"Some sneek peeks at greens (all 15mm)" Topic

Here are a few sneak peeks at greens for upcoming ancients lines. Not really newsworthy, not yet, so haven't posted this as a news item, but thought some gamers might enjoy taking a preliminary gander!

Pre-Samurai Japanese (Kofun) Uji Nobles on foot:
picture

Early Achaemenid Persian infantry of the Myriads, with bows:
picture

Anglo-Saxon/Anglo-Danish Select Fyrd:
picture

A little something for everyone! The Anglo-Danes/Saxons are done, actually, more codes for the Kofun and the Early Achaemenids are busily underway.

Coming in the next month (again, all 15mm):
Most of the Tibetans
The command and elephants for the Great Kushan Dynasty
The Frankish/Breton/Norman/First Crusaders!

All the best,
khurasanminiatures.tripod.com

Nice. All good.

Kofuns look great! Watch out Silla Koreans!

Cheers.

I WILL buy the Kofuns as soon as they are available. I've been wanting sculpts that match the Osprey for years, and you have completely nailed it. Are you going to do mounted figures too?

Of course they are! ;-)

Nice greens. I do have favorites there! ;^) Now back to work on the Kushans.

Yes, Ivan, the mounted archers will be made too.

Duncan Head pointed out some errors in the Osprey appearance, most notably the quivers, which are anomalous (Osprey and many Japanese recreations simply use quivers from the Samurai era). He very generously provided period imagery of correct quivers, which these models will have.

awesome! Those Persians look cool!

Otto
noizehive.blogspot.com

All very nice as usual for Khurusan

The sculptor supplied a better picture of the Uji:

picture

I think he did a great job!

At last historically correct pre-samurai Japanese!
Great detail!

Update:

The next step, the most numerous troops in a Kofun army, are done. These are the 15mm Yatsuko retainers of the Uji, using the yumi longbow. Here's a look at the greens!

picture

Very nice! Cant wait to see the spearmen and the horse archers.

Not to mention the Be archers and the pavises, uesugi.

And the militia -- though to be honest, in an army like this, not sure if I'll even bother. It's already a big tough foot army, but since it's irregular the levies would be hard to shelter and thus would probably just be a liability to the army.

Ancients fans, the sparabara shieldmen to protect those persian archers are approaching completion and should be done in a week or so. One in quilted armour, one in linothorax, one in scale armour.

atb
khurasanminiatures.tripod.com

Those early persians look fantastic….and sparabara spearmen soon????

Any heavy cav on the horizon with bows????

What else is in the pipeline for this army????

What sort of timeframe can we expect(roughly)before i can build an entire army?????

Have looked at your late imperial roman range but am holding off buying until some more of the variants appear..any news on these???

Cheers Andy

I agree, the Persian archers look great. I am interested in starting a 15mm Early Achaemenid army from scratch.

I think the following three troop types are the minimum required to start an army:
1) Iranian infantry with spear and a (seperate) spara
2) Iranian infantry with bow
3) Iranian armored cavlry with bow

The following options would be helpful:
4) Greek hoplites-mixed pack in linothorax and bell cuirass
5) Immortals in Median dress
6) Iranian light cavalry with bow
7) Immortals in court dress

In a pinch the basic Iranian infantry could be used as Immortals (painted in brighter colors).
I really don't think there any good Greek hoplites available for this period. One mixed pack would really be great.

Immortals Miniatures has a very nice range in 25mm.

Andyfb and delbruck, sorry not to have got back to you sooner. Here's what will be made, from definitely to maybe.

DEFINITELY:
Persian Archers (done)
Persian sparabara spearmen (almost done)
Persian Immortals (not started yet)
Persian foot command (not started yet)
Persian Heavy cavalry with bow (NSY)
Persian high command mounted (NSY)
Saka foot with bow and javelin (NSY)
Saka foot with bow (NSY)
Saka light cavalry with bow (NSY)

MAYBE
Greek hoplites with bronze-plated linothorax
Persian Guard cavalry

The maybe list is short, I know, but the problem is that the list writers for both DBMM and FoG provide such tiny numbers of the various subject peoples that they make it completely unviable economically to make them. It will cost me about $300 USD to make two poses of some subject javelinman type, so that means I will have to sell about 625 of them to break even. What are the chances of that if the army can only have 12 figurines for that type?

See what I mean?

Sorry Delbruck the Immortals will be in battle dress, all in good scale armour. Saka will be haumavarga.

Sorry, can't give any definite dates, particularly when the last codes will be done! I am at the mercy of sculptors and casters when it comes to timing. I'd guess that the first codes, persian/mede foot with bow, or spear/pavise, should be cast up and for sale within two months.

