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 RiTides wrote:
DaveC posted that these are metal right above the pics, although obviously they don't look like it here! Are these primed?

They just look like renders to me.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
DaveC posted that these are metal right above the pics, although obviously they don't look like it here! Are these primed?

They just look like renders to me.

Yup, very much renders.

Renders for the previews with the final miniatures to be cast in metal. Sorry if isn't clear I have amended the post to clarify.

Renders of the previews of the designs for the concepts of the previews of the studio miniatures that are supposed to be cast in metal only to be cast in restic with tiny hooves and really long torsos?


I think if they're produced exactly like what we see in the renders they'll be fantastic. Until I see them cast that way though, I will anticipate a quiver on their back to be horribly miscast or some other really odd problem that causes them to just miss the mark. I know that's cynical and snarky but I also find it hard to believe that some of the best looking centaurs out there are about to be produced by Mantic. They produce a lot of miniatures and I don't know that I've ever felt like their version of anything has been the best version of that "whatever" on the market..

Pretty sweet centaurs. Better than GW's centigor, for sure.

When I first saw the renders I got really exited that we were getting plastic multi pose centaurs.
If the metals come out looking like the renders I'll buy a set, in plastic I would of got a couple of units. I hate to say it but as usual, Mantic - Almost.

Wow, I really like those Centaurs. I haven't been all that interested in the Nature army, but seeing those is tempting. Huh... Centaurs are CS1, TC1, 3+ Me, and Nimble. Even with Def 4+, they have Ne 11/3 and run only 100pts. You know, between them, the elementals, Druids, all the vanguard, and pathfinder on everything... they could be an interesting army.

And Mantic's recent string of metals has been really good. The Ogre Berzerkers and Hunters are top rate, and the Silverbreeze were very nice if boring.

The poses seem a bit stiff, but that might just be the lack of paint... eyes can really make models look more alive if done right. These are definitely worth keeping an eye on though.

 Tyr13 wrote:
The poses seem a bit stiff, but that might just be the lack of paint... eyes can really make models look more alive if done right. These are definitely worth keeping an eye on though.

The fact that the renders are straight on isn't doing them any favors. The torsos lack inspiring trunk twist for a sense of action but I think the horse bodies have a good range of poses. I'd really like to see these in a 3/4 shot to get a better sense of the proportions and lines of the models.

"Trunk twist" is a good way of putting it - would be cool to have some half turned.

Tempted by these I gotta say, never been a centaur fan before.

Looking at those harness 'belts' they've got I'd say they're almost certainly intended to be 2 piece, horse body and human torso

so twist away

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Looking at those harness 'belts' they've got I'd say they're almost certainly intended to be 2 piece, horse body and human torso

so twist away

It's not so much about physically turning the torso bit.. you get more action from the figure if the twist in the abdominal section and shoulder girdle creates fluid and dynamic lines of action. It's one of the reasons a lot of multipart kits feel rigid and boring even if they are "posed" dynamically. The underlying anatomy wasn't designed to be in motion. For most people it's a non-issue but if I get any of those I'll probably be re-sculpting the abdominal column and obliques.

I just hope those belts do a better job of joining the (I expect) two halves of the horse body than the join on the restic boars in the Orc army.

I'd have been interested if they were plastic. Looks like the arms are going to be separate and I've had more than enough of pinning metal arms to last a lifetime.

skarsol wrote:
I'd have been interested if they were plastic. Looks like the arms are going to be separate and I've had more than enough of pinning metal arms to last a lifetime.

For what it's worth, I didn't have to pin the arms on the metal Ogre Berzerkers.

Those arms are pretty spindly though. So a pretty small point of contact. Unless youre going for a twhohanded weapon, I dont htink youll be able to get away with not pinning them. :/

RoninXiC wrote:
MAAAAYBE the human part is a bit too big.

One of the reasons I always suggest cervitaurs (deer-centaurs) instead of centaurs is because making the human part a bit too big is necessary. You can't stick an ordinary-sized human torso to the front of an ordinary-sized horse body without it looking weird, so you have to either make the human part bigger, the horse part smaller, or use something smaller than a horse for the back part.

Heh, the timing could have been better for me - I just finished running a centaur heavy Pathfinder adventure last month.

As for the human/horse proportions... there are such things as ponies....

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
As for the human/horse proportions... there are such things as ponies....

Ponies are smaller than horses in the wrong way - you want a slimmer torso (so it blends better into the slim human torso), not shorter legs.

I like the centaurs, those clubs look really deadly. The belt makes me wonder if the human and horse parts are one piece. I don't know much about casting but wouldn't the horse need to be separate? The arm joints look to be the armlets..

 AlexHolker wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
As for the human/horse proportions... there are such things as ponies....

Ponies are smaller than horses in the wrong way - you want a slimmer torso (so it blends better into the slim human torso), not shorter legs.

Very much depends on the pony - some have narrower torsos as well as shorter legs (Welsh and Connemara for example), while other have only shorter legs (Shetlands, as an example).

I think that you are mostly thinking about Shetlands.

Pony covers a wide stretch of breeds, some are bred for racing, others for jumping, yet others as hunters... and some... just happen.

I love Shetlands, but they were not a planned breed.

The Auld Grump - which is part of why Shetlands are also smarter than many breed of pony.... Or horses for that matter. (Mules, on the other hand, are smart and ornery....)

These look pretty nice, but man, feth metal :(

What are mantic's recent metals like in terms of assembly? Do they go for more of a monopole shaped socket approach or just flat surface on flat surface?

They look a little stiff but overall great for rank and file cavalry. A bunch of fiddly detail would get lost in the mass of a 10-man unit, let alone an army. Dynamic torso twists would look nice, but it would be tricky to do that and still have them rank up well. I'd rather see Mantic do this than try for a dynamic pose and screw it up. The thing I love most, however, is the inclusion of both male and female models with their own distinct (torso) sculpts. So often we get uni-gender armies (though TBF all-male does make sense for a lot of context), or we get GW's hybrid models where they don't pull off either gender well.

 Micky wrote:
What are mantic's recent metals like in terms of assembly? Do they go for more of a monopole shaped socket approach or just flat surface on flat surface?

Zombie trolls have flat to flat where the arms are connected. Wights seems to be flat surfaces too, though more monoposed.

Quick tip.. if you have flat to flat metal.. score both sides with a hobby knife in a hatched pattern so the surface looks like a screen. You can also rough it with files. It gives the surfaces something to adhere to and the abrasions and grooves extend the surface area so the bond is not just along one planar surface. This is also exceptionally helpful if you're assembling plastic to metal kits.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program..

With a big flat to flat surface like that at least it's easy to pin. I still think it's poor design and sockets are preferable though.

Yeah, socketed joins would be preferable, although scoring flat surfaces works fine of course.

*shrug* I've got dozens of Infinity models, I'm used to metal by now.

 Micky wrote:


*shrug* I've got dozens of Infinity models, I'm used to metal by now.

I'm just old. What is this "plas-tick" stuff anyway?.. :p

I actually quite like the centaurs, even if they have horns, but the metal puts me off. 30$ or so for 5 pretty nice centaurs is pretty decent compared to most lines, but it is still more than I want to pay if I want 30 of them or more. And I really do want a high number of centaurs in an army.