I may very well represent a very small niche interest group but I would love to see a 28mm kit for the knights of the John Boorman 1981 Excalibur film. They have such a wondeful aesthetic, they are of course incredibly ahistorical, but that was part of the fun, and all these years later I don't think they really have been matched onscreen. Anyways the majority of the fighting and such was on the ground so the foot knight kit would be able to cover a lot of ground. I think you could have one sprue dedicated to torso and legs that would work for all the factions and then perhaps a Camelot sprue with their particular heads and helmets and style of weapons. You could also do a sprue of darker style armor helmets and accessories that would represent the Uther era and the Mordred faction of fallen knights.
I saw on Atlantic Digital that you already had that very nice Francis I of France sculpt that taps into sort of what I would like to see. I know some people will say there is no shortage of plastic knight miniatures out there but I don't think there is anything that really that taps into that walking tank imagery from the movie. Also I don't think there is much of an IP issue for such an old movie that was using historical armor for its design cues anyways.
I just did some quick googling of that movie, and yeah holy shit that's some sick looking armor. I accidentally did some knights in a similar "walking tank" style by mixing together perry miniatures' war of the roses knights and victrix's fantasy/teutonic knight head sprue. That said, I'd kill for some good fantasy knight kits, especially in a slightly more bulky, gothic style compared to say, brettonians. IDK if you've ever checked out beastarium miniatures, they're not plastic but they do some wonderfully weird knights of all shapes and sizes. Good luck, and I hope something like this gets made!
That Beastarium is quite gothic, looks like they are going to get lots of Trench Crusade traffic for sure. Sounds like a pretty good kitbash you did, Perry Miniatures is definitely one I should pay more attention too, but I guess they kind of get swept aside with all the new and shiny kits out there.
At the risk of double dipping, I also think there is a lot of potential for a heavy armor multiple loadout kits as proxies for LOTR MESBG for the Minas Tirith and Arnor factions. Spear and shield, sword and shield, and a bow option would cover the bulk of their infantry needs and simple head swap options could juggle between both factions. I know the movie armor of Minas Tirith has gotten some criticism for being too advanced for the technological era they are supposed to be at, but it is the precedent the game and the movies live with.
i'd market them as "fantasy knights" of some sort. the armor doesn't really have a close historical analog (they're mixing different eras and elements, with a lot of added fantasy flair), but it's archtypical for fantasy settings, and unlike most generic fantasy tropes it's stuck around fairly solidly. if anything it's gotten even more popular due to MMO's, animes, and so on.
and i suspect that a big market would be people looking to replicate Warhammer fantasy/The Old World/Age of Sigmar's old "chaos warriors" but with more customization and poseability.
(and the old and new chaos warriors.. definately inspired by this film. neither have much in the way of poseability, and limited customization.)
could always include a few horns onto the sprue, which players can glue to helmets or pauldrons as they like. maybe toss a few antlers, wings. and such. the Tuetonic Knight's ceremonial helmets have plenty of ideas for inspiration there.
if they leaned more towards a 32mm scale, you might be able to double-dip into stormcast players too. plus i kinda feel like fantasy knights should be big. they're knights!
Yeah Fantasy Knights would cut right to the essense of the product, and let you do what you need with the design and not muddy the water with historical labels.
I think there would be enough drift between the 'good knight' and 'grim knight' design aesthetics that you could justify two separate kits, but I do believe Wargames Atlantic would much rather only have to machine one sprue. And when you look at their zombie sprue and you see how many heads they put on that you can respect it. Perhaps as an accomodation to them would be more modular components on the sprue but less overall models in the box as I would be much happier buying lots of a very useful sprue than needing maximum model count per box. In the movie Excalibur the early 'Uther' era and the early Arthur era has a lot of the brutal and snout faced helmets with spikes and such and they would be absolutely wonderful Chaos Warrior proxies. The golden Camelot era armor is a bit sleeker and refined and I think would have to be a separate thing (the torsos and legs perhaps overlapping between the two). I did realize that the rest of the knights of the round table in the Camelot era do not have the big neck guards on the pauldrons like Arthur has and that is one thing I would change as I would make sure every knight has the same glorious shoulder armor as Arthur. I suppose in a weird way you may treat the kit kind of like Space Marines where you keep the pauldrons separate, where so much of the identity of the models you make are communicated through those and the helmets. Maybe the same thing for those exaggerated tasset thigh guards you see.
