North Star Kadesh - New Release of 28mm Biblical Miniature Line

North Star Miniatures is about to launch a new range of 28mm metal figures titled North Star Kadesh. This will be a line of figures you can use to refight the 1274BC Battle of Kadesh.

The first releases are the New Kingdom Egyptians and Sea Peoples, and will be followed by Hittites and Allies.This will launch into a wider 'Biblical' range and the figures are being sculpted by North Star's staff designer, Steve Saleh.

The impetus for the range was a combination of Steve's enthusiasm for the period, and North Stars association with masters of laser-cut MDF, 4Ground. 4Ground produced a "Pharaoh's Chariot" kit in MDF for North Stars "Of Gods and Mortals" figures to go with Osprey Publshing's game.

The model was too good for just one box set, thus they began thinking about a wider range. So the New Kingdom Egyptian chariots in the North Star Kadesh range are laser-cut MDF kits.

Unlike this image of the Sea Peoples, the range is not all photographed as yet. Check out the May issue of Wargames Illustrated, (# 319), there is an interview with North Star's designer, Steve Saleh.

In it, he talks about himself, his work and influences, but also gives you a step-by-step guide to figure design. The figure he uses in this guide is the new Egyptian Standard Bearer pictured here.

The June 2014 issue 320, will include an article written by North Star's staff painter Kev Dallimore on painting the same model, as shown in the photo above.

Have A Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Model Building Class, Scenery Update

Our Model Building Class is winding down and will be concluding next week. After the half timber house we covered scenery so that bases could be made for their houses or other projects could be moved along. This was a quick build monolith demonstration to show the basics of foam cutting, putting it together, painting and detailing. This is an easy terrain piece that can be used in any tabletop wargames like Warhammer, SAGA, Black Powder or Field of Glory.

We used a few leftover pieces of foam which were cut using a variety of tools. It measures approx 11 x 7 inches and 6 inches tall.

It was glued and a coarse threaded screw was used to "pin" the monolith onto the base.

A series of layered colors completed the painting demo and we used a mixture of coarse modelling turf and Italian Seasoning for the foliage. Hopefully we'll get a few photos of completed class projects next week!

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Victrix releases NEW Mercenary Armoured Hoplites for Ancient Greek Warfare!

New from Victrix last week and shipping this week is the plastic box set of Mercenary Armoured Hoplites! Victrix has been known for their Napoleonic Plastic box sets for quite some time. Now they have expanded to include Ancient Greeks for those who like Clash of Empires, Hail Caesar and other Ancient rule sets.

The Mercenary Hoplites set is their fourth box set in the Ancients line of products. The Athenian Armoured Hoplites were added the end of May and like all Greek box sets contains 48 superbly detailed miniatures.

The incredible Spartan Armoured Hoplites were added in June. All box sets contain 8 figures per sprue, 4 have shield arms attached and 4 have no arms attached to enable you to make the musician and other speciality positions for officers and character figures.

and the Theban Armoured Hoplites were released just last month. This set can be mixed with all the parts from the other 3 Hoplite sets which all have their own speciality heads and options to add a great variety to your Greek armies.

This fantastic new set of miniatures represents Greek Mercenary Hoplites and other Greek City states from the 5th Century covering the wars with Persia, to the 4th century and the titanic struggle for Greek supremacy in the Peloponnesian war and the wars with Phillip and Alexander of Macedon.

There are 8 head variants with different crest options to add a ton of variety to your figures. There are thrusting arms options, spear at rest options and sword arms. If you want to make more at rest arms, you can rotate a thrusting arm 90 degrees so it becomes a spear at rest position.

Little Big Men Studios has come up with some great Greek shield transfer designs for all the Victrix box sets.

We'll leave you with a few more of them.

Have a Great Battle,

The Old Crow