Think i had better start saving..ohhhhhhhhhhhh..

Will the heavy cav also have axe/sword armed poses too?????

Hope the foot command will be ready at the same time as the bow and spear armed sparabara for complete bg's?????

Cheers Andy

Are there any comparison shots of Khurasan figures next to old Gladiator minis?????

What other ranges would fill the gaps in an EAP army????

Cheers Andy

The cavalry with bow will be armed with axes and swords but will be using their bows as in both FoG and DBMM that is their defining armament.

The sculptor can only do one thing at a time so he has to finish the archer/spear foot before he can turn to the command. So if they are all to come out at the same time, that basically means delaying the release of the archers another month and a half or two. There certainly is a logic to doing that -- the more you release at one time, the more people buy. Maybe I'll do that, making it a fall release rather than summer.

If there's a photo of them next to old Gladiator I'd like to know, as I don't even have the greens yet! the sculptor still has the archers so he can make the spears to match.

Atb
khurasanminiatures.tripod.com

Khurasan

Please do not delay the release. I personally can wait for command. Unless you are painting uniformed standard sized units the command can be filled in later.

Xyston can potentially fill in some of the gaps, assuming the size is reasonably compatible.

CAVALRY: armored cavalry using their bows is good. Please no shooting to the side.

HOPLITES: I will continue to plead for hoplites. I do not want to use Xyston. They are a later period. There is some evidence of the continued use of the bell cuirass, especially amonst Spartans. In addition, hoplites c.500 BC usually wore more enclosed helmets: Corinthian or Chalcidian. One pack of four would probably ok. If you do release hoplites, please keep the shields to the front and the spears upright. 15mm hoplites and Roman legionaries should always be in this position. Action postions for heavy close-order are usually not practical.

Hi Delbruck, yes shooting to the side is an old pariah. I'm sure you understand why it's done, though -- it's the only way possible to make a castable one piece shooting rider.

I wanted to get away from it myself with my Huns and Early Byzantines (both coming in a few weeks), though, so I decided to make them breakwaist models, so that the upper and lower body parts are separate. It gives you lots of posability on the model, and of course the upper body can then be posed shooting forward, just to the left of the horse's head. I'm happy with how it came out.

I may do that with the EAP horse archers too. Alternately I may make the EAP cavalry one big piece, horse and rider, which also makes shooting forward possible.

I think I agree with you on the infantry command -- they can come later. People clamor for them and demand them when you are talking about making a range, but when the range is actually made, few people actually buy them.

I discussed the hoplite question with Duncan Head and his thought was to make them with the linothorax that had bronze scales embedded in the sides of the cuirass, as probably the most typical armour of that transitional period. I'd probably have four variants as you mentioned -- advancing, spear up, one with left foot forward, the other right foot forward, then do head variants of those two for different helmets (corinthian and something else, not sure what though possibly chalcidian). Shields would be separate I think giving a bit more pose variation (as they can then be glued on slightly differently).

Hoplites are a popular close-combat boost for the persians so they are near-definite.

Thank you Khurasanminis for your comments.

I have no problem with hoplites in a scale reinforced linothorax cuirass. As a matter of fact, I would recommend the pack contain three of these and one bell cuirass. The reason I bring up the bell cuirass is there seems to be a fair amount opinion that the Spartans never used the linothorax, that they went directly from the bell cuirass to no cuirass. This opinion may be erroneous, but it seems to be fairly widely held.

Personally, I think a mixed 4 pack in 15mm is enough to do a hoplite amry. Since the Spartans do not have much to distinguish them in 480 BC (except for their hair which would mostly be hidden by their helmet), units primarily in the bell cuirass could be used for Spartans. Otherwise it really is not that big a deal. I agree with Duncan Head that outside of the Spartans the bell cuirass would probably be very rare.

Thanks for all the info….when i was asking about pics of figures i meant any khurusan minis next to gladiator just for an idea if they would mix sizewise

Looking forward to your next releases.

Cheers Andy

Andy, I have different sculptors working on different lines. I tell all my sculptors what the size convention is -- 15mm ground to eye level -- but they each manage to achieve that to different extents, so you really have to look at the models you're actually interested in. (That said, models within each historical range are not marketed unless they fit seamlessly together.)

Delbruck, I'd have two hoplites sculpted, then make variations of each. So it's not possible to do 3 and 1. It would have to be all, none, or half. My understanding is that the bell cuirass was well on its way out by 479 so it's probably better off if I just don't make them. Xyston makes hoplites in linen linothorax already, so that leaves bronze/linen linothorax.

Atb
khurasanminiatures.tripod.com