Turno's Wargaming blog: Miniatures: Ancient British warriors

Not being content with the bulging pile of plastic and metal I already have I decided to invest in some Ancient British Warriors by Warlord Games.

I did this for several reasons:
1) Warlord Games was running a promotion where if you purchased a rulebook you got a free box of models. So as I already have Pike & Shotte and Black Powder it made sense to buy Hail Caesar, that and a friend of mine has just bought the Roman legion starter army.
2) I was looking for some models to represent serfs in Lion Rampant
3) I'm a wargamer and thus I don't need a reason to surround myself in such things (although my wife may argue on the contrary.)

Before I dive headlong into my review I just wanted to point out something that my eagle eye readers/followers may have already spotted. I haven't specified a game system in my post title like I normally do. This because I feel that these models are perfect for some many game systems I didn't want to pigeon hole them. Like I mentioned above I'll be using them for Lion Rampant, I'll also be using them in Hail Caesar (Albeit when I get a lot more to support them). But they can be used for Kingdom of Men for Kings of War, Rabble for Pike & Shotte, even as survivors in a post apocalypse game like Across the Dead Earth (although you wouldn't need 40) and so on.

The Packaging:
A card box depicting an artists impression of Ancient Britons on the front and a photo of the contents built and painted on the back, with a small description about the ancient Britons and their encounters.

The card is well made and sturdy and doesn't come apart or bend easily despite have metal components inside.

Inside the box is 4 plastic sprues, 1 shield transfer sheet and a clip-bag containing metal heads, shields and the upper half of a chieftain

I know in this section I am covering what's in the box, but I thought that it's worth outlining that no bases are supplied.

The Models

As above, there are 4 plastic sprues, each sprue contains enough to make 10 ancient Britons, for a total of 40 ancient Briton/Celtic warriors.

Most warriors are made up of 4 parts; torso, legs, head and shield. However some consist of 5 parts; torso, legs, head, weapon and shield

3 sprues are "normal" with just the warriors and some extra parts and 1 sprue is the command sprue; so in place of the heads it contains banner poles/totems and a horn. So be sure to keep the heads from the other 3 sprues to hand.

The plastic models are highly detailed, which, I feel, adds to their versatility.

This box contains a bag of metal parts consisting of shields, heads, banner pole/totem, horn and the upper torso of a chieftain.

I was a little disappointed with these metal parts: I personally don't feel that the metal heads are as detailed as the plastic and they look slightly larger. The chieftain also isn't as detailed as the plastic warriors, and needs to be stuck to plastic legs which is concerning. The banner pole/totem wasn't straight so couldn't be used.

That said the horn was fine and is a better size than the plastic one and the shields also seem okay.

Overall the quality of the detail on the plastic models is much better than that of the metal. Thankfully you don't have to use the metal parts if you don't want to (okay you do if you want most of your warriors to have shields)

Building the models

Typically with models from Warlord games no instructions are included and these are no exception. Thankfully, and unlike the Pike & Shotte infantry, none is required. It's easy to see which torso match which legs and there is enough variety of bodies and heads. But it is worth noting that although all torsos can go on all legs, only specific ones should (like chainmail torso and legs with chainmail waist)

These models were easy to remove from the sprue and only required minimal of tidying. Which was a refreshing change after the recent models I've built where the sprues have been made by Renedra. I believe that the minimal tidying required was only because I use a cheap pair of clippers and scalpel, whereas decent clippers may not leave any excess plastic behind.

There is little to no mould lines, and even those I only found on the weapons.

Once removed from the sprue and tidied (if required) the parts fit together easily; the legs are nicely recessed in the waist to allow the torso to be added and it even allows some room for the torso to be placed in alternative positions. The neck is flat and as is the bottom of the heads, so they also go together without any issues, with enough room to turn the head in any suitable direction. The only issue are the models that require weapons (2 per sprue), the hole in the hands is just a fraction too small (or the weapons are a fraction too big) and you'll need to adjust the hand slightly. You can add the weapons without the adjustment but it takes forcing and of course could lead to breakage (thankfully non of mine broke or received stress damage.

Within no time at all 40 models have been built; you'll notice that I've not added the shields yet. This is because I want to paint them before adding the shields so no area is missed/difficult to reach.
I then mounted them on Renedra 20mm bases; this gives them the uniform look and fits with the rest of my Lion Rampant force.