"Khurasan releases 15mm Three Kingdoms Koreans" Topic

We are very pleased to release our latest ancients range, Three Kingdoms Korean. This epic period of warfare in Korean history touches on the history of other Asian states as well -- the T'ang Chinese, the Kofun Japanese, and the Khitans, among others.

The armies were balanced, usually containing large numbers of mixed spear and bow infantry with smaller armoured cavalry forces and some light cavalry as well. The mightiest state militarily was the North Korean Goguryeo Kingdom, with the smaller kingdoms to the south, the Silla and Baekche, relying on foreign alliances against the North. (Certainly nothing like today!)

Several of the mounted types are available with a choice of mounts, as will be seen below.

Senior cataphracts in full body armour -- with armoured horses, fancy or plainer horse furniture (please note we use the term "cataphract" because it is so widely used in wargaming parlance, not because the Koreans used it):

Junior cataphracts in lesser armour representing young nobles or similar -- with the same horse choices:

Medium cavalry with lances, with either fancy or plainer horse furniture:

Medium cavalry with spears, with either fancy or plainer horse furniture:

Native Korean light cavalry, with either fancy or plainer horse furniture:

Malgal (Moho) Manchurian nomad light cavalry:

Korean mounted command:

Provincial (armoured) infantry with spear/polearms:

Provincial (armoured) infantry with bows:

Provincial (armoured) infantry with crossbows:

Militia (unarmoured) infantry with spear/polearms:

Militia (unarmoured) infantry with bows:

Infantry commander in solid breastplate (use a spearman as a unit standardbearer):

The models are available now, at the link below. Thomas Kelley painted these. Sculpted by Rod Campbell.

link

Now there's a blast from the past. The painting is superb.

Very Nice!

Was this part of a previous line? or new?

RebelMike
Rebelminis.com

They look very nice indeed and the paintings first rate.

Those are very cool.

YESSSSSSS!

This is an all-new range.

Those are very nice!

Awesome! I have been waiting for these! Will have to scrape up some money at the end of the week and put in an order… :)

Damon.

i like this army, but i have a dilemma. i play field of glory, but the asian field of glory army lists are terrible. the dbmm lists are good but i hate dbmm. :-(

Very nice! I'm assuming that the riders are separate from the horses?

And is there a chance to buy the horses separately? I'd love to get the fancier horses to go under some early Samurai!

i like this army, but i have a dilemma. i play field of glory, but the asian field of glory army lists are terrible. the dbmm lists are good but i hate dbmm. :-(

You could always play like armies from the same book. You know you always wanted a T'ang army as well… :)

Damon.

Rather lovely.

Gorgeous figures. Time to study the army lists!!

"You could always play like armies from the same book. You know you always wanted a T'ang army as well… :)"

lol only problem is almost all the asian armies are exactly the same in fog. it's like a civil war!!!

The sort of figures from which completely new projects are born…

I didn't know I wanted to do Koreans till now.

They alsways make great stuff. If their website was ever up, I would order more things from them! ;)

This is what I have been after, someone else to fight my Khurasan T'ang Chinese. Beautiful figures as usual from Khurasan.

I have just had a look at the FOG army lists, and worked out what I need. This is going to be expensive, even with a decent GBP to USD exchange rate. Then there is the dreaded Revenue and Customs charges. I still think that it is going to be worth it though. I will be ordering shortly.

Steve J

@ Heinz

Maybe time to change ruleset? :))))

Smokey their site is up most of the time. He only takes it down when he gets overloaded with orders so he can catch up, he is only one man and merely human after all. I have nothing but good things to say about Khurasans service and products. If I were richer I would buy practically every line he sells.

Me too, Bashy. But this "One guy" thing? Really? Rebel Minis is one guy, who is busy at girls basketball games, but he doesn't shut down his website every other day!

I'm "One guy", but if you are in jail and call me, I don't have an answering service that says "He already has a criminal client, so he is closed!"

I have a pretty, chubby, sweet girl I date. But if Kirsty Alley or a Lane Bryant Swimsuit Model checks out my facebook, I don't say "Sorry, but due to high volume, Smokey is shut down! You can't even look at sexy pics of me and dream!!!!!!!!!!!"

I'm kidding, I love Khurasan, have had nothing but great service from him, and will continue to patronize! ;)

I'm "One guy", but if you are in jail and call me, I don't have an answering service that says "He already has a criminal client, so he is closed!"

How about if you have 60 and only time to represent 30? What does your service say then?