I guess the humor of Warhammer is that the Chaos Warriors were the big heavily armored warriors and the Empire had a more puffy pants and feather hats vibe going. I suppose that is why they made Stormcast Eternals and tried to counterbalance that.
I admit to being kinda biased - I am a HUGE fan of the stormcast eternals, and unfortunately it's a lot harder to find 32mm knight figures than it is 28mm ones. I don't think they're popular enough to warrant a lot of totally-not-stormcasts type figures, but some chunkier knights would at least give people like me a base to kitbash from. My main problem with fantasy figures is that everything wants to make proxies for WHFB, so cool ideas like this one get swept under the rug! Give me cool spikey guys!
I can respect the appeal of Stormcast Eternals and what GW was trying to do with them. Have you looked to Parabellum Games: Conquest Last Argument of Kings for Stormcast proxies or at least components? They are I believe in the 32mm-40mm scale and their human sized models would be good fits for Stormcast scale. The City-States faction in particular is a good fit with the most current generation of Stormcast loadouts.
I would hope that a potential Excalibur kit would stay closer to 28mm scale as there would be room for coupling them with historical kits. (I saw a few very lightly armored bowmen in the background of some scenes last time I watched it). And I think it could give a lot of good secondary uses for the medieval kits Wargames Atlantic has been making or the fantasy villagers etc.
I am looking forward to seeing this new Orc kit they are working on.
@Percival conquest minis are 38mm, so WAY too big for my needs. shame, cause the sculpts are gorgeous.
maybe 32mm is too big, but a little more chunk would be quite nice for fantasy knights. trying to only use strictly 28mm kits makes it a lot harder to have your more elite troops look any taller/more imposing than your chaff. this is especially hard if you want to fill a 30 or even 40mm base, which you often do when trying to make chaos warriors or stormcast.
I'm also looking forward to the orcs.... I'm sick of chunky warcraft orcs. GIVE ME LANKY BASTARDS!
You are right, I looked at a bit more of an in depth scale comparison and the human figures in Conquest are too big. Guess I was convinced they had scaled bigger to compete with AoS.
I think you are right to want a Fantasy Knight who is a bit beefier than the standard 28mm historical, I guess I am kind of imagining the armor shoulders and tassets bulking them out more than they actually would, as I believe even Perry miniature plate armor knights look a bit spindly by todays standards. I guess I worry about the Warhammer scale creep that makes so many of their miniatures seem so out of place with other lines.
Scale creep is real, but even then, I've mixed WGA models with modern GW bits and they look great. Armored models are usually fine to mix around with scale anyhow, since you can pass off inconsistencies as simple variations in armor.
@Percival nah, they should do any and every humaniod subject strictly with the 28mm guards, civilians, etc. they already have in mind unless they have a deal going with someone else like Reaper or want to re-release RGD's Scthyians and Amazons. (fitting in with GW is the job of 3D print makers and Fisherprice😆).
Also the only thing that might be a-historical about that film armor is the spikes as far as I can tell, otherwise it looks like post hundered years war armor overall. Heck they even remind of some of the WoR foot knights Perry does.
@Brian Van De Walker It doesn't need to be strictly "in gw scale". I more mean that knights are usually elite troops, and elite troops usually are on bigger bases. I don't know if you've ever tried to make a historical model look good on a 40mm base, but it doesn't work in the slightest. Think more along the lines of dark souls knights vs foot troops: even if it's just capes, plumes, etc, I feel like fantasy knights should be a decent bit taller and bulkier than the rank and file.
i just watched the movie on a whim, and holllly fuck that's some sick ass armor. thanks for bringing this up, hope we get something similar soon!
