Monday, October 21, 2013

Modern crossbows for classic figures

While I have tremendous respect and admiration of many of the sculpts from the classic period of WFB I've have never been a fan of the plastic crossbows that some of them were armed with.  These plastic pieces were used by troops of many different armies including dwarfs, empire, orcs, bretonnian, and chaos dwarfs....and they looked terrible in all their hands...


Recently I have been looking around for an alternative to these crossbows.  Folks like Jaeckel have turned to using crossbows produced by Foundry...and they look good, If a bit basic to my eye....but I prefer crossbows with a stirrup for reloading.  This sent me looking around and hitting up the web sites of many different manufacturers.  I finally  found what I wanted at Gripping Beast (Product Link). This just arrived at my house...


Here is a comparison with the original plastics



I'll be using primarily for my puff and slash empire crossbow unit and possibly my chaos dwarf shooters as well...

...take a look...



Overall I'm quite happy with how they look.  My only quibble is that the right hand of these figures was sculpted with the thicker plastic crossbows in mind and the stock end of the Gripping Beast ones are much thinner...leaving that right hand looking a little odd...maybe some green stuff can fix that?

With the empire guys I think they work particularly well.  This guy is one of my favorites.



Cheers for now!

Blue
Posted by Blue in VT at 11:07 PM
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10 comments:

  1. Timmy CrabcakesOctober 21, 2013 at 11:51 PM

    Thanks for posting this!
    I've picked up some of the old chaos dwarfs with crossbows, and like you say... the fit is kinda iffy. These look better and I'd just as soon use metal vs. plastic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr SaturdayOctober 22, 2013 at 4:36 AM

    Nice post. I might look into that for my own chaos dwarves. I do remember the Mordheim set coming with crossbows that were very detailed, even featuring the cord.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AsslessmanOctober 22, 2013 at 4:57 AM

    The imperial soldiers look really good with those crossbows indeed.
    As for the dwarves, making the shaft thicker at the end with GS might be enough.
    Looking forward to these

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  4. RabOctober 22, 2013 at 5:15 AM

    Thanks for the tip, Blue - now those crossbow-less figures on ebay are a lot more tempting...

    ReplyDelete
  5. stonecoldleadOctober 22, 2013 at 5:34 AM

    I've used the Foundry ones on my old Bretonnians and they look far better than the GW plastics ever did. The plastics always looked a little out of place, like they didn't quite fit the model but the Foundry ones look part of the model now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blue in VTOctober 22, 2013 at 10:22 AM

      Right it was you! I couldn't remember where the source of info on the Foundry ones started....thanks SCL!

      Delete
  6. Blue in VTOctober 22, 2013 at 10:23 AM

    Thanks guys...I should also mention that these are quite cheap 2.50pound for 20.

    Also I have updated the post with direct links to the product on the GB web site and to Jaekel's blog post about the Foundry Xbows.

    ReplyDelete
  7. R SingersOctober 23, 2013 at 3:31 AM

    Hi, would they work to replace the old plug in crossbows? Maybe with a bit of green stuff to make hands?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blue in VTOctober 23, 2013 at 3:38 PM

      I think that they could be used for that quite effectively...but if you dread the idea of "sculpting" that many hands onto these cross bows I would suggest getting some of the Plug-in ones from White Knight...they seem to fit the old marauder figures pretty well....and have hands on them! here is a link:

      http://whiteknightminiatureimperium.blogspot.com/search/label/Dwarf%20Weapons

      Tell him Blue sent ya!

      Delete
  8. SirolfOctober 28, 2013 at 4:09 AM

    Hey, you should give the Front Rank crossbows a shot (http://www.frontrank.com/big_pictures.asp?prod=420&pn=4) I used them for the same minis and they look excellent. They are very well sculpted, detailed, and are more late-medieval looking than the Grippin Beasts.

    ReplyDelete

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