I am one guy. No need for scare quotes. I have over 60 ranges of miniatures so sometimes there is more order volume that I can handle. As it is, keeping all of those ranges in good stock is an epic struggle, particularly the resin vehicles, which alone have contributed many grey hairs to my head.

On to other things, ISTR some painting information about these in the past, but are there any good references around for how to paint these?

Damon.

Here's a start -- of course I recommend avoiding all the modern anime cartoons that come up in a google of the subject!

Our own GurKhan (Duncan Head) sent me some images of a state recreation of regular soldiers as a garrison on an historic fortress in Korea. I can't find it now, but the dress of the soldiers was the basis for our armoured infantry. The "garrison" are dressed all in red, which is why our regular infantry are painted that way. Makes sense as red was a popular soldier's colour in ancient times. The militia are painted in the sedate colours of the clothing shown in the fifth image above.

In the first image shown above, the gold guys are triumphing over the blue guys, and it's not impossible that the different kingdoms may have colour coded themselves that way.

That high neck-guard/collar looks like a costume from a 1980s fantasy B-movie…

As I had thought, it did work out expensive, but if you want the best you have to pay for it. So i reasoned, what the hell, they are such beautiful figures (and a complete range) that I have ordered them anyway.

I really look forward to receiving these.

Steve J

These are stunning and I can see an unforseen army project in the offering……as the wallet hides under the bed again. Only question is and my knowledge on the subject is minor, but should the Provincial spearmen come with a shield (Pavaise of some sort). Only reason I ask is speres are hard to come by, nobody doing additional add ons as far as I'm aware.

Cheers

Some 3K infantry do seem to have used shields, but they may not have been universal: some modern writers suggest 4-metre spears which may have been used two-handed without shields.

The 4th-century tomb of the Chinese-Koguryo governor Dong Shou (Anak no.3) has shielded halberdiers and also shielded swordsmen in the "parade" scene. In fact while browsing around for pictures, inspired by this release, I found the best photo of this tomb-painting that I have yet seen. Go to link find "Historic Remains Recognized by UNESCO" and click on one of the PDF links next to it – the letters are language abbreviations, so most of us will want E for English. You can see swordsmen (next to the general's ox-cart) with angular shields apparently hanging from the scabbarded ring-hilted swords they rest on their shoulders, and halberdiers both with the angled shield and a more rounded, bright red style.

The same photo will give some more ideas for painting. Some modern sources suggest that the three-legged crow was a Koguryo emblem, as it occurs in some tomb paintings – link – and in modern Korean films it is sometimes shown on a red field –

One passage of the Samguk Sagi, translated in J W Best's "A History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche, Together with an Annotated Translation of the Paekche Annals of the Samguk Sagi" mentions a Paekche/Baekje military review with all yellow flags.

I doubt the Three Legged Crow was specifically Korean as the Shiji mentioned it,the Shanhaijing also features a crows carrying the sun.

I'm not surprised Goguryeo adopted Chinese motifs ie 4 symbols and,dragons,Nuwa and Fuxi.

Also it was noted that Goguryeo had a large "Han Chinese" component ie Wei Man and his Yan people,Han from Lelang and Xuantu commanderies,Han taken from raids Goguryeo conducted and Sui soldiers that stayed behind after the disastrous invasion.

Khurasan's site suggests using this range for Balhae/Parhae/Bohai. Otherwise, I've found it quite difficult to find good information on Parhae troops' appearance, though there are a couple of pieces on Mugap's Korean armour blog – kyb0417.blogspot.co.uk

My order has arrived.

These are very good castings. The detail is nice and crisp, the spears are thick enough to withstand general wargames use without looking as if they are holding trees

They could be painted straight from the packet, as they only have a very feint mold line on them.

An excellent range, and I shall look forward to seeing what ancient ranges come out in the future.

Steve J

Must say that as I have a basic set of Falcon 3 Kingdoms Koreans I was inclined in that direction for any additions. The figures are nice and the price was decent.

However with their recent price jump and the quality of these figures, when I get ready to expand I'll be looking at these.

Not quite sure what I'll be doing with the old Mike's Models bases. Hate to retire them, but there only some spear/pike, militia spear, and a few crossbow – not enough spread for an actual army and they aren't going to mix well with these other ranges.

All we need now is for Osprey Publishing to produce a book with campaign details, battles, personalities and, of course, pretty pictures etc to compliment this excellent range.

Steve J