Fantasy Muslim regular cavalry 2

 

This finishes my 'establishment' for my nominal town/sultan's regular  cavalry force.

Probably should have spent more time on the standard!

Meanwhile, going through the painting production line are a unit of Sarmatian Rhoxalani and a unit of nominal Lombards - lance rather than javelin armed! I'm currently looking at doing 3 Rhoxalani units and 2 Lombards - the Lombards then giving me a complete DBA army! 

The mould this lot are on have so far produced a bit under 100 figures with about another 50 or so wanted for future units. Add to that the figures I needed to get the infantry master cast. So how does this fit in with my 'costing' structure?

Moulds, metal, energy costs and (? - hobby!) time. To get a mould and figures made tends to be expensive - can't afford to have a mould made to produce 20 figures! So how do I cost it?

I'll use this as a starting point. When I was trying to get Minifigs to either start production of the S Range Ancients or let me buy the range they said they had to have guaranteed sales of about 800 per figure. That's... not my starting point!. For me, I look at a price of £1.25 per infantry figure or rider. Metal costs about 25-30p, no idea what electricity costs per figure, and then a mould costs about £100 each. So very roughly if every 'spare' penny went into buying a mould then about 100 figures makes a mould cost effective for me. Selling figures, not inclined to give my time up for free so I split it - 50p to the mould, rest to me. Actually as metal costs a bit more than 25p a figure and as I have to pay tax on 'profits' it probably knocks it down to 35-40p or less per figure for me.  Shouldn't forget any discounts such rounding down the bill or giving free postage for larger orders, likewise the cut PayPal takes... Anyway, bottom line is that for a commercial Garrison mould rather than a personal Garrison mould I probably need at least 200 figures per mould for it to be worthwhile. 

Some moulds will never pay back the 'investment', others way over achieve. Overall though Garrison more than pays for itself, and, happily, I'm able to have quite a few new moulds made to replace old moulds or just to make it quicker to cast figures by making the content of each mould a lot more logical than the haphazard moulds I originally bought!

Fantasy Muslim Regular cavalry

 

Lance and shield armed cavalry, basically regular or paid retainer armed and equipped by a town, city or sultan.

I painted these with a mail shirt rather than have them unarmoured - historical I would have had them without armour, fantasy always armoured! Also left all of these figures with plumes intact!

I've used the sword and shield armed figures for the officer and standard bearer - there is also a figure like this with a bowcase for double armed light cavalry.

Standard is from the 25mm Sassanid range. The mould I'm getting made has this standard as one of the spaces taken up.

Fantasy Muslim elite cavalry

 

Have to be elite, no way this lot would ever settle for being some lowly militia outfit!

I've painted some Sarmatians with bronze horse armour; thought brass would be better for these but didn't like the result. Went for scale armour using alternate metalic colours instead - works well.

These figures are unusual - generally scaling figures up like this is a disaster. Thi lot, even though the paintwork isn't exactly neat or precise, still look good in my view! Really pleased with this unit. May not be an accurate depiction of Medieval Muslim cavalry, but like the look for a Fantasy unit.

Meanwhile, as these were close to finished, the next lot are on the table. These would make a town guard or militia...

Getting Arab infantry moulds ready

Still a little bit of work to do, but figures for the Arab and 'Turkish' infantry should be going off soon to have moulds made.

There's a lot on these moulds! Robed figures include, spearmen, swordsmen, riflemen and archers. I wasn't sure about standards but have decided to use a Sassanid standard - the spearmen or swordsmen are easy conversions and with two points of attachment the joints should be strong. Saves having four separate figures! I'm looking on these figures to be basically wild desert tribesmen. Didn't do  a robed cavalry figure but I think one of the unmodified Achaemenid Persians will do that job.

The tunic/trousers mould includes some J/Bw/Sh light cavalry to give a bit of variety. Figures themselves - apart from the cavalry and javelinmen perhaps a bit more 'regular'? Spearmen backed by archers or rifles as a kind of palace guard, town militia or government troops? Unmodified Rose Zulu war figures make good Ottomans as they are - good for 20mm, though bit small for 25mm.

I must admit I've been surprised at how this lot of figures has grown in scope - I was originally just going to do one mould for all the infantry! Figures are a bit variable, but with uses in both 'normal' wargames and Pulp scenarios I'm quite pleased with them.

First of the Fantasy Arab cavalry

 

A mix of them shooting arrows and waving swords around...

I've been just casting cavalry recently - Arabs/Turks. Rhoxolani, Goths - and have quite a few in various stages of completion. All while still looking at figures to convert for the infantry moulds.The rest of this year is going to be busy!

Mould 160 and some immediate consequences...

 

Normally I let a mould stand for a month or so to post cure before I start casting. This one I started casting and converting straight away... this lot are the initial proof of concept figures (cast and converted 1 day, painted next day... proof of concept, not masterpieces!)

I realised that I could do with a J/Sh/Bw light cavalry figure so these are 'first attempts'.

These are the infantry figures I had originally intended to do - did 2 robed archers because first one looked a bit short. The infantry spearman is not just a version of the cavalry figure above - that figure is a  horse archer, the infantry figure is just spear/javelin and shield.

Hadn't originally intended to do this one - simply basing the cavalry figure - because I didn't think it would work. I did four because I wanted to see if they would make a decent city militia or guard - on balance, think it does work.

This is the mould - quite crowded and has a lot of potential... Rhoxolani, Goths, Fantasy Arabs...

The first horse archer unit is already undercoated...

And I've also cast units of Rhoxolani, armoured Arabs and Goths.

Painting some Jacklex Arabs

 

When sorting out my Arab conversions I got out some unpainted Jacklex Arabs to see how compatible they would be. Only seemed reasonable to paint them afterwards. 

It's a bit sad that Jacklex have gone. For a 20mm version of my War in England in 1897 Rose supply the British and French (ACW!) but not the Russians... happily Jacklex did Russians, happily I had already bought pretty much everything I needed... 

Meanwhile, there is always the possibility of doing some Chinese...

So, although Jacklex has gone I'm not in too bad a situation regarding their figures in future...