Khurasan releases The Great Swamp Lizard

[Khurasan Miniatures]

We are very pleased to release our latest 15mm fantasy model -- the Great Swamp Lizard!  This towering beast can eat his way straight through entire enemy armies ... or can even attempt to gobble up the romantic interest of huge island-bound apes (but that's a risky proposition, even for him).  It's a salute to the old-style portrayal of a great carnivorous dinosaur -- to many people, this is still the preferred portrayal of T. rex.

The kit is a mixture of resin and pewter, and parts are provided so that he can have his mouth open or closed.  (I prefer the mouth closed myself and even considered having him sculpted scratching his head.)  It's meant to be really huge in 15mm, so it's large enough to be quite a threat in 28mm scale as well.

It's available now, in our popular Salamen fantasy range:
http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/15mmfantasy.html

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

A slight hijack of this thread, but a question about future releases.
You have a great range of Tolkienesque Great Enemy but don't yet have anyone they can fight.  Are we going to see Tolkien elves?  Most fantasy elves are in the GW mould.  I do like the Battle Valor elvians, but even these aren't right for Middle Earth elves.  There are plenty of good dwarf lines out there, but if you are going to do elves you would also need to do dwarves

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Not really, as in the First Age the Elves mostly went it alone.

I'd like to make a range of elves for the first age but it's rather difficult coming up with ideas for what they'd look like.  The elves in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring (the film) are Second Age of course.

One big advantage is that Luke Ueda-Sarson's lists are still on the web.  He carefully evaluated the Silmarillion and assigned troop types to all the armies.  Even if you don't agree with his conclusions about troop classification, he gives his rationale, and backs it up.  So I know what to make, I just don't know for sure how to make it.

[Hobgoblin]

I'd like to make a range of elves for the first age but it's rather difficult coming up with ideas for what they'd look like.  The elves in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring (the film) are Second Age of course.

One of the many brilliant things about your Great Enemy range is that they don't look like the film renditions. Your orcs and trolls are much more interesting for it.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

The main difference between First Age and later ages is far fewer Noldor.  Military technology seems relatively static in that mail is the main armour type in the first and third ages (if you ignore the movies).  This possibly makes sense - the elves are long-lived and (one presumes) slow to reproduce.  As much as they are mighty in their knowledge, they are probably slow to develop new ideas.
I suppose the biggest issue is "Is there a market for this?" 
As far as "go it alone" for the elves, we have distinctly different troops for most Noldor kingdoms, Gondolin, the Sindar of Doriath and the Green Elves; then there are the three houses of men - all quite different; then the houses of Bor and Ulfang.  And in the big battles we have dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod as allies - possibly also with differences in helmets.
Most 1st age elves I think would be good for the 3rd. 

I know it's your business so I would never presume to tell you what to do.  I just wish.................................

[DivisMal]

Well, I would also be interested in tolkienesque elves and agree, that there is hardly anything resembling them. For the moment I prefer the old 15mm Grenadier line, sold for instance by Mirliton. They are old, but still very good.

A 15mm line not-LotR line would definitely be something Id love to have, but please make it different from the movies!

PS I just have placed an order, but this lizard is awesome...damn!

[Vermis]

It's a salute to the old-style portrayal of a great carnivorous dinosaur -- to many people, this is still the preferred portrayal of T. rex.

Three fingers? Preferred portrayal if you didn't like all the cotton-pickin' bone-diggin' smart-alecs upsettin' the apple cart since 19-aught-5, consarn it.

As a retro opponent for giant apes - very nice. I like it a lot. As a sop to people who can't understand why palaeontologists don't hang up their rock hammers whenever Hollywood releases a monster flick - not so much.

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Sorry, but I'm afraid you're assigning to me a responsibility I simply don't have. It's just a wargaming piece that's a salute to an iconic movie monster. :-)

And it's not as if I don't already make a PC (paleontologically correct) T. rex....

[Conquistador]

Not really, as in the First Age the Elves mostly went it alone.

I'd like to make a range of elves for the first age but it's rather difficult coming up with ideas for what they'd look like.  The elves in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring (the film) are Second Age of course.

One big advantage is that Luke Ueda-Sarson's lists are still on the web.  He carefully evaluated the Silmarillion and assigned troop types to all the armies.  Even if you don't agree with his conclusions about troop classification, he gives his rationale, and backs it up.  So I know what to make, I just don't know for sure how to make it.

Link to these lists, please!

[DivisMal]

http://lukeuedasarson.com/MiddleEarthintro.html

[Khurasan Miniatures]

You'll note that my Great Enemy range is made based on the Angband list.

http://lukeuedasarson.com/Angband.html

So we have swarms of orc fighters, some archers, trolls, and then generals who can be balrogs, dragons, or orcs.  If the C-in-C is an orc, he can have a more powerful bodyguard (the great orcs I had made).

He does not have Morgoth leading armies, and technically that's true, so my Morgoth figure can double as Sauron, Morgoth's lieutenant (who you may have heard of), who has a sword instead of a hammer and a helmet with a wolf's face, as Sauron was Lord of Werewolves in the first age.

But he can also be used as Morgoth himself, as Morgoth does indded make an appearance and fight in the book, slaying Fingolfin in hand to hand combat after being wounded by that great hero.

The only thing I had made that is not covered in the LuS list is the Beasts of Angband set -- there are "beasts of Angband" or "beasts of Morgoth" mentioned several times in the Silmarillion, particularly at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, when they scurry back into Angband in dismay upon Glaurung being wounded.  I chose to interpret them as being giant scorpions, although there's no evidence at all for what they actually were.

(I admire his research and as I say I used it as a basis for making the range, but the troop classifications of the armies would make both the Noldor and the Angband lists pretty weak when facing your average historical force in DBx.)