Ancient Antiquity

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Tanotrooper
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Ancient Antiquity

Post by Tanotrooper »

Salve! :)


I'll be working on several figures and scenes from the Ancient Antiquity, most notably Romans but other cultures aswell. (Greek scenes will finally become a reality thanks to the Spartan Collectible Minifigure.) The focus of these MOCs will be historical accuracy, and highlighting periods of the antiquity that are often forgotten or misinterpred. (Republican Rome for example.)

To start off, perhaps one of the most recognisable troops of the era (well, next to the Classical Greek hoplite): the Roman legionair from the 1st-2nd Century AD. This was the time when Rome reached the height of its power, and when the Pax Romana (the peace within the Empire itself) was (more or less) sustained. (No civil wars that tore the Romans apart and rebellions such as in Judea were succesfully crushed.)

Image

(thanks to Flickr, I can resize my pictures so you can see them on this forum. :D )

After many, many years (that would be around 6, I have done everything from purist to custom and it all started on this forum :) ) I have finally come up with a sturdy, bent scutum design that can also be decorated like the original. I actually got the idea for this design sitting in my Ancient Antiquity class. =D

The pilum is also a new design. This version, with the ball-shaped weight was introduced later on than the regular one with the trapezoid base. The extra weight made it more accurate and easier to throw.

And I was able to use my Latin aswell. =D Foolish are those who say it's a useless class at school!

Well this is it for now, but I'm working on some Republican Romans which I'll hopefully be able to post soon.


Comments and constructive criticism are as always appreciated! :)
Last edited by Tanotrooper on Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by lord_of_orks »

That is a very creative way to make a shield and I like how you used the musketeers sword.the only thing I don't like is the legs I think the official ones would have looked better. The backward armor defiantly makes it look more romanish. :)
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elondisc
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by elondisc »

This is awesome looking. Very realistic. I agree that the legs are a little funky. They seem to outsize the arms a little and are a little fat. Like your Roman has chubby legs. However, I am not sure how to make it better so stick with it! It still looks amazing.
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Tanotrooper »

lord_of_orks wrote:That is a very creative way to make a shield and I like how you used the musketeers sword.the only thing I don't like is the legs I think the official ones would have looked better. The backward armor defiantly makes it look more romanish. :)
Thanks, I'm actually glad LEGO made the musketeer foil sword with such a short handle. :) I've been making my figures this way since several years simply because LEGO can't/couldn't offer the options these legs can. By now, we do have the Spartan legs, but then again these are only available in yellow. I choose to create the options for sandals, boots, texture,.. instead of waiting for LEGO to release something similar in normal legs. :)

@elondisc: thanks! The arms do seem shorter in comparison, but it's not really a problem. As for the legs, I think it's the angle in the pictures, they make it look a bit too oversized when compared to the reallife version. :?
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Shadowviking »

Oh man, the scutum and pilum are amazing! Brilliantly done.
The helmet works pretty well, too- a lot better than I would have thought. But between the helmet, rapier and all the pieces in the shield... this must be a pretty expensive figure, no? Can't have much of a legion. ;>

Great work though.
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Tanotrooper »

Shadowviking wrote:Oh man, the scutum and pilum are amazing! Brilliantly done.
The helmet works pretty well, too- a lot better than I would have thought. But between the helmet, rapier and all the pieces in the shield... this must be a pretty expensive figure, no? Can't have much of a legion. ;>

Great work though.
Thank you very much! :) The helmet isn't 100% but it's as close as I can get at the moment. I'm wondering weither to buy this in large numbers or wait for LEGO to release one in the collectable minifigure series... The figure itself isn't cheap but I wouldn't really call it expensive. The armour can also be replaced by a chainmail or scale armour. I'm planning on making one century of them. (The helmets stays a problem for the centurio and optio.)

TT
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Frank_Lloyd_Knight »

What a fascinating figure. You might consider discussing with one of the site administrators whether a lesson on constructing this type of figure ought to be placed in the "how-to" section of the regular site. There are many remarkable details here, but for the moment, I'll just comment that using flesh-toned parts for the face and arms seems well thought out in order to distinguish those parts from the yellow hands you used in constucting the shield. I look forward to seeing your future creations.
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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Tanotrooper »

Frank_Lloyd_Knight wrote:What a fascinating figure. You might consider discussing with one of the site administrators whether a lesson on constructing this type of figure ought to be placed in the "how-to" section of the regular site. There are many remarkable details here, but for the moment, I'll just comment that using flesh-toned parts for the face and arms seems well thought out in order to distinguish those parts from the yellow hands you used in constucting the shield. I look forward to seeing your future creations.
Thank you very much! :D I'm working on some instructions for these figures for the upcoming BeLUG event, so I'll be able to share these soon. I'll send the link to the admins aswell to see how they feel about that idea.

As soon as LEGO had a decent amount of flesh minifigures out I switched to fleshies and never turned back. :) But now that you mention it, I suppose the shield does stand out better against the flesh than it would against yellow.

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Re: Ancient Antiquity

Post by Tanotrooper »

Here are the instructions:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14780153@N08/5641503937/

If there are any problems with it, let me know. :)


TT
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