Republican Romans full of character from Lucid Eye
Republican Romans are not exactly an uncommon subject for miniature manufacturers. So what new does these sculpts from Lucid Eye bring to the wargames table?
A consul accompanied by an aquilifer and cornicen looks out at the battlefield as the sun sets. Behind him the triarii and the principes patiently awaits their orders.
Lucid Eye Publications is a company I’ve seen around for a number of years and although many of their miniatures are very nice the subjects have never interested me. That was until they started releasing their range ”Rome - and the wars of the middle sea” sculpted by Steve Saleh. Today that range consists of Republican Romans and Macedonians. I waited until there were sufficient codes released for me to build a moderate force of Republican Romans and these are the ones reviewed here. Included are the multitude of infantry types based on citizen class (velites, hastati, principes and triarii), commanders (consuls, cornicen and aquilifer) and finally some cavalry (equites).
Scope of the range
The range somewhat straddles the Roman Republican era. It seems to be primarily aimed at the four Macedonian Wars and the Seleucid War, from 214-148 BC. But except for the cavalry and the velites these would work from around the time of the Second Samnite War 326-304 BC, when the manipular system was introduced, all the way to around 100 BC and the Marian reforms.
The designs seem to fit what we know about the legionary panoply around this time. The helmets are of the Montefortino type except for the triarii who wear their distinct italo-corinthian helmets. Most of the helmets are adorned with ”a circle of feathers with three upright purple or black feathers”, straight from Polybius. The principes, triarii and equites wear chainmail and the hastati wear pectoral armour. Polybius specifically mentions the pectoral armour to be square and only worn on their chest. Lucid Eye have made a few of the hastati with round armour and they all have back pieces, a small error if you can trust Polybius. The light infantry are armed with javelins, round shields and swords, some wear their distinct wolf skins. This clearly marks them out as velites, and not the earlier roman light infantry, the leves, who only carried a spear and javelins. The earliest mention of shield-armed light infantry is by Livy in 211 BC. The shields, scutums, are of the right size, as are the pilum. A nice detail is that the miniatures only wear one greave, on the left leg, according to Duncan Head in his ”Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars” this was how Romans wore their greaves, to protect the leg closest to the enemy. He also mentions that roman greaves were fastened with straps and not clipped on like greek ones and this is modelled on the miniatures.
The cavalry covers a slightly shorter period than the infantry. Polybius describes a reform of the Roman cavalry from a light javelin throwing role to a more heavily armoured contemporary greek-style cavalry. Duncan Head believes this change occurred when the Romans first fought against Pyrrhus in 280-275 BC.
“ … for this too is one of [the Romans] virtues, that no people are so ready to adopt new fashions and imitate what they see is better in others.”
Lucid Eyes cavalry are of the later type and armoured in mail and wear montefortino or boeotian helmets. They carry the larger ”greek” shields, thrusting spears and swords.
Not much to complain about here really. Minus points for the round pectoral armour but plus points for the straps on the greaves. You can always ask ”did every principes really wear chainmail?” or ”did the helmets look the same for almost 200 years?” and the answer would be ”No”. But for (most) wargamers this isn’t an issue.
The sculpting
These are 28mm figures and are quite slim but well proportioned. Here are some comparison pictures with Romans from Aventine Miniatures and Victrix Miniatures so you can judge by yourself.
The miniatures are in either standing poses or attacking with their spear overarm. Not a lot of variation here which is fine for the ones standing, I actually prefer miniatures just standing, at least for rank and file like this. I’m not too keen on the spear-over-arm-pose though, it looks a bit weird when everyone in a unit stands like that.
The miniatures are sculpted in a sort of ”pulp-style” although not overly so, they still feel realistic to me. There’s an emphasis on character here which is especially tangible in the cocky consuls and the serious cornicen. Unfortunately the cavalry is not as well sculpted as the infantry. The horses still have that “pulp-style” as the infantry does but do not feel as realistic. The sculpting is also a bit cruder, especially the chainmail.
It’s unfortunate in an otherwise really well sculpted range.
Working with the miniatures
The miniatures were nicely cast. They had a normal amount of flash and mould lines on them, easily fixed with a knife and a file. The hands of the hastati and equites were a bit small so attaching the pilum or spear required some work, but nothing out of the ordinary. A few of the riders had their accompanying spears cast to their right feet which was weird and inevitably damaged the sculpting when removed.
Painting these was a pleasure. I rely quite a lot on washes to create depth and definition and the details on the miniatures are well defined so this method works great. I painted them in a uniform way with the same colours on all of them. Since there isn’t a lot of variation among the sculpts this was further enhanced by the uniform painting of them. If I’d do it again I would vary the colours more to mix up the look of the unit a bit.
Price
At the time of writing a pack of four infantry or two cavalry costs £9. That’s £2,25 per infantry miniature and the most expensive Republican Roman I could find. The second most expensive were Gripping Beast and Foundry, both at £1,75 per miniature. The cavalry, at £4,5 per miniature, were the second most expensive with only Foundry costing more at £4,6 per miniature.
Hastati, with Velites skirmishing in front of them, confront mounted Senone Gauls in northern Picenum, 295 BC.
Conclusions
These are well researched and well sculpted miniatures. I enjoy Steve Salehs sculpting style and there is a lot of character in these miniatures, especially the two consuls. They were fun to paint and the finished unit looks great on the table. On the downside are first the cavalry which really aren’t on par with the rest of the range. And second, the price is a bit much.
But, if you want some characterful Republican Romans, and are willing to pay a little more for them, these might be for you!
More and more of the classic Space Marines seem to be passing the "Rubicon Primaris", which is corporate lingo for "the kids want the new stuff". But I find myself eternally stuck in the closing months of 1998 and the release of Codex: Blood Angels.