Fire Forge Miniatures - Mounted Sergeants Review

Well, awhile ago I did a short review of the FireForge Games Templar Knights box, which is a variant of the Teutonics Knight box that I reviewed. The following are links to those reviews:

Teutonics Review

Mounted Templars Review

So, recently I picked up the Mounted Sergeants box.What can I say, here we are again with what I believe is good variant of the the best medieval plastic kit on the market.If you have not checked out my reviews of the Teutonic Knights and the Templar Knights, also from Fireforge, I would recommend that you do so now.

As for the Sergeants kit, much of the box is similar to what we have seen before in the previous two releases.  The weapons are the same, the rider bodies are the same, the command sprue is the same.  What is different are the heads, the shields, and the horses.

In the box you receive two of the above sprue and one of the command sprues.  They are once again coming out of Renedra.

The horses are from Fireforge’s Horse Sprue #2, an unbarded horse, which you get six of in the Templar box set. In this box all twelve horses are unbarded.It comes in 3 base poses with 3 different heads. You can vary up that and make various versions of the horses as shown in the following where I did up just 6 of the horses:

I'm very impressed by the horses, they are very nice looking sculpts. They also compare nicely to their Horse Sprue #1, the caparisoned or barded horse:

The horses are in two halves split down the middle and that sometimes leads to gaps, especially in the rump area of the horse. I put them together very fast and the one below was the worst of the gaps, nothing that I can't fix though, my bad:

Onto the riders.  There are 6-different shields on the two sergeants sprues.  The mounted sergeants heads in this kit are very sweet, I love the variety.There are a total of 20-heads available for twelve miniatures on the sprue and 10 are different ones.  That is awesome variety.   Below are the heads:

Size comparisons, once again I would refer you to the previous review of the Teutonics Knights kit as these are the same size as the previous stuff. Below are some more shots for size comparisons:

From left to right:  Perry Crusader, FireForge Sergeant, GW Brettonian, FireForge Teutonic Knight, Conquest Games Norman.

 Above: Perry Crusader vs. FireForge Sergeant.

 Above: Conquest Games Mounted Norman vs. FireForge Sergeant.

 Above: FireForge Sergeant vs. FireForge Teutonic.

Above: FireForge Sergeant vs. GW Bretonian.

How does it compare to infantry?  Above:  Warlord Games Giant Auxiliary, Warlord Games Roman, Warlord Games ugly Officer, Perry Crusader/Norman, Conquest Games Norman, FireForge Mounted Sergeant, Gripping Beast Plastic Viking, Foundry Roman Tribune.

Bottom line, a great looking kit, well worth my pennies, I’m extremely impressed and I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the infantry. I like this kit much more than the previous two.  

FireForge Games - Templar Knights Kit Review

Well, I purchased the Teutonic Knight kit previously and it was an extreme pleasure, as its one of the most gorgeous sets of miniatures out there in my opinion. So recently I picked up the Templar Knight box from Fireforge Miniatures, actually ordered from the Architects of War. This kit is mostly like their first release. The models are listed as 28 mm scale. Much like the Gripping Beast Plastics, Warlord Games, and Conquest Games the plastic sprues for Fireforge come out of the molding from Renedra. Renedra’s quality is extremely high and rivals that of anyone on market.

In this kit are 12 multi-piece mounted knights that share many of the same components as the Teutonics, 4 different torso poses for the riders, 4 separate capes/cloaks per sprue. They have the same torsos, same weapon arms, and some of the same horses. I once again love the fact that they are multi-piece and allow me to mix and match and change things as I see fit. They come with an assortment of 20 heads mostly all different from the Teutonic kit (10 unique designs). They share the same 5 different hand weapon arms, and 4 different lances. The kit has 6 different shields, and these are not the same as the Teutonic kit. The other thing different about the kit is it includes a new horse sprue, horses without the caparison / barding.  Not shown are the Renedra bases, I already dumped those on Ebay as I will be going all wood with mine. I’m very much a fan of the helmets and helm selection that they have. This is my favorite period of history and they are well done. I look forward to opening and reviewing the Sergeants Box set next. They also include a command sprue with many options on it in the kit. Excellent piece in itself, having flags, a musician's horn, and a cross. This is the same sprue as the Teutonics kit. The horse sprues, like the Teutonic has two different horse poses that can be mixed and matched, and three different heads, so fairly nice variety, especially when accompanied by the second un-barded horse sprue. When assembling the horses, the two halves join up nicely, and don’t have a real big seam in the rump. I had small issue with that in the Conquest Games miniatures horses, that was easily correctable. On these though the rump is good, the saddles can be a bit of issue, but like the Conquest Games miniatures, easily curable. Below is a pic of the un-barded horse sprue.  Very nice looking.  Two of these sprues are included in the kit. No comparison pics at the moment.  This is essentially just like the Teutonics, so I will refer you to that review.  Fireforge Teutonic Review Link When I pick up and review the mounted sergeants, I'll assemble the unbarded horses and do some more comparison picks. This in my opinion is a great kit, the sculpting is awesome and crisp, has plenty of undercut, over the top detail.  In my opinion, the absolute best mounted knight kit on the market that I have seen.  Looking forward to the sergeants and the infantry.

