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Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: beefcake on January 22, 2019, 11:00:02 AM

Title: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 22, 2019, 11:00:02 AM
I have a bunch of grenadier barbarians, with more coming in the post. I was wondering what other minis out there are the best fit for the old grenadier barbarians, now with mirliton or em4. I have some old asgard ones and a couple of frostgrave ones look good too but what else?
Thanks.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Griefbringer on January 22, 2019, 01:07:16 PM
What kind of options are you looking for? The original Copplestone Grenadier series had over 40 different barbarians, so there is quite some variety to begin with.

I think logical place to start with is the Copplestone Castings, since these are from the same sculptor. This Barbarian Queen should provide a bit of gender diversity:

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=256

The Barbarica range has plenty of figures with similar style, though being in 15 mm is rather problematic. However, these two giants are around 40 mm tall, so useful with 28 mm barbarians:

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=247
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=245

The cavemen of the lost worlds are a bit slimmer than the Grenadier barbarians, but otherwise stylistically very similar. They mostly have separate weapons, so you can replace the clubs and spears with axes etc. from bits box:

http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=53
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=149
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=195
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=233

As for Frostgrave figures, a lot of the metal ones were sculpted by Mark Copplestone. To go with barbarians, I think I would consider these:

http://northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=7463
http://northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=12691
http://northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=7462

As for other sculptors, Kev White has sculpted a lot of humans with big weapons and skimpy clothes in his Hasslefree range:

https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?category=fantasy-%26%0D%0Asteampunk~fantasy-humans




Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 22, 2019, 06:53:32 PM
Thanks for the comprehensive response.
I have most of the grenadier ones and don't really want to double. Copplestone are a definite possibility. I'll probably steer clear of hfminis, due to recent bad processing of orders.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Mr.J on January 22, 2019, 11:03:39 PM
As suggested, definitely check out the Frostgrave barbarians. They’re a very good match, I have both in my collection.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: James Holloway on January 23, 2019, 07:25:37 AM
Frostgrave Barbarians thirded. One or two nice additions to the range in the recent set of models released for Maze of Malcor, as well.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 07:28:45 AM
I'll stick with the metals for FG :) not a plastic person.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Griefbringer on January 23, 2019, 09:04:56 AM
The plastic Frostgrave barbarians are from some other sculptor than Mark Copplestone. Furthermore, their clothing style is rather different, being well-clad for winter conditions rather than jumping around in a loin cloth and furry boots. However, the metal barbarians are from Copplestone and a bit more variable in dress, so you might want to double-check them (other than the ones that I listed).

Even if you are not a plastic person, I would recommend maybe picking a pack of these rather inexpensive plastic shields if you are ordering from Em4 again. In proportions and style they are very close to the moulded-on metal shields on the Grenadier barbarians, and issuing these to models coming from other ranges (like the Copplestone cavemen) would help to tie them visually together.

https://em4miniatures.com/collections/plastic-fantasy-miniatures/products/plastic-shields-x-50
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: v_lazy_dragon on January 23, 2019, 09:20:39 AM
I seem to recall the Wargames foundry Ancient germans are sculpted by Mark C - and they are suitably barbarous, although with trousers rather than fuzzy loin clothes and proto-Ugg boots...
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: HerbyF on January 23, 2019, 09:32:12 AM
I think some of the Foundry Ancient Germans are naked or in furs.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 10:55:24 AM
Yeah, the plastics are definitely a different style altogether. I have the Metal ones (and the plastics) already so will add them in. I completely forgot about them. I'll have a look at the foundry ones. I also have a German Warlord from Warlord games. He fits rather nicely as well.
I also have 2 packs of those shields, too cheap to pass up!
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Griefbringer on January 23, 2019, 11:06:11 AM
I was not aware that the Foundry ancient Germans were sculpted by Copplestone - thanks for pointing out. This is actually confirmed on the Foundry website, though bizarrely enough on the section for Republican Romans. In any case, there seems to be two packs of very scantily clad savage warriors in this range. Looks like most of the Germans have open hands for spears, so weapon swaps for axes or swords should be straightforward.

Speaking of Foundry, they also have a couple of packs of scantily clad Viking berserkers in the range, though they look like they have been sculpted by somebody else than Copplestone.

