Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: Samnite308 on November 03, 2014, 12:13:59 AM
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Dark Fable Miniatures has launched its latest Indiegogo campaign featuring 12 new sets of 28mm Egyptian themed miniatures :o
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/egyptian-miniatures-iv/x/1952662
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-10OP9Ok9Pc8/U_StpVpjOWI/AAAAAAAAAjw/rMNnjQDnoRI/s640/Queen%2520Nefertiti%2520set.JPG)
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Yay! Needless to say I'll be backing this as it adds important characters to that Harem Intrigue game I proposed in the Spring. :)
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I may have to back this one...
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I backed the others and will be in for this one as well. If only I could paint fast enough to keep up with the Kickstarters. Any that are on the fence about these, get off! They are beautiful in the flesh and nicely priced too.
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Given that they appear to be all Palace people, are there any matching peasants, general population figures that anyone can recommend and do they fit with the old Foundry Egyptians or are they larger?
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They are great figures and I will be getting them all again but not till next month
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Beautiful stuff! Think I finally may have found a use for these other than just admiring
them :-)
Just to confirm: end date is Dec 14th not Nov 14th? You originally mentioned it would be November, but December is actually much more doable for me financially, so this is good!
Steve
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Given that they appear to be all Palace people, are there any matching peasants, general population figures that anyone can recommend and do they fit with the old Foundry Egyptians or are they larger?
The Foundry Egyptians are one of the old Perry lines and are smaller like the rest of their older stuff. Too small? I'm not sure, I've never done a size comparison between the troops. I would use the civilian types in the same market or palace scene without pause.
For other civilian types, Black Tree does civilians for many of their ranges. They may have biblical figures as well. Foundry has some Egyptian priest sets that they released recently that are larger figures than the old Perry-sculpted ranges.
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Well we are nearly at the campaign goal of 3k and the first stretch goal reward - so things are moving along at a nice rate :D The campaign started 2 November and is due to run till the 14 December (42 days in all).
I will eventually be adding some sets of villagers - peasants, labourers, slaves, merchants and common folk. I wish I could do it all at once but it is very much a matter of funds and time available. I also think that when I do make common folk I will be using T's so that a number of variants could be made at a much cheaper price than commissioning a new miniature each time.
As Barnaby has stated the old Foundry Egyptians by the Perry's are a bit smaller but I still use them with my Dark Fable miniatures as they make a nice mix. the BTD Egyptian family is standard 28mm. There were also a number of Egyptian civilian figures made by RavensForge for their Children of the Nile range - which included merchants, scribes, thieves, priests and some royals. The castings are not the highest quality but they are interesting - you might find some on Ebay.
Thanks for all the support with the Indiegogo - I'm hoping we unlock a lot of the stretch goal rewards and I will be posting pictures of the sets as Paul Sanderson paints them up.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-svtVEloa9c0/VEYfKYm14-I/AAAAAAAAAqE/ZOZ7tDO7TQk/s800/exotic%2520pets.jpg)
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Wonderful! The Missus will be sending you our contribution - we're going to go with the 'Lion of Egypt', Level Seven. I am really looking forward to these new figures; all of your offerings have been wonderful!
Did you know that Ancient Egypt was a particular favorite of Prof. M. A. R. Barker, the creator of Tekumel? He would have loved these, and back all of your campaigns to the hilt. I use your figures as all of the 'palace' folk in my Tekumel campaigns, along with all of the troopers, personalities, and non-humans from The Tekumel Project. You figures also work quite well alongside the Old Guard Tekumel figures that I've had for years - they look fine, next to each other.
I have a set of all of the RavensForge "Children of the Nile" line, and while they are all right, your figures look very, very nice - thank you for doing them!
And Sacred Crocodiles - you never have enough of them, really, to deal with those pesky adventurers! :)
- chirine
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Awesome! Congratulations! Ill be pitching in next payday for sure.
How do the figs scale with Crocodile Games' Aegyptus stuff?
Steve
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Awesome! Congratulations! Ill be pitching in next payday for sure.
How do the figs scale with Crocodile Games' Aegyptus stuff?
