Dear All

For Zvezda's Russian Knights I could possibly make the same comments as I made for Revell's Normans ie some excellent figures and some poor one and more of the poor than the good in the set. So, filling in a gap part II.

I echo the others comments on these masters.

Did they have swords as big as the chap second from the right at top? I thought they were like the commander figure's on the left or sabre shaped.

Filling in the gaps part III

Allies and enemies of A.Nevski and 13th c. Russians.

It now seems obvious that there should be some more Mongols/Tartars to extend Zvezda's Mongol set. The Zvezda set is good but far too few poses. For example 4 archers
loading,
drawing,
aiming,
releasing
armoured and unarmoured
and also some figures to handle the siege equipment and a standing horse and a saddle less one and so on. from a pose point of view these Zvezda Mongol figures are poor relations now.

Mongols,

You have forgotten the Mongols made by Italeri. These are also very good figures although there are probably too many heavily armoured men and horses compared to the lightly armoured ones. Similarly Italeri Teutonic knights mix perfectly with Zvedza Livonian Knights. A nice era to battle with what amounts to 3 different armies that are all enemies of each other instead of the normal 2 against 1 situation.

Best regards,


Malcolm

Dear Malcolm

I hadn't forgotten about them I thought they were not current. I just missed them on the Italeri list as they are now called Huns/Golden Hords (sic) though still Mongols on the box (strange?).
Rava's illustration is tantalising and gives an idea of what they could be like. I prefer the Zvezda horses they look more like the Mongol pony.
You are right, in both sets the balance is wrong between heavy and light armour and also between spear throwers /lancers/ swordsmen and archers