Aventine or Armorum & Aquila? Advice required!

[Derzhinski]

Hello

I am toying with the idea of collecting a Sassanian army for gaming with To the Strongest. It appeals me because it is different at what I am used to play -infantry armies, mostly-.

There are two manufacturers whose style appeals to me: Aventine Miniatures and Armorum & Aquila. I have some Roman Auxilia units from Aventine. I am aware of the quality of the sculpts and of the casting. My first instinct is to be consistent and use Aventine also for the Sassanians. However, I remembered that A&A also had Sassanians, and, actually, I had a couple of Elefants that a friend of mine gave as present some years ago. I like the general sculpt used in those models, but as they were already painted I don't know how well casted are A&A miniatures, neither if they would look weird used together with Aventine.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.
Antonio

[Antonio J Carrasco]

I have both. I prefer Aventine for the quality of the cast, but A&A is not bad and if you got its army deals is not too expensive. Wish someone decides to make Sassanians or Parthians in plastic!

[Emporium]

Hi, it shouldn't be an issue to mix minis from A&A and aventine since the sculptor is the same :-).

I like both of them (i have middle imperial romans from A&A and sassanians from aventine) but to me the best is Aventine: the range is bigger and has a lot of character....the king on elephant is a must for evry sassanian general worth his salt ;-)

[jcspqr]

I use them both, but have started using all Aventine horses as their horses are better proportioned and they have 1/2 barded.  That said, I freely intermix the riders.

Jim

[delbruck]

I believe the A&A Sassanids were Adam's first sculpts. I think on balance the Aventine are superior, although many of the A&A's have a certain charm.

[aphillathehun]

I have both and recommend both.  I believe, (seem to recall? don't ask me how old I am....) that the A&A Sassanids are earlier period Sassanid (first 200 years) and the Aventine sculpts are later period Sassanid (later 200 years), but I could be wrong about that.   A nice thing about the Aventine sculpts is that you can use the eastern Sassanids as Sassanids and also as Central Asians.

[rivers3162]

I have both A&A and Aventine Middle Imperial Romans and some of A&A's Palmyrans and they are very nice indeed. Keith at Aventine is very good to deal with as is Steve of A&A - Steve has been really good at sorting out specific figures I wanted, will sell half packs etc so I really can't speak highly enough of him.

[Smithy]

Hi delbruck, and everyone else in the thread. Keith thought I could help a little here. I did sculpt both ranges, in fact the A&A range was my first ever 28mm range (the first 'A' stands for Adam,my wife having a say in the name of the company) It started as an effort to produce Sasanians to take on my Foundry Late Romans. Later it developed into a company so some of the sculpts are much older than others. They represent Sassanians of the 3rd-4th century. When I made them there wasn't as much info as now, especially in the dating of helmets, so you will find some later style helmets in the range.
The bulk of the sculpts for Aventine are later and are intended to take on our 6th-7th cent. Byzantines planned for later this year. However, we did produce some Parthians so I thought it a good idea to make earlier style 'Sasanian' heads for these. There is a considerable overlap in the two ranges and Aventines' separate heads just make them even more compatible. With so much literature available now it is rather obvious that many Parthian lords fought for the Sasanians and many Sasanians rebelled against the King of Kings so having a good mixture for the early period is probably accurate.
As for the sculpts you'll have to make up your own minds, never ask an artist what his best work was, there's only one answer to that.
Hope this helps. Adam

[aphillathehun]

Byzantines planned for later this year.  Adam

Whennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Justinian's Byzantines? Please, say yes!

We truly live in the Golden Age of miniature gaming!

[Aventine]

We will finish what we have said we would do first then it is Justinian to Heraclian Byzantines as soon as possible.

Seleucid infantry and cavalry starting week after next with first figures due within 3 weeks of that I hope.

Very difficult to give dates as it just never works out as you think.

Cheers
Keith

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Don't worry, Keith... To know that they are in the pipeline are good news enough.

[Richard in Sachsen]

Wow, thank you Keith and Adam!

I was just perusing different manufacturers for a Justinian/Sassanid project as my wife bought me Prokopios for my birthday. It's a good thing I haven't purchased anything yet. That's now all on hold as of this moment, I will certainly wait for that line to arrive.

And thanks to Derzhinsky for posting this very good question. Since my Huns are for the most part Aventine with some used Foundry and GB thrown in, I have been leaning towards an all Aventine Sassinid project... I'm just so impressed by their Hun sculpts. So thanks for bringing this up, as I will also consider some of Adam's comments about A&A as well.