Oooooh Ultima Ratio, what are you trying to do to me?!!??. These beauties are the new sets from this company, The guards of Cardinal Richelieu and Musketeers of the French King (pics in that very order). I like these lots, lots and lots in fact. And lots. The Plastic soldier review entries for both sets have just been posted so you can take a closer look here and here.
They are based on the characters created by Alexandre Dumas and really fit the 'look' of his work and many of the films based on the Three Musketeers adventures. They fill a gap in the market that has needed filling for a while in my opinion, the only options up to now have been GerMans 'Musketeers of the French King' who suffer from brittle blade disease (they snap if someone so much as sneezes in the next room!!) and some sets from Mars which i will not suffer to have on these pages because like all mars products they are chubby faced stub handed blobs of flash and crap!!! (no really, 1:72 scale has some great sets from lots of producers but Mars are just..errrrgghhhhhhh!!!!, check out these 'beauties' if you need proof.......now go wash your eyes!!!!.
So why am i doing a blog post about seeing some minis?, i mean most of us do just that most days, well it happens i've been itching to have a bash at these:
Ospreys En Garde! rules by Craig Woodfield. These are full of Swash buckling goodness and attempt to replicate the fighting style of the age in table top skirmish form. Now for a while i have had ideas for gaming some fantasy style games in a alt-historical setting based on this period. Im thinking of doing some undercover espionage style games between state sponsored groups of treasure hunters, Spies and assassins, sort of a 'Dumas does Bond meets Scott Lynch' thing across 15th century Europe. A loose cast of spies, evil masterminds, exotic wizards from far flung shores, hired thugs and underworld kingpins conducting a secret war in the cityscapes of the age. Characters such as the worlds greatest gentleman lover and spy known only as 'the iron codpiece' and his valet 'Vivian'. The evil mastermind Dr Donavann von Jovi and the evil mystic FuTang- FuTong and his undead minions along with a the Criminal overlord known only as the king of Shadows, a man who's finger is in every bent scheme across the continent. Hence why i got so excited by these minis!!!!.
The Gentleman Bastard trilogy, a very cool setting, needs some games in it!!
As always im drowning in plastic at the mo so if this will realistically get off the ground is unlikely in the short term but its great when you realize you could if you can just find the time.......now, how to convince Mrs Sprinks i need more minis?...........
......Anyway, 'till next time.......
I must admit I´m slightly tempted by them..if only for the MiLady, Constance and Anne bods but to buy two whole sets for three bodettes!! And the sets aint cheap. I paid €12 for each of the new Medieval sets. Seeing as I might only use one of each pose from both sets (14 bods in total) that works out at over €1.70 per bod!!!!!!! Similar for the "three Musketeer" sets, €1.50 per bod if only one pose is used. Still, they are very nice looking sculpts.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at these today - they're nice but not cheap! Like Paul I would probably only want 1 of each - could sell the rest on ebay I guess...
ReplyDeleteThat is the issue with these, often i like multiple poses to make big units but in this case its not needed. Maybe we could work out some kind of 'split' to get 1 of each pose?.
ReplyDeleteThe question to that would be..who would buy the sets ? Maybe it would work with including a couple more People.. at benno´s?
DeleteGood thinking, i forgot about bennos!. I think there will be quite a few people thinking the same about these sets so it may be simple to set it up. The only issue may be international postage!. I may pop over there later on and float the idea.
DeleteBennos....?
Deletehttp://bennosfiguresforum.com/ Its a forum for 1:72 botherers the world over. You would like it. Its mostly historical but fantasy stuff is represented too.
DeleteCheers - will take a look!
DeleteThese última ratio are indeed quite nice and inspiring (also expensive), I should have supposed that Sprinks had already a ruled wet for these duelists and damsels :)
ReplyDeleteI hope you can share buying with someone, I live too far away from you all I think..