Monday, December 1, 2014

Joining the "Horsey Set"

Despite the lack of obvious evidence in the form of Blog posts...I have been plugging away at a number of hobby projects but have failed to finish anything of late that is worth writing a post about....

...So I'll do a quick post about my continued efforts to find decent horses for my 3rd ed Brets....and show that I actually have been painting.

I've never been a big fan of Citadel's plastic horses...They vary drastically in proportion depending on release date and the number of variants possible is usually quite low.  For this reason I've been searching high and low for some decent metal horses that I could mount my knights on.  After a detailed discussion of this topic on the Oldhammer Forum...and encouragement by fellow Oldhammerers who have trod a similar path I've placed a sizable order for 20 metal, barded horses in a number of poses from Front Rank Miniatures...


...and they showed up while I was away for Turkey day!  here is what I received.



As you can see there is quite a variety of poses and types of barding.  I particularly like the inclusion of some chain mail barding...which you never see on Citadel horses.  In the upper left hand corner you can see my first "test fit" with an actual figure....In this case one of the superb third edition mounted character models from the Bretonian range.

Here is a close up...I think he fits pretty well!


Here is a shot that shows how these Front Rank horses stack up against their citadel competitors.  3rd ed on the left...Front Rank in the Center...and 5th edition horse on the right.


In this photos you can see that the Front Rank horse is slightly smaller than the 3rd ed horse...but only slightly...and some of the difference can be attributed to pose which is much more dynamic and interesting to look at IMO.  It is even close in size to the 5th ed horse...which is quite large.

And here are a couple of better pics of the knight you see above.


I'm quite excited about these new additions to my Bret forces....

...and here is why....I have ten 5th edition knights that will be looking for mounts soon!


 More on them soon!

Cheers,

Blue

8 comments:

  1. I am not entirely sold on these front rank horses (for a knight, they seem a bit small to me), but your 5th edition knights look as if they will be quite froth worthy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Lasgunpacker they do look a tad small. Pony Knights! Great painting though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those knights are looking awesome, especially that one with the yellow scabbard. I'm liking the horses as well, very dynamic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks way better than those awful GW plastic horsies imho

    ReplyDelete
  5. In this setting where the general scale is biased, I wouldn't mind too much about size. Yes they are a little small but they are foner and more dynamic than anything else you might have found so I really feel they're the best you could use.
    Their fine detail is far more worthy of your painting talent than those plastic monstrosities frankly.
    You made the right decision.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think it's a good move, Blue. Old metal citadel horses were always slightly on the small side anyway. I'm not a fan of plastic horses either so if I was collecting a Bretonnian Army I would have looked for a similar alternative to yourself. Front Rank's medieval range are pretty good; definately a good choice there! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Knights rode big horses so you can kind of excuse the size of GW's offerings. Having said that FR stuff is gorgeous and packed with character. Once painted and based I don't think the size will be an issue.

    ReplyDelete