We are very pleased to announce that our first miniatures are now available for order!
These are 15mm miniatures for Eastern Muslim troops, primarily Turks and Persians. The Turks were known as Ghulams (more properly, "Ghilman") or Mamluks, famous for supplying slave soldiers of elite armoured horse archers who were also skilled hand-to-hand fighters. The Persians were native nobles serving the Khurasanian dynasties, and were the Islamic successors to the Sassanid Persians.
As you will see, the models make every effort to accurately portray these horsemen.
The first models released are the elite of elites, the most heavily armoured of the horse archers, who can be used for either senior Turkish Ghulams or high-ranking native Persians. As suits these redoubtable warriors, they are advancing to clinch the victory with melee weapons in hand. They have the "jawshan" lamellar cuirass over a long, heavy chainmail shirt, and the conical Persian helmet, as eastern Muslims generally wore a hat or helmet rather than a turban. Right arms are separate and so can be variously posed, the arms sprues aloow you to arm your warriors with either a curved sword, straight sword, hand axe or lance. Two base body variations and four different horses complete the variety (two unarmoured horses, a felt "tijfaf" bard, and a proper lamellar "bargustuwan" horse armour).
We don't like buying models sight unseen any more than you do! So we have tried, within our modest means, to provide illustrations. Two color photos of these models are on the website, as well as a scan of the contents of each pack in the item listings. Unfortunately, neither gives full credit to Sandra Garrity's superb work on these - for that you will need to see them face-to-face! Her hand is obvious, not only in the realistic cut of the figurines, but in their ease of construction: it's a snap to add the arms to the bodies, and the riders fit perfectly on their horses.
Whether you are making an Eastern Muslim army, or you'd like to add those special, elite Ghulam units to your Western Islamic armies, these look just right and make handsome units. The elite Ghulams are just the vanguard of a whole variety of Eastern Muslim troops to come, so come by the website and take a look!