red or blue roman legionnaires (1 Viewer)

[redhugh]

Just got my hands on the collector's issue , great issue, hope Andy does another with other pics of "off the beaten track" items. There are some pics in the mag of the blue roman legionnaires they never went ahead with...which would you have prefered blue or red...

 

[theBaron]

I haven't seen the collectors issue, so I'm curious-were these to have been in plastic, and hence, the choice was blue or red?

Prost!
Brad

 

[redhugh]

I haven't seen the collectors issue, so I'm curious-were these to have been in plastic, and hence, the choice was blue or red?

Prost!
Brad

K&C released romans with red tunics but were thinking of releasing them in blue

 

[theBaron]

Ah, understood! I didn't think K&C were going to move into plastics, but wasn't sure.

Did the Romans wear blue tunics? I thought they only wore red-the army, that is.

 

[redhugh]

apparently they did!

Have to get Chris Curahee out of retirement for this one

 

[theBaron]

I'll check with the Rome experts over at HZ-Forum, too. There are a lot of Rome fans among the Germans.

 

[Louis Badolato]

I know that K&C did glossy blue "Pratorian Guard" romans back in 1985-87, along with red romans and two different groups of auxiliaries. Here is a quote from the book (which we hope to have good news about in the next few weeks, thanks to some assistance from fellow forum member Norman Joplin) about the glossy romans:

"King & Country also produced four sets of Romans at this time. Andy originally produced them for his good friend Chris Howse (a Hong Kong Lawyer the author met in Chicago at the 2004 OTSN). Andy also made a several sets to sell at the shop, but they never made any catalogue or price list seen by the author. They consisted of Praetorian Guardsmen [standing, carrying blue rectangular shields wearing sheathed gladius iberius (roman short sword) at their right hip], Legionary Infantry [standing, with their left hands leaning on red rectangular shields, wearing sheathed gladius iberius at their right hip], Auxiliary Infantry [standing, holding oval green shields in their left hands and brandishing swords or spears in their right hands] & Auxiliary Infantry [standing, holding oval blue shields in their left hands and brandishing swords or spears in their right hands]."

 

[Combat]

Aeroart did some Romans in blue. I don't recall the explanation - if there was one - but want to associate it for some reason with Roman troops in Britain or Eastern Europe. I do recall the owner of Aeroart saying that no one really knew for certain what colors they wore or even if they had a standard dress. I have no idea if that is true. The red seems to have been universally adopted by toy soldier makers and hollywood because it looks good.

 

[theBaron]

Hi, Combat, you're right about Hollywood's choices for historical details, selecting them more for visual appeal than for accuracy. But I think there is actually more archeological and historical evidence than we Americans might be aware of, to support some of the details. The ancients aren't as popular a subject here as in Europe, especially since they're sitting on the old sites.

I'm going to check with my forum mates in some of the German forums I belong to, and see if I can find more details. I recall reading an article describing Roman clothing, both military and civilian, and the Romans actually had a very well-defined system of basic colors, and decorations, plus accessories, right down to the style of sandals or boots, that identified the wearer and his station in the social or military order.

I'm not saying blue is incorrect, but I'm curious to know more about it.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Spitfrnd]

There is apparently some archaeological evidence supporting red tunics for some Legions although there appears to be much scholarly debate about how uniform the colors were and how much they varied over time and between legions. It will be interesting to see what your other forums come up with.

 

[sv288]

The blue ones to me look better than the red ones. Just stands out more than the red ones.

 

[Canadian Samurai]

When given the choice between blue and red with K&C's romans, I definitely prefer the blue. Red is by far the most common depiction seen in books and movies but blue is often associated with the Praetorian guard and it just looks better on those figures. But I never really liked the sculpting of K&C's romans anyway so it doesn't matter to me.

That said, the dominant scholarly view among archaeologists regarding tunic colour is A) We don't have a clue and B) The legionnaire's tunic was most likely white or an off-white shade, because it costs money to die fabric and it would have backrupted the empire to do so for every last grunt. East of India has gone with this interpretation with their new line. Officers may have had coloured tunics.

 

[debrito]

Good call redhugh.

I never heard about Romans Legionaires used Blue color, only Praetorians (I think) has blue on they uniforms.

I love to see new K&C new roman series.

 

[sv288]

I think the reason why people want to stick with the blue because it wasn't put into production and I guess they might be afraid of how accurate and detailed they look.

 

[redhugh]

I think the reason why people want to stick with the blue because it wasn't put into production and I guess they might be afraid of how accurate and detailed they look.

Interesting to see the results, having seen the two sets displayed in HK , I must say the blue did stand out for me , the silver of the shields and spears and armour went very well with the blue colour...I thought they looked stunning in blue..but that's just my opinion