Slitherine

Hi all,

I considering adding an MRR army to my other ancients. They are all Essex and will provide allies for the Legions. I've been to madaxman's excellent site to look at what's available but can't decide. Of course, Xyston figures are great but too big to go with Essex. Essex Romans are too boring. Old Glory could work but are kind of clunky. Warmodeling looks good and has good variety but might be too big. And so on...

Anu suggestions? I live in the USA, by the way.

Thanks in advance,

Deeter

A limited but sufficient line may be found at Museum. I like the sculpts, but they are few in number. The old Minifigs are another possiblility. They have a very nice hastatus. I would lean towards OG or Museum, but such questions are inherently subjective matters of taste.

OG will be easiest to get I suspect, may be cheapest, and paint up better than they look in the bare metal.

Especially if you can paint like MacPhee http://macpheesminiaturemen.blogspot.co ... -army.html !!!

I've been looking into this myself and concluded that OG would be the best option. Normally I prefer the Xyston figures but for the MRR these are all sculpted in "stabbing" pose with the pilums overhead, which will most certainly lead to a.) problems ranking up and moving into contact, and b.) problems with pilums breaking off from the very weak joint.

OG has good enough variety, and as has been mentioned paint up rather nicely. As an added benefit you can get LBM transfers to tart them up a bit more.

I like combining different manufactures. Besides the ones mentioned here, I would add Fantassin Miniatures, aka Warmodelling. I think their miniatures are great, specially some very rare poses like the triarii kneeling.

http://www.warmodelling.com/

If you combine several manufacturer, finally you end up having people of all sizes and that is why they combine well. If you want a gradiation, I would say that Xyston are the biggest, followed by Warmodelling, then Old Glory, Corvus Belli and finally Essex. I would only add a very few Essex as in my opinion they are not the best ones. Being able to stick my yourself the shileds widens the number of different poses you can get.

I've been happy with the OG figures.

Thanks for all your replys.

Old Glory was my first choice, but those super thick weapons bug me. Otherwise, the price is right and they do paint up well. Limited number of poses though. I'm quite taken by the warmodelling line but if they're too big to go with Essex, that's bad. Plus, they only seem to be available from Spain and I'm not sure shipping and VAT from Europe are doable.

Alain Touller figures look great, but no cav and maybe hard to get from France. Corvus Belli look good too, but no MRR!? I couldn't find any photos of Museum Minatures Romans and the UK website is awful! And I can't go back to minifigs after all these decades.

In short, I'm still stumped.

Deeter

You can order Corvus Belli in the US here (no MRR though, but you can get from them some auxiliary miniatures). They have also good discounts in Old Glory too.

http://www.warweb.com/miniatures-corvus ... _2160.html

Regarding warmodelling, it can be expensive, mainly because of the exchange rate euro-dollar (for us that's the other way round! ) but I like the miniatures. They can ship abroad and there is even a website for the UK. When I bought their miniatures I realized that they are far better than those seen in the pictures. Indeed the kneeling triarii are among my favourite ones. Here you have some comparision made by madaxeman:

http://www.madaxeman.com/15mm/displayim ... m=2&pos=54

In one day I will try to post a picture of my own with some Republicans I have. Ah, and if you check this website you can maybe get a better price for the shipping. The VAT is almost always included in the price in Spanish websites and I would only fear the US customs.

http://www.e-minis.net/index.php?cPath= ... _2255_2259

PS: army deals are really worth it in Warmodelling; the same for Old Glory; for Corvus Belli, not.
PS2: do you have too many Essex miniatures? I think you have better choices with other manufacturers.

Alain Touller figures look great, but no cav and maybe hard to get from France

Alain Touller has MRR cavalry actually. Great range, my army is made 90% out of them.[/code]

Don't forget Feudal Castings (from LMK Direct) - slightly old fashioned single poses for the heavy infantry but still nice, and cheap to boot compared to many ranges. I understand they're recasting some of their moulds including the MRRs - at present the MRR cavalry is unavailable because of this but the company assured me recently the cavalry will return!

regards
Phil

Outpost is pretty good but I don't know how well they combine with other manufacturers: http://www.outpostwargameservices.co.uk/

Julian

Old glory have treated me well, I'm mixing in some Warmodelling cav and command though. The only knock I have on Warmodelling's rank and file is their pilums are very soft and bendy. They are good proportionally, just very very soft. This is even on models where the pilum runs from hand to ground in a resting position, it is able to bend mulitple times and break. Other than that, I think they are great. I'm going to order some of Battle Honors' Romans through OG. I've yet to see pictures of them so just going to order them and find out.

