Terrain Projects for 2020/21

Watchful I Studio
https://www.watchfulistudio.com/

Recently I was sent a selection of miniatures by Watchful I Studios from their Qin Army range. These will be more commonly recognized as Terracotta Warriors, which were an outstanding archaeological find in Xian, China several years ago.

The Qin were known for unifying China and creating the first dynasty. The first emperor Qin Shi Huang is known for creating not only the first dynasty, but also starting the creation of the Great Wall and being buried with the famous Terracotta Warriors.

Qin Shi started the construction of the wall, though it was continued for several hundred years by successive Emperors. As a ruler he was considered a tyrant despite his many achievements, in his second year, he became aware of scholars discussing his arrogance, in temper he had 460 of them buried alive.

Both myself and Alex were fortunate to visit Xian on a trip to China a few years back, where we managed to visit the provincial museum and the Terracotta Warriors. It was a great experience, and I’d highly recommend visiting if you get the chance.

The first miniature we’ll take a look at is the officer. All the bodies are pretty much similar apart from the cavalry. With this model you get a selection of heads to choose from along with optional arms. There is very little in the way of mould lines and flash, which means they’re very quick and easy to clean up and prep for undercoating. I plan to make use of the extra heads and arms to make additional officers.

The cavalry is quite nice in the heavy armour, armed with spear, sword and shield. The horse is really nicely sculpted, whist it’s a nice looking mini I prefer my cavalry to have a more dynamic pose like they’re charging.

That said they’re a very nice miniature, and I’m looking forward to painting them.

Next up are the archers, these are lightly armoured as you’d expect with missile troops. There is a sword arm option for one of your soldiers to act as a unit commander. Again, there is virtually zero cast lines and flash on these miniatures, along with the bow arms there is also banner pole.

The foot infantry are slightly more armoured than the archers, with helmeted heads. Most of the troops are armed with spear and shield, though again there is a sword arm option for commander. These aren’t highly dynamic looking troops, but they do look nice all ranked up, which is what they’re suited for.

These are really nice miniatures, which have been well sculpted and cast. They’re very easy to clean and prep ready for painting, which I plan to do over the festive holidays. These would make a great army for a pulp game, very similar to the Undead army in The Mummy; The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

If you’re looking for an alternative historical army than the usual European centric armies that most companies produce. They would also make a great fantasy-based army, especially if you add some Asian mythical creatures to the army. Overall, I really liked this range and I plan to add to them at a later place, once I painted these few models first. My intention is to use them in Test of Honor and at some stage in an Asian setting for SPQR.