On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet up with Chris Regan, a local gamer who I'd interacted with on social media quite a bit over the past couple of years, but this was the first time we'd gotten the chance to meet up; we weren't able to get a game in, but he picked up a copy of one of my RPG scenarios and was generous enough to gift me copies of a pair of miniatures he'd commissioned. Chris runs a Facebook group called "A Forest of Kings - a Maya Wargaming Project", and he'd had these sculpted and cast up to commemorate the group reaching 500 members.
These figures are based on Yaxchilan Lintel 24, currently in the British Museum. Lintel 24 depicts King Itzamnaaj Bahlam III, aka Lord Shield Jaguar, and his wife, Queen Consort K'abal Xoc; he is holding a torch aloft, illuminating her as she performs a bloodletting ritual. She's pulled a rope studded with obsidian shards through her tongue (AH!), allowing blood to spill on to a codex in front of her, which will be burned as part of the ritual.
So, now I'm contemplating a Classical Maya project. And by "contemplating," I mean I just pulled the trigger on an order over at Badger Games. Since they carry Lucid Eye Publications' miniatures, I picked up nine packs of their "Maxzan" figures, slightly fantastical Mesoamerican-style figures that work well as Mayans. I bought enough to assemble 10 spearmen, 10 warriors with hand weapons, and six "Hornet Throwers," men armed with wasps' nests! I believe I've got another six that I'd bought a few years ago as well. Mana Press' Tribal would be a perfect ruleset for this, and 32 infantry gives me a total of six units (two armies of three!) with a couple figures leftover.
So adding 28 (2 for the figures from Chris, 26 Lucid Eye figures) to the Acquired side of things.
Figures Acquired in 2025: 155
Figures Painted in 2025: 138
Oh my! Fantastic miniatures!!
ReplyDeleteI hope I can do them justice!
DeleteWell, that will be something very different, Bill!
ReplyDeleteI like the look of several of the Lucid Eye ranges but they do seem quite pricey compared with similar manufacturers.....so none have been purchased so far!
They are excellent ranges - though I think them being slightly (or more than slightly!) fantastical bumps them up price-wise from where strict historicals tend to hover. The nice thing with Lucid Eye is they have weekly sales where a handful of packs along a given theme will be on sale for 50% off; that's normally when I buy from them.
DeleteIn this case, since I wanted to strike while the iron is hot (and because the USA has decided to pursue underpants-on-head stupidity as a global economic policy), I ordered everything I needed (minus a few character figures) from Badger Games, Lucid Eye's US distributor, or one of them at any rate. Faster arrival and not having to deal with the tariffs mess. I should have them early next week versus the 2-3 weeks I would wait for figures from Lucid Eye in normal times.
The Maya are much less represented in 28mm than the Aztecs are; Gringo40s has a Mayan range though poses are extremely limited and Eureka Miniatures' Mayans seem to be out of production.