Tessera 

Volume I, Number 8                     July, 2007 

Avete, Comilitiones. 

News/Events:

      July was not a busy month for the legio, as many of us are taking the opportunity to enjoy the Summer season and time with family.  We did, however, do a small visit to the Vacation Bible School hosted by Alex Kyrychenko’s Church from 7:00 to 8:00 PM on July 18th.  This event featured elementary school-age children with their parents and its focus was on Christians in the 1st Century of the Roman Empire.  Alex Kyrychenko and Chris Stewart represented the legio and did their usual wonderful job.  Pics are posted on the Yahoo! website. 

      No events scheduled for August, but we have two planned for the month of September.  The first is a Military Timeline event at the Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30305, on Saturday, September 15th.  This will be a one-day affair and I will be publishing detailed instructions as the time approaches.  The second is a similar event later that month, a Military Timeline hosted by the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, GA, 28-30 Sep.  More to follow, but the basic plan will be to arrive and set up the Castra on Friday the 28th, (kit not required that day), and then participate with other re-enactment groups on Saturday and Sunday.  Hopefully, our brothers from Legio VI will be able to join us for this one.

      And, some bad news with regard to the Pompeii-Birmingham.  The organizers do not want us to participate on the opening weekend of the event, which is 14-16 Oct.  Unfortunately, this is about the only weekend that would support both Legio XI and Legio VI, so I am working with them to potentially have us participate with them at a later date, perhaps in January ’08 where we have some “white space” on the calendar.  More to follow on this as I know it. 

July Workshop:

      July workshop focus remained on scuta production, working at my house.  Chris Stewart, Alex Kyrychenko, and I were joined by our new “member,” Jennifer Cook, who is doing some marvelous work on some great artistic projects for us.  At the workshop, we were able to install a new brass rim on our Optio’s scutum – a project of no small effort – and complete the construction of our second auxiliary clipeus.  Chris Stewart has also finished the legionary scutum blanks for Andrew MaGee, Chris Damour, and Paul Montello. By the end of the day, Chris’ scutum had a new, very nice-looking brass rim, and he has decided to give it a whole new paint job to complement the rim.  As of this writing, he tells me that he’s all but finished the paint job – I can’t wait to see the finished product!  August workshop will also be all about scuta!  

Member News:

      No new members this month, but I’d like to add to what I wrote above about Jennifer Cook – she seems to be able to do anything, from painting scuta to sculpting items of the most intricate detail.  She also shows up at our workshops – which for some of you might mean the opportunity to work out an arrangement with her to help you with some projects that might be beyond your talents – like painting your scutum, etc.  I know that she is working on a pair of bulls-head armillae for Alex, and is currently painting our two auxiliary clipei.  Her work is really, really phenomenal, as shown by the models she has done for the bulls-heads.  You guys need to come to a workshop, see what she can do, and see if there might be a project with which she can assist you.

      Other, personal member projects are on-going.  As mentioned previously, Chris Stewart is re-painting his scutum to complement his new rim, and is also working on a conversion of his Find-It Armory gladius scabbard along the lines Alex and I have posted on RAT.  He’s got the leather work done and it looks phenomenal.  I think that once we repair some solder joins on the brass parts that he will be complete – should look great.  Alex has added some very nice padding to his Gallic A helmet, adding leather-covered felt pads to the helmet’s cheek pieces.  Looks good and he says it is very comfortable.  Chris Damour recently received all of the parts for his new balteus, and he and I worked on it together a couple of weeks ago.  He’s using plates from Albion and a buckle/pugio frogs from The Quiet Press.  We completed the leatherwork, prepared the plates, and fashioned the brass hinges for the frogs and buckle.  All he needs to do at this point is rivet it all together – something he learned to do very quickly.  Laudes to Chris for being so pro-active!  Finally, I completed a goatskin-leather tegimen (cover) for my auxiliary clipeus.  Turned out pretty well and very easy to make.

      Remember – anytime someone needs help with a project I am usually available every weekend to assist. 

Loaner Gear and Financial Report:

      Lots of progress here.  I recently ordered and received a Find-It Armory gladius for Kit #1 and a DPKa Celtic longsword for Kit #3.  We have two helmets now for Kits # 1 and 2, and the clipei have both been turned over to Jennifer Cook for a wonderful paint job.  I also have on-order with Rusty one SOTW gladius which will complete the arms for Kit #2.  Once we get these clipei painted, then we need to get a rim done for each and the first two kits will be complete – hopefully both will be ready for the Timeline event at Kennesaw the end of September.  Slowly but surely we are approaching our goal of four complete loaner kits – and kits of very nice quality I might add. 

So far, here is what we have on-hand:

      2 x hasta

      2 x clipei (still need to be painted and assembled, to include rims)

      2 x pugiones and scabbards

      2 x tunica/focale

      2 x linen subarmalii

      2 x 8mm lorica hamata from Find-It Armory (I have to replace the leather on both like Alex/myself have done with out personal hamatae, and add the buttons/hooks that Matt Lukes donated to the Legio.)

      2 x helmets

      1 x gladius  

      On order, we have the following:

      1 x gladius

      1 x helmet for Kit #3 (this will be an early Batavian impression, and I want to re-construct the “Krefeld” helmet mentioned in Peronis/Ade Wink’s article which is posted on the Yahoo! website). 

      Financially, we are doing pretty well.  Counting all events to date and member dues, we have earned a total of $1350.00, which means that we owe the fiscus $293.00.  Reason for the deficit is that I wanted to ensure that we had the first two loaner kits complete by the end of September, and we have a lot of little, small projects to do to get them to a first-class condition which does not leave us with much time to complete them. 

Upcoming Events: 

      15 September is a Military Timeline Event at the Atlanta History Center (see above).  No firm details as yet, but I will publish detailed instructions later this summer. 
 
            28-30 Sep is the timeline event at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw (NW of Atlanta). Many other re-enactment groups will be present. Am working the details out with the organizers – more to follow. 
 
             Finally, the last BIG event of the year is Castra Romana near Charleston with our Brothers from Legio VI. I know we all want to be there – dates are 16-19 November.  

Upcoming Workshops:

      Next workshop is scheduled for Saturday, August 4th and the September workshop is scheduled for 8 September (in order to avoid conflict with Labor Day weekend plans) at my house here on Fort McPherson.  Focus for the August workshop is, again, scuta – work on Brian’s/Andrew’s legionary scuta, and the auxiliary clipei.  I am open to suggestions for September, but we probably need to knock out the rims for the auxiliary clipei at that time in addition to personal member projects. 

That’s it, Brothers.  This was a great month and I know that we will continue to grow. 

Valete, 

Gaius Aurelius Calvus (Edge Gibbons)

Centurio