The Sunland Knights: Full Preview!
Beer Barrel & Merchant Tier Download Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/58725347
Beer Mug Tier Download Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/58725304
Good evening fellow members of the Council of the Empire of Sun! ⚔️☀️
The Imperial Stables are more alive than ever with this first cavalry unit, the Sunland Knights!
The unit is composed of seven core knights, one bannerman, one musician and the captain of the unit. We have decided to increase the number of miniatures in two more miniatures from the planned five core knights to be able to make one with a two-handed sword pose and other one with a one hand charging pose. We have tried to find the perfect balance between the dynamism of a cavalry unit with some of the miniatures while others are more static to be able to create a full good looking ranked unit.
In the preview you can see all the helmets and modular weapons this unit (and the Sunland Knights on foot) will be able to use, with some swords, maces, lances and a hammer. The captain and the musician come in a single pose with heads and weapons attached to the body due to their design.
As we told you in the previous post, for this amazing ‘renaissance style’ cavalry unit we have follow some historical references, like the French Gendarmes of the Compagnies d’Ordonnance around the 16th century. If you want to learn more about heavy calvary, check this post from the Met Museum with some cool references: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hors/hd_hors.htm
About the Knights of the Rising Sun on young griffins, the other day we were discussing in the Highlands Miniatures Discord server about them, and we found some cool historical references, specifically about the Opinicus, a variant of the classic griffin very common in the heraldic art of the middle age in England. The Opinicus were said to be born without wings which reportedly develop over the course of the creatures life, so they perfectly match our idea of the young griffin, leaving the big winged griffin only for the bravest hero of the Empire of Sun. You can read a bit more about them here: https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Opinicus
Also, next Monday 8th of November we will make the poll to decide the December and January Releases in Highlands Miniatures. Be ready for more amazing stuff!
Hope you like it as much as we do guys. We read you as always! ❤️
Comments (52)
Can't find a link, where I can download the full amazing release?
You can download the miniatures from the Drive Archive: https://www.patreon.com/posts/58725347 At the moment there are only the Sunland Knights on horse and on foot, the Knights of the Rising Sun and the Baroness are being pre-supported at the moment and will be available soon! :D
I would love to see the imperial troops on horses, Full armored knights are not my flavour. However those imperial clothes on horses are yummy.
I would really love to see dismounted knights at some point. I desperately need them for my game! thanks though :)
Hi Justin! The second unit for this November Release is the Sunland Knights on foot, so you don't have to wait any longer! :D
New patron here. I don't know what your work process is like, but if you have working files in which the arms and shoulders were separate shells, could you upload them with the shells still separate? I's like to use these bodies with other arms - once again, assuming it's easy.
Awesome! Can I ask, would it be possible to get an armoured hand holding a pistol please?!?!?!
Any news on how far away these are from being uploaded please? :)
Today we will upload the standard supports version and we will upload the thin supports version as soon as we receive it!
How do we download them and when are the griffin knights coming? They look great.
Hi Joey! The Sunland Knigths are being pre-supported at the moment, so probably by the end of the week they will be ready to download from the Drive Archive! The Knights of the Rising Sun are still in progress, we expect to show some previews soon! :D
You will never be able to make everyone happy but at least I am happy with those design I just wish for more helm style design but it's ok also some front leg guards for the horses would cool XD. btw did you read my post about the Arcane cannon?
While the sculpting is great and so many different poses fantastic as always, I am quite disappointed with these because the horse armor appears to be merely "cloned" from the equally bad horse armor of the GW knights. By the early 16th century (the period which most of the "Imperial" clothing, armor, and weapons of both GW and Highland draw inspiration on), this kind kind angular "Gothic", armor was essentially obsolete, and the newer styles were more rounded. In fact, the GW armor copied here is not actually based on any real armor at all, and is one of the biggest weaknesses of both companies in using these figures in a historical setting. Why didn't the GW or Highland designers simply open a book or scan the internet to see what horse armor of the early fifteenth century actually looked like? There are many surviving examples in museums and images of them are easily obtainable, not to mention original period paintings. I really hope the horse armor will be redone , and reflect REAL armor of the 16th century -- we don't need more of the same "cartoon armor" of GW on these new figures, which was the worst aspect of those figures made over 20 years ago. I frankly cannot see ANY example of 16th century horse armor from the MET collection that looks like this armor as mentioned above. Ironically, the MET has produced a small, inexpensive, but very comprehensive catlaog/study entitled "The Armored Horse in Europe 1480-1620", which shows actual photos of numerous sets and part of armor of this period which should have been used in making this set. I would be happy to send images from this book of the MANY period armors illustrated in it to actually make these figures look realistic and historically accurate, instead of these virtual clones of the GW Imperial horses.
