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LW

Set 33

Celtic Warriors

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All figures are supplied unpainted    (Numbers of each pose in brackets)
Stats
Date Released Unknown
Contents 4 mounted figures and 4 horses
Poses 2 poses, 3 horse poses
Material Plastic (Medium Consistency)
Colours Grey
Average Height 24 mm (= 1.73 m)

Review

Celtic cavalry was employed by Carthage during the Punic Wars, and much later formed a substantial part of the mounted contingent of the Roman army. During that period the importance of Celtic cavalry increased steadily. This would make a set of Celtic cavalry very welcome, but you won't find one here.

Poses? Well, there are two - one waving a sword and the other a spear. Nothing to get excited about.

Detail? None. Both the figures are almost completely featureless. Clothing is without any folds except for the swordsman's cloak, which is rather angular and unnatural-looking. The spearman has no face at all (even figures made 40 years ago managed better than this), though the swordsman has a nose and a beard (but nothing else). The swordsman also has a belt across his left shoulder, though this serves no function as he carries no scabbard or anything else.

The horses? Well the horses should have a four-pommel saddle over a cloth. Two of them seem to have animal skins and no saddle. The third does at least have a reasonable-looking cloth, but again no saddle of any kind. It would have been almost impossible for any man to take an effective part in the fighting without quickly falling off his mount. Even if you assume the warriors would dismount before doing battle, these horses are still completely wrong. In addition, one of the horses bears an enormous piece of decoration on its head for which we could find no evidence at all.

General impression? Well, you get the picture. The spearman is rather flat, though his comrade is properly rounded. The spearman is provided with a separate spear. However his ring hand is filled with plastic and is clearly far too small to hold the thick weapon. The scabbard of the spearman sticks out horizontally for no good reason and just looks stupid. Bits of sprue and flash are everywhere - its just a mess.

Conclusion? Not even worth buying for a laugh.

Note that many LW sets seem to have various horses in various proportions, so the horses and pose counts shown here may not always apply.


Ratings

Historical Accuracy 3
Pose Quality 2
Pose Number 2
Sculpting 1
Mould 1

Further Reading
Books
"Ancient Celts" - Concord - Tim Newark & Angus McBride - 9789623616232
"Armies of the Carthaginian Wars 265-146 BC" - Osprey (Men-at-Arms Series No.121) - Terence Wise - 9780850454307
"Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars" - Wargames Research Group - Duncan Head - 9780950029948
"Celtic Warrior 300 BC-AD 100" - Osprey (Warrior Series No.30) - Stephen Allen - 9781841761435
"Celtic Warriors" - Blandford - Tim Newark - 9780713716900
"Rome's Enemies (2) Gallic and British Celts" - Osprey (Men-at-Arms Series No.158) - Peter Wilcox - 9780850456066
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