Zvezda Roman Emperor's Trireme ship a figment of the imagination?

jtilley wrote:

In terms of detail and overall quality, the best of the currently-available batch probably is the Academy "Roman Warship."  It's a beautifully designed and executed kit, but it has some major problems in terms of historical accuracy (starting with the fact that half of its oars appear to be missing).  It was originally issued by Imai, which used many of the same parts in an equally (if not more) spurious "Greek Warship."

The Zvezda kit in question also shares the hull and most parts with other "Roman trieme" and "Greek trieme" kits in the menufacturer's line up. 

BTW, Regarding Olympia, the Greek triremes seemed to have relatively airy upper structures that opens through into the rowing benches, and would be harder to produce in resin and more expensive to produce in injection modes.  

Later Roman polyremes seems more closed in and easier to produce in an exterior only kit.  This might explain why these kits that did not bother with interior details tends to be released more as Roman than Greek.  

We had a good, rather lengthy discussion of this topic some time back here in the Forum.  It eventually stretched into several threads; here's a link to the longest one:  http://www.finescale.com/FSM/CS/forums/638643/ShowPost.aspx

I suggest paying particular attention to the contributions from jwintjes, who  clearly knows the subject more thoroughly than the other contributors (and has far stronger academic credentials in the field of ancient ships than I do). As his posts will clarify, he has a relatively high opinion of the Zvezda kits - relative, that is, to the competition.  But the unfortunate bottom line seems to be that none of the plastic Greek or Roman ship kits - either those currently available, or those from earlier decades - really forms the basis for a serious scale model without extreme modification - such as splicing in a section of the hull from a second kit.

In terms of detail and overall quality, the best of the currently-available batch probably is the Academy "Roman Warship."  It's a beautifully designed and executed kit, but it has some major problems in terms of historical accuracy (starting with the fact that half of its oars appear to be missing).  It was originally issued by Imai, which used many of the same parts in an equally (if not more) spurious "Greek Warship."

Part of the blame for this state of affairs lies with the kit manufacturers, who don't seem to have done (or particularly cared about doing) their homework.  It should be acknowledged, however, that some of the problems aren't entirely their fault.  In the past 25 years or thereabouts (i.e., since the Aurora, Heller, and Imai/Academy kits were designed) scholars have done a great deal of research that's significantly altered their impressions of how ancient galleys looked and operated.  The full-size reconstructed Greek trireme Olympias has made it clear that many of the traditional assumptions about galley warfare were just plain wrong.

I've made this observation before, but I'll make it again in the forlorn hope that some manufacturer will read it:  give us a scale model, plastic, wood, resin, or otherwise, of the Olympias.

Celestino wrote:

Did vessels as depicted by this model actually exist? Also, Squadron has the Roman Trireme at reduced price of $39.99 for October. How common was it for the Roman Navy, either Republic or Imperial to have triremes?

1. I wouldn't say no with absolute certainty, but the seemly inconsistent scale of various parts of this model suggests nothing quite like it actually existed. 

2. There were probably some during most the last 300 hundred years of the Republic, and probably some during the first 200 years of the empire.  But triremes where never the mainstay of Roman seapower.   In the days when Republican Roman Navy fought epic sea battles first against the Carthagenians, then the Helenistic Kingdoms, and finally each other in the Civil War that led to the rise of the Empire, the backbone of the Roman fleet would have been quinremes (5 men per each oar group) and bigger.    Later during the Empire, the lack of any really worthy Naval adversary caused Roman warships to down size.   Eventually Bireme became the backbone of the Imperial fleet.   But there is evidence to suggest that by this time, warships configurations have changed so even triremes will only have 1 bank of oars.