Hi to all on PF ,

As always its good to be able to review items and share on PF and this time we have a release from Linjo Models in China this time its a Roman Legionary circa 101-102 AD .

As always lets have a bit of background to these tough soldiers :

The Roman legionary was a professional soldier after the Marian Reforms of 107BC . Legionaries had to be Roman citizens and under the age of 45. They enlisted for twenty-five years of service, a change from the early practice of enlisting only for a campaign. The last five years were normally on lighter duties as veterans

On the march and often in unfriendly terrain and even unfriendlier weather , the legionary would be loaded down :

This included armour commonly (lorica hamata), (lorica squamata), and in the 1st-3rd century (lorica segmentata).

A Shield or Scutum together with the helmet or galea , 2 javalin (the heavy Pilium and the lighter verutum), in addition to a short sword or gladius , a dagger or pugio .

Wearing on his feet he wore sandals called calgae , carrying also a marching pack or sarcina with 14 days food , a waterskin , cooking equiptment, 2 stakes for palusade construction , topped off with a shovel and a whicker basket .......truely a beast of burden .

Each of these items, aside from the pickaxe which was worn on the belt, was carried on a forked pole introduced by Gaius Marius call the pila muralia, which earned his men the nickname Marius' Mules.

There is some discrepancy over what was actually carried and the possible total weight. Some items at times may have been transported in wagon trains or on mules such as the legionaries' tents and millstones for grinding the corn rations.

It's been estimated that a Legionary could carry anywhere from 66 lbs. (30 kgs) to over 100 lbs. (45 kgs) of gear and weapons.


The Roman soldier underwent especially rigorous training; discipline was the base of the army's success, and the soldiers were relentlessly and constantly trained with weapons in addition to drill and forced marches with full loads and in tight formation were frequent.

Discipline was important and infractions were heavily punished by centurions ranging from extra guard duty to beatings and even death if cowardice was shown in battle
However, honours, rewards and promotions were frequently awarded to legionaries who distinguished themselves in battle or through exemplary service these could range from extra rations to gold torques and even land when the legionary left the army.

It was a hard life for sure but men were proud to serve the Empire .

A full strength legion was officially made up of 6,000 men, but typically all legions were organized at under strength and generally consisted of approximately 5,300 fighting men including officers. It is difficult to determine whether non-combatants like field surgeons and clerks were included in the 5,300 or helped bring the total number of men up to the official 6,000.

The basic structure of the army is as follows:

Contubernium: (tent group) consisted of 8 men.

Centuria: (century) was made up of 10 contubernium with a total of 80 men commanded by a centurion

Cohorts: (cohort) included 6 centuriae or a total of 480 fighting men, not including officers. In addition the first cohort was double strength but with only 5 centuriae instead of the normal 6.

Legio: (Legion) consisted of 10 cohorts.

Additionally each Legion had a 120 man Alae (cavalry unit) called the Eques Legionis permanently attached to it possibly to be used as scouts and messengers.

The Rank and File of the Roman Legion

Tirones: The basic new recruit. A Tirones could take up to 6 months before becoming a full Milites.

Munifex (or Miles Gregarius): The basic private level foot soldier.

Discens: Milites in training for an immunes position.

Immunes: These were trained specialists, such as surgeons, engineers, surveyors, and architects, as well as craftsmen. They were exempt from camp and hard labor duties due to the nature of their work, and would generally earn slightly more pay than the Milites

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Nap

Hi fellow PF friends ,

Moving now to the actual model itself:

Well in the box we have :


Subject title: Roman Legionary (101-102 AD)

Scale: 200mm

Parts: 3

Material : Resin

Sculpted by : Chunmei Zhou

Box Art by : Songhui Liu

Reference: LJ20017

The model comes in the distinctive and very strong black cardboard box , with the parts which are cast in a light cream resin all being secured between 2 thick pieces of foam ....

Always good to see the care that Linjo take on their packing and presentation

Consisting of just 3 parts , these being the torso , the head , and a simple pedastal base.

