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.

Drow! You stabbed me!

An extraordinarily busy March and April meant that I put off painting the dark elf figures I put together months ago. But they're done now!

Pretty simple painting; a lot of grays with some purple, which looks more washed-out in these photos than in person. Because of the dark color scheme, I did a lot more drybrushing than I usually do, with light gray on the clothes and pure white on the face and hair. These are pretty typical drow colors, though I suppose the blue hair might be a bit unusual. I think it works though; with the heavy drybrushing, the blue almost looks like a wash, so it's more of an accent color.

Below are the sword guys. The figure on the left is an unmodified Caesar elf. The rest are Alliance elf heads on various bods, mostly Caesar. The female fighter has an Arcane Legions body, while the one in the middle has one from a Hat Celt leader.

Next are the archers. These are mostly unmodified Caesar elves, though I swapped the "conehead" elf head with an Alliance head for the figure on the left. The running archer has a bod from a Hat "Robin Hood" figure.

A couple spellcasters. On the left, a Caesar elf head with a Caesar "Adventurer" body. On the right, an Alliance elf head with a Twilight Creations cultist bod.

Here's Sven the 1/72 comparison viking with Salogel of the One Inch Guild, with his counterpart from the Realm of Lolth.

But which one is the real you?!

I decided to finish these guys first before working on the driders, also featured in the first drow post. They're next!

Bones II minis for 1/72 scale

I'm still selling several Bones II minis. Pics are now available on my sales page. Also, in case you missed it, I updated my post on WarQuest with some new information.

I received my Bones II order a few months ago and was pleased to discover how many work with 1/72 scale. As I discovered with the first Bones Kickstarter, smaller minis look human-sized in 1/72, while large minis seem just a bit larger, in a more fantastic way. Let's take a look.

These small humanoids are about the size of 1/72 humans. On the left are Balazar the gnome summoner, Lini the gnome druid, and Woody the halfling ranger. Their heads look rather large, but they should be fine for 1/72 otherwise. On the right are a kobold champion and sorcerer, with a kobold spearman in between. These new minis are quite a bit larger than the old kobold Bones, despite having the same sculptor, but they should work for 1/72 lizardmen or dragonmen.

These are also close to human-sized in 1/72 scale. Two mushroom men (or "myconids" in D&D), a lesser demon, a kelpie, a demilich, and two "hordlings."

Animals: a wolf, bear, wildcat, wolverine, and hawk. These are all bigger than actual 1/72 versions of the same critters, but they are good for "dire" or monstrous beasts. Besides, that hawk is about as small as it can be and still be useful at the table.

Medium-sized beasts: a basilisk, barrow rat, chthon, mind eater, prairie tick queen, and spider from the first Kickstarter.

These monsters are close in size to Reaper humans, but I think they are nice as larger monsters in 1/72. A "Ti'ilk" fishman, lesser demon, two Egyptian avatars, Thoth and Sekhmet; and a crystal golem. The "lesser demons" are all about the same size, though the vulture demon is a lot bigger. Dig the blue plastic on that golem!

Some huge monsters: a chimera, water elemental, and "burrowing horror" (or "bullette" in D&D). Again, I love the clear blue plastic. The water elemental is about the same size as the clear red fire elemental Reaper made for their first Kickstarter.

Finally, some giants: a "swamp things" troll, stone giant, mountain troll, and ice troll. These are all much bigger than the ubiquitous cave trolls I painted last year. I still like how these big guys look compared to Sven.

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!

Warquest, a new source for 1/72 fantasy?

Pic source: Shut Up & Sit Down

File this under rank speculation. Via Shut Up & Sit Down*, we find out about Warquest, a new fantasy war board game with a Kickstarter being planned for April. Information is scarce, but here's the blurb at BoardgameGeek:

WarQuest is a game of grand strategy, conquest, and heroic quests in the fantasy world of Myrathia. Immerse yourself in this chaotic and mystical world! Take on the role of a warlord who seeks to reunite the fractured land under your banner. Recruit wood elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs and beast-men to fill the ranks of your armies and engage in epic battles. Travel across the tormented lands in an effort to drive back chaos by completing desperate quests. Conquer and control strategic cities and regions, and if successful, declare yourself ruler of all Myrathia!

So why should I care about another fantasy board game? Because the designers and publishers are largely key folks out of Eagle Games. Eagle Games publishes a lot of Avalon Hill-type tactical board games with minis 1/72 scale, including CFM favorite Age of Mythology. I don't actually know that this game will also be in 1/72, but it appears to be a big tactical war game from guys who have favored that scale for these sorts of games in the past.

More speculation: It's not officially being published by Eagle Games, but Eagle sells components of their games on their web store for dirt cheap: here are the Age of Mythology pieces for sale, for example. Imagine buying minis for one of the factions mentioned above for just a few bucks.

Of course all this speculation is just that, and for all I know they'll make another 28mm game like everyone else. We probably won't know until April at the earliest when the Kickstarter begins. But if the designers play to type, Warquest could be excellent news for the cheap fantasy miniaturist.

*A fantastic site, by the way. Smart, funny, thoughtful news and reviews of board games and other tabletop games.

Edit for 3/11/15: Warquest has a Twitter page, and they have a couple of pics of their minis from what appear to be playtesters: here and here. Hard to tell how big they are, though.

Edit for 4/15/15: The Kickstarter for WarQuest went live about a week ago. It was abruptly cancelled a few days ago; sounds like they were hoping for faster funding than what they got. They say they'll relaunch in a few weeks after reconsidering their marketing and Kickstarter strategies. Worth noting, as CFM reader Xander points out below, is the scale: "25mm from foot to eye." Sounds a little big for 1/72, somewhere in the ballpark of GW LotR figures, but I bet a lot of the figures could still be adapted. We'll have to wait until they get their act together to know for sure.

Edit for 5/11/15: Warquest Kickstarter take 2 went live last week. It funded in just two days, so I guess they fixed whatever the problem was with the first Kickstarter. It's a bit rich for me, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else is backing it!

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!

Reaper Bones II minis for sale!

Okay, I'm jumping the gun a little, but I thought I'd better take care of this soon. Reaper just got the last container for their recent Bones II Kickstarter and have begun shipping this week. Mine went out today and should be here by the end of the week! The plan was always to sell many of these and keep the ones I need, selling at around $1 per medium-sized mini. I don't have a formal list yet, but that shouldn't stop you from checking out my sales page for instructions on claiming the ones you want. Go at it!