DBA Resource Page

Miniature Sources

Reviews of Chariot Miniatures

Reviewers and Subjects:

Dan Dionne on Chariot Bronze Age Ranges

The Chariot figures I have for early Achaemenid Persians and Elamites are spindlier than Essex and possibly a bit smaller. Poses are generally good and dynamic. The figures are certainly more accurate than Essex, particularly the chariots. Horses and mules are much smaller than Essex (certainly more accurate) and would not mix well. The Mycenaean figures are a bit larger, again except for the horses.

Douglas Barker on Chariot Han Chinese

Chariot Han Chinese. The figures are generally well sculpted with little flash and good detail. The major exception to this are the chariot packs. The chariots themselves are very nice, and the archer/halberdier/crossbowman and driver crewmen are also good. However the general figure was poorly cast (his left side was taller than his right) and the horses were terrible. After painting you can hide the general under the parasol, but the horses are very blocky (especially compared to other horses in this army which I really like) and generally of a much lower quality than the rest of the army. The other problem is a lack of variety in figure pose, but I like "civilized" armies to be less like a rabble than other people.

Paul Crozier on Chariot Biblicals

Overall Chariot figures are often direct matches to illustration in WRG Armies of the Near East, very well detailed and true 15mm. They are however a little spindly because of the attempt to keep weapons in scale (no telegraph pole spears etc) and often there is too much detail for 15mm. Anatomically excellent--all my NKE have six packs and smiles!--but you have to be careful not to obscure them when painting. I mix some Essex with my Chariot, no real problem and Falcon fit in excellently with Chariot as well.

Brent Sustaita on Chariot

Compared to most figure lines Chariot figures look a little small and malnutritioned. They are thin and a little fragile at the ankles, but also one of the best sculpted lines out there. The smallish size may actually be a better representation of the actual 15mm scale. The anemic horses are especially good for LC/LH. Their Biblical line and classical line of figs are well done and accurate historically. The nude Myceneans, Romans, Indians and Greeks I have look a little small next to their Essex counterparts, but the variety they add is pleasing to the eye and worth buying. The Hoplites, biblicals, light troops (really like their Thracians), Macedonian phalangites, and Indian foot are what I like best. I think the elephants and crew they offer: Indian, Macedonian, and Seluecid are the best I have seen on the market, and I own several of each (some of them even painted). Chariot does provide all option DBA armies, last time I looked, and they tend to be the cleanest figures one gets as far, as flash is concerned, out of any line. Worth a look! Packs of figs are medium sized around eight infantry, four for cav.

Larry Nellinger, Jr. on Chariot's Late Roman (Gold) Range

SPQR 16 Legionaries with sword Mid 3rd to 5th Century: 8 figs, 4 poses. 2 have separate shields. All have muscled cuirasses and even if not historically accurate they are well done with shoulder plates and the braided waist decoration. Other armor consists of peturges, large oval shield with carved rim, crested Romano-sassanid helmet (ridged bowl type) complete with the eye decorations. All wear long sleeved tunic, breeches and what appears to be sandles. All are clean shaven. Figures are posed as if on a steady advance.

SPQR 33 Auxilia Palantia 4th to 5th Century: 8 figs, single pose. Only armor is a plain large oval shield and crested helmet (same as SPQR 16) Figure wears tunic with full decorative applique (shoulders running down chest/back, cuffs and thigh patches), pants, shoes and belt with sword. Also clean shaven. Figure is standing ready to throw javelin.

SPQR 45 Auxilia Sagitarri Late 2nd to 4th Century: 8 figs, 7 poses. All are wearing plain tunic with belt supporting quiver and small shield (buckler) with an axe tucked in behind it, pant, shoes, obviously all have bows. All have beards. Poses are quite good, 2 have just released (one is in kneeling position) the rest are reloading.

SPQR 60 Equite Illyricini (Promotoi or Dalmatae): 4 figs, single pose, actually half have their head turned 45 degrees to left. One piece horse ( 4 poses) and rider casting with separate weapon (javelin) arms. Only armor is a small round shield and a crested Attic type helmet. All wear tunic with applique, pants, shoes, and belt with sword. All have beards.

