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I have never been a great fan of strelets figures due to the standard of sculpting, but these figures look great. If they turn out to be as good as the masters I will be adding them to my Roman Army
I am also impressed by this set.They look interesting, their helmets are both coolus and montoferino, so they fit for Roman civil wars and Teutoburg, too.I am waiting for set Roman legion in battle....!
Although a nice looking set I think that there is an error with the hanging 4 leather strap groin guard. From the books that I have in my collection this was only used when the Romans wore their banded metal armour that only reached down to the waist. For these Republican Romans with ring mail reaching down to the knee this would be unnecessary.
Strelets seem to have improved their photography as well. Nicely exposed and sharp. The final photo has good depth of field and shows what they look like together. The bonus Strelets looks good as well. I am sure fans of this period will be pleased despite the chain mail looking like pteruges. An old soldering iron or hot pin could be be enough to modify them but better if they started off by looking like chain mail.
these are full of character and movement, and are a great addition to the range. i can just imagine them stopping off at a tavern (then halfway home wishing they'd used the pot before they'd left....)
On the subject of the cingulum apron, i agree that it is commonly associated with the lorica segmentata (although the protection was presumably more psychological than real), and most Marian Romans are shown without.
However (and i accept that the following are technically mostly imperial rather than republican per se, but i'm not sure that had a huge impact on army equipment), Barker in WRG 'Armies and enemies of imperial rome' shows an early 1st century AD legionary with apron and chainmail, whilst the osprey volume on the Roman army from Caesar to Trajan has several depictions of blokes with chainmail and aprons.
Perhaps it would be better to have some figures with it, and some without?
Apron and Mail occur at Kalrieser so first century AD also theres a number of early Rhineland stele that show this combination no evidence for earlier use exists that I know of but I would give 50 years before Varus on principle to allow for development, so mid 1st century BC...