While the Funckens and Saxtorph can take credit for some of the weirder figure creations they cannot be held reposible for this effort by the brilliant Dick Higgs: the Carthaginian archer. I cannot think I have read a single reference to this particular troop type or seen an illustration of one. I can't imagine Dick just made it up, though. I have them in my Persian army as representatives of Lydia. Incidentally when I had a chat with Neville Dickinson founder/owner of Minifigs many years ago he described his early encounters with the Higgs brothers with words along the lines of "They were all at art school, living in this big house that was filled with the smell of funny tobacco and all they thought about was sex and wargaming". How unlike my own youth...
The Funckens and Saxtorph (all still owned and cherished) compiled late 19th C. reconstructions. Most were recently proven to be erroneous in part or wholly erroneous, but for us elderly have such a nostalgia value! These reconstructions were also used to illustrate history books, dictionaries... thus provided us with what 'visualize' the battles in Salammbô and the like... Many Rose and Alymer 54mm figurines were also straight from Funcken and Saxtorph.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it was that kind of images Howard had in his mind when writing the adventures of Conan, so for instance his 'Hyrkanians' would probably look like the archetypical Huns / Mongols of old popular illustrations. Meaning that when it comes to play a 'Hyboria' campaign, old minis of the pre-PB era are more adequate than any 'historically accurate' current ones ....
Thanks Abdul. To paraphrase John Ford: if it comes to a choice between the truth and the legend - paint the legend.
DeleteMaybe if I changed the name of my S Range blog from "The Lone Ranger" to "Sex and Wargaming" it wouls attract more traffic
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough there's a book about supporting Berwick Rangers called "The Lone Ranger". The author told me that he'd really wanted to name it after a popular Berwick chant "I want to be a Berwick Ranger/ Only live for sex and danger" but the publisher felt a book about third tier Scottish football titled "Sex and Danger" might mislead the public. Also there was a Sunderland fanzine named Sex and Chocolate. The eMartin McFadden said he called it that simply so he could approach people going to the Stadium of Light and say "Do you want Sex and Chocolate?".
DeleteNot much funny tobacco or art in the Big House (aka Maisenneuve Barracks) I lived in back in my college days but the rest sounds familiar.
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