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I need crossbows

I love your Crusader range, but I need crossbows to out range the bows of those pesky Seljuks.

Have you any plans to produce any sets containing more crossbows?

Mark

Re: I need crossbows

I will use them to support the Teutonic Brothers against the russians. A set of medieval crossbowmen will be very welcome.

Anyway there are plenty of crossbowmen from french and english sets from Hundred Years War (Miniart, Zvezda, Italeri, Revell) and even the hussites. If yu have time and patience to convert some of them...

Re: Re: I need crossbows

I have been complaining about the lack of a set of crossbowmen since the day Strelets came out with their otherwise excellent Crusades range. There is absolutely no way that you can do a historical wargame without Crusader crossbowmen. So I have never purchased any of the sets even though it is killing me. It's like trying to do WWII wargames without machineguns. And frankly I am sick of people suggesting that we spend a fortune in time and money to convert late medieval figures that are really not appropriate, try telling a Napoleonic wargamer to convert some WWI figures and try to pass them off as Napoleonics and see what they say. Bottom line is that Strelets needs to produce a set of Crusader crossbowmen. Make they crossbows separate to avoid all the technical problems. Thanks

Re: Re: Re: I need crossbows

Just to add my two penny worth and support what the guys are saying - crossbowmen are to be found but only in limited numbers across a wide range of sets - we need a dedicated set. While I'm on the crusades bandwagon, we could also do with a set of dedicated Muslim horse archers, not enough in the Seljuk set.

Re: I need crossbows

Jason I think I see a flaw in your plan. The Idea of not buying any figures in a certain range until the precise figures you want are released, even though as you say it's killing you to not buy them is flawed in the sense that Strelets and any company in the Plastic soldier world will release figures according to how popular the range is, sales wise that is. Take the roman figures as an example. They now have released Roman army in battle, on the march, prepairing for battle and the future Roman army attacking. Now if no one had bought the first couple of sets regardless of reason such as yours that you will only buy the full range when the exact box you are waiting for is released, the only conclusion that Strelets can come to when the first sets don't sell is that the range is not popular. So they stop making the range, thus in your case it would follow that no Crossbow men get produced. No company is going to stop producing figures for a range that is selling well. So buying the crusader and muslim figures is important if you really want those crossbow men. I myself would agree that Crossbow men are needed, and hopefully Stelets too will come to that conclusion. Meanwhile I've just finished painting a set of the military order warriors, and if you are interested in this era as you say you are, believe me you are denying yourself a great pleasure. The figures look wonderful painted up.

Re: Re: I need crossbows

You might have a hard time finding the earlier sets if you don't buy soon. Strelets' Romans have already sold out with several dealers and I'm sure the Crusaders will follow suit.

Re: Re: Re: I need crossbows

Yikes! I need to get a move on and buy some Muslims! I agree that not buying might tempt a manufacturer not to complete a range, and Strelets are nice and logical (unlike some who seem to produce and odd set that doesn't tie in with anything else and don't follow up - to some extent Orion do this, although, I love their sets what do you do with one box of Red Cavalry or Polish Winged Hussars when there is nothing else to go with them?)so I think we'd better get buying now. To be honest crossbow men have been long neglected and yet they were such an integral part of so many armies, whilst the long bow, which is well represented, only featured in a few.

Re: Re: Re: Re: I need crossbows

I agree, you should buy what is available since the manufacturer will be encourage to produce more sets

Good Point Guys

You guys make a very good point, I guess I could just buy the available sets and put them away until the crossbow set comes out. But like I said, as a wargamer it's extremely frustrating missing a major component of an army. It does seem that the best course of action is to both support Strelets with purchases and keep up the pressure so they produce the sets we want and need. Thanks for your perspective guys.

How about metal????

In the mean time, do any of you guys have any suggestions with 25mm metal figures? I heard that the older models are small compared to the new 25mm(actually 28mm). Strelets and certainly Zvezda sets are slightly over-sized, so maybe I could match some up as a stop gap. Any suggestions? Old Glory? I have never owned any metal figs so I can't compare. Thanks

Re: How about metal????

I think Old Glory would be massively over scale - there is a british manufacturer 'Tumbling Dice' who do a range of actual 1/72 metal figures which are absolutely compatible with plastics and this includes crossbowmen - there is one in their Norman/Breton range which I expect would be most appropriate for the Crusades and a couple in their War of the Roses range which might not match so well. Here is their website

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/catalogue.html

Re: Re: How about metal????

Jason,
Just to continue Graham Korn's suggestion of Tumbling Dice, I have their Viking packs on the way to me now and I'll let you know what I think about them compared to Strelets Vikings.

307. CHAINMAIL CROSSBOWMEN is the set you want I think

Oh and how about the Valdemar set: Mercenary Crossbowmen?

Re: I need crossbows

Check out Thunderbolt Mountain's 25 mm Arthurian range. Though somewhat taller than most 1/72 plastic sets, they are much truer to human proportions than most metal sculpts. Unfortunately the crossbowman they offer is probably over-armored (chainmail, helm and quilted gambeson) for the Crusades.

Anyway, check out a comparison pick here-

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=283768777&blogID=392638929

Lots of crossbowmen in plastic...

If you need crossbowmen then have a look here:

http://www.valdemarminiatures.com/information.asp?Page=114&menu=5&type=menu&print=print&web_version=1

The set will be made in plastic, weapons will be in metal as the set will come with both crossbows and swords/axes.

We expect to release the set in june/july.

Best regards
www.valdemarminiatures.com