Also, for original Grenadier Barbarians, there were couple of packs sculpted by Nick Lund some years before the Copplestone 1400-series started. A bit different in sculpting style, but possibly an inspiration for the Copplestone series. Mirliton might have some of these in their range.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: fitterpete on January 23, 2019, 12:58:53 PM
I went through this Odyssey myself about 3 years ago. As already suggested the Copplestone cavemen are a good match and the Frostgrave metal barbarian characters. Though I never got any of those,  too expensive and usually only one one the pack of 2 you can actually use. Another for skirmishes is the Lucid Eye cromagnons.And take a good look thru the Foundry vikings there are probably a dozen or so figures in there.      I can tell you a couple donts. The foundry barbarians will look like little kids next to them. There are only about 3 figures in the Reaper line that actually work even though you'll think they do looking at the store pics. And the Black Tree line of fantasy barbarians doesn't work either even though they look like they do.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 07:12:43 PM
Thanks. Good points to know. I'll look at the Vikings and see what fits.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: sir_shvantselot on January 23, 2019, 07:30:08 PM
Would be great to see some Copplestone Barbarians next to other minis to get an idea of size...
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Orctrader on January 23, 2019, 07:42:03 PM
Black Tree Design Barbarians?

I like them.  They seem often over looked, maybe because of age of the range.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: blacksmith on January 23, 2019, 08:00:47 PM
Bronze Age miniatures has some barbarian similar to Copplestone's and as big as them.
http://bronzeagemin.com/fantasy/ (http://bronzeagemin.com/fantasy/)
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 08:55:59 PM
Would be great to see some Copplestone Barbarians next to other minis to get an idea of size...
Oh yeah, sorry I was going to do that in my other thread. They scale pretty well against the more recent things. I'll see if I can get a picture today against some GW stuff. Mind you I only have mostly old GW stuff.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 09:11:44 PM
Here you go.

(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4881/31912610397_8b0a2d9a9a_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/QC1tfD) (https://flic.kr/p/QC1tfD) by Kieran Me (https://www.flickr.com/photos/151134189@N02/), on Flickr
Left to right, GW, Grenadier barbarian, Black Tree, Grenadier, Frostgrave, Grenadier, Grenadier, GW
The Grenadier have integral bases which raise them up but they are also on thinner Renedra bases which kind of evens them up with the black slotta bases.

Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: The Dozing Dragon on January 23, 2019, 09:20:14 PM
The Foundry Copplestone Germans are unfortunately a lot smaller than the Grenadier ones. I picked up a couple of mounted ones to check.  :(
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 23, 2019, 09:45:15 PM
The Foundry Copplestone Germans are unfortunately a lot smaller than the Grenadier ones. I picked up a couple of mounted ones to check.  :(
That's a pity

Black Tree Design Barbarians?

I like them.  They seem often over looked, maybe because of age of the range.
Those look quite good. I imagine they are a similar height to the rest of their range which seems pretty spot on.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: DivisMal on January 23, 2019, 09:57:11 PM
Hello all!

Long time Copplestone fan here. I started collecting his barbarians around 25 years ago, and own every single one that was released when they were still sold by Grenadier.

From my experience I wholeheartedly recommend

- Bronze Age Miniatures, they have some lovely and very dynamic sculpts in the style of Ralph Bakshi, - Rackham‘s Confrontation Celts are very similar in style, although the older sculpts are imo far superior to the later ones. Here you get all kind of giants, centaurs, very nice warrior maidens and heroes. They do look a bit more cartoonish, though. The drunes from the same manufacturer are perfect Slaine style villains.
- Hasslefree has some barbarians that do fit in style. Mostly characters, though.
- The Conan Kickstarter by Monolith also has a lot of models suitable for Copplestone.

And of course the already mentioned Frostgrave and Foundry models get a thumbs up, too.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Rotorcraft on January 24, 2019, 01:24:04 AM
Barbarians from Asgard Miniatures, some of the best ranges ever created IMHO.

https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/barbarians-from-asgard

Another Master Copplestone fan here.

Regards.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 24, 2019, 01:30:19 AM
Thanks but as said in the first post I have some Asgard ones. I also buy their orcs from Vikingforge, some of the best orc/goblins out to date I think.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Orctrader on January 24, 2019, 08:51:30 PM
Black Tree Design
Those look quite good. I imagine they are a similar height to the rest of their range which seems pretty spot on.

They are the old Harlequin range.  Only reason I don't have any Barbarians (yet) is I had lots of Celtos.  I do have some figures though from the Fantasy range and they are spot on for my Copplestone\EM4\Grenadier figures.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: sir_shvantselot on January 24, 2019, 10:17:48 PM
Thanks for the size comparison. I’ve been wondering about the Copplestone barbarians as foot soldiers to go with chaos marauder horse, the modern plastic ones. But they’re probably a bit on the slim side.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: beefcake on January 25, 2019, 08:19:52 AM
They are the old Harlequin range.  Only reason I don't have any Barbarians (yet) is I had lots of Celtos.  I do have some figures though from the Fantasy range and they are spot on for my Copplestone\EM4\Grenadier figures.

Hope that helps.
I does, thanks. Not all are of a similar style but a good bunch are.

