New Alliance minis!

We've been awaiting these sets for a while, but Redbox just recently put up previews of many of their new sets. Check out the new "Modern Amazons" and "Cimmerians."

The "Modern" part seems to simply mean the opposite of "Ancient" or "Hellenistic," as these have a more generic look that Alliance's previous Amazons. I had half a notion that "Modern" might mean something like "appealing to more modern, edified ideas about women in fantasy;" I think it's safe to say that's not the direction Red Box took the line. These are still pretty heavy on the cheesy, chainmail bikini side of things.

But let's look at the figures:

It's always hard to tell with the low-contrast red that Alliance uses for their preview shots, but the figures are certainly consistent with the battle-stripper look of the box art. They don't seem too egregious, though, and may be adaptable for more sanely dressed female fighters. And I can see that this previewed, super-sensible figure is in the middle of the bottom row of the first set, so maybe they won't be so bad. But I'm not really thinking too much about that now, because holy smoke, unicorns! That's right, the cool Amazon mounts that were previewed ages ago have materialized, and they're more bizarre and wonderful than I expected. Stags! Felines! A gorram dinosaur, for goodness sakes! Here's hoping Redbox puts out an "Amazon mounts" or "Exotic mounts" set, similar to their wargs set. It could see a lot of use for all kinds of modeling beyond fantasy mounts.

Let's move on to the "Cimmerians," Howard-inspired barbarians with a definite Chaos look to them:

The box are features a generous gamut of barbarian archetypes, from bare-chested Conans to horsey steppelords to the bundled-up Viking type in the middle. The figures are similarly variegated.

Two foot sets, unlike just one for the Amazons, presumably because they've already released an Amazon foot set. Again, a mix of shirts and skins here: I actually like this, since more variety means more use from a single set, but they'd certainly make a ragtag unit! Also, lots of horns, spikes, and oversized weapons, perfect for fantasy Chaos warriors. Note the shaman-guy in the bottom left of Set 2.

Cavalry:

Normal mounts this time, though unsaddled. Again, pointy bits and crazy arms galore.

So far I like these. The Cimmerians could see a lot of uses in fantasy gaming. The Amazons disappointingly seem once again to be a little heavy on the cheesecake, but the crazy mounts make up for it. I haven't seen them available on Hannants yet, but I look forward to it!

Heartbreaker: rethinking the critical hit (plus new Alliance minis!)

Time for more of Heartbreaker, my sub-blog about my purely amateur interest in d20 fantasy design. Again, I'll start with a quick news blast for the Cheap Fantasy Miniaturists here who don't care about RPGs, then I'll continue with the meat below the fold.

Via VK.com's 1/72 group, here are some intriguing pics from Alliance, one of the two big 1/72 fantasy hobby miniature lines out there.

     

The description the Alliance guys give for these is interesting. When they were making their Amazons sets, they were thinking of whom the Amazons might fight and came up with the figures on the left. They describe them as Conan-esque (the Russian word for barbarian transliterates as "varvar," by the way), though they look a little like Chaos warriors to me. The figure on the right looks more like how I wished Alliances Amazons looked—less cheesecake, more Joan of Arc. Not many details on when or how these might show up, but they are very interesting.

Now to the RPG stuff. Just click the "Read More" link below the "You Might Also Like" stuff.

Alliance Amazons, pics, review

Hannants surprised me by shipping my recent order with them in just a week, so I have lots of interesting swag to show off. Most novel are the Amazons that Alliance just released. A shortage of female 1/72 minis has just been relieved, but is it worth it?

I'm judging these safe-for-work, because after all they are unpainted small-scale plastic figures. But there's definitely plenty of bare-chestedness going on in these figures, to an arguably gratuitous degree. Yes, yes, there are certainly precedents for nude figures in this scale, both male and female, and I don't want to gainsay anyone's tastes or preferences in this regard. But maybe you can see what I mean here. Some of these costumes, if not quite PG-13, make sense for a race of warrior women, but others are rather more, shall we say, eye-catching that practical for life on the battlefield. I haven't shown the backs of these figures, which are even more ridiculous: either these outfits have very, very tight breeches, or they are quite drafty. In other words, it's not just that these figures are too sexy; in trying to be sexy they've turned out a little bit goofy as well.

