"Granbretan miniatures for Hawkmoon?" Topic

Hi,

I recently bought the Hawkmoon rpg (being an old Moorcock fan). Does anyone know of miniatures I could use for Granbretan characters? They should have heavy armour and helms or masks in the shape of animals. I'm not looking for all the named species (wolf, mantis, raven, vulture, fly, pig, rat, mole…) just a few 'token' troops. Any possible suggestions would be appreciated.

Best,
Mike

I remember Wargamers Digest doing an article on this and they suggested buying bags of small plastic animals, removing their heads and fitting them to headless metal figures.
Ral Partha has some unusual troop types mostly in heavy armor.
Eureka Tekumel figures would work too and are cheaper.

I have a Ral Partha figure with a 2-handed sword, full plate armor and a wolf's head – looked very Granbretanian.

The History of the Runestaff & Count Brass are my favourite Moorcock series

If you are after just a few 25mm then you might find some stuff at Amazon Miniatures

link

Gangrel

some of the old GW melniboneans had cool armour and demon style masks. A few headswaps with plastic minis perhaps, or alternative armies do some dog-headed infantry in their fantasy line. I have the shattered isle supplement for HM if you are interested.

Phil

In 15mm Chariot Minaitures makes animal headed soldiers in their fantasy line.

IIRC Dark Sword Miniatures has some figures with beast helms – well mtd anyway:

link

Grey Ghost – I had considered the animal head transplant route, but was wary of it just looking like a dodgy head graft, with the head not actually looking like a helm, or holding a head. It's a fine line…

John – It's 25/28 mm I'm after.

Alfritz – Perfect! If only there were more of them, and on foot!

To all, thanks for your suggestions; any others are more than welcome. You know, annoyingly, back in the mid-80s I painted some Citadel Chaos Warriors for a friend. I know at least one of those had a really decent boar's head helm… *mutter, mutter*

We at Eureka are currently in negotiation with Michael Moorcock. If you can wait a while we anticipate some good news soon.
In the mean time we would be intertested in feedback and input into the design of Granbretonian figures.

Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

*thud*

Sorry, that was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor. Good news indeed (apart from the inevitable delay). As to input, could I suggest making a grand constable (in ornate armour and helm) and a troop pack (in more servicable gear) for each of a few of the more noteable orders? Wolf would be a must, and probably pig, rat, raven and mantis. Is that any help?

As PS kreoseus2, I should have said that I already have Shattered Isle. Thanks anyway.

Damn…and I spent so much money last year buying up old GW Moorcock figures, that I haven't even painted yet…

First thing I would ask for is proper shields, not the stupid ones that GW released theirs with.

An ornithopter pilot (Order of the Fly)

A Hound (although this is perhaps too close to the Wolves)

At least a couple of Serpents and Clocks

Most of the Orders would need cavalry and infantry, cavalry with lance and/or sword and infantry with swords, spears or flame lances.

The problem with this range is that to do it justice Nic would need to create HUNDREDS of figures to populate just Hawkmoons world. Half of this would need to be Gran Bretons. For what is essentially a niche range (although I could see it gaining a great deal of popularity, this is probably unreasonable.

What might be better is…
A selection of Mantis Order figures (they are described as being tall and thin)
The remainder of the Gran Bretons being generic bodies and a selection of the heads of the other Orders. This would allow us to have the Orders we want and for Nic to have a chance for the range to be profitable.

I'd like the figures to be a mix of plate and chainmail, with definitely NO spiky bits!

Make sure the horns are correct for the Guardians horses though! 8^)

I see next years project unfolding before my eyes… 8^)

Nic

What scale is proposed for the beasts ?

Phil

Wow, licensed Moorcock figs would be terrific. Been far too long since the GW ones.

Gran Bretons would be perfect candidates for a West Wind-style seperate head system, with packs of helmed heads for each of the big military orders and a range of armored infantry and cavalry figures to stick them on. That would make it easier to do a wide range and still leave some room for "specialist" weirdos like the Clocks, Serpents, Fly pilots, etc.

Some of their opponents could use existing historical ranges if you did appropriate weapon packs (mostly flame lances) – which would again reduce the number of new masters you'd need to produce to let us build viable armies.

