Here come the Granbretanians!

Look out Hawkmoon here come the Granbretanian beastmen.
Last week Nic at Eureka Miniatures asked me if I could sculpt a figure of a Granbretainian Vulture Legion warrior. I was pretty happy with this so I got straight into it.

For those who don't have any idea of what I'm on about the Granbretanian's are the creation of author Michael Moorcock. They are a empire of conquering evil doers in his Hawkmoon series of novels. They wear various masks (mostly animals) which are a very important part of their social etiquette. They have hundreds of thousands of soldiers dedicated to various military orders with each wearing the mask of their particular order. So, the one I sculpted was part of the Vulture Legion!

I really enjoyed making this little chap and I think being a huge fan of the stories since I was in high school made a difference to my efforts. And I'm happy to say that Nic liked the figure and I received the go-ahead to make more. This has been a very slow burning project for Eureka (a few years so far) but I'm hoping to get things moving at a good pace. So any of you wargamers that also happen to be Moorcock fans and have been waiting for the chance to get your hands on the armies of Granbretan I'm hoping that you're wait will not be too long.

My concept of the figures will be along the lines of the Italian Wars of the 1500's. By that I mean a couple of things: First is the ability to make large ordered formations similar to regiments of pike, pole arms etc. Second I feel that the imagery in the stories is quite baroque insofar as the elaborate armour, architecture and design. And then there is the weird science that is a mix of alchemy, sorcery and science. To me that falls right in line with the Renaissance. Well a Renaissance that could have been. Then there is the battles, the wars and allegiances of the time: city states, rogue princes, masses of mercenaries.

Having said that my first figure (below) was based on one of the figures Eureka had sculpted a few years back but I looked at the design a bit differently. Considering my ideas I first thought: Vulture Legion: They're mercenaries so... Swiss Guard. Then I thought Landsknecht! Now this was something worth going with.

So I did. And here he is:

He looks very fantasy and there are only a minor details that crept into the design but they were inspired by the fantastic uniforms worn by the landsknecht (German mercenaries of the 1500's). More will be revealed I complete more figures (very soon I hope).