It's too bad, because the sculpting is actually pretty well done. These Amazons are a bit on the tall side, but not too tall; the poses are lively even if a bit flat, and there's lots of variety. Some of these are obviously suitable for quasi-Greek campaigns, but others are more generic. Besides, the crests of those Greek helmets can easily be snipped for a less Hellenistic look.

Anyway, I promised pics. There are currently two sets, a foot set and a cavalry set. The first is 40 figures in 10 poses, the second is 12 unique figures, plus 10 horses (not the cool mounts shown in this preview, alas!). Here they are:

Melee figures from the first set, mostly spears. The Greek-looking figures especially are leaving little to the imagination, though with some paint and perhaps a spot of glue here and there their dress could be a little more modest.

Archers from the first set. These are a bit more realistically dressed IMO.

Riders with swords plus two command figures, from the second cavalry set. I don't have much use for cavalry, but I think I can make some leg swaps and still use these figures.

Spears and archers on horseback. The infamous spiral armor makes an appearance here. By the way, while it's not obvious from the front, the cavalry figures mostly seem to lack pants, which is especially goofy if one considers the deleterious effects of saddle-soreness!

I'm perhaps letting my focus on the whole goofy/sexy design of these figures make this review sound overly negative. Really, they're pretty good figures, and it's great to have more female figures in this niche-in-a-niche of a hobby. I just wish the focus was more heroic and a little less gratuitous. Still, it will be an interesting project to mod these a little more to my tastes.

Alliance Amazons pics!

We've seen the zombies, but we've been waiting for something more from Alliance regarding their upcoming Amazons set. Via the 1/72 wall at VK, we finally get a closer look! Here's the back of the infantry box showing the poses inside:

Very Hellenistic! Mostly spears and bows, crested helms, lots of Greek trappings, as we knew. It's hard to tell for sure, but the figures seem, um, lightly dressed, which I guess isn't surprising. I'd have preferred something more family-friendly, but with some judicious painting I could certainly make them work. Despite the Greek look these should be easily adaptable for generic fantasy.

Also available is this preview from the cavalry set:

The dress is more to my liking, but what's really striking are the mounts. Unicorns! Lions! No saddle on the unicorn, so maybe these could be standalone monsters as well as mounts. Maybe Redbox will even sell them separately, like they did with the wargs from their orc cavalry.

I gather that the release date is a long ways away, but these will be very welcome sets when they finally arrive.

PS: I feel a little disappointed that I've left this site and the hobby in such neglect. This is normally a busy time anyway, plus I've got a big freelance project that I'm working on, so painting and so on haven't gotten much attention. I'll be able to paint more in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

By the way, the Reaper Bones II sale has been going very well. I still have a few figures left to sell. I naturally haven't had time to update my sales page with what's available, but please feel free to inquire! All the info you need is on the sales page. Thanks!

Pics, previews of new Alliance minis!

We know that Alliance is coming out with new fantasy sets, namely half-orcs, Amazons, and zombies. This coincides with this year's release of the new sets from Caesar, so this is shaping up to be a great year for 1/72 fantasy.

I was looking for info on these new sets at the 1/72 group on vk.com, a Russian social site that seems to be a great source for 1/72 news that doesn't always make it to the English-speaking part of the web. And I found these pics! Here are some masters from one of the zombie sets:

These seem to be more modern, but they look like they'd complement the new Caesar zombies quite nicely. A lot of kid zombies in this set, which I find slightly discomfiting for some reason. But they definitely look good in a duly horrible way. There's also some box art to see, but it doesn't tell you much about the figures.

No preview pics of the Amazons, but there is a preview of the box art. I suppose it's NSFW, so I'll just link to it. It does give a bit of an idea what the figures will be like; definitely Greek in style, maybe a little more cheesecake than it has to be. I am looking forward to seeing what the actual figures will be like. There will be two sets, by the way; one for infantry, and one cavalry.

The post I found these in describe the sets' release date as "not soon," but hopefully there will be some more info available soon enough!