Strelets Forum
Welcome to the Strelets Forum.
Please feel free to discuss any aspect of 1/72 scale plastic figures, not simply Strelets.
If you have any questions about our products then we will answer them here.
The L-shaped object seems to be a counter, seen from above and looks completely right. The usual Roman fast food restaurant just was a rectangular room, like the shops in the same city building. Open towards the street. The bartender or waitress at the L-counter could both attend the people entering the tavern and the ones staying on the street side. Many passers-by would stop for a sip, small dish or some gossip. Somewhat similar to a modern sidewalk café or ‘whatsoever to go’ shop.
Right, the tunic is not long enough for a woman. But there’s more information about the dress code of the upper class or average women. Lower classes and slaves might have worn what was available. For sure that waitress did’t work in a gourmet temple…
Right again, that tunic looks Hollywood style. And the filmmaker’s Roman dress code was and mostly is pure fantasy, but became a recognizable standard for the audience. Like the infamous leather cuirasses. Even newer TV productions like HBO’s ‘Rome’ or “Spartacus’ are not very realistic. Unfortunately, the working dress of lower class people isn’t much depicted in reliefs, wall paintings or pottery – or at least rarely published. Great resin samples of Roman civilians in 1/72 are made by Nikolai (some reviews at PSR). Perfectly sculpted anatomy and dress and a lot of life like poses. Linear-b should know them, too. But I also like the Strelets Roman civilians, because of their personality. They ‘act’ like living ordinary people. Maybe the kind of ‘real life’ you would see in HBO’s ‘Rome’. 
BTW: Many simple taverns were at the floor level of a Roman ‘insula’, the ancient skyscrapers, built up to seven floors and often collapsing due to poor and cheap building methods. Small rents and at the upper floor levels the home of thousands of rather poor people. In today’s view, ‘tavern’ might mislead to the picture of a romantic restaurant. Also common but maybe more likely at the better quarters or the countryside. Rome herself was a mega-city, and many quarters perhaps comparable to modern slums, but far away from being a red-light district.
Unfortunately, updating the mould at this stage is not very likely. Even with masters made, the point of no return seems to be crossed. (Remember the Caesarian legionaries equipped with the very questionable apron, more common to a later period? They now repeat that issue set by set.
Strelets should publish the design sketches first (like HAT) to get feedback in time.
All the Roman women I have met on my time travels didn't wear the mini. Except perhaps the Pompeian notable Erotica. Sadly this bloke kept getting in the foreground of the pic of some other Pompeians.
Seriously, I have met and talked to re-enactors and they are 100% sure most women wore the stola. Slaves and servants stola would have been made of inferior material and coarsely dyed. They may have hitched them up in the kitchen but certainly not when serving. Children dressed in a costume very similar to a shorted version of the tunic.
This Carthaginian mosaic may have been the inspiration for the figure:
Costume differed slightly throughout the Empire depending on the influences of climate and indigenous fashions.
Alterations to Strelets figures at this stage - crossing the Rubicon springs to mind or as Caesar reputedly said alea iacta est or( ALEA IACTA EST for the pedants)is also appropriate for wargamers.
David