It's an Miniature Unboxing - again. After Klaus' nice one, I'll do mine - but different, actually it's more the beginning of a series, where I will paint the miniature step by step an walk you through the painting itself and the.... one could call it "fluff".
The Miniature itself is the "Roman Officer" by Nocturna Models. It is a 70 mm resin cast - at least concerning the scale. With the crista the officer easily stands somewhere between 85-90 mm tall.
The mini comes in a nice steal box, looking exactly like the one's Knight Models is using -good choice Nocturna, i really love those.
First I have to excuse myself, I already assembled parts of the miniature, a the impatiently I started without remembering to take pictures of the first unboxing.
So, on opening the box, you will find a card with the promo paintjob - the same as on the boxcover - inside. The back of it tells you about the HD Cast, as you can see above. HD like in High Detailed. Promising the buyer a good quality and a "perfect easy assembly".
The miniature itself is safely packed between two sheets of foam - a the good old foam one is used to after a few years in this hobby.....
The brave roman soldier comes in the typical Nocturna resin and consists out of 13 parts: The Body, the tow arms, the cloak and a little piece of cloth, a Head, the panache, a dagger, the drawn sword and the fitting scabbard, the shield, some interlinked pendants for the "kilt" and last but not least the base.
After a quick test the fitting is really good. Concerning the moldlines, one has to come to a similar outcome. Very few can be found and those are mostly easy to reach and deald with. The only negativ point concerning the fit is the point of contact between the shield and the cloak. The Cloak has a rather hard fold where it meets the shield, but if you try to fit the shield in it, you will notice, that the legionnaire doesn't seem to have a firm grip at it whereas a firm grip will result in a strange looking fold.... here one has to turn and twist a bit until a compromise between the blowing cloak and a tight grip is found.
Only the gladius is a bit of a letdown. It has nose exactly at the tip of the blade an is slightly bend.
On a closer look the cloak has some miner casting problems too. A few small air bubbles can be found and the mouldlines are a bit more prominent, but nothing some putty could not fix in a few minutes. The rest of a runner could be found at the bottom part of the Cloak, but someone at Nocturna was friendly enough to cut and sand most of it away.
Taking a closer look at the face, you will see a rather punchy expression - at least on the Promopaintjob.
The bare resin still shows this, but sadly the nasolabial folds are kind of strange. The right one is quite flat, whereas the left one is quit deep - and both appear as if carved in with i knife. let's see how they can be painted.
On the other hand, one can finde realy nice details like the humanoid face and the lion heads on the shinguards and the decorative discs.
All in all, you get a very good product for your money. The model is easy and fast to assemble and promises to be a real joy to paint.
So far for the overall review, but let my say some more words. The miniature itself is a historical one, meaning that at least some historical accuracy could be expected. Normally, i really don't care about such things. Everything younger than 1000 AD isn't really my interest and most of the older stuff is more or less a very lose interpretation of "history" - oh, the occupational habits....And on some German competitions the historical judges tend to be prim about their interpretation of a good reconstruction.....
BUT since this little fellow is a "Roman Officer - 1st century AD" as the official description says and the material and written sources for the legions of Rome are quite good, I just felt the temptation to check on it -
and since I have the library of the "Römisch-Germanische Kommission" at hand, a quick search was very easy.
Some books and a few cups of hot mead later, I'm quite happy and surpriced, how good the reconstruction is. The helmet and the gladius support the dating, setting the little fellow somewhere at the beginning of the 1st century. Little details like the form of the degger, the "eyebrows" on the Helmet or the decoratioal discs - being military medals - adding up the atmosphere of the modle.
Right now, the Centurion is assembled as far as it is practical for painting. Up next I will build a base and "forge" a new gladius. So, stay tuned for more.
So long, and thanks for the read.
Luke
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