I am a big fan of Mierce Miniatures’ gorgeous but horrendously expensive Darklands Range, particularly these lads:
I’d love to see Wargames Atlantic make an affordable multipart plastic kit for models in a similar style to these. Especially as there are a couple of Monstrous Infantry kits, the Landsknect Ogres and the Trolls, already on the horizon. I’d particularly love it if they were given Celtic-style weapons and shields as an extra nod to these, who fight alongside the Welsh in Mierce’s Darklands universe.
Being also a fan of Mierce Miniatures, this is a great ideia right here.
GW Kroxigor are also in demand... and expensive.
@Grumpy Gnome That is a good point, and such a kit would present a good opportunity to include options for Kroxigors as well as Dragonborn/Dragon-Men, though my concerns are that to include both Aztec and Celtic-style weapons would produce conflicting aesthetics (it would make sense to keep them to one aesthetic like the Landsknecht Ogres).
Additionally, it's still possible GW will make a set of plastic Kroxigors in the future as part of a wave of Lizardman plastics, given that they've been revamping largely-Finecast ranges a lot recently (Sisters of Battle, Vampire Counts and now Craftworld Eldar), which would render a Wargames Atlantic set of them largely pointless given how sniffy GW are regarding the use of other companies' models at their events - most players of AoS would pay the extra £10+ to be able to use their models at GW tournaments.
Thus it would make sense for WA do something different (and less likely to bar people from tournaments) like Welsh Dragonborn.
Mantic has their salamanders, which is one of their kits that I actually think is oretty good. I got them in the kickstarter so I dont know how the retail kits come. But the ones i got were loose in bags... I think the weapon arms may have been on sprues but the bodies were loose...
But I do like the Mantic ones a lot... now next to those mierce guys pictured above? They would definitely be the ugly cousins...
@William Redford I looked at the Salamanders, and the ordinary ones you've posted are decent and look similar to the Dyndraig, but are infantry rather than Monstrous Infantry (Monstrous Infantry being troll or ogre-size). Mantic have produced some Monstrous Infantry-sized Tyrants, and they look decent, but they look more like GW Kroxigors than the Salamanders (probably in an attempt to compete with GW), and they also only have two hand weapons each, with no options for a double-handed weapon or shield:
If WA could make some plastic Monstrous Infantry humanoid dragons that resemble the Dyndraig and the Salamanders, with different weapon options, I would be more than satisfied.
@Caratacus They are lacking height wise, but are much broader than regular infantry. I use rounds, and put mine in 40mm like the Ogre Bulls. Here is a couple I had made as "not draconians" for my Council of Wyrms game. I used them as large. Pictured here with an ogre bull and a northman spearmen.
Really they are on the small size for mostrous infantry, but look closer to that than regular infantry. They could not fit on 25mm or even 30mm bases... maybe 32mm but with the wide stance i kind of doubt it. Though with square bases they likely could.
@William Redford Thanks for showing me these size comparison pics!
That is surprising, I thought Mantic Salamanders would be the same size as GW's Saurus Warriors, but they are considerably wider. Indeed if they fit that well on 40mm bases and aren't too much smaller than an Ogre they would still work well as Monstrous Infantry. Add to that the fact that I'd be mainly using them in fantasy Ancients and Dark Age battles with my Warlord minis which are about a head shorter than that Northman, and they would be convincingly larger than a human.
I'd still be interested to see if WA could make a version that is closer to the GW Ogre in size, but it's still good to know that Mantic Salamanders would work for what I had in mind if WA decide to do other things.
@Caratacus Yeah, I would be interested in WA version as i generally prefer their kits to Mantics. and by "generally" only the Salamanders and the abyssal ladies from mantic i would really put in the like category. WA does have a Troll set coming. We havent seen much since the initial tease though. But yeah, monstrous infantry (and cavalry) i think would be very popular.
@Caratacus Actually I think they should just go for a "fits in with the Lizardmen WA already does" look, maybe with segmented or bone armor.
@Brian Van De Walker Bone armor sounds cool.
@Brian Van De Walker I suppose it would make sense to fit them in with the existing Lizardmen, but I wouldn't want them to have primitive wood and stone weapons or bone armour, particularly weapons that are as thin as those on the Lizardmen (probably the worst thing about that kit in my opinion is the javelins being so thin and short, but then perhaps I'm used to GW Saurus and even Skinks having thicker weapons to match their larger scale).
Segmented metal armour would look good, though.
@Caratacus
The amount of players of AOS or WFB that have zero plans to ever play in GW tournament is still VAST. I would also dare say they are an order of magnitude greater in numbers than those who do attend GW tournaments.
Possibly illustrative: The percentage of people buying Grognards to use for 40K versus ALL other uses? Pulling this number out of my a*a, but I would guess 95% for 40k, 5% other use. These buyers are obviously not concerned about GW tournaments.
honestly, you could make dragon-men as a supporting kit for the Lizardmen, and take the same "cave people meets VSF" approach it has, with fairly generic 'barbarian' gear, but also some parts to make ones using guns (perhaps literal cannons) or more fancy melee weapons. given their size you could have their 'default' weapon be stone headed war-clubs, stone axes, or even just massive tree trunk sized wooden clubs, which would suffice for the GW and Meirce uses, with a few proper swords or axes mixed in ("elite' weapons for commanders and such), and then perhaps some field artillery being used like massive rifles.
@Caratacus
This sale is probably as good as it's going to get:
Could we finally be seeing this concept realised in WA plastic? The figure on the right definitely looks like a dragonborn:
Or will WA go the disappointing route by making them midgets to satisfy D&D players' craving for Kobolds?
I certainly think it would be better if these guys were Monstrous Infantry-size, not just for my own personal desires, but also those of Lizardman players everywhere who want something that can be made into plastic Kroxigors without much difficulty. For Kobolds one could greenstuff some GW Skinks, whereas currently there are no plastic Kroxigor-type models anywhere.
