"Plastic Norman Knights in 28mm" Topic

Conta-posto – que?

Errm, it's a widespread sculpting practice that has been going on for at least a couple of decades by now, which implies to me that it may be time for a certain "standard" to be amended to accommodate it, if only in a variant of that standard…

Decades ago, even 1/72 (so-called "20mm") plastic and "25mm" Hinchliffe horses used to be slightly too long for 40mm depth bases…

Zvezda also do circa 28mm hard plastics. Granted they are fantasy, not historical…

Not anymore, but we'll count them anyway. eM4 has fantasy and sci-fi plastics as well, so that brings us to 12. And 'just because I don't like them' is no reason to exclude.

Contra-Posto is an artistic term for how to place a sculpture so that it is capable of standing upright within a given space, usually involving three points of contact at the base for stonework.

For Bronze/Ironwork, it has slightly different standards, and since miniatures are very easy to make stand upright within a given space, it should be no problem for a manufacturer to be able to get whatever pose(es) the manufacturer lines that fit within a given space. All that is necessary is for the sculptor to be aware of the space restrictions.

As I have mentioned in another thread, there are scuptors such as Tom Meier, Julie Guthrie (the Late Dennis Mize), and the Sculptor for Prince August/Mithril who seem to be able to get very dynamic poses and yet have their figures capable of remaining on a 15mm frontage for foot (for heavy infantry), or 20mm for mounted.

I could continue with a criticism of the clothing that is placed on many of the miniatures as being FAR too bulky. Clothes stand off of a person perhaps 2mm, wrinkles and draping may cause up to 1cm of "loft in the cloth" (technical term from art school). And, if you add something like Chain on top of that, it will squash most of the draping and wrinkles out of clothing and make a layer than is roughly 5mm thick (at the most).

5mm on a 28mm figure is roughly 1/360th of an inch. Most clothing and armor on miniatures stands out about 1/16th of an inch. Far to bulky. Add this to the fat cartoonish bodies that are made (usually at a 4:1 or 5:1 height:head ratio, instead of the 6:1 to 6.5:1 that is the common proportion for a well proportioned miniature. Actual people have a 7:1 to 7.5:1 proportion) and you get figures that will not fit a base onto which they should easily fit.

In fact, if miniatures were sculpted in proper proportions (even given the slight exaggerations needed for a miniature), even 40mm miniatures would fit 4 to a 60mm frontage. I have several 54mm LotR minis from Weta that I can easily fit 4 to an 80mm frontage (and if I could get Weta to make gaming figures, I would do several 54mm LotR armies)…

Given that. It is manufacturers, either willfully, or through ignorance, making figures that will not fit the WRG/DBx/FoG standard.

And, we'd have better looking figures if they were to do so.

If they do mounted Comanches before Conquest Miniatures get round to them, I won't hold the name similarity against them…

Saw the three ups at Salaute today and they look a lot better than the photos. I am now more enthusiastic about this release.

wow

It was a very busy day at Salute yesterday considering the lateness with which we advertised our presence.

A big "Thank you" to everybody who popped by, showed interest and chatted about this new range. And also a big "Thank you" to Renedra who were very kind in allowing us to take up part of their very busy table. Special mention must also go out to Mike W and Ian T (you know who you are!) – thank you very much gentlemen!

Any kind person able to give an oppinion fo what you saw at Salute regarding these figures.

??? Look up three posts.

I'm with Cog Comp on the cartoonish figures – I know more wargamers who won't buy them than wargamers that will.

I often wonder if many sculptors have even seen a real horse.

The ones at Empress have.

I think the figures are very nice. The overstated detail is what you'd expect in the current market, and will mix well with ranges like Crusader, Artizan and GB; I look forward to seeing them for real.

However, I have to agree with some of the comments about the company name. While the owners may be keen to have a name related to the Norman Conquest, choosing what is virtually the same name as a well established company in the US and UK seems guaranteed to lead to confusion. It might not be a case for legal action (and indeed it would be a shame if any money was spent on this), but I would hope that a new company hoping to forge its own identity in the marketplace might think twice about this.

BTW, I can get Artizan Moors on a 60mm frontage, as I can with their Spartans (Not sure if they still have the Spartans/Greeks)… It took a bit of work with the Spartans though. The Moors all seem to be facing sideways, so they had a thinner frontage.

In fact, it seems as if Steve Saleh is aware that his figures just might be put on WRG/DBx standard bases… I don't know if this is the case or not, but I do wonder about it.

Some of Gripping Beast's figures will also cram onto a 60x20mm base (or 60x30mm for the Medium Foot types).

Hmm I think the name is a bit cheeky. Eric is "conquest" as far as Im concerned.

Plenty of other names they could have used.

I'll get more worked up about Wargames Factory vs Wargames Foundry vs Warlord Games before I worry about this one. I've even seen posts criticizing one company for another companies product.

I'd really only worry if they started covering the same period.

As for the style I would love these to be the over stated metal style level of detail, for me that is a step up from the usual no/low profile detail plastics.

As has been said it will be interesting to see the final figures because as we have all learned the translation of 3up greens to 28mm plastic is more of an art than a science at the moment.