LINEAR-A – 069 – THE ROMAN ARMY OF MAXIMINUS THRAX, HARZHORN 3RD CENTURY AD. SET 1 INFANTRY

Description:

Unpainted “plastic” soldiers in 1/72 scale depicting infantry soldiers of Maximinus Thrax, emperor from 235 to 238.

Harzhorn was a battle between Germanic and Roman troops in today’s Lower Saxony, around the 3rd century, though some historians things it happened during Severus Alexander (222–235) reign rather than Maximinus Thrax (just after Severus). The historical deposit is a quite recent discover (2008) and excavations and investigation still continues.

Traditionally has been believed that after Battle of the Teutoburg Forest the Romans did not conducted large campaigns north of the Rhine rover, but this battle confirms such campaigns did exist, at least during the 3rd century (200 years after Teutoburg).

This is the 5th release by Linear-A that enjoys the 3D printing technology to produce their figures, either for mastering or direct print of the final product, result is the same, figures very nicely sculpted with a detail level almost impossible in traditional methods at 1/72 scale. We mentioned it earlier at LINEAR-A – 070 – IMPERIAL ROMAN STANDARDS & STANDARD-BEARERS COMMAND SET 2, the 3D printing technology is not exempt of some odds and problems, in particular about very small parts or complicated patterns and the 1/72 scale is perfect for some of these problems. While the set can be considered excellent, some of the weapons and shields looks rather thick compared to the perfect proportioned figures. In the battle excavations lot of proyectiles from the Roman artillery has been found, suggesting it was a large army well armed and so Linear-A offers two arcuballista poses. Some of the examples shown a problem in the shields, which happens when 3D printer moves during the process, and the shields shows a part clearly in a different level than rest of the shield, producing a somehow similar effect to when molds get misaligned in a traditional production. If these figures are a final 3D printed product this small problems can happen in a number of prints or any, but doesn’t mean that all the sets produced have this problem.