Mythical Earth Revisited

 

The Mythical Earth army takes shape

As some may have come to appreciate, I am a bit of a fan of the Miniature Figurines Mythical Earth (ME) range. This is a range that came out in the mid-70s and was the first proper range of fantasy figures available in the UK. The models are 'true' 25mm and entirely compatible with Minifigs historical ranges of the time. I've been collecting these for a while and have managed to amass quite a bit of original metal via e-bay and thanks to the kind donations of friends. I've been a little reluctant to show work in progress until I had a reasonable force ready - let's say something approximating the sort of tabletop army that might have graced a battlefield in the 70s!

As schoolboys my friends and I collected and gamed with this range when it was brand new - and for some reason I drew the 'bad guys' straw when it came to choosing forces. My gaming buddies sensibly went for the Gondorians and allies, or the dwarfs and elves. At the time I was never able to afford to build up the large sized units that the game suggested. So, at least in part, I wanted to go back and recreate the army that was in my mind's eye as a teenager. The core of the army is made up of man orcs (six units of twenty apiece), aided and abetted by goblin archers and Dunlendings (one unit of each twenty strong again) and goblin wolf riders (five units of twelve). The whole is led by a winged Nazgul.

The basing is standard contemporary WRG Ancients sizes - finished in plain green - on mount board. I know a few of my fellow 'old school' army builders like to use mdf bases, which are marvelously regular as well as convenient, but I find them rather thick. Maybe I shall regret this decision, because the board does tend to warp, but it's what I've done for all my armies including the historical ones. I mix the green colour up from Warlord 'Green Webbing' and Vallejo 'Flat Yellow': mixing up your base colour is, of course, madness. I rather like it!

Minifigs never made any man orc archers so I decided to have a go at replicating the Minifigs style myself. The result is not a bad approximation of the original and fits in quite nicely. I based the pose on a Roman archer drawing his bow from the 'PB' range. If anyone is interested I'll get a little post together on how I produced the sculpt. So, not an original model from the 70s but I like to think that it's something that might have been had Minifigs decided to expand the range further. 

Although most of the infantry are original metal (aside from my archers) most of the cavalry are new casting from Miniature Figurines, now owned by Caliver books. At the same time as I was buying up old models, the folks at Miniatures Figurines were putting models back into production. This proved a great opportunity to build up my wolf rider horde.

I've managed five units of twelves models, three units of the axe-wielding riders and two carrying swords and bows. The new castings are clean and fairly easy to prep and paint. They are also slightly smaller than the original metal and a little flatter due to being 'remoulds' from production castings, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice unless you were to place them side by side. 

I have a single unit of original models and the casting vary hugely in quality: I imagine because the pieces were cast at different times and the moulds themselves were variously worn. What was or wasn't an acceptable casting obviously varied a bit in the 70s, and I've resorted to a little bit of rebuilding here and there, as well as filling in sinks and pits, and carving out some of the 'clag' from torn and worn moulds. 

I scoured the inter-web for inspiration when it came to the wolf colours. 'Orclord' Richard Hale's collection on The Stuff of Legends website is a great example of what can be done with these and similar vintage figures, and I confess to shamelessly imitating the Mythical earth wolves in Richard's collection as painted by Andrew Taylor. Of course, I had to paint sixty of the beasts so it's production-line painting really, but I think the result passes muster, certainly as massed units. I'm tempted to have a go at a few conversions - maybe some lancers and possibly standard bearers and leaders. 

I'll take a few pictures of the individual units when I get a chance as well.  Hopefully I'll have a few more units ready soon. Not too sure what to tackle next: maybe a unit of goblins with spear, shield and bow. We shall see.