"Early imperial romans or middle imperial romans?" Topic

Also warlord games and wargames factory launch their new plastic roman ranges and also wargames foundry, gripping beast, black tree design, old glory, AA miniatures, newline design and andrea miniatures all have allready romans of this period, I have decide to start a imperial roman project (metal miniatures!)with my friend Martin, the sculptor of kellerkind miniatures.
The miniatures would be in a 28 mm foot to eye level scale (a little smaler than the salesh figures, but bigger than the old perry or the new warlord romans)
The proportions should be like the salesh EIP romans from foundry.
Before we start to plan the complete project, we would like to ask the community, which romans did you like to see?
The standard legionaries all other companies allready have with more details
Until now, there is the plan to do legionaries in lorica segmentata (Corbridge or Newstead), Chainmail, Imperial gallic helmets typ G,H or I, Legionaries in dacian war heavy armour (Lorica manica, Greaves)
Should the legionaries should wear bracae/breeches?
What do you think?
Do you like more the EIR gladius, or the MIR spatha?
Also we have to decide, how many parts should one model have?
Is it better to use single heads, heads conversion sets, single scutum, single pilum?
Or do you like mostly the single piece figures, like the salesh ones?
Another part of the range will include civilians (country or town?)

We are very interested in your opinions!
Thank you in advance for answering.

EIR are everywhere, but have the advantage that everyone knows them, and they will sell to a lot of people if they are good.

MIR are scarcer, and oldies like me would be more likely to buy them, but there are fewer of us.

Spatha and Newstead Lorica for me.

Pat

I'd also throw in for MIR. While I can't be 100% sure if it will happen in wargaming, the common wisdom with model building is that as soon as the subject is released in plastic, it kills cottage kits. Something to keep in mind…

Damon.

VonMoltke,

Are you talking about doing a plastic range? Cool! It's amazing it took this long for historical 28mm plastic. Anyway, Isn't Foundry the only company that does Dacian Wars "heavy" legionaries. Those in plastic would be a welcome addition. (incidentally, these extra-armored legionaries existed across the empire—not just Dacia)
I would love Ancient civilians, however I don't know if that would be a good selling range. I only need a few villagers for my dioramas, so it's not a problem to pay metal prices. The real appeal to plastic is the ability to buy large numbers for a low price. Maybe your civilians could double as a slave revolt army – carrying farm tools as weapons.

I love the Saleh range, which is crying out to be finished, so if you could do some EIR that are compatible with them, I'd certainly buy. In particular there are no cavalry and virtually no command figures! I'd be particularly keen to see some Optios and Centurions. Also I was thinking only this morning how great it would be if someone did an auxiliary figure in scale armour.

No one (as far as I'm aware) does the unarmored auxilia figures of the early empire, and there's been some really interesting research recently on Batavians in particular, and their unconventional helmets covered with Pine Martin fur and feathers.

Also how about some engineer figures? Artillery crewmen, troops doing fortification work etc. Digging was what the EIRs did best. All those people with plastic Romans will be wanting heavy-weapon support. :-)

BTW, you may not know that Crusader are releasing a couple of packs each of EIR and MIR Rank and File shortly; they will have pics out in the next few days, and there are pictures of their greens on the Crusader Yahoo site.

Simon

@Centurio Andy

No,I am talking about a metal range

@BigRedBat
There would be:
2 Legat poses
2 Tribuns (1 with helmet)
1 Primus Pilus
4 different centurions
2 different Optio poses
2 different Tesserarius poses
1 Imaginifer
1 Aquilifer
3 different Signifer poses
1 Vexillarius

also Artillery crewman.

The goal is to do the most detailed romans in 28 mm.

Von Moltke

Von Molkte, if they worked out, those could be very useful indeed!

Simon

I would rather see slightly earlier figures bridging the gap between Caesarian and EIR. The sort of troops Varus had in Germany in AD9. Chainmail, cingulum and some early lorica segmentata but with Montefortino, Coolus and early Gallic helmets.

No-one makes these!

Yes! I second the call for Augustan legions! THAT is where you can stand out from your competitors. For a reference you could start with "Roman Legionary 58 BC–AD 69," by Ross Cowan. Michael Simkins' Oprey book has an illutration of some Augustan era legionaries, but I don't know how accurate it is. The book was written 20 years ago and the author is not an archaeologist.

Sorry, I should have read that you were doing metal. in that case. Definitely do some Roman civilians!

Middle Imperial Romans for me! Claudius Gothicus,Aurelian,Diocletian & Maximian,oh boy!

go Middle Empire. Not as heavily covered by other ranges and militarily more interesting.

Most of the command and specialist figures would do for either early or middle; I say, do both!

Simon

How about battle weary vets? Torn and mixed types of uniforms, wounded, etc. Mike Adams

@Legion 1950
It is no problem to do veteran figures.

@All
Thank you for your answers!

Another question from us, is it for gamers ok, if there would be few poses like the salesh EIR or the copplestone caesarian romans, or do you like many different poses like the perry EIR?
What do you like more?
Many poses or different uniform types (Lorica segmentata, Chainmail, Unarmoured, Dacian war armoured, Praetorians, Scale armour)?

Hi Von Molkte,

I personally like 3 or 4 variants on one pose, and prefer a standing or marching pose like the Saleh legionaries. I'm not a big fan of all the chucking pilae poses; they always get bent or broken, and they look daft when marching across the forum.

I mix segmentata and chain (and I'd mix in scale if I had it!). I'd love to mix in a few figures with arm protection if I had them… I don't like my legionaries too uniform.

Simon

I agree with Simon on all points!! Cheers Mike Adams