That sounds fantastic Nic!! I have been waiting most of my wargameing life for this range.
I agree that a seperate head system approach would make sense. Im just praying this will be in 28mm!!
looking forward to some update news!
FFF

We are still negotiating with Michael, but if all goes well we are looking at 28mm and 10mm. I don't think we can do seiges properly unless they are in 10mm and of course Alan Marsh loves making figures in that scale.
Thank you for all your suggestions so far, we will be looking into all of them and more.
One of the things I would like to do with this range is run a 100 Club style list to see what our customers want most. We already do this with the Wars Of The French Revolution and it is helping us plan our releases.
Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

So Nic,

Are you saying you want us to go along to the Eureka site and sign up our thoughts for Moorcock miniatures to the 100 club or that a separate, new list will be created? I suspect the latter. For the record, in addition to the afore-mentioned troops, I'm assuming that major characters will be pretty much essential:

Elric, Moonglum, Yyrkoon and Cymoril
Hawkmoon, Count Brass, Oladahn (maybe Yisselda and Bowgentle too)
Jerry, Frank and Catherine Cornelius (less popular, I know, but there has to be Jerry, at least!)

Best,
Mike

Hurray for Nic !
As for inspiration, the Warzone Wolfhead dragoons are very good as Baron Meliadus' Order of the Wolf soldiers.
link

Gangrel : And Corum ! You forgot Corum ! I want minis for the Fhoi Myore sage, malibanns, hounds of Kerberos, Ilbrec (Ilbrec in 10mm !), prince Gaynor, the Daghdagh, and, and, …

Where do I sign for the 100 club ?

The war aurochs from the second half of the Corum cycle are one of those odd Celtoid bits I'm surprised I've never seen in metal.

Once we have everything strightened out with Michael I will start up a separate 100 Club section for Moorcock Miniatures.
All bein gwell in the next couple of months.
Jerry is the first figure we have made and luckily Mr Moorcock likes it.
We hope to start with Gran Bretonians and their ilk and then work onto other projects.
When we have news we will let you all know.
As an aside, it is very gratifying to see that there is so much interest in these lines. I was worried that I would only be making these figures for myself.
Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

Nic – That's great news, especially about Jerry. Is there any chance of a sneak peak, or will it have to stay under wraps until the licence is finalised?

Chrono HAL – Nope, I didn't forget Corum! ;-)

I remember reading it back in the 70s it was odd the Germans as the good guys the British as the bad.
Being of German decent I did enjoy it.

We are keeping it under wraps until we have something finalised.

Nic EUREKA MINIATURES

I sort of expected that would be the case, but you can't blame an old Moorcock fan for asking, can you?

Also, while I'm very happy for the initial releases to be Hawkmoon related; from a marketing standpoint, would it not make more sense start the range with Elric characters? I would just have thought they were likely to be bigger sellers.

I definately have a need for some Melniboneans in 28mm though I'm sure I can find a use for the Grand Bretonians.

And of course we'd need some Kamarg Towers to go with them Nic, ;)

So whats going on with the range?!! Any news?…..
FFF

Granbretans would be super cool. When we visited Provence back in 2003, I made a point of going to the Camargue and Aigues-Mortes, just because of Hawkmoon.

Ohhhhh vibrogun and needler for Jerry. And of course a suitably uncool old mum as Mrs C. Bishop Beasley anyone?

Any news?!!!!!!!!!!!
FFF

These might be of some interest to those dreaming of Granbreatan beast mask warriors:
link

More not-so-very-unsuitable heads:
link

Puppets War also do wolf and "space insect" helmets.

Did anyone else notice Granbretainian warlord Migel Holst gets killed in book 1 AND book 4?

The Beasts of War heads look almost perfect. "Sci-Fi" details, but the world of Hawkmoon is one of weird science rather than traditional Fantasy.

Too bad Tekumel ignores cavalry! Then, 'exotic' armor (Khmer? Chinese?) would look fittingly 'bizarre'. Or Privateer Press / Hordes Skornes link but they are much more expensive than historicals.

In 28mm guitar strings can be used to convert lances to firelances TMP link

Nic!
Any news!

There are some (very nice) 'test figures'. It might be worth emailing Nic on the Eureka email address.

Hi Nic at Eureka minis,
apart from some essential character figures, there's one obvious way to deal with granbretonian beast-orders: make a basic set of bodies, plus a whole range of seperate heads, with perhaps a few variations for each order. Ohter than the fly and mantis orders, the same basic bodies could be used for most orders.
This is probably so obvious it doesn't need to be stated, but – nontheless!
Apart from granbretonians, the Hawkmoon figures I think we'd all love to see are flamingo riders and the dreaded baragoon.
By the way, are you planning a new Elric line as well? That would rock.