Monday, February 10, 2014

Ask the CFM: Rogues, assassins and other dishonorable skulkers

Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
It's "Ask the Cheap Fantasy Miniaturist", where I try to answer reader questions about 1/72 fantasy miniatures. In this installment, reader Eric asks:
I was wondering, have you found 1/72 rogues, thieves, assassins?
My answer [with updated comments]:
Good question! The Caesar Miniatures Adventurers set has a few figures that would make good rogues, as does Orion's English Pirates set. Valdemar has had this set of assassins in their preview gallery for months (Paul managed to get ahold of set), but there's no word on when it would ever be produced, and it would probably be expensive. [The Valdemar assassins have been in production for a little while as it happens. It's about as expensive as I feared, though.] 
I've got ahold of some D&D-scale halfling miniatures that are good as 1/72 human-scale rogues; there are a few such mins out there that I think would work [More suitable D&D minis for 1/72 rogues can be found here]. I suspect this 15mm set from Splintered Light Miniatures would be good for 1/72 halfling rogues.
As I read your comment, I got the idea of doing head swaps between these Zvezda peasants (especially the hooded ones) and, say, these Orion Vikings, for a passable rogue/assassin conversion. I've already used the Zvezda heads to begin some cultist conversions.
Reader Shintokamikaze also reminds me that just as various 1/72 pirate sets make great rogues, many 1/72 ninja sets, such as this one from Caesar Miniatures, have great hooded assassin types.

Got more questions for the Cheap Fantasy Miniaturist? Please send them along and I'll do my best to answer.

2 comments:

  1. Paul's assasins are just perfect ! (as always)

    ReplyDelete
  2. again a great post ! impressive !
    for the Valdemar Assassins ("Knights at Night" VA 157), yes they are expensive !
    http://www.fredericus-rex.de/Valdemar-Miniatures/category-0-178/Valdemar---VA157--Knight-at-Night--1-72.html = 23,25€ for 12 figures (that's about 3$ per fig, I suppose....)
    but it's an awesome set !
    They have released another set some years ago :
    "Medieval Robbers/Highwaymen",(10€ for 5 figs) always available :
    http://www.fredericus-rex.de/Valdemar-Miniatures/category-0-178/category-Valdemar-Miniatures-1-72-1044-1192-1417.html excellent too !
    I think that some other figures from their Civilians sets could also be good.

    But all the Pirates (included the excellent Orion Set ) are good figures for this use...
    (Maybe some from "Germania Figuren" for example, but they can't be categorized in "cheap minis" : http://germania-figuren.com/gx2/index.php?cat=c335_Pirats-of-the-Caribian-Pirats-of-the-Caribian.html )
    I know that some sets from different "small" manufacturers (pewter or resin) could be good too, those which are relative to a Tavern Scene....

    Nevertheless, all conversions with Peasants etc...., like you suggest are possible.

    ReplyDelete