Graal Miniatures – Marius Mules Legends of Rome
Earlier this month we gave you a short introduction to Graal Miniatures, and today we are taking a closer look at the infantry from the currently running Kickstarter, which covers Romans in 32mm scale. We have a few of the characters in blisters and a unit from one of the boxed sets on the desk.
Although Graal Miniatures also offers digital products via their Patreon, the crowdfunding campaign is purely about physical, resin 3D-printed models, intended for game systems such as Saga: Age of Caesars, Hail Caesar or Swordpoint.
But first, a bit of context, because Romans are a safe bet in tabletop gaming and are already available in 25-32mm from plenty of manufacturers, in metal as well as plastic. But not all Romans are the same. We will keep this brief and simplified to give you a quick overview, rather than turning it into a multi-volume master's thesis. Simply put, when people talk about Rome they usually mean the period from 509 BC to 476 AD (referring primarily to the Western Roman Empire, as the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, lasted until 1453). That is a span of roughly 1,000 years, and we will leave the Regal Period before the Roman Republic aside for now.
The Roman Republic, from 509 to 27 BC, can be divided into three eras: the Early Republic, in which Rome gradually conquered Italy, the Middle Republic with the Punic Wars and expansion across the Mediterranean, and the Late Republic, which includes Caesar, the Roman civil wars, the Marian reforms and the Gallic Wars. Even these three phases show differences in the soldiers' armour and weapons. The Republic was followed by the Imperial period (27 BC until the division of the empire into West and East in 395 AD), during which the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent in 117 AD. After that comes Late Antiquity, lasting until the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. To simplify things once more, in tabletop terms you can roughly split them into Republican Romans and Imperial Romans, which is where the most obvious visual differences lie. Set apart from those are the Late Romans of Late Antiquity, who look quite different again.
Graal Miniatures – Marius Mules Roman Kickstarter Teaser
Graal Miniatures is a new name, and Marius' Mules: Legend of Rome is its first project. Behind the label is Quentin Renaud, a French 3D artist who sculpts every miniature himself. The Kickstarter went live on Tuesday, 6 October, and Quentin was kind enough to send me a broad selection of models in advance, from regular legionaries to several character models.
Which Romans?
The range covers the late 2nd century BC, a period that rarely gets attention in 28mm. This is the army of Gaius Marius during the wars against the Cimbri and Teutones, the moment the Republic's legions began turning into the professional force that would later conquer Gaul. The name is a nod to the nickname Marius' soldiers earned for carrying their own kit on the march.
The range is designed as a complete army rather than a handful of display pieces. It includes legionaries, cavalry, auxiliaries, officers and historical characters. A command group with centurion, signifer and tubicen is part of it, and characters like Quintus Servilius Caepio and Lucius Cornelius Sulla show where the range is headed. Poses and equipment are modular, so your units won't look like twenty copies of the same man.
Warhammer Fantasy – Forge World Ruined Chaos Temple
I was able to pick up another Forge World terrain pieces, and this time it was the Ruined Chaos Temple. This one was initially released in 1999, as TR WFB S 017 (while the old online shop listed it with the Reference FWW019/MO and sold through the 2000s.
It started at 38 GBP but quickly was moved to another price bracket, at 42 GBP / 71 EUR / 84 USD for the eight resin pieces. The Chaos Temple was designed by Simon Harris, who did quite a few pieces for Forge World, among them some of the scenery pieces later collected under the Warhammer Forge brand.
The ruined chaos temple is made from a large base, which is roughly 18 x 23 cm in foot print, along with six pillars in different height and a ring for the pit.
3d printing – a recap
My in-house 3D printing has come to an end, at least for the time being.
In March 2022, I bought a resin printer from Anycubic in an Easter sale, and now I would like to share a recap of my experience. First of all, thank you so much to Broncofish for the help at the beginning. This made the learning curve much steeper, with no major issues, which made it such a pleasant experience right from the start.
What were the costs over the last three and a half years? In total, I spent just under one thousand dollars on the 3D printer and consumables. Here is a detailed breakdown:
Mortal Gods – 3d printed scatter
Having access to a 3D printer is a huge asset in our hobby, and while mine was still set up, I used it for Mortal Gods as well.
Dino initially asked me for some pieces for his demo table, so I printed two statues for him. These are items that you can easily pick up for free on Cults.
Over time, demand for additional pieces grew, so I added a few more items to my print plate.
Gaslands – 3d printed items
With the deadline on the access to my 3d printer, I am going through the different project that are in need of attention of 3d printed items. And one of the system that is on that schedule, is Gaslands!
While I do have the cars, the question is - what else do I need? I do have the upgrade sprues that Northstar offers, I have the dice and in terms of core game items, am only missing the tokens and templates.
But beyond that, I need mostly terrain:
- Barriers
- Stacks of Cars (considering just buying a cheap set of Matchbox cars and smashing them in a vice)
- Something to mark the gates / check points
- Pieces to convert the vehicles
Warhammer 40,000 – Forge World Imperial Sandbag Bunker
In addition to the Taros Underground Entrance I picked up the Imperial Sandbag Bunker a while back. They go for insane prices on eBay, but I managed to get it at a reasonable rate through one of the Bitbox events quite some time ago.
The article code was TR-40K-S-030 and was sold for 20 GBP / 34 EUR when available around 2006. The model was designed by Tim Adcock, who designed the Falcon and first 28mm scale Thunderhawk.
Warhammer 40,000 – Forge World Taros Underground Entrance
A blast from the past - a Forge World item from 2006 that I picked up a long time ago, but for a bit more than the original RRP of 16 GBP. Nowadays you would have to pay somewhere between 55 to 130 EUR on eBay to get your hands on one of these.
As it is so rare, I thought I would take some measurements. Just in case some of you want to scratch build this thing. Due to its bulky and non-organic structure, this should be within realistic limits. The grid of my cutting mat is 1 cm each.
Warmaster – Small Settlements to fight over
We are talking about Warmaster again and after printing a whole week of tiny skeletons, I wanted to add some terrain to the table. While I have generic terrain like hills and trees, I thought about a small town or settlement, that could be used as a point of interest or scenario objective.
Not everything, but a lot of terrain can be scaled down to 40% to fit Warmaster, and as I wanted to have a small settlement, that could be used with Bretonnians as well as Undeads, I searched for some more rugged, run-down buildings, that could house either rather poor peasants or corrupted minions of the undead. And the Slum huts by Infinite Dimenions Games would be perfect for that!
Initially I intended to print the shacks A, B, C and the Slum Tenement A, but the last one would take 5 (!) print plates on my printer, so I decided to just go for the three shacks, and as you can see above, these already provide a bit of a foot print.
Warmaster – Tomb Kings of Khemri
What is a perfect way to motivate yourself beside deadlines? Having somebody else join your project / play the same games. So I managed to fire up Florian / Celebration Parallax about Warmaster and he chose the Tomb Kings of Khemri.
Not a bad fit, as that would create the Bretonnia vs. Khemri setup from the Old World Release, we could do a bit of crusading and it would certainly not feel like a mirror match.
Beside that, due to their design, painting them in 10mm shouldn't be the hardest thing, as you could probably easily do a lot already with a coloured primer, midtone wash and a bit of dry-brushing. For those of you, who don't know the Tomg Kings of Khemri, they are egyptian themed undead within the Warhammer World, using a lot of elements of the era, like Sphinxes or Chariots.
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