Steve
The 'Wargods' figures are 'heroic 28mm', and are usually a little taller and chunkier-looking then these figures; on the other hand, the 'Wargods' figures are supposed to be hale and hearty warriors in the prime of life, while the Dark Fable figures are 'palace people' and some are explictly intended to be much younger. Set next to each other, the Dark Fable figures are visually smaller then the 'Wargods' ones, but in normal game play where there's going to be some visual seperation between them I don't think it would be all that noticeable.
Interestingly, they look bigger then my vintage Tom Meier Ancient Egyptians, which are true 25mm figures. They also look slimmer then the Old Guard New Kingdom figures I have.
I will try and shoot some photos for you, and see if I can learn how to post them here for you...
- chirine
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That's great to hear you will be returning Chirine - hopefully the sets will all prove useful for your Tekumel setting. I recently viewed a few pictures on the Workbench in which you used some of the Dark Fable concubines as part of some notables entourage - travelling on large lizards? I was aware that Prof Barker did have an interest in Ancient Egypt - I'm sure with a world setting as rich and in depth as Tekumel he drew on a number of cultures and civilisations as influences for his own peoples and nations. I am very intrigued by some of the uniforms of the Tekumel warriors, at first they seem like Aztecs or Incas and the next they seem quite Asian. Ive been meaning to ask you for a small blurb about the Chirine's Workbench as I wanted to add your site and Mr Fielding's Tekumel project to the links page on the Dark Fable website. I think your games and the history of your campaign not to mention your close connection with Prof. M.A.R. Barker would be fascinating for many gamers to read.
Axabrax I will try to find two images I have which show the Dark Fable Egyptians compared to Foundry, Crocodile games and Black Tree design Egyptians. Most are quite compatible scale wise I think. But even within the Dark Fable range there are some slight variations between sculptors, But I try to keep this to a minimum by providing them with scale references. Just received some master castings in the post today and thought I would show a picture of the Senet Game set - always liked the idea of a game within a game which allowed players to gamble or even barter for information. I think David Soderquist really did a brilliant job on this little vignette. The girls are separate from their stools and could be used in other settings and the games table is made from three pieces.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9CsT-4gD3Ck/VFvyLYpUOKI/AAAAAAAAAtg/2o3I-YsmEXI/s400/senet%2520games.jpg)
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That's great to hear you will be returning Chirine - hopefully the sets will all prove useful for your Tekumel setting. I recently viewed a few pictures on the Workbench in which you used some of the Dark Fable concubines as part of some notables entourage - travelling on large lizards? I was aware that Prof Barker did have an interest in Ancient Egypt - I'm sure with a world setting as rich and in depth as Tekumel he drew on a number of cultures and civilisations as influences for his own peoples and nations. I am very intrigued by some of the uniforms of the Tekumel warriors, at first they seem like Aztecs or Incas and the next they seem quite Asian. Ive been meaning to ask you for a small blurb about the Chirine's Workbench as I wanted to add your site and Mr Fielding's Tekumel project to the links page on the Dark Fable website. I think your games and the history of your campaign not to mention your close connection with Prof. M.A.R. Barker would be fascinating for many gamers to read.
I will indeed return - The Missus, who is the smart one in the family, will be sending you our treasure as soon as she can - she's a little under the weather, right now.
Yes, all of the sets - both old and new! - are very useful for my Tekumel-based games. They are all of the 'palace people' that we've wanted to have for years. I started gaming with the Professor in 1976, and our games were always a blend of miniatures and role-playing. My job was to come up with the figures for all of us in the game - the 'custom of the house' was that every new player got a personalized 'personality figure' to represent themselves on the table as needed. We were always very short of 'civilian' figures - back in Ye Olden Dayes, very few ranges of both historical or fantasy figures had useful miniatures of servants, palanquins, heralds, major-domos, and all the other requisites of Gracious Living on Tekumel. We did a lot of what could be called 'skirmish gaming', where we would have to chase somebody through a palace or market place, dodging the servants and merchants; it got very exciting, very quickly, and were some of the very best game sessions we ever had.
