-mail: altoress@mail.ru

Website: Currently not available but here are their European suppliers

https://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk/collections/altores-studio
http://www.perenciomodels.it/joomla/manufacturers/altores-studio
https://www.wendysminiatures.nl/c-3821866/altores-studio/
https://www.zinnfigur.com/

They are also a member of FaceBook and the forum here on PF

Thanks to for the review piece

And to you all for looking in

Happy Modelling

Nap