Thanks for the size comparison. I’ve been wondering about the Copplestone barbarians as foot soldiers to go with chaos marauder horse, the modern plastic ones. But they’re probably a bit on the slim side.
I think they would have suited some twenty years ago into chaos but now these muscle bound barbarians aren't muscly enough.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: area23 on January 25, 2019, 10:27:12 AM
Foundry germans are smaller than most Grenadier barbarians, but so are the Frostgrave ones (also check the new metal female warriors). Yet, being the same style some miniatures fit perfectly together. Also because some Grenadier barbarians are slimmer than others.
Some of the Foundry vikings, most notably the naked berserkers, were based on Copplestone dollies with new heads by Mark Simms. I use them together in different units. Foundry are normal armed villagers and levies while the Barbarians are the warrior elite.

Warlord also has ancient germans and the metal ones are by Steve Saleh and very nice. The characters are nice. Saleh also has his own range, Lucid Eye, with cavemen, cro-magnons and amazons that may fit. They are on the biiger side though.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: Griefbringer on January 25, 2019, 10:44:49 AM
I’ve been wondering about the Copplestone barbarians as foot soldiers to go with chaos marauder horse, the modern plastic ones. But they’re probably a bit on the slim side.

I haven't seen the new plastic marauder horse live in person, so cannot comment on the compatibility, but I would assume that they are on the big side.

However, I have been thinking of doing a chaos-style force centered around the old Copplestone and Grenadier models. The barbarians would make for great marauders, and they also have cavalry options (the horses from the 1400-series tend to be a bit on the small side, though) and an ogre-sized dude, while the not-so-originally named "Evil foot knights" (available from Mirliton) would make for impressive chaos forces. I have also got a nice giant and three minotaurs from another Grenadier series from the same era, and two big Reaper-series werewolves for additional monsters (from the Bones-series, no idea how that material paints up).

I also have somewhere a pile of Blade Maidens from the old Chronopia Sons of Kronos range, sculpted by Kev White. These are much more slender than the rest of Chronopia range, and will hopefully look decent on their own unit next to Copplestone barbarians, though I would not try mixing the two in the same unit. I don't think anybody has been manufacturing these for a long time, though.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: blacksmith on January 25, 2019, 09:07:42 PM
Something like this? That's my small army for Dragont Rampant that I'd be upgrading for the incoming SAGA Fantasy version
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oe_ImBFIPgY/WPPEWvkKxeI/AAAAAAAAEwo/nS0YCd9kZ1gEzQ5qXWx9PKqHg-7RZLgRQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6015_Fotor.jpg)
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: sir_shvantselot on January 26, 2019, 10:31:01 PM
Something like this? That's my small army for Dragont Rampant that I'd be upgrading for the incoming SAGA Fantasy version
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oe_ImBFIPgY/WPPEWvkKxeI/AAAAAAAAEwo/nS0YCd9kZ1gEzQ5qXWx9PKqHg-7RZLgRQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6015_Fotor.jpg)

Fantastic.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: ZeroTwentythree on January 27, 2019, 07:54:46 AM
A bit of a longshot, but if you can find some old Chronopia Sons of Kronos miniatures, some of them make pretty good large sized barbarians.

Others have already commented on Foundry, Black Tree, and Celtos. Depenting on your vision of "barbarian" and how stuck you are on consistent scale (I'm OK with a little variation) I think those are all good suggestions.

Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: ZeroTwentythree on January 27, 2019, 07:59:24 AM
And if you're OK with Foundry Ancient Germans, it's worth looking into Crusader Miniatures as well. I think Mark Sims has a similar style to Copplestone. I enjoy painting figures from both of them because of their clean, simple sculpting styles.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: MiniPigs on January 12, 2022, 08:13:07 PM
Anyone ever compare these Foundry retro barbarians with the Grenadier Barbarians?

http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/search?q=barbarian&updated-max=2016-06-28T23:37:00%2B01:00&max-results=20&start=2&by-date=false

Are the Celtos Celts similar in scale to the Grenadier barbarians?
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: The Gray Ghost on January 13, 2022, 03:00:43 PM

Are the Celtos Celts similar in scale to the Grenadier barbarians?
I use both of them together with the Copplestones being just a tad bit beefier.
Title: Re: Best fit for grenadier barbarians.
Post by: MiniPigs on January 14, 2022, 02:21:25 AM
I use both of them together with the Copplestones being just a tad bit beefier.
Thank you.

There are also Lucid Eye miniatures which I think are on the taller side:

Death dealers:

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/frazetta-death-dealer

 Barbarians from:

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/dungeon-adventurer-barbarian

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/dungeon-adventurer-half-orc

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/the-wolf-mother

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/cramh-king-of-the-core

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/neanderthal-boss-bugnag

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/encounter-3-zachory

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/lalea-the-orphan

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/the-mortals-2

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/the-mortals-1

Even some of the Elf packs seem like they could be Barbarians in their Sunday best or working for a local King.

https://www.lucideyepublications.com/product-page/the-companions-1

What would pas as good spears for Barbarians and who sells a pack of those?