The Professor drew quite a few inspirations from his time in Meso-America and South Asia, and also from his deep love of Ancient Egypt. He was an authority on the language, and was consulted by many excavators like Dr. Otto Schaden. He had a wonderful miniature New Kingdom army, complete with hand-carved statues of the gods and all of the correct inscriptions on everything. One of his favorite movies was "Cleopatra", with Claudette Colbert in the title role, nd he would have loved your figures - and I would have had to paint them up for him! :) Howard Fielding and The Tekumel Project are doing a wonderful job of bringing the Professor's vision of what his world looked like to life - his figures are very accurate, very well-done, and a joy to paint. So are yours!
Thank you for your kind words about my little blog! My hope is to be able to tell people about Tekumel, and all of the fun and excitement we had - and still do have - there. The game photos you saw that had the big dragons with howdahs were from last year's holiday game; I get two four-day weekends for the holidays, and I try to do something special. In this case, it was some of the old Bill Murray 'Sro' dragons carrying my miniature alter ego and his extended family on a safari - they wanted something different for a vacation, you see... :) I had a lot of fun painting up your figures as the family and the courtiers, and I thought that they looked very good in the role.
I will e-mail you some sort of blurb, and thank you for your wanting to link to the Workbench. I should have that for you later today, with a little luck.
Question for the forum moderators - may I post a link to my blog here? I don't want to step on any toes... :)
- chirine
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Axabrax I will try to find two images I have which show the Dark Fable Egyptians compared to Foundry, Crocodile games and Black Tree design Egyptians. Most are quite compatible scale wise I think. But even within the Dark Fable range there are some slight variations between sculptors, But I try to keep this to a minimum by providing them with scale references. Just received some master castings in the post today and thought I would show a picture of the Senet Game set - always liked the idea of a game within a game which allowed players to gamble or even barter for information. I think David Soderquist really did a brilliant job on this little vignette. The girls are separate from their stools and could be used in other settings and the games table is made from three pieces.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9CsT-4gD3Ck/VFvyLYpUOKI/AAAAAAAAAtg/2o3I-YsmEXI/s400/senet%2520games.jpg)
This is a really neat little scene! I can see getting several, one to paint up 'as is' and more for the parts - ladies in palanquins, furniture to be used in melees, you name it. I have a Senet game set, and maybe I should get it out for that 'game in a game' you're taking about! :)
I mean, you know what's about to happen: Two ladies of the court are deep in their game, when Our Heroes will burst through the terrace curtains being chased by the guards. Our Heroes will, being heroes after all, nimbly leap over the game table - but the guards, being the usual 'extras' from Central Casting, will trip over the board sending the game pieces flying. In the confusion, Our Heroes will have enough time to escape and save the Princess from The Dire Peril which she is no doubt in. (Add soundtrack to taste.) :)
- chirine
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I think it's fine to have some variation in scale between figures. It bothers me with modern ranges when the same rifles look totally different between figs, but height and size variations between people makes perfect sense.
I have to ask (as my girlfriend made the comment when I showed her your figs.) Was it really so common for Egyptian noblewomen to be bare chested? I know that the Minoans did so, but I didn't realize the Egyptians did too. Don't get me wrong, I am not a prude and I'm fine with the state of dress, I'm just curious about the historical reality. Dave's figs are my favorites in the range when it comes to artistic style.
Steve
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Received your blurb about the bench Chirine and will put up a link shortly. Im afraid I will have to shorten it a bit but will try to emphasize your connection with the Prof. and the long history of your Tekumel gaming. Im sure people will find it a fascinating site to visit.
