Grimstonefire:
A random observation, does anyone else think it is interesting that there are few guys on horses from any of the big ‘alternate’ mini companies?
Maybe I’ve just been looking in the wrong places, or are they really quite rare?
Thommy H:
Horses are hard to sculpt. Why do you think most of the GW figures are still on the same plastic Perry (?) ones?
Grimstonefire:
I can’t think of any models left now that are on the really old unbarded perry sculpts, unless you mean the barded ones? No idea if the perrys did those.
If it is really not my imagination, seems to me there would be a clear gap in the market. What would people want these days on horses anyway that doesn’t already have a model somewhere?
Thommy H:
For the record, there are plenty of horses in the historical miniature market. I guess for fantasy though, most manufacturers tend to make models for skirmish games (Celtos, Rackham, Wyrd), or character models (AoW, Heresy), or just bespoke figures for collectors (Hasslefree, Spyglass). Privateer Press make mounted models, but not that many and I honestly think it’s just down to the cost (big metal horses are expensive to cast and invariably cost a lot in the end) and the fact that horses are just hard to make look good - especially if you’re a novice just starting your own company. And for sci-fi, you don’t need horses.
Baggronor:
Yup. Four legs = pain in the arse to mould. Usually it has to be in 2 halves, and a mounted figure doesn’t sell for enough to justify so much space in a mould. A guy on horse is pretty much the equivalent space of 4 - 6 guys on foot. If it doesn’t sell well, you’ve just wasted most of a mould, whereas with 8 guys on foot you have a much better chance of turning a profit. And yeah, horses are even harder to sculpt than they are to draw. Yes, I did try one once, no you can’t see it 
Thommy H:
Horses are the one thing I can’t draw. That’s not to say I can draw anything exactly, they’re just the one thing I can’t even make a decent attempt at. When I try to draw a horse, I know how everyone else who says they can’t draw feels. I wouldn’t even want to think about trying to sculpt one.
Everyone should just use EBob.
Grimstonefire:
Seems to me the issue with cavalry then is that in order to justify the inevitably high price, you’d need to make a truly awesome model in order to get people to buy them, even then it would be because you had to make them to fill a gap.
So for a small company to make them they’d really need to think very carefully about what they were supposed to be used for, as (perhaps unlike infantry) there are a lot fewer ‘counts as’ equivalents for cavalry. As an example, if someone made 28mm scale germanic knights in barding, that would obviously target the historical and Empire players, but they’d have very few other markets.
From what I’ve seen of historical miniatures (in magazines), there are very few companies out there that are actually any good at making minis, even fewer that can actually paint well. The sculpting is not crisp at all, and I know I could do a much better job painting them. That’s for all things, not just horses.
I have been thinking about sculpting a horse, so if I do and it comes out any good I’ll load up some pics.
Thommy H:
There are lot of quality manufacturers of historical miniatures, Grim - it’s just that their customers want different things from their figures. You can’t do a guy in crazy baroque armour with giant glowing swords flying through the air because that only exists in fantasy. So the focus is on realism and accuracy. For players of most Warhammer armies, historical figures hold no interest, but anyone who plays Bretonnia or Empire or Dogs of War should see what’s out there. My Bretonnians feature some Perry models, and I plan to pick up their War of the Roses plastics for some peasants too.
Vash:
the perry mini’s are really good. I’ve been using their feudal japan models for an empire army for some time now. Their horses are actualy quite nice.
Baggronor:
I've been using their feudal japan models for an empire army for some time now. Their horses are actualy quite nice.Oh yes, I have some of their Samurai too. Who but the Perrys would actually go so far as to have named characters from the Warring States period in their range? Just awesome :)
I plan to pick up their War of the Roses plastics for some peasants too.I saw them and actually considered an Empire army. And I can't stand Empire usually.
So for a small company to make them they'd really need to think very carefully about what they were supposed to be used for, as (perhaps unlike infantry) there are a lot fewer 'counts as' equivalents for cavalry.Yeah. Even GW only started doing bespoke steeds for their units comparatively recently. For a long time, everyone just rode the generic plastic ones.
Ogrob:
Looking at Privateer Press, where my current interests lie, and they are limited in horses and cavalry.
First of, their cavalry models are expensive and all metal. To expensive for my limited budget, but fortunately, they are far from required in the game. In fact, in a game where you already have giant monsters and steamrobots fighting, some guys on horses or even wolves seem a little redundant. Some of them are a little lackluster in game compared to some other choices.
Mostly, I believe PP limit cavalry to one unit and one or two single models per faction because it isn’t the focus, and they would get expensive. Just a little while ago, I had a look at probably the most expensive cavalry in the game, the Trollblood Longriders. A unit of five plus the character that makes them better represents half the army allowance in a normal size game, 17 pts where 35 pts is a usual game size. Still, the price for the models was shockingly high for me. Roughly comparable to a unit of GW Blood Knights and a character I guess.
Also a word about Perry. I picked up a unit of French Dragoons for the 1812-1815 period, 13 horsemen and 8 dismounted guys, very cheap from Maelstrom. Lovely horses, lovely detail, a couple extra bits on the sprues. I’m planning on getting my girlfriend into skirmish gaming through Napoleonics, a period which she enjoys, and two boxes of Perry stuff goes a long way towards making a game, for very little money.
I really like the Perry plastics, and I’ve had very little trouble assembling them or fixing moldlines. Now, the Perrys know how to sculpt horses, and for their part, with plastics, horses don’t cost that much more then infantry. Or well, they do, but the infantry is so cheap that it’s not noticable. Horses also match the historical period, so there’s a place for them in a game.
I’m not sure I made sense here, it’s a bit late at night, but I believe my point is that there should be three factors to producing cavalry:
1) The ability to have good horses made (eBob works as someone said),
2) cost issue, they can not be to expensive for the numbers needed compared to other product in your line,
3) A role for them in your game. In Warmachine, the role is minimal, in Napoleonics much larger. No role, no incentive for the gamer to purchase them over infantry.