After I posted last week, someone suggested that I include Bear's Den, and Chris from there has very kindly provided samples. I've included these and also put the cataphracts onto this page, too, for convenience.
The new Vendel horse is from an Ebob master, I gather, and it is beautifully formed, with very slender legs. The reins are beautifully done; not a single piece casting as on most horses, but a pair with a gap between, something I've never previously encountered. The rider is also very nice (I worry a little about the potential fragility of the realistically slender bow, but all four were fine on the samples I received). The horse and rider are, however, slightly smaller and slighter than my personal preference for miniatures, which tends towards larger 28s; this won't be an issue for most sensible wargamers, though. In style terms, they make me think of some of the Perry ranges, such as their Crusaders. They would be ideally-sized opponents for 1stCorp or Gripping Beast Caesarian-era armies. A real departure from the previous Vendel style; rather exciting. Can't wait to see the cataphracts...
A&A miniatures produce an extensive Sassanid range, which includes several packs of the earlier Parthians. Earlier, I featured the same A&A Parthian cataphract in the Seleucid Figure Size Comparison page. I really like the poseable horse archer figure. The horse is a little short and thick in the legs in my view, but I really like the decoration on the horses mane. I have used quite a lot of A&A horses in my Numidian and Gallic armies, and have a soft spot for them; solid wargaming steeds that work fairly well alongside the bigger Foundry ranges.
The new addition to the shot is one of the Bear's Den Parthians. The mount looks like another Ebob horse, to me, but larger than the Vendel one. As with A&A the legs are cast on, which I think would save preparation and painting time. The bow is straight and would need to be bent into a recurved shape, which might be a little fiddly. The rider looks in good proportion to his horse, which is a very nicely sculpted mount. This mini is the largest of the three, and would probably be a happy size to ride up and down skewering my Copplestone Roman cohorts with arrows!
Above we have the Bear's Den and A&A cataphracts (the Vendel isn't out at the time of writing).
The Bear's Den steed is longer than A&As, but a similar height; the rider seems a good match for the size of the horse. Bear's Den have gone for the very moment of attack, whilst A&A's rider is cantering forward with his lange upright, presumably some distance from the enemy. The Bear's Den lancepoint is going to stick out 4-5cm in front of the horse, which may be slightly inconvenient on the wargames table, but which would look very dramatic.
2 comments:
I'm a big fan of the A&A horses myself, and particularly of the Sassanid horses with cloth barding and the Moorish cavalry mounts from their 3rd century Roman range. That said, the new Vendel Parthians look especially fine.
Hi Keir, I think they have their place, perhaps a third of my Numidians are on A&As.
Personally I am quite tempted by the Bear's Den horse archer mount, which seems proportionate to the size of the rider, and has a big bottom and medium thickness legs.
Post a Comment