Wonderful Kam (and my appreciation that you used yellow, which is my own preference). I do love seeing your forays out of Star Wars - as they always come up quite well. I really dig this one. First, a few questions of my own:
When will this one be available from FC? And, please do give more info on that shield. Is it just a heavily-modded KK2 shield?
Helmet was inspired by RecluceMage.
Wasn't that originally done by TwoTonic? I could have sworn he first tried the brimmed helm to Roman helm conversion, as well as the first xiphos, gladius, and falcata/kopis mods.
Now, because I can't resist -- on to those finer points mentioned:
I want to spend a bit more time on my Pilum and make the tip more leaf shaped, but this was shinny and shinny is good sometimes.
I like this one. It gives the more vicious 'puncture-worthy' look to the pilum. They did have variant head-styles, so this one works as well as a more waisted, flat design.
I liked the rough bearded look, makes him look like he has been in battle for a bit. Just didn't think the clean shaved look would work as well.
Romans are known for having been pretty 'clean' for their time. Generally shaved with short hair. So while Tano raises a good point, it's worth noting that the Roman Legions were not entirely made up of actual Romans. Perhaps this soldier is of Germanic descent.
The sword hilt and guard are pretty accurate for a Roman Gladius
About as close as you'll get without heavy modding. Properly, a gladius has a spherical pommel rather than the Nordic 'lobate' pommel. But it's a minor detail. Those kinds of things sometimes need to be overlooked at this scale. Especially when you can just use what's available to you. Exchanging the grip and pommel (or just pommel) for a regular LEGO 'shortsword' might work for a more traditional look. But the modding itself would probably make for an ugly finished product. I know from experience that that kind of joining is very difficult to accomplish (especially with LA's fullered sword there, because the center of the blade is too thin for a pin).
The point is a touch wrong as I suppose is the length
The gladius had to be capable of forceful thrusts - so properly yeah, it should be cut into a heavy tapering point at the end. But the length isn't bad. Both because it's "LEGO scale" and because Roman Legions did adopt the spatha eventually, which was a longer version of the gladius (likely copied from the longer Germanic swords).
Don't know if that is entirely historically correct, but I am betting it is more correct than all were X size.
The scutum varied greatly in size. This one works well, I think. As you said, a much larger shield might be generally more accurate, but would detract a lot from the minifig itself.
but I wouldn't call this a broadsword (which is technically 1 and a 1/2 hands).
Not even that, but rather there's no such thing. 'Broadsword' was a term invented by Victorian snots with whippy, puny swords. The term was used to describe any military sword of their time or before. Essentially, any sword that wasn't a rapier or smallsword was a 'broadsword' - including hangers/cutlasses and war-worthy sabers.
Unfortunately, 'broadsword' has become the popular media term for any medieval-style cutting sword. It's the bane of many a history nerd's existance.
Anywho, the real life difference in size between a single-hand medieval sword and something like a gladius is surprisingly minimal. The difference can be as little as 6 inches. Practically not even worth talking about when you get to LEGO scale, where a 'shortsword' is practically as tall as the minifig!
Anyhow -- very cool. I hope to get a copy of this myself to add yet another minifig to my little 'historically-designed' collection.
I do have to agree with tanotrooper that the head looks a little odd with the figure, but the rest is superb.The hock armor lorica segmenata was a stroke of geneous.