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Hi to all,

Looking now at the pieces lets begin with the largest ..the Torso


Our Roman is sculpted wearing the Sagum or cloak unneath which jhe wears the lorica segmentata .

THe cloak itself is puled up to his shoulders the folds being very natural , it has large buttons on ..no doubt to make fastening easier in the cold Germanic winter or on Hadrians wall with the icy winds blowing all around .

Sculpting of these folds are smoothly done and it looks like he would be fairly well protected from the weather .

Underneath we have the famous segmenta this is IMO superbly sculpted , individual pieces are finely defined with the undercutting being of particulaly noteworthy ...just look at the pictures to appreciate the skill of the sculptor and indeed that of the caster .

The ties are nicely done all hanging naturally and very like any reference I can find .

The neck area has a cutout into which fits the head itself .

Clean up consists soley of just a casting plug to remove which as usual is quickly and easily done using snips and sanding blocks, there are no other casting lines to deal wiith infact apart from the casting plug the torso is a flawless piece ...WELL DONE Linjo .

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Hi again !!!!,

Now we move onto the 2nd piece this time its the head , this is sculpted with the hood of the cloak over his helmet which frames his hardened and weatherbeaten face.

The hood is a perfect match to the cloak on the torso with again the folds being so naturally done , the hood hanging onto the shoulders at the bottom , undecuts throughout are exremely well done, especially where the hood meets the helmet cheek pieces .

The helmet (what you can see of it) is full of details I see this as being slightly battle worn .

The face itself is one of a battle hardened veteran for sure he has piercing eyes you can almost see the horror of close combat in the features , the brow is furrowed , this all goes together to make a wonderfully menacing face.

Arond his neck he wears the scarf , again well defined with great details .

Fit is by a matching plug into the recess of the torso neck area and is absolutely immaculate with no filler needed .

Prep is absolutely minimal ..1 casting plug on the underside ...easy to do .

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On now to the final piece now the base :

As with all busts in the range this is a simple small pedastal type , a small amount of sanding is needed , fit into the underside is tight and it does the job , some might want to replace this with a brass rod.

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Now the final thoughts from your scribe :

This is a simple yet complicated piece in that there is so much wonderful details within a small area (ie the head in the hood)
.
It will be a great challenge to paint both in the facial area and the cloak together with the armour and at the end of it what will you have had :

Hours of enjoyment and pleasure finishing up with a very distinctive piece for the display cabinet .

Remember it is generally thought the cloaks were red but as from the references virtually any colour could have been used dependant on availability .

A very interesting subject nicely produced and presented .

This is a model I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone interested in this period or those that like a challenge in painting .

Its my pleasure to say this is a cracker and well worth getting , presentation is well up to the normal very high Linjo standard , sculpting and casting are 1st class .

References include the internet of course , the Osprey series of books , here are some of the many books I went to for the review:

Osprey MAA 374 Roman Military Clothing(1) 100BC-300AD (ISBN 1-84176-487-6)

Warriors of Rome by Michael Simpkins ISBN 0-7137-2197-9

Roman Legion by David Zienkiewicz (A National Museum of Wales book) ISBN 0-7200-0401-2

The Armour of the Roman Legions by H Russell Robinson and Ronald Embleton ISBN 0-85983-151-5

Housesteads in the days of the Romans by Frank Graham and Ronald Embleton ISBN 0-946928-27-4

Hadrians Wall Reconstructed by Charles Daniels and Ronald Embleton ISBN 0-85983-056-X

What the Soldiers wore on Hadrians Wall by H Russell Robinson and Ronald Embleton ISBN 0-85983-093-4


....AND MANY OTHERS !!!:lol:



In the UK it can be got from sole distributors namely El Greco of course at a cost of £30 plus shipping

Note El Greco are the sole distributor in UK

Phone: +44 (0)1280 840364

Email: info@elgrecominiatures.co.uk

Home Page: http://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk


or direct via the Linjo website at www.linjomodels.com or contact them by e mail at linjomodles@sina.com


Finally some pictures from the website of the great box art painting by the talented Songhui Liu


Nap