SPQR 62 Equites: 4 figs, single pose. Horse (2-3 poses per pack) and rider separate casting, separate weapon (spear) arms. Figure is armored with mail shirt, oval shield (smaller than footsoldiers), and crested "traditional" Roman helmet. Figure wears short sleeved tunic, cloak, breeches, boots and baldric with sword. Figure is clean shaven. Horses have caparisons.

SPQR 63 Cataphracti: 4 figs, single pose. Separate horse and rider. 100% armored! Figure has Spagenhelm with ribbons, faceplate (looks a lot like a skull), and mail coif. Chest, arms, legs and feet are flexible metal plate. Thighs, abdomen, and hands are mail armored. No shield (or need for one) armed with Kontos, and has a small mace for sidearm. Horse is barded in scale with the "tea-strainer" eye covers. Detail on the barding is excellent each scale is indented in the center and raised on the outer edge should look incredible when painted.

SPQR 01 Foot Command: 8 figures. 3 officers, 2 poses. Equipped with muscled cuirass (same as 16), Oval shield (as 16), helmet similiar to Romano-sassanid bt with solid metal crest. All are armed with swords. One pose has long sleeve tunic with applique, cloak, pants and shoes. He has his head turned to one side and mouth is open as if shouting orders. The other pose has the old style knee length tunic but with long sleeves, bare legs, sandles. Figure is advancing. 2 musicians ( Coricern) one pose. Figure has crested Romano-sassanid helmet. Long sleeved tunic, pants, cloak, boots, and sword. Figure is walking forward blowing Cornu. Hard to describe this instrument if you haven't seen it but I'll try. It is a large horn that starts out small at the mouthpiece curves under the arm, over the back and head to end up sticking out past the face, it also has a central support with two holes in it I'm not sure what their purpose is. Shape might be described as a lower case "e" turned almost completly upside down. 3 Draco standard bearers, 2 poses. All have crested Romano-sassanid helmets, long sleeved tunics, pants, shoes, belt, sword. One pose is walking forward standard in front. The other pose has standard planted to side held with one hand. His other hand is on his sword hilt, and he has his mouth open as if yelling. The standards look nice, head design matches the only surviving example I have seen.

General Notes:

Horses: The same things I had to say about the Goth horses applies to the Roman ones. On the plus side all horse are in motion and the variety of poses is good.

Figures: Same as notes on Goths. Some of the faces are shallow. SPQR 62 in particular has overdone cheekbones and a small mouth; looks like he has a fat face and is puckered up. SPQR 33 on the other hand is quite good, the face has a rather determined look The ones with beards look quite good and they do excellent job carving hair.

Chariot Gold: The stated goal of this range is to provide a variety poses in each pack. All packs that have a single pose should have more poses added sometime in the future.

Separate arms: All of the separate arms came in two grip "types" overarm and underarm.

Overall: Excellent castings. Virtually flash free. A few "shorts;" one of the separate arms and a horses leg not fully formed (being replaced) and a couple of the horses' tails look a little short. But that's out of 17 packs. Chariot does carry DBA army packs and they contain full packs not the minimum.

Larry Nellinger, Jr. on Chariot's Goth (Gold) Range

Dark 1 Gothic General: This pack consists of 4 mounted figures. All have beards, mail shirts, pants, boots, spagenhelm with cheekguards and plume, roundshield and cloak. The 4 figures are general with sword raised, warrior blowing large warhorn, draco standard bearer, and warrior from Dark 3 pack. The figures are well animated and each seems to be doing their respective task.

Dark 3 Noble Cavalry: These 4 are equipped as Dark 1. They are one piece castings of horse and rider. The weapon arm (spears/javelins) and shields are separate. There are two types of arms, one is in the carry position and the other is overarm thrust or throwing position. There are no variations in riders but each horse is in a different pose. There is one flaw with this pack the left side frame/rib on the spagenhelm didn't cast, easily fixed with a little super glue or heavy paint.

