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Reviews of Lancashire Miniatures

Antiochus on Parthians and Early Germans

I bought an entire Parthian army a few years back, sight unseen. I liked their prices (appear to be the cheapest 15's on the market). However, when they arrived, I was a little disappointed. The cataphracts were riding these tiny little ponies, while the horse archers were riding these massive muscular horses. They just don't look right when lined up together. Also the cataphract horse legs were very thin and several were broken in the bag, before i even opened them. The cataphracts are also very poorly sculpted with litttle detail. The horse archers are much better, although I had some breakage with their legs as well. The horse archers do look good when painted up. The lances on the cataphracts are also very thin and bend very easily. I ended up throwing out about 30 cataphracts which I had painted and based because their legs kept bending and breaking. If I had it to do it all over again, I would not buy their cataphracts! I would, however reccomend the horse archers! These particularly mix well with my other figs (mostly Donnington).

I also picked up some Early German cavalry. Very nice figs, well animated and sculpted(no probs with the legs here). Paint up nicely. Their Early German infrantry is not bad, but again I had problems with their feet breaking off the bases.As i said earlier most of my figs are Donnington and they are very sturdy! I've never had a base break off with them. I find the overall look of the figs from Lancashire to be on the thinnish side as well. My personal taste is for chunkier figs.

Reply by Allan Lumley of Lancashire Games: Just to let you know we take on board what your reviewers say, we have redesigned our Parthian cataphracts and would like to send some for you or someone else to review to balance the review of our Parthians on line on your site at present. (REVIEW OF NEW FIGURES FORTHCOMING)

Chris Brantley on Parthian Cataphracts

Allen Lumley of Lanchashire Games was kind enough to provide the DBA Resource Page with samples of their reworked Parthian cataphracts for review. The sample included three figures, posed as standing (stationary horse, kontos at 60%) advancing (trotting horse, kontos at 60%) and charging (galloping horse with kontos leveled). Horses are fully barded. I presume these correspond to Lancashire codes SP3, SP4 and SP5 respectively, although I am not sure if there is variety in these packs.

The figures are a bit large (20mm from foot to top of helmet), but on horseback (25mm from hoof to helmet top) are scaled to mix reasonably well with Essex and other mounted. The samples were cleanly cast, with no visible mould lines and minimal flash, although the bases were a bit rough. The kontos are full length (40mm) in soft lead, and will be prone to bending and breakage in regular usage. Someone skilled at conversions should be able to replace them with wire without too much difficulty. My knowledge of Parthians is somewhat limited, but the carvings appear to be based on the Parthian (#83) depicted in Phil Barker's Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome.

There was something about these figures that I couldn't quite put my finger on. After further scrutiny, I realized that it was the width of the horses. They are quite thin in cross-section, barely 5mm across even with the bulky horse armor. At first I thought this was a flaw, but then remembering that Parthian cataphracts are based 4xKn, I realized this is actually a virtue, since it ensures that all four castings will fit cleanly on the standard 40mm wide DBx base.

My one real (albeit minor) criticism has to do with the carving of facial features. All three figures have open helmets and have been carved with beards. Beyond that, the facial features are minimal. This is particularly obvious on the charging cataphract, where the face behind the beard appears to be absolutely flat (i.e. no indication of eyes and the nose is almost non-existant). The absence of detailed features is not particularly noticeable except on close inspection and a good painter will be able to add the necessary details.

On balance, I believe Lanchasire achieves with these figures their goal of providing reasonable quality at the best value.

Colin Hagreen on Celts

At Cavalier I bought a bag of Celtic infantry from Lancashire Games, £12. I have 36 figures ready to paint as six horde elements, another 13 figures to paint as two spear elements, plus perhaps another 50-60 still in the bag. The bag contained (I think) six poses - two naked/sword, one naked/spear, two trousered/spear and one trousered/sling, though I may have missed one. The figures are almost dead on 15mm.

They are similar in style to Warrior, rough-and-ready and without much detail. A very few suffer from mis-located moulds leaving a quite noticeable mis-alignment between the sides of the figure. Poses are generally good, though the slinger appears to have dislocated his shoulder. I slated Warrior's quality somewhat unfairly when I first saw them, but they painted up well - I am assuming these will do the same. The main reserve I have is the softness of the metal, which makes it difficult to clean up the figure and base without twisting the ankles and which may lead to breaking in play - we will see.

None of the figures are really suitable for the more heroic elements, they are very definitely rank-and-file figures... but I think they will look good in bulk, and they are certainly cheap.

MalcyMac on Ancient Assyrians

I have some Ancient Assyrians - the heavy infantry and chariots painted up into nice little models (they are Essex sized) - I didn't like the cavalry so much - but that is because I dislike one piece cavalry castings. No variation within packets of course - for irregulars you might want to mix them with other manufacturers troops. (8/99)

Don Miller on Celtic Cavalry

Just finished 40 of their 15mm Celt cav. (bargain bag); saved $3 over buying Old Glory 15's (didn't want to mount the riders). Wish I hadn't bought them; the casting is poor, and there were three figures with broken bases (horses had weak ankles). The castings are one-piece and "flatish"; detail is crude on 50% of the poses. Have another sample of command cav.; 3 to a bag. Detail is better but the metal is still weak. (10/00)

Ray Rangel on New King Egyptians

I have about 450-500 pts of (Lancashire) DBM New Kingdom Egyptians. I really like them. I will say that when I looked at the raw lead I was concerned. But they paint-up well and look really good on the table. Since I try to avoid mixing manufactures (because of style more than size) I can't really comment about how well they go with others. I do have *lots* of Donnington DBA armies and the NKE don't look odd when fighting them. My DBA NKE are falcon and look chunky and over fed next to the Lancashire. The Lancashire chariots look light they way they are supposed to as opposed to Falcon's which are much more solid.

Dave Watson (aka Balkan Dave) on Goths

I bought some Goths and they look good. Their older ranges were small 15mm with poor detail so make sure you buy the new stuff.

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Last Updated: March 10, 2001

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