Trying out some obscure miniatures....

I recently became aware of the 'Giants In Miniature' range from Wargames Illustrated, which seems to produce a limited run of just 500 casts of each individual figure. Browsing through it I found three that are suitable for the late 15th century, so had to give them a go!

The first is 'Lord Callan' which I believe was made for the recent release of the  Never Mind The Billhooks Wars of the Roses rules. It's a dismounted man-at-arms in English-style armour and a livery jacket, wielding a pollaxe in an action pose - a really excellent and dynamic sculpt. Obviously he will make for a great French or Burgundian man-at-arms, and will be used as such some day in the future!

The second is supposed to be the Englishman John Hawkwood, though it notably wears Italian armour of a style about 100 years later than Hawkwood was actually around. I believe this is because the sculpt was based on a 15th century painting of the man, which depicted him wearing the armour of the artist's day rather than what he would have actually been wearing in the 14th century. So perhaps not suitable for John Hawkwood himself, but perfect for a late 15th century man-at-arms in Italian fashion! A very nice sculpt indeed, and just crying out for a headswap. His baton could also be snipped off and drilled out, to be replaced by a flagpole, or alternatively his right hand could be removed and replaced by one from the plastic Perry heavy cavalry set, to have him waving an axe or mace. 

The last of the three is supposed to be Joan of Arc, and for some reason is again wearing armour from a later period than the historical figure was actually around. Conveniently for me the armour seems to be suitable for my period, and again she looks set for an easy headswap. Again I could either use her as a standard bearer or give her a new plastic hand. I'm not so keen on her horse, but she can be made to fit well onto a Perry horse. She doesn't seem like such a good sculpt as the other two, but I'm sure I'll make use of her some day in the future.

I don't know who sculpted these figures - I get the feeling that the first two are from the same sculptor and really are excellent, whereas Joan of Arc might be from someone else and isn't quite as good (but still perfectly useable). 

I went ahead and converted John Hawkwood into a standard bearer.

Now I had also for a while been looking for pictures of the 'Condottiere' range of late 15th century Italians by the now-defunct Venexia Miniatures. This range seems to suffer from the curse of having barely any pictures in existence, which surely isn't great marketing if you want to sell them. I'd seen an example of a painted cavalryman and thought he looked really good, the barded horse in particular. searching around I was also able to find some 'green' pics of the cavalry, which certainly look excellent in this form at least.

I eventually found they were still available from Lancashire Games. I decided to take the risk and buy several of the packs even without seeing full pics. If they're not usable then it's money down the drain....

They arrived very promptly. I would rate them as.... variable. Let's take a look at what I got straight out the bag.

First of all, the cavalry. I ordered two packs of three, but got an extra fourth rider in each for some reason. The riders, fully armoured men-at-arms in Italian armour, are all the same sculpt as far as I can see. They come with separate heads and right arms, which is nice. The heads themselves are alright, the armets look very useable, but don't really offer anything you don't get with Perry. I'll probably give them plastic Perry heads to make them mix in with the rest of the collection better. They can also use the plastic right arms from the Perry heavy cavalry set, as the armour is identical. There are two types of arm provided - one for carrying an upright lance and one for a raised hand weapon. The weapons themselves are separate and I won't be using them - I'm generally not a fan of separate metal weapons, they are generally oversized and no one likes bendy lances. Some are broken/miscast too.

Some of the riders are a bit miscast, but I won't ever be using all eight, if I do use them I'll choose the cleanest casts in the lot. 

In terms of size they are the right sort of bulk to mix with Perrys, but a bit shorter. If put on a Perry horse the feet won't come down to quite the right place. In this way they are perhaps the same dimensions as the Wargames Foundry WOTR cavalrymen.

Now the horses. There seem to be two barded horse variants, and two unbarded. First of all, the unbarded horses are nothing special, certainly inferior to the Perry metal horses, so I won't be using them. The barded horses however are VERY nice - both in variants of Italian=style steel bard, one of which has a cloth covering. They are smaller than the Perry plastic horses though, not just in height but also general build, which is a bit of a shame. I think they'd look small and skinny if mixed into a Perry cavalry unit, which isn't what you want for the most heavily armoured horses in the front rank. They are however roughly the same height as the Perry metal horses (which are slightly smaller than their plastic ones), so I could use them on a separate commander base rather than in a big unit quite happily I think. More variations of horse bard are always welcome for high-ranking commanders.

Next, the infantry. There aren't many different sculpts - I got the crossbowmen (two poses) and the polearm infantry (four poses). They are alright, perfectly useable. Slightly shorter than Perry. One of the polearm men in heavy armour I'll definitely be making use of. I think they will all find a place in my collection somewhere or another in the future. Again the heads are separate, which is good - they'll look better with plastic Perry heads I think. The supplied polearms are oversized and I won't be using them. 

I also got the artillery piece and crew. I like collecting artillery I guess - I have four painted up and something like three other variants now waiting to be assembled and painted one day. It's a good quality gun - the crew are based on the polearm infantry sculpts. I'll be using it someday for sure.

There are a few other sets I didn't get - handgunners, command, light cavalry, sword & shield infantry and stradiots.

So the Venexia range has some uses for conversions and mixing things into the larger collection, though admittedly I think most of them are going to remain in the components drawer for a while before I make use of them.