Dark 4 Gardingi Irregular (Light) Cavalry: This pack has 3 different poses. Two separate horse and rider (same pose) Equipped with tunic, pants, cloak and roundshield carrying javelin, no sidearm. Two one piece casting both with separate arms one with separate shield. The one with separate shield has a spangenhelm with spikes down the ribs, small cheekguards and neckguard otherwise unarmored.

Dark 5 Goth Infantry with round and oval shields: 8 figures, 8 poses. Tese figures would work for Germanic tribes of this period. Only one has an oval shield the rest are round shields of various sizes. Weapons are mixed 3 swords, 2 axes and 3 spear/javelin. All are unarmored in tunic, pants and "putees", only two have cloaks . Most (6) have beards and one has the "samurai Frank" top knot as in plate 114 of "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome". All are well animated most are on the attack.

Dark 6 Goth Infantry with coffin shield: 8 figures, 6 poses. One armed with axe, the rest spear/javelin, all have identical coffin shields. All are unarmored, tunic, pants, most have boots and cloaks. Almost all have beards. These figures are more static; most are in the throwing position as if awaiting an attack. Side note, I ordered two packs of these and they were exactly the same in composition of figures. I don't know if this means each pack always has the same six figures and duplicates or that's how they packed them the day I ordered.

Dark 10 Gothic Archers: 8 figures, 6 poses. All are unarmored in tunic, pants and boots all but one are also wearing fur vests. All equipped with bows and quivers no visible sidearms. All have beards. Most are in various stages of reloading, only one has just released.

General Notes: All of the figures are quite good. Facial details are not quite as deep as on Essex figs but by the same token they don't look like cariatures either. Where Chariot really excels is the sculpting of armor,their armor is sculpted deeper and more refined. Figures are the same size as Essex though not as stocky. Castings are excellent, almost 100% flash free and only a few visible modlines.

Horses: Overall smaller than the old Essex ponies and thinner. The way the reins are sculpted on some them make the heads look funny and drawn out, at least unpainted. Seems each pack has has no duplication of horse poses. I don't even want to compare Chariot to the new Essex Clydesdales I hate these monsters, they are wrong, wrong, wrong for ponies.

Eric Lindberg on Chariot's Marian Roman and Saitic Egyptian DBA Packs

I've bought the 15mm Marian Roman and Saitic Egyptian DBA packs from Chariot. All figures are of comparable quality. Detail is fairly good, particularly with regard to body and weapon proportions. While this means that you don't have soldiers with thighs like Sequoias wielding telephone poles, it also means that they tend to be a little fragile. The horses, in particular, tend to look a little scrawny in comparison to other 15mm figures. So long as you don't mix them with other ranges and be sure to treat them with care, they'll look very good. The only source I can find for 15mm Nubian/Kushite cavalry.

Paul Stamper on Chariot's (Early) Indians

My Indians (chariots, elephants, lots of bow) are from Chariot and are really fun figures. They paint up very nicely although this is partly because the sculpted detail is huge (the bow have biceps that would put the Hulk to shame). That said, they look good on the table top are reasonably well proportioned and, if you buy different packs you can have various poses in your bow units. My main criticism is that the metal they use is quite brittle and there are some very thin bits (bows, spears etc) which break off all too easily. Taking Essex as my base point I would say these are better in some ways (less odd poses in the cavalry), the same in others (anatomy, variety), and less good in others (fragility).

Chris Brantley on Chariot's Early Saxon (Gold) Range

I recently purchased the three packs comprising Chariot Miniatures 15mm Early Saxon Gold range for a forthcoming DBA project and am pleased to give them a high rating. The figures were cleanly cast with minimal flash and no molding lines. The poses were detailed and animated. The lack of body armor makes them more suitable for Early Saxons (DBA 75a) than the heavily armored huscarles offered in most other Saxon figure ranges, which are better suited for use with the Middle-Saxon and Anglo-Danish armies. They are nearly identical in scale to Essex and should mix well with most figure lines. Each packet comes with eight figures, with minimal (or no) duplication. The following are direct scans of the figures with notes.

Top of Page | Miniature Sources | DBA Resources |

Last Updated: Sept. 2, 2001

Comments, suggested additions, and/or critiques welcome. Direct them to Chris Brantley at brant@erols.com.