Fireforge Assembly of the Knights

Well was working on some more of the Vikings in particular the standard bearers and needed to come up with some banners when I remembered that Fireforge had some extras in their kit. So as I did that I got the urge to assemble a bunch of their fine looking miniatures. Assembly of them is very simple and the flash is non-existent for the most part so very little in the way of removal of mold lines, and even the ones present were simply shaved off by one pass with an Xacto #11 blade.

Above is what I have assembled so far. The unit has great variety, none of that stagnant and boring look that many metal miniature manufacturer's have. A great plastic kit such as this has excellent versatility. My intention is not use these as Teutonics, and most of the helms are easily modified to remove the Teutonic ornamentation. I have not yet picked up the newly release Templar and Sergeant kits yet, but definitely look forward to them. One thing I have found in assembly is the need to give a bit a forethought on the ranking of the horses due to the tails of the first rank interfering with the horse heads in the second rank. The models are just a touch on the long side for the 25x50 cav bases, but that can be remedied easily by placement.

FireForge Games - Teutonic Knights Kit Review

I had the extreme pleasure of unpacking a package from Fireforge Miniatures the other day, their first release to the miniatures world. The package was their new Teutonic Knights in 28 mm scale. Much like the Gripping Beast Plastics and Conquest Games plastics that I have reviewed previously, the sprues from Fireforge come out of the molding from Renedra. Renedra’s quality is extremely high.   In this kit are 12 multi-piece mounted knights, I simply love the fact that they are multi-piece and allow me to mix and match and change things as I see fit. They come with an assortment of 12 heads mostly Teutonic styled helms, 5 different hand weapon arms, 4 different lances, 6 different shields, 4 different torso poses for the riders, 4 separate capes/cloaks per sprue.   They also include a command sprue with many options on it in the kit. Excellent piece in itself, having flags, a musician's horn, and a cross.    A good look at the sprues and box contents can be found at the WAB Corner, where Dean broke open a box of them, if interested follow this link: http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/2012/03/fire-forge-teutonic-knights.html The horse sprue, has two different horse poses that can be mixed and matched, and three different heads, so fairly nice variety. When assembling the horses, the two halves join up nicely, and don’t have a real big seam in the rump. I had small issue with that in the Conquest Games miniatures horses, that was easily correctable. On these though the rump is good, the saddles can be a bit of issue, but like the Conquest Games miniatures, easily curable. By the way the Conquest Games horse just comes with a blanket and strap, because the actual saddle is molded on the rider. This saddle is on the horse the rider is added, much like GW’s Bretonian Knights. I assembled 5-different models to get the hang of them and to let them fester in my mind to figure out the look I want for a future army. I must say, I have been doing this a long time and I’m seriously impressed by these models. They are not only the best I have ever seen for a first release from an upstart company , they might just have become my favorite kit of all time. There was very little flash to remove, like with so many of the plastics coming through Renedra. Games Workshop could really take a lesson from this. Very crisp detail on the sprues, excellent undercut. Great looking mail armor, kudos to their sculptor, just when I thought I was getting really good at sculpting mail armor, this kit comes along and changes my thoughts. They do have the rectangular plate shoulder pauldrons as a separate option for those that wish to use it. Everything fits very well and is easy to manipulate at the joins.  I’m not much into the Teutonic’s, so I have removed the head dresses from the helms on mine. This should not be a problem in the near future as they are getting ready to release their 2012 follow-up kits of mounted sergeants and Templar knights at or around the end of April is what I heard. Fully assembled, I absolutely love the looks of them. I have been waiting for a very nice looking plastic knight kit for this era, and they have really fit that bill. Unfortunately for Conquest Games, I do not see myself buying and converting any more of their miniatures. As good as they are, they have not been able to follow up their first release. Quality level is high on them, but not as high as what Fireforge’s first release is, and that is unfortunate as I did and still do have hopes that Conquest will find the capital to release some more plastics. Period wise Fireforge is in what I see as an untapped niche, with older metal miniatures from Gripping Beast, that are kind of chunky looking, and less popular miniatures from Curtsey as their main competition, a much easier road to follow than what Conquest Games has took in competing with numerous manufacturers in a saturated Norman era. Now the size comparisons. Pictured below from left to right, a Conquest Games Norman, Fireforge Teutonic, Perry Norman/Crusader, HYW mounted Sergeant, Fireforge Teutonic, Warlord Games Roman Auxiliary Below, Conquest vs. FireForge Below, Perry vs FireForge  Below, Perry vs FireForge  Below, Warlord Games Pony vs FireForge   Next Pictured from left to right, Warlord Games Barbarian, Perry HYW Spearman, Fireforge Mounted Knight, Perry Norman Spearman, FireForge Mounted Knight, Warlord Games EIR, Warlord Games Giant Auxiliary, Gripping Beast Viking with a GW Flaggellant head. And not to forget my Fantasy audience out there that are looking at this kit for use with Bretonian armies, a Fireforge knight on the left and a Games Workshop Bretonian Knight on the right. For you WAB guys that’s the difference in historical 28mm and heroic 28 mm scale.   Bottom line, a great looking kit, well worth my pennies, I’m extremely impressed and I am very much looking forward to more from Fireforge in the near future. Now I need to figure out which WAB army I want to build using these. Capetian France, Later Crusades, Early Medieval English, Holy Roman Empire????