Kit and Uniform

 We are involved in as many different events as we have time for, with a wealth of reenacting experience from the Neolithic period right up to the English Civil War, and on into the age of the British Empire and the 20th century too.

 We work closely in line with current historical research to ensure our kit and costume is of a reasonable authenticity, yet we permit a degree of artistic license when occasion demands, for the purpose of providing maximum entertainment for the public.

 We are also linked with local semi-professional dramatic groups, such as Knollsea Productions in Swanage, and Conspiracy Ink in Bournemouth.

 Our costume department reflects this. Below reenactor Joe Roberts (aka Burnt Kettle) prepares for battle. He is wearing pre-colonial Native American dress, and featured weapons are the Ball-headed Club, used by many Native American tribes, and a dual purpose hunting/fighting spear, which could be thrown or used in close combat...

 Although it may not be obvious from the photo's included, much of our Roman/Dark Age kit is not the stainless steel usually worn by reenactment groups. We have thus far been working on producing stage/theatrical & film quality costumes of synthetic and natural materials, which are lightweight and user friendly, whilst still maintaining realism and authenticity.

 

COSTUME DEVELOPMENT

   

 The above image is one of the first attempts we made at a screen/camera effective Roman legionary, the rig again worn by our member "Brutus".

 And above is shown the next progression, worn at a school function, and just before the main revamp at the beginning of 2006. The Segmenta body armour shows good effect, despite its still juvenile stage of development into a historical replica.

  The current format of the Legion XXXIII legionary costume, shown also on our Gallery page, far more accurate than the early get up, though still with room to improve.
 Influences for the design and construction of our “armour” comes from the costumes worn by legionaries featured in such movies as Gladiator, and The Passion of the Christ.
These screen effective costumes were designed, not simply as historical replications, but for a viewer and user friendly degree of recognisably functional armour and weaponry. This is the look we have gone for, as shown here...

...and here shown by with legionaries from the Passion of the Christ...

 This is in contrast to the kit used by many reenactors, which, although being perhaps authentically accurate in design, are often made of modern metal alloys like stainless steel. This, combined with a tendency to only replicate one pattern of historical armourment, creates overall a very limited representation.

 For example, the Roman legionary pictured below wears historically accurate equipment, faithfully reproduced.

 However, the metal used in this reproduction is stainless steel, thereby giving a very different appearance to how an actual legionary would have looked. 

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