Axabrax in answer to your girlfriend's question about the historicity of Egyptian noblewomen being bare-chested so often - first and foremost my range is a Pseudo-historical range and does not attempt to portray the Egyptians (male and female) in strictly historical terms. I have borrowed from Hollywood films, graphic novels and art, as well as archaeology when creating the character concepts. I do try to stick to a basic historical form though - so the clothing depicted would be largely accurate - both the Queen models in my range wear the long form fitting dress that came up to below the breasts - there would usually be one or two shoulder straps to hold the dress up. Egyptian women (Royal, noble and common) were not particular in how the straps were arranged - they could cover both breasts or one - or they could rest to the left or right of the breast leaving it exposed. The two straps might even be crossed in the middle leaving both breasts exposed (this arrangement is shown on the Egyptian Queen model by Kev Adams and the noblewoman by Jo Brumby), whereas the Nefertiti model by Dave Soderquist has a dress in which one of the breasts are covered. Brother Vinni also did an Egyptian lady figure holding some flowers who wears a long dress in which the single strap rests between her breasts, and another Egyptian woman with an ankh and dagger who has a breast covered by a single-strap. All of these are historically accurate. Egyptian ladies sometimes wore a form of shawl which covered the shoulders and breasts - I have chosen not to use these as I feel they make the character look much older - I might have a matronly figure made later on (perhaps the Queen-Mother or an Older High Priestess) and use the shawl on these models.
There are also a number of ladies and a sorceress who wear a long belted skirt which left the entire upper torso exposed. These too are historically accurate although they are much less common - they appear to be a style of dress that was adopted perhaps from a Nubian influence as Nubian women are shown wearing these garments. I have modified these long skirts by adding belts with ornately decorated clasps and flaps - these I have borrowed from many Hollywood films to give them a more Egyptian feel (the Nubian versions are quite plain with what appears to be hide or textile belts). You will not find any bikini tops or breast bands on any of my figures - despite them being used by Hollywood and graphic artists quite often - other manufacturers of Egyptian type females often have bikini tops too. I think this is a prudish reaction from the designers to make a figure which they feel are suitable for all age groups. I'm not really about that. I like the female form and I'm not squeamish about depicting it openly in my models. What I'm looking for are nicely sculpted figures which have the feel of another culture that may not have our taboos about dress (for women - nobody ever seems to care if men are bare-chested lol) and I try to do it in a tasteful and appealing way - there are no raunchy or overtly erotic female figures in my range. They are all depicted engaged in activities or poses that are suitable for adventure gaming/wargaming. I hope this answers the question or at least explains my reasons for making the figures the way I have. I am an archaeologist by profession (although my PhD and field of expertise is in ancient Greek and Italic arms and armour) but I am well aware of what is accurate and what is not - I do get lectured quite often on forums about the figures not being entirely historically accurate and strangely boobs seem to send some people into a frenzy :o One amusing comment I received pertained to the Female tomb robber (who is wearing a cloak and shenti (loincloth) but is bare-chested . . .
"Not that I necessarily object to hot chick minis ... but seriously why would a naked woman be robbing an egyptian tomb? Seriously when are small production minis producers going to stop the "boobies ... boobies ... boobies" stuff. If you want to just make porn minis ... make porn minis ... but leave that stuff out of your range if you want us to take you seriously. Ugh ... "
LOL hmmm time to take this person seriously ;)
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You're very welcome - feel free to edit me all you need to!
I can sympathize with you over the costumes; it never ceases to amaze me just how ill-informed many gamers are about ancient costume. I'm sort of surprised that none of the people who write into you complaining about how your figures are dressed (or un-dressed, as the case may be!) seem to have never done a simple Google search for 'Ancient Egyptian costume'; cloth was a big status symbol to the peoples of the Nile, and if you had clothes it usually meant you were a high-status person of wealth and position. Tomb-robbers robbed tombs because that's where the goods were - see also Willy Sutton's famous quote when asked by the police why he robbed banks: "Because that's where the money is."
Pharonic Egypt didn't have money in circulation; everything was done in kind, with cloth as a major 'big-ticket' item. It was hard to make, so the fashion designers of the day were pretty economical about using it. And, of course, Egypt is hot. Very hot. So folks living there, as their artwork shows, tended to try to stay as cool as they could - and since the Ancient Egyptians didn't seem to have any nudity taboos, we get a lot less cloth and a lot more skin.
Certainly, you have a lot of 'Hollywood Aegyptus' in your figures; this is, I think, as it should be. Our games take place in a timeless land along the Nile were we have handsome warriors, beautiful princesses, sneaky tomb-robbers, vile sorcerors, and at least one shambling mummy bent on revenge. (That'll teach you to disturb Pharoah's eternal rest, Mr. Adventurer!). You line is fun - let's enjoy it!
