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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Thark Thursday: Bronze Age Miniatures

Thought it'd be nice to see some sculptural interpretations of our favorite four-armed friends. Lead sculptor David Soderquist at Bronze Age Miniatures has crafted some mightily impressive Barsoomians (or their nearest stand-ins as they're called "wasteland mutants" on the site). These are among, if not the, best Thark minis I've come across.

I own a few of these myself and they're just wonderful. They stand taller than normal minis being cast in 32mm scale--don't ask me if that's true to the source material, I'm not a good enough judge of that. But I can say that your average 25-28mm is going to look pretty shrimpy next to these dudes.

Following are some superbly painted figs that show off the detail and extraordinary musculature of the sculpts:






Love the hands on this guy 




He's got several mounted ones as well, including this sentry-like fellow 

This one's painted to be a Jeddak, who can only be Tars Tarkas

1 comment:

  1. These are excellent reproductions . .. . GREEN MARTIANS (G) are the hereditary enemies of the other races of the Red Planet. The most striking distinction of these equestrian barbarians is their massive size; adult males are typically 1.5 ads (or fourteen feet) in height. The following description was given by Captain Carter upon discovering an incubator:

    “They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme side of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once without the necessity of turning the head.

    “The ears were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouth and ears.

    “There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon, this deepens to an olive green and is darker in the males than the females. Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of proportion to their bodies as in the case of their young.
    “The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in albinos, while the pupil is dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth. These latter add a most fearsome and terrible countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located. The whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming of china.” (Princess of Mar, Chapter II)

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