Cavegirls by Reaper Miniatures

Reaper Miniatures have recently brought out a couple of cavegirl models. They aren't exactly up to Copplestone standards but the one on the right is quite Raquel-like and might be worth getting if I see them. The one on the left looks like it was done by a different sculptor and has rather fat legs! They sell Reaper Miniatures in Orc's Nest so they might get them, I suppose. They are usually a bit bigger than 28mm but the Copplestone figures are quite large so it shouldn't matter too much.

http://www.reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=5327&cat=0&page=1

Smilodon

Here is the Reaper Miniatures Smilodon painted up with Copplestone Cavegirl.

Now, of course, most of the Smilodon fossils have been from North and South America where it lived from about 3 million years ago until about 10,000 years ago. So our cavegirl would have been from some time between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. Sabre tooth cats in Europe died out much earlier, so a blonde with a Sabre tooth would be historically very inaccurate unless she had managed somehow to cross to the Americas 9,000 years before Leif Ericsson.

Our cavegirls are probably from a Lost World, somewhere in South America, where they interact with Dinosaurs and other species preserved on an inaccessible mountain plateau.

Although they used to be called sabre tooth tigers Smilodon was, in reality, related to true cats and mongooses (mongeese?). They probably weren't as big as this, as they were slightly smaller than a modern lion, although they weighed twice as much. But then girls were no doubt a lot smaller and in our Lost World plateau who knows?

I have gone for a patterned coat, like many modern big cats, based on the Smilodon from the BBC series Walking with Beasts.

Grrrr!

Reaper Miniatures Sabre Tooth

When I was in Orc's Nest on Friday buying my cavegirls I just happened to see this Reaper Miniatures Sabertooth Tiger (American Spelling).
I have looked at Reapers figures quite often and some of them are very nice but they are big 30mm figures and so not much use to me in the normal course of things. For a creature, however, of course, it doesn't matter. This is from their Dark Heaven Legends range and is number 2480.

It's actually a pretty good representation of a Smilodon, although rather on the large side.

There was a lot of heavy moulding attached to two of the legs which I had to carve and file away but now it's ready to paint.

More Copplestone cavegirls and some conversions

I bought another pack of Copplestone Cavegirls as a Christmas present to myself and bent their arms and legs a bit to make them look a little different from the ones I have already painted.

Then I went mad and gave one longer hair using greenstuff which I have just started to use for the first time.

I then took a Foundry Valkyrie (a nice figure by Mark Sims-but useless for gaming) and worked on her a bit more to make her more cavegirl like. I'm just hoping my painting can disguise my horrible sculpting. We will see as I am going to put up a stage by stage set of pictures up. Next, I might get some of the Foundry nymphs as they have some nice naked warriors who I might be able to cavegirlise!

Copplestone Caveman range

Here is their complete range. It's small but I like them better than any other manufacturers. These are very much based on the look of One Million Years BC's cavepeople. For games like Prehistoric Settlement it would be nice to have some more civilian types.

Cavewomen C25

Cavemen C26

More Cavemen C29

Cavemen characters C47

Giant Flightless Bird K24

One Million Years BC: miniatures

If you yearn to have a little bit of Raquel on your shelf there are a number of model kits inspired by the film. This first one is unusual in that it really is "inspired by". In the actual film it is the John Richardson character that spears the Allosaurus in this pose. The modelmakers have decided that the model would sell better (rightly) if they used a cavegirl in a fur bikini instead. She certainly looks fit enough to take on an Allosaurus!

Here is another model taking a cavegirl and dinosaur theme. Her outfit is not so obviously based on Raquel's, though. Lovely painting on this example.

This model recreates the famous Pterodactyl kidnap. Oddly, the figure of the girl looks exactly like the stop-motion dollies that Ray Harryhausen used to make when needing human figures to interact with his monsters. They always used to kick their little legs a lot to demonstrate that they weren't a model (which of course, they were).  You can buy it here,  

This one tries to capture the famous pose and even has an attempt at Raquel's fine boned face. The painting of this model lets down the effect, however, more golden tans would have helped a lot.

This one, by Andrea Miniatures from Spain gets the colours down better and the model itself does a better job of capturing Raquel's unique physique. Again, the face isn't brilliant and it even looks like they have downsized her bust - not what you would usually expect on a miniature like this!

This one is the best attempt to get the pose, the physique and the face. Here are versions by two different painters. Neither captures Raquel's face really but it's the closest. Her bust looks right as well. If I had to buy one I think I would go for the Andrea miniatures one as the best interpretation. It's an 80mm white metal figure and your skin tone painting would have to be spot on!

Cavegirl Wargaming

This blog is going to cover my attempts to put together a caveman wargames force and come up with some appropriate neolithic/Lost World scenarios so that I can employ my lovely Copplestone Castings cavegirls. These 28mm lovelies are obviously inspired by One Million Years BC and make no attempt to be historically (or, rather, pre-historically) accurate.