Zvezda 1/72 Roman Imperial Legionaries

Zvezda, Zvezda, how I loved browsing their big sets on the shelves of local store..before it closed. Before Zvezda switched to small sets of Art of War range.

Box front

Box back

This is interesting set that focuses on specific subject, namely the testudo or turtle formation in which legionaries would arrange in square formation with shields to all sides sacrificing speed and melee power for protection against missiles. Out of 53 figures in the set, 29 are part of testudo, 12 are two poses of legionaries in combat with gladius, 8 are two poses of legionaries throwing pilums and 4 poses are of specialists: centurion, optio, standard bearer and musician. In my humble opinion, I would rather have dedicated set of 58 figures for two testudos but that's me who does not sell things. Miniatures themselves are Zvezda-beautiful with great detail and little flash but some cleaning with sharp scalpel tip is necessary still. My complaints boil down to somewhat brittle plastic Zvezda uses that occasionally breaks of or splits along limbs and questionable pilum pose that looks like he is trying to pin opponent who is few meters away to the ground. The biggest complaint is that this is the only imperial roman set to come from Zvezda. It would be great if there were more to expand and model late legion in full. I will look out to acquire some Strelets Imperial Legion sets to see how they fit together with Zvezda ones.

Instruction sheet. Pay attention how testudo comes together.

First and foremost. I will not be making roman imperial legionaries. I will paint them as warriors of the Vondrona nation, armed and armored in bronze, populating atoll islands of the Great inner sea in my celebrated series of novels „Houses of the Giants” (not really but man can dream) about lost continent surrounded by eternal storm. Their color is dark yellow and on their banners they bear the image of Olitra lehibe, mysterious denizen of the deep they worship.

I just want to make something other than red-steel look of average Roman.

After removing miniatures from sprue and any excess plastic off them it is time to assess the situation and see what can be done to diversify situation a bit. Here we have only 4 poses to work with, two swordsmen and two pilum-throwers, and not much variety to accomplish but few exchanged weapon arms and angles help to make it more dynamic and different. Some figures holding shields upwards had their arms broken off, so I made replacement ones from piece of sanded sprue attaching it the same way as with weapon arms using piece of wire and superglue.

Surgeon to the rescue.

I discovered there was a deserter from testudo group! One of shield-held-up soldiers was not present at final roll-call. Drastic measures had to be taken. Ojumaru stuff was applied to one of his equals to get a mould that was then filled with FIMO mass. After baking and trimming excess private Quasimodus was ready to join rank and file in the center of formation where his „imperfections” will not be visible.

Doctor Frankenstein to the rescue!

It stands!!

Miniatures were given warm soapy lavender scented bath and relaxing drying on soft paper towel afterwards being glued two by two on a piece of cardboard for ease of painting. Most of the painting was done with Vallejo acrylic paints. First I gave them a layer of primer mixed with black on which is applied Revell enemal skin color to all patches of naked skin. Wash of orange followed. Tunic and shield front were first painted white and then in yellow with brown wash. In local art store I found gold acrylic paint which I mixed with a bit of black to simulate bronze that I then applied on all metal surfaces that were then given generous black oil wash all over. Sandals, pilums, belts and eyes were detailed.

Coffee tempting disaster.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Finish the legionaries and shield interiors and edges before assembling them together because afterwards it will be impossible on some. It will also be necessary to widen the hole on shields for arm plugs which can be done gently with a sharp tip of a scalpel.

Start with a front row.

Plan ahead testudo assembly. Each pose has its place in formation. I cut piece of plastic card in appropriate size and started with front row and two columns in the middle. Then do base for assembled ones because it will be impossible to do it neatly after all are glued. When done continue adding left and right columns slowly one figure at the time and immediately making base for them. You might have to trim some bases slightly to fit figures closely together. For base I mixed PVA glue with water and my homemade pigment, smeared the mixture where I wanted and sprinkled some more different pigments on top. When dried I brushed excess pigment off and added here and there small white stones. Same method was employed for the rest of bases.

Follow with two central columns.

Slowly work left and right columns only one or two figure at a time.

If all assembled first it would be impossible to do base later.

Use old thin brush to slowly fill in the base.

This was nice set to do of an interesting subject but now that it is done I don't see myself expanding on it with another box. This I would not purchase in the first place if it was not on a sale for all its merits. As already stated, I would rather have second testudo than small selection of fighting poses that are given here. I will definitely try to get my hands on some Strelets sets in the future to thicken the ranks of Vondrona!