The adventures of Conan the Cimmerian in 1/72

[Philotep]

Hello everyone!
The subtitle of this board says "Conan, Hyperborea, Tolkien's Middle-Earth, WHFB, Mordheim, Songs of Blades and Heroes, Warmachine etc. ", so let's start with Conan.

At the eve of a new raid, Conan is gathering a few warriors.


If 1/72 soft plastic figures exist since the end of the 50s, we had to wait until 2007 to see the first Fantasy sets appearing on the market. The first 6 sets were made by Caesar, and represented Dwarves, Elves, Undead, Adventurers, Goblins and Orcs. The figure I chose for Conan comes from the Adventurers set. The figure is well proportioned, and rather easy to paint.



Another manufacturer, Dark Alliance, begun to sell Fantasy sets in 2009. Their catalog is still growing and contains nowadays more than 50 references. Among these sets, Dark Alliance produced 2 sets of Cimmerians on foot. I've painted a few of them as a Cimmerian warband lead by Conan.







The figures are very detailed, well sculpted, but they mold lines are rather big and not that easy to remove. Nevertheless, I'm pleased with the result 

When mixing the figures from both manufacturers, we can see that Conan is smaller than the other Cimmerians, which is a bit unexpected. So let's say that Conan is still young, preparing his men for one of his first raids. In a future post, we will see that an older Conan can be represented with a larger Dark Alliance figure.

Hope you like them

More explanations and pictures here: https://philotepsfigures.blogspot.com/2023/07/conan-cimmerian-and-other-barbarians.html

[Sunjester]

Nice work, I especially like the Conan figure. I am envious of the range and quality of 1/72 fantasy stuff available in recent years. I keep thinking of giving them a go, but when I look at my 28mm metal collection (I've been collecting since the late 1970s)I shudder at the thought of replacing all that lot with plastic.

I have used some of the excellent plastics available for assorted monsters in my 28mm fantasy game, but that's as far as i have gone.

[OSHIROmodels]

Great stuff 

[MysteryMachine]

That's an awesome barbarian warband! And I love the snowy backdrop - very evocative photography.

I've been noticing that the (slightly older) Caesar figures are a tiny bit smaller than the Dark Alliance minis, but I think your use of the (excellent) Caesar figure as the barbarian in the early part of his adventures is very good!

It's great to see all the new entries on your blog too.

[Elk101]

Lovely work.

[Hobgoblin]

Spectacular!

[Philotep]

Thank you all for watching and for your comments!

Nice work, I especially like the Conan figure. I am envious of the range and quality of 1/72 fantasy stuff available in recent years. I keep thinking of giving them a go, but when I look at my 28mm metal collection (I've been collecting since the late 1970s)I shudder at the thought of replacing all that lot with plastic.

I have used some of the excellent plastics available for assorted monsters in my 28mm fantasy game, but that's as far as i have gone.

I see what you mean, I have a small collection of 25/28/32+mm metal figures too (since the beginning of the 80s), I would not replace them by 1/72 plastic figures. The small ones are used for DBA/L'art de la guerre/HoTT, while the bigger ones are gathered in armies for Warhammer/KoW/Oathmark (that I am currently reading). And yes, some of the 1/72 monsters are perfect in 28mm games - I have painted some Dark Alliance trolls for my Orcs army, of course.

It's great to see all the new entries on your blog too.

Thank you for scanning the blog, but it means that you already know what will come in the next topic

[blacksmith]

...
I've been noticing that the (slightly older) Caesar figures are a tiny bit smaller than the Dark Alliance minis, but I think your use of the (excellent) Caesar figure as the barbarian in the early part of his adventures is very good!
...

That Barbarian is even small among the rest of the adventurers from the same box and it is a shame as it is a fantastic miniature, but small.

The flesh of those barbarians are really well executed Phil, congrats.

[102-year-old-man]

really amazing paint work and beautiful figurines by the manufacturer Dark Alliance!

1/72 fantasy is highly underestimated 

[Daeothar]

Not my scale at all (except for Gaslands somewhat I guess?), but you've done some great things there

I have several of the Dark Alliance sets (survivors and stalkers for Gaslands) and I know what a trouble those soft figures and their mouldlines can pose when prepping them.

Great work; please keep it up!

[RSDean]

Nice work, I especially like the Conan figure. I am envious of the range and quality of 1/72 fantasy stuff available in recent years. I keep thinking of giving them a go, but when I look at my 28mm metal collection (I've been collecting since the late 1970s)I shudder at the thought of replacing all that lot with plastic.

So, don’t replace entirely.  Find a new project that would use the figures…in my case, I started the 1/72 fantasy stuff to build something more portable that could be taken to club meetings or conventions as a contingency game.

[verd]

Nice work on those