Strategos69 wrote: Regarding warmodelling, it can be expensive, mainly because of the exchange rate euro-dollar.

I read this morning that the euro is taking a hit. Worth watching for those of us with Untied States dollars.

iowa_grognard wrote:Old glory have treated me well, I'm mixing in some Warmodelling cav and command though. The only knock I have on Warmodelling's rank and file is their pilums are very soft and bendy. They are good proportionally, just very very soft. This is even on models where the pilum runs from hand to ground in a resting position, it is able to bend mulitple times and break. Other than that, I think they are great. I'm going to order some of Battle Honors' Romans through OG. I've yet to see pictures of them so just going to order them and find out.

I looked at them long ago when they first came out. They are beautiful sculpts. You will be very pleased with them.

Here you have a comparision between different manufacturers producing Romans. I have mixed late Republicans and middle Republicans as manufacturers usually keep the proportions.



These are miniatures from Allain Touller miniatures, Corvus Belli, Warmodelling, Essex, Old Glory, Xyston and an unidentified manufacturer (I bought the minis from someone who did not know which one was the manufacturer). I am sorry if the picture is too fuzzy, but it can help to know how they fit. In my opinion Essex miniatures, especially for Romans, are too small compared with the rest. If you put them altogether you will have men ranging from 1,50 meters to 2 meters, which seems about right to me (maybe the shortest should be the most frequent though). So, anyway, it is feasible.

If you click on the picture here, you will see them bigger:

http://misminis.blogspot.com/2010/01/ro ... arcas.html

Wow, the Xyston and ATF are even dwarfed by the one Roman, I guess it's Museum?

Unfortunately the Warmodelling one is kneeling. I heard they are bigger ones too?
Most of their Romans are very ugly anyway and the horses are catastrophic, but I'd be interested in some of their Gauls or Greeks.

Mehrunes wrote:Unfortunately the Warmodelling one is kneeling. I heard they are bigger ones too?
Most of their Romans are very ugly anyway and the horses are catastrophic, but I'd be interested in some of their Gauls or Greeks.

I have heard the same thing about the horses. I have not bought any because of that recommendation. Regarding the foot, they fit perfectly with the Xyston ones and Allain Touller. I think that their Romans look ugly because of a poor painting on the website, but with the miniature on the hand, their Macedonian pikemen and triarii are some of the best models I have seen in those ranges.

Warmodelling's horses are longer and thinner than most, especially their numidian cav horses. I have a comparison on my blog where I have some OG Romans painted. However, the horses for the Roman cav and command are not as much so as the numidians. I have their command primed and ready to paint, but too busy atm to get at them.

I can't wait to get the BH's foot now that I've heard they're nice figures and I'll get them painted once basketball is over.

http://iowagrognard.blogspot.com/

Based purely on the way the "mystery" figure has a square base, I'd guess at it being from Minifigs - but it is huge!

I believe the fellow on the square base is an AB figure, which even at its touted 18 mm size is quite big. I got a triarii sample when they first came out to go with my Essex troops and he stood a full two heads taller.

More food for thought on whom to get though. I'll probably go with Old Glory as per Madaxman's suggestion. They look great on Iowa's blog and they're inexpensive and easy to get here in the USA. Otherwise, the Toullier figs would seem a good choice. I now think warmodelling figs would be too big. And yes, I am committed to my Essex armies. Got a lot of them pain-stakingly painted up and I'm not going to part with them.

My problem is that I take a long time to paint because I put as much detail and shading as possible into them. I even mix my own colors from a basic set. So for me, the quality of the castings, proportions, etc are more important than price or ease of access.

Thanks again for all the valuable info.

Deeter