Hi Daniel! Thank you for your feedback. Actually, the horse armor is an exact representation of the second one starting from the left displayed in this image from the Met Museum of New York: https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/arms-and-armor. The use of that one instead of a simple round one is just an aesthetic choice. And again, the goal of this Patreon has NEVER been and will NEVER be to create historical miniatures because of its obvious limitations in terms of designs (perfectly stated by your comment). Cheers! :D
I just want to say I really appreciate how much variety you put into your unit designs. I don't see many other designers making 10 and 14 complete different models before any mixing and matching. I think it's great.
Those knights looks so mighty and imposing! Beautiful sculpts
How are you planning to have weapons attached to hands? Will they have hands on weapons and separate to wrist, similar to cuirassiers? I would love to have them with pistols so I wonder if that will work or will I need to cut stuff and glue by hand.
Yes, the weapons will be attached to a hand with a round joint to fit in a hole in the wrist, similar to the Black Riders! :D
My first ever miniatures were the Empire Knights for my 13th birthday. I absolutely loved them however they haven't aged well and the horses are much too small. This preview has rekindled that excitement and has been the first alternative sculpt that has ever improved on the originals! I can't wait for them :)
Oooh, that is very sweet of you for saying that, thank you very much Will, glad you like them! :D
Perfect! I will use them for Volands Venators.
Thank you very much Christian! Nice choice! :D
Beautiful!
Thank you very much Ryan!
I have lots of Empire reiksguard knights and now i am going to have to get some of these too.
Thank you Alex!! Glad you like them :D
YES!! YES!! YES!! I love you guys! Great work! I am so excited for the November release XD One thing maybe there will be some trouble to place the Banner bearer in close ranks? Also love the idea with the wingless griffons as demi griffons *cough cough* ;) please make them available with Hellbeards XD
Thank you very much Hung! The bearer is mean to be placed in the corner of the front line, but I think it could be placed also with some of the charguing poses knights side to side. Glad you like them Hung! :D
Absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for your hard work and time taken!
Thank you very much for your support Zack! :D
I think I need to just buckle down and buy a dedicated horse printer already. Love the sculpts as always
hahah thank you very much Mike!! Glad you like them :D
these are great - far better than the WHFB ones (which GW never got around to updating). Just one note ... WHFB has an option (which most people took, unless wielding double handed weapons, eg Knights of the White Wolf) for shields. You won't find shields in actual historically accurate late Renaissance knights like those in the Met - they weren't used by this stage. But it would be good to have a shields option if possible (I know this is my second post/comment about shields, promise you I'm not obsessed).
Thank you very much Mark, glad you like them! In the preview images you can see the modular weapons that will be available for this unit, and also the three shields that you will be able to glue in the left arm (they come as an optional piece). :D
Just please make lances as separate bits. Cleaning hussars with lances is true horror.
Don't worry! As you can read and see in the preview images, the weapons are modular, so they come separated from the bodies! :D
They look very nice but I would love to see some cavalry sabres in the set.
Thank you Karol, we will add one saber for the swords weapons too :D
Wonderful!!! As usual!!!
Thank you very much Alexis!! :D
Looking at these latest models leaves me speechless... Truly amazing!
Thank you very much for your lovely words! Glad you like them :D
Hmm I don’t really need anymore kni….holy shit I need more resin.
hahah thank you very much Nicholas! :D
Really really nice guys. Love them!!
Thank you very much Phil! Super glad you like them <3
Impressive!
Thank you Tony!! :D
This is soooo awesome. I love the different plumes, can I suggest adding one or two more basic helmet types?
Thank you Wulfhart! Remember that you can also will be able to use the previous Sunland helmets for older releases in these knights, because the joins are all the same :D
Oh, how the earth trembled under the hooves of the glorious Sunland Knights. A battle which was to remember! (Great work, again!)
Thank you very very much Alexander! <3