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jeudi 27 juin 2024

Greek mythology: of Minotaurs and Amazons, and more

Hi! 

What if I could write a post with tags such as 'Ancients', 'Fantasy', and '1/72' ? Yes it is possible, I promise... let's have a look at some 1/72 creatures from the Greek mythology!



A few years ago, Dark Alliance began to produce Fantasy figures from various universes, something rarely seen before, since only Caesar had produced this sort of sets before - all out of prod nowadays, and incredibly difficult to find at a fair price!

Some of their figures are clearly related to Greek mythology, for instance the Minotaurs:


And this is my painted version:


The first Minotaurs have a very classical color scheme, so I wanted to try something else:

This white figure can be seen as a boss, or as an infernal version of a Minotaur - what do you think of him ?

Next set, the Centaurs:


One of them made an appearance in the 2020 Advent Calendar in this blog - you can see the related post here.

Dark Alliance also released a set containing Cyclops, a dream come true:



If you read this blog for some time, you will remember the post dedicated to this very nice figure.

Dark Alliance also made a set dedicated to Amazons, but I must admit that it is far from my favourite (the sculpting is not the best, and my copy had too much flash). Fortunately, Linear A also released a set dedicated to these female warriors, and this time, the figures are really great:




Last but not least, the Hydra. I had to search among my oldest 25mm figures to find a relevant model, a wonderful Ral Partha figure bought some 40 years ago :)

This old snake fits well with a Dark Alliance Amazon. Here is a link to a post dedicated to this figure, one of the first of this blog back in 2016.

I now have enough figures to add 6 elements to my HoTT Greek mythology army (the Greeks themselves are ready for a long time, see here), but there will be further developments. I would like to add:

- some more of the above figures, of course

- a Harpy: I have an old 25mm citadel figure that could do the job

- a Sphinx: a 28mm figure from Reaper Bones - maybe a bit large but I haven't an alternative yet, tell me if you have any idea

- some gods represented with 25mm figures

 And I'm sure that even more is possible. All suggestions welcome!

I hope you found this post useful, or at least recreative :)

lundi 17 juin 2024

The Green Horde: some more green warriors

Hi! The production is getting very low regarding minis (the usual spring effect), but I could paint another batch of Orc warriors, gathered into a troop (10 foot figures according to Kings of War).


 

Let's have a closer look:


Hum yes, his shield was red in a previous version

 

As you may know by now, I don't like to paint twice the same mini (there are exceptions), and I like to mix figures from different brands, and even different centuries :). Some of these figs were bought a long time ago (in the 80s), and some only a few months ago. Some are new and the others second hand, which is why I can't always identify them with certainty. There are several online sites that provide info about all those figs, and I must say that the research for knowledge is one of the most interesting things regarding those 25/28mm figures :)

The two figures below are recent plastic figures by Reaper Bones. The grunt on the left was sculpted by Tre Manor, the guy on the right was sculpted by Bobby Jackson for the Bones Black range (source: Reaper Miniatures website).

 

The following Orcs are much older: they are metal figures from the 80s by Citadel.  The first on the left is a Black Orc from the N11 series in the Chronicle range. Sculpted by Nick Lund and released in 1985 (source: Collecting Citadel Miniatures).

The following are preslotta figures: the second from the left comes from C16 range released in 1984 (source: The Stuff of Legends); the two on the right come from the C15 Armoured Orcs series released in 1983 (source: Lost Minis Wiki).

 

The next two are from different manufacturers. The first one is a Grenadier figure sculpted by Nick Lund and probably released in 1990 for his game 'Fantasy Warriors' (source: Lost Minis Wiki). The second one is an Old Glory Orc sculpted by Bob Naismith. I couldn't find a release date, but I'm sure that I bought this figure during the 90s.

 

The last two figures are produced nowadays by Ral Partha. The lancer (Light Orc Impaler) on the left was sculpted by Bob Olley probably during the 90s and is part of the Gargantuan Orcz ,and the guy on the right is an Orc Champion by Kev Adams, initially for Heartbreaker (sources: Lost Minis Wiki and Ral Partha websites).

I hope you like them, and also that the explanations about the origins of the figures are of interest :)