Exclusive Preview: 6mm Rapier Greek Mythology

A special treat for all you 6mm fans now, with a sneak preview of a future range from Rapier Miniatures: Greek Mythology!

The other day, Paul over at Rapier was kind enough to send me some advance samples for a new line of 6mm miniatures they are considering, and should be showcasing at this weekend's Colours Wargaming show here in the UK.

To chime with their debut, then, I thought you'd all like an advance look at some of the new sculpts that will hopefully be available soon - and they are real crackers!

http://www.rapierminiatures.co.uk/

I was lucky enough to receive a six-headed Hydra, which has a separately cast trio of heads, four Bull-headed Minatour-style Warriors, a beautiful Harryhausen-esque Medusa, a small sword carrying warrior (Perseus or Jason, perhaps?), a fantastic boulder-wielding Cyclops, and three amazing-looking armed Centaurs.

Let's take a look in more detail:

First up, the Bull-headed Warriors, I'm going to call 'Minatons'. :-)

These are lovely, detailed sculpts, and appropriately bulky, given their species - we have a sword and shield armed leader, two spearmen and a drummer.

I make their height measurement from bottom of base to top of head just shy of 11mm, so as you will see later, they can easily intimidate a 6mm Greek Hoplite or similar. The height to the top of the spear comes out as 26mm, so some imposing pieces, and great fun; you can see the detail on the reverse:

Moving on to the Hydra, this is again an impressive piece, with the snake heads nicely animated - I suppose the separate trio gives you the chance to scratch build some new heads growing in once the originals have been lopped off -as per the original Myth. :-)

The scales are very well sculpted, and the pose is nice and threatening; overall height to top of the topmost head, I make 20mm:

Next we have the rather hard to photograph Medusa and Warrior, which are simply superlative (You can tell I'm excited about this range!), the snake-haired monster in particular will be very familiar to fans of those iconic fantasy adventure movies of yesteryear - I think it is a little masterpiece at around 7mm in height - reaching behind to draw a deadly arrow from her quiver:

The rear view gives another good idea of the level of detail included by Rapier onto these minis:

Here she is up against a command stand from the same company's 6mm Classical Ancients ranges; GRE002 Hoplites in muscle cuirass:

Also some lovely figures, BTW!

Next we have three Centaurs, a bowman, and two shield and spear-wielders; the former is the classic type with a nice quiver by his side, the latter are nicely sculpted with armour and helmets, and moreover with Clibinarius-style armoured horses, one full, the other partial:

These again have an excellent level of detail, and are nicely animated and proportioned, if a little slight.

Here's one up against a ROM006 Auxiliary Cavalry, again by the same company:

Let's finish up with some group shots to give a better idea of overall 'scale', next to a strip of those Greek Hoplites, GRE002:

Again, here with a view of the single horned Cyclops and his boulder, a feisty looking foe, if I ever saw one.....Rapier have told me that there may be more of his ilk in the pipeline.....

As yet, as far as I know, these minis are not yet available, but hopefully the lucky few who were able to attend the Colours show may have seen these, and perhaps others in the flesh - I am sure that the level of interest they will arouse will persuade Paul and Co. to go into full-scale production!

There are, of course, a number of 6mm fantasy lines out there, mostly based around a Tolkein-esque paradigm, but I think these as a whole are something entirely fresh to the market, and offer up a wealth of possibilities - yes there are centaurs and monsters available - but these ones are properly rooted in their Greek Mythological form, and would look the absolute business next to any 6mm Classical army.

The minis appear here in the form that I received them - the only flash I cleared up was some small nubs present on the bottom of the bases, and some supporting strips on the Centaurs, - these were removed just to enable the photographs - each of the sculpts is clean, well-proportioned and full of character - if anything, these pics do not do them their full justice.

(Remember, all photos should be 'clickable' for a larger, Macro view)

The only slight criticism might be that the Centaurs are rather on the delicate-looking side, and I'm not entirely sure who the diminutive sword-equipped Warrior is supposed to be, but he is well-modelled all the same.

It's great to see some new sculpts on the cusp of appearing, and even more rewarding given their unique subject matter - I suggest you spread the word and get e-mailing Rapier, if this is the kind of thing that floats your boat.....my Trireme is certainly very buouyant at the moment, anyway (Oo-er!).