- chirine
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Hear hear for beautifully sculpted Hollywood-style figures! When you end up seeing see what I'm using them for, you'll get a kick I'm sure ;) Thanks for the info--very informative. I agree that the prudery re the nudity is silly.
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Well the second stretch goal reward has been reached :D Unlocking the Egyptian overseer sculpted by Kev Adams and we are nearing the next stretch goal the Hunting Dogs - these were made by Andy Pieper who has done an amazing job on the animal sets. Paul Sanderson also did a brilliant job painting up this cool little vignette of two Egyptian girls playing Senet, also known as the game of passing. The resin base can be found at Fenris Games - I had based my players on two 20mm square bases and the games table on a 25mm base which worked nicely. I do plan on doing a few other players in the future, males, guards, pharaoh, queen - perhaps even a skeleton as has been suggested.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yFLwxeWraM4/VGPeDTEYBuI/AAAAAAAAAt0/G5R5mV9kT2o/s800/senet%2520ptd.JPG)
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Great! ;)
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The third stretch goal (the hunting dog set) has been unlocked now - moving on to the leopard next! Paul Sanderson has also been doing a great job painting up sets from the Indiegogo campaign like the female guard archers and skeletal guards :D Also a look at one of the upcoming stretch goal rewards Ammut the devourer!
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E1UIkskdYD0/VGkUV40F_kI/AAAAAAAAAuE/PjNB33MMKB8/s800/Female_Archers.JPG)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HmZAJ34GNBM/VGpAXkjNHfI/AAAAAAAAAug/3Z0z28Iy1Uk/s800/Undead_Guards.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N9wwUezlGME/VGxdRR7slCI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/GiwxRkQzddc/s800/Ammut1.jpg)
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Brilliant! Any way your painter can give us some clues about what colors he uses for the skintones? Something that I will have to figure out eventually when I get the minis...
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Paul has a FB page called 'Here Be Goblins' where he shows off his most recent painting commissions. I'm sure if you ask him he will let you know what paints he used for skintones and other effects :) Here is a link to his page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Here-Be-Goblins/600233360069811?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
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Axabrax, I asked Paul about the skintones and he sent this reply:
As far as questions go, sure send them to the FB page but I use
Caucasian - GW Cadian Fleshtone + highlights with white
Egyptian - Foundry Near Eastern Triad with mixes of the paints to give me at least 6 layers
Nubian - Foundry African Triad (as above)
North African - Foundry North African (as above)
Sometimes I just mix them up a bit as well fro a bit of variation. Experimenting is half the fun sometimes
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Sweet! Thanks so much for the info. And it just so happens that I have all of those triads too. I'm guessing the difference is that he uses 6 layers and I use three. Wow--it makes a big difference!
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Well we just passed the $6k mark unlocking the sitting leopard stretch goal reward. This is a great model for any throne room scene. The leopard was sculpted by Andy Pieper and has a winged scarab collar. The next stretch goals to be unlocked are the female vampires by Brother Vinni. Blood drinking demons (not specifically vampires as we would know them) in Egyptian folklore and mythology are almost always seductive women who appear in desolate places, ruins or along the desert and would often try to lure men to their deaths :o The vampire set depicts a powerful vampiress drinking from a bowl of blood with two minions -
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-BW08ErhxqiY/VGkWWrQVjMI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/X5dSLTIvZDY/s800/Egyptian_Vampires.jpg)
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We broke $10,000!!! Yay! Ammut the Devourer is unlocked!!! :-*
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(https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1093407/files/20141213035223-mummy_20carry_1_.jpg?1418471543)
(https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1093410/files/20141213035314-mummy_20kidnap_1_.jpg?1418471594)
(https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1093413/files/20141213035409-waterline_20crocodile_1_.jpg?1418471649)
(https://images.indiegogo.com/file_attachments/1093415/files/20141213035500-pharaoh_27s_20favourite_1_.jpg?1418471700)
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Oh man--awesome! Not part of the kickstarter though right?
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No they are in it...add ons.
Which I think I had stated, but I think I messed it up with some bad editing technique later. :-(
Check out Update 12, here:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/egyptian-miniatures-iv/x/1587080#activity