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Monday 8 May 2023

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. 









12 comments:

  1. Absolutely brilliant... I've been meaning to do something similar with the great box I have of ME figures, but also combine Garrison orcs and Prince August homecast which size in well . It would be great to do a massed battle set in the late 70s.
    There are some very nice ME Rohirrim on the now quiet Sword in the Sprue blog.

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  2. Thanks Mike - yes I've often thought it would be nice to do a 70s fantasy retro game using these and contemporary ranges from the mid-70s - we must plot! I don't know the Sword in the Sprue blog and shall check it out this instant!

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  3. That’s a fantastic looking collection Rick… I love your loyalty to tradition basing methods… I remember a lot of my artillery was mounted on beer mats… they all curled up at the corners 😁
    I have been tempted to start something similar myself… maybe after I have cleared some of my Minifigs Napoleonic mountain.
    Do please post more about your archer conversion…
    If you ever put on a 70’s style fantasy game I do hope that you will dress in period sartorial elegance .

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly - I took my inspiration from your shiny Napoleonic basing - though yours is much neater! Re 70s - I can manage the flairs but might struggle with the hair ;)

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  4. Fantastic stuff, like Tim I started with this range in the 70s, eagerly awaiting a parcel from Rye Stamp and Hobby Shop on a Saturday morning. My armies became a mix of ranges forming Good and Bad and came around the world. Recently, and thanks for the kind comments on Facebook, I have built up Hyborian forces, first in Minifigs and just finishing the Garrison chaps, to be at Legionary, Exeter this Saturday. I still have a few of the ME chaps including 12 Citadel Guard, who sit in a cabinet next to the GW offering. Seeing your offering makes me thing that after my Western Desert project I should do for a Minifigs ME project! Nick Turner/ Tales from the Wargames Shed.

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    1. Thanks Nick - again I must admit to taking inspiration from your own collection - I had the Minifigs and Garrison Hyborian inspired models back in the day - mostly gone now baring a few of the Garrison Amazons. Yes we did the same - ordered from the Rye Stamp and Hobby Shop - was it Bill Brewer who had that? - but we never could afford the armies that we all aspired to. Nice to see some of these old models back in production.

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    2. Yes it was Bill Brewer! I think that may be one reason we build such armies, to make up for the tiny little forces we could afford back then!

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  5. Oh, just remembered I used the Hinchliffe Assyrian archer for my Man Orc archers.

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    1. Yes I can see that. It's amazing how many figures from the contemporary Minifigs ranges would have fitted into the range almost seamlessly including all the Vikings (V range) and Renaissance Turks - but folks very rarely did that. You did see the Alexander Nevsky range used quite a bit - but to my mind the heater shields just look wrong for ME - although some of the Russians from that range would be a better fit. My recollection is that we felt the 'official' figures were the 'right' models - almost as if they were an army list that determined what you could use - which is rather weird in retrospect!

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    2. Yes, my army contained a few of the Alexander Nevsky range, I think that as it bacame a fairly generic "Good" army, the shields were acceptable!

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  6. Love these. Wish you'd accept my facebook 3 friend request lol

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  7. I have to say, as someone who was not even born when this minis where produced, I find them fascinating. Thank you for sharing your collection, I love to spend time marvelling at it.

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