Miniatures suitable for Carcosa

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Brock Savage

Cosmic Barbarian
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I could use some help from the Pub's miniature gurus. I am looking for miniatures for Carcosa. The setting is deliberately vague in many places so I am not even 100% sure what I'm looking for but I will know it when I see it; I realize this makes my request a strange one. I already have a lot of the miniatures I need (Lovecraftian monsters, slimes, and dinosaurs) but what I really need are fantasy tribal peoples. The climate was engineered by snake-men so most of the planet is hot and dry or hot and humid; I get a strong loincloth hero and bikini heroine vibe. I feel like the author has also said that a typical resident wears loincloth + boots and maybe a cloak but I can't find the quote.

Here are some message board quotes from the author and a couple dudes who seem to grok the setting.

I imagine Carcosan people to wear similar clothes no matter what race they are, but rather based on the environment. I visualize wilderness types wearing robes and veils like Bedouin. The village types wear loin cloths or nothing at all. Warriors wear leather harnesses, to which they hang weapons and trophies, like on Barsoom.

The Earth’s cultures with the most outward similarities to Carcosa’s cultures are pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa

The harshness of Carcosa has accelerated mankind's arms and armor technology. They make weapons and armor as good as any in western Europe circa A. D. 1300. You can expect to find smiths in any village of significant size.

My own vision of Carcosian people are common folks with with loincloths (at best), robed sorcerers, slaves with nothing more on then a metal collar, warriors with barsoomian-styled battle-harnesses, warlords with capes and fancy headgear, courtesans with golden/bejeweled bikinis, and black-veiled temple (sacred) prostitutes.

So we have this strange mix of a Stone Age tribal culture with some areas of remarkable advancement (primarily in metallurgy) which are probably preserved from a previous era (Serpent-Men, or perhaps a forgotten Empire of Men), and therefore probably highly ritualized (blacksmiths being something akin to a priest?). It's definitely weird, but definitely cool, too.
 
Most of the ones I have come from wargames, like the various CMON boxed board game sets. The "CMON Dark Sword: A Song of Fire & Ice" line has a "Cave Dweller Savages" box set, for example. Since I usually buy the miniatures as unboxed sets on eBay, I always have trouble remembering which set any given miniature comes from. The benefit of doing it that way is that you can sometimes get similarly stylized groups (ex. roman spearmen) for only a dollar or two per miniature. I occasionally go on eBay and search on "CMON minis" and then see what is available.

When it comes to the type of thing you are describing, I find that they are often paired with keywords like savage, tribal, primitive, stone age, caveman, Pict, etc.

Another option is to buy minis that are relatively close to what you want (or even nude) and add on the appropriate clothing and accessories using an epoxy putty like "Green Stuff." It is really easy to do, and dries within a few minutes. You can even sand and file the stuff you make with it.
 
@ carpocratian carpocratian Thanks for weighing in on this, I am flying blind and my mediocre Google-fu is not coming up with anything usable.

It can be difficult for anyone to find the type of miniatures they want. There isn't a good clearing house that covers all the small companies out there, and MOST of the companies are small. There are a lot of interesting things coming out of European companies, but they often don't get that much coverage on U.S. rpg sites.

As I said before, watching the wargaming market has been useful to me, but you have to be careful about scale. Though a lot of the fantasy/horror board games have minis that are fairly close to those used in most rpgs (roughly 28mm), the traditional wargames folks use several different scales. That isn't much of an issue if everyone playing the rpg game uses minis and terrain that are the same scale, though.

Some of the companies that focus on minis for regular wargames charge quite a bit for single minis, particularly if they are made of metal or resin, so I tend to buy less stuff from them. Some wargaming minis require assembly, too, which can be a pain with smaller minis. Overall, though, they are worth checking in on, at least on occasion.

Another unlikely place to look for minis is Etsy. There are people on there who 3D print some of the less common stuff and/or sell older minis.
 
I could use some help from the Pub's miniature gurus. I am looking for miniatures for Carcosa. The setting is deliberately vague in many places so I am not even 100% sure what I'm looking for but I will know it when I see it; I realize this makes my request a strange one. I already have a lot of the miniatures I need (Lovecraftian monsters, slimes, and dinosaurs) but what I really need are fantasy tribal peoples. The climate was engineered by snake-men so most of the planet is hot and dry or hot and humid; I get a strong loincloth hero and bikini heroine vibe. I feel like the author has also said that a typical resident wears loincloth + boots and maybe a cloak but I can't find the quote.

Here are some message board quotes from the author and a couple dudes who seem to grok the setting.

So lot's of options really based on that description...

First off, there's Bronze Age minis, which specialize in Sword and Loincloth stuff...


There's Victorious Miniatures stone age stuff


There's Fenris Games' Citzens of Azor


These Egyptian civilians from Foundry


and their African Tribes and Aztecs ranges


Eureka also has an Aztec line


Lucid Eye's Ziggurat line is worth a look


Worth looking over Maidenhead Miniatures Primitive fqntasy line



....I can really keep going, but maybe this will help narrow down specifically the visuals you want
 
@ TristramEvans TristramEvans Thank you very much! Looking through these is extremely helpful because it helps me determine what my vision for Carcosa will be. I am already a fan of Bronze Age and Foundry but the other stuff is new to me. I am loving the lost world and caveman vibe on some of these links. I'll have to take a closer look and get back to you. .
 
North Star Military Miniatures make the hard plastic minis for Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago. They do boxes of plastic Tribals and snakemen. They're popular games, so you'll find the sets worldwide. Their plastic sets are very useful, with lots of options.

They also do their own (metal) tribal ranges, mostly African and South American.

Finally, they carry the older Copplestone metal minis, which include several tribal and caveman packs. They're lovely minis, and paint up easily.
 
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