Museum miniatures 15mm norman "Z" - a small review

[Mammoth miniatures]

I recently picked up a few packs of Museum miniatures "Z" range normans, mostly to use as scale reference when sculpting 15mm scenery items, but also because i like little dudes in armour.

 First things first the website does not do their Z range justice - The images, showing the 3D renders (took me a long time to realise Z was likely a reference to Zbrush.) rather than cast figures. whilst this is a great way to see the details of the figure, it doesn't sell the sculpts very well. In fact I wasn't actually sure what would arrive in the post - I thought perhaps I would just get the 3D prints, but was happy to receive proper metal minis.
Evidently the sculptor understands very well the need to manipulate formal anatomy to to accommodate the conventions of scale, as the cast figures look very natural and realistic in ways the massively scaled up renders do not. Certain things that seem odd at a large scale like the manner in which the mail is modelled or the way a scabbard rests against the leg look very realistic at 15mm size and make for a less fiddly painting experience.





The figures themselves are lovely - slight and realistic without being overly skinny, and incredibly cleanly cast - A brief scraping with the back of a scalpel blade was all that was needed to get them ready for painting. The surface of the casts was smooth without slag or any pitting. the details, whilst very fine, are crisp and take paint very well. The minis are a joy to paint.

I purchased a norman command pack, some dismounted knights, and some axe wielding saxon types. Once I have finished these I will absolutely buy more.

For basing I simply punched out some 13mm disks of 0.5mm copper and superglued the minis to these, as that lets them stand well without adding any height to the figure. The banner is watercolour paper.

[Keeper Nilbog]

Thanks for the review, I've been looking at these and not made the jump due to the presentation on the website (a common issue for me).

I find myself moving back to 15/18mm more and more at time progresses.

If I could ask one thing, are these models 15's or more 18's in size (I prefer 18's myself, but am open to either).

[Mammoth miniatures]

Thanks for the review, I've been looking at these and not made the jump due to the presentation on the website (a common issue for me).

I find myself moving back to 15/18mm more and more at time progresses.

If I could ask one thing, are these models 15's or more 18's in size (I prefer 18's myself, but am open to either).

Common consensus seems to be that they're closer to 18mm but I'd argue they are slight enough of frame to sit comfortably next to either a true 15 or a true 18mm figure on the tabletop.

I'm not a huge 15mm collector and all I have to hand for comparison are some copplestone barbarians, which are a mm or so taller than these.

[Keeper Nilbog]

I tend to use Wiglaf and Copplestone/Maceface miniatures at present, so that sounds good.

Thanks for the reply - I might be looking at a purchase in the near future

[madaxeman]

I’ve got some of the Museum Norman’s, and some Wiglaf figures too and I’d say the Wiglaf are very markedly larger

I’ll see if I can take and upload a comparison photo for you later today

[Vis Bellica]

I have a whole army's worth of the Museum "Z" range Normans and can confirm that they are lovely figures.

https://www.vislardica.com/blog/2023/5/20/last-of-the-norman-milites



Size-wise, I use them in conjunction with a couple of other figure ranges (mostly from Khurasan) without any sizing problem.

[madaxeman]

I’ve got some of the Museum Norman’s, and some Wiglaf figures too and I’d say the Wiglaf are very markedly larger

I’ll see if I can take and upload a comparison photo for you later today

I personally felt that these two ranges wouldn't really combine on the same base, on the basis of both style of sculpting and the difference in size, with Wiglaf being a lot bigger all round.

Weirdly though, some of the Museum Saxon range are noticably bigger than others in the same range too.



These are all Museum figures from the same Saxon range !

[Rick]

I do like the Wiglaf mini's - they look to have great poses and styling, just the right height to match up with Copplestone/Maceface if I want to switch from Lion Rampant to Dragon Rampant, but I'm more interested in the Anglo-Saxons of 200-300 years later - the age of Aelfred the Great or Harold Godwinson, not Penda. I think the style of armour for these figures is just a bit too early for what I'm after - I'll take a good look at the Museum Z range and, maybe, the Lancashire games 18mm Dark Ages figures I think.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Weirdly though, some of the Museum Saxon range are noticably bigger than others in the same range too.

I noticed with the few sets I bought that the scale was certainly sliding up and down. My theory is that whatever slicing software the initial prints were put into lacks a measure function, so when the STL was imported for preparation the printer had to manually scale them according to each other, and different print runs lead to minor differences in scale. OR they were all scaled to a single "default" figure at something like "15mm to x point" but X point would be variable according to pose (top of the helmet/eyeline etc) which causes a standing figure and a crouching figure to be the same height. honestly if you forget to scale the initial sculpt correctly in your CAD of choice (zbrush for example doesn't give that option in the basic "cheaper" version, and blender probably has a button that does is somewhere in the madness of its UI) then it's a real faff to scale things in certain slicers.

OR it was simply the sculptor correcting later figures for shrinkage and slightly overdoing it. Who knows - they look fine at tabletop distances and stand up to a good glance without looking odd.

[Rick]

Or, maybe, some of the figures are from the older Anglo Saxon ranges and they haven't got round to replacing every pack with the new Z sculpts yet?

[Mammoth miniatures]

Or, maybe, some of the figures are from the older Anglo Saxon ranges and they haven't got round to replacing every pack with the new Z sculpts yet?

Everything I purchased was from the Z range and the scale hiccups were still present from pack to pack. again it's not a major issue given that we're talking about half a mm viewed from 3 feet away most of the time.