Khurasan Miniatures: 15mm Mantis Stalkers Review

.
My first order of Khurasan's Mantis Stalkers was waiting for me when we got home Friday night. These are really, really nice miniatures. In many ways more 'frightening' and 'alien' than the now hackneyed movie Aliens - "Xeno-whaaaat?" - we've come to love so well.

Pack TTC-1210 contains eight minis in 2 each of four poses for $5.99. Two 'stalking' and 2 'striking' poses. The crouched stalking Mantis are 15mm top to bottom of the casting. The tallest of the striking Mantis is 20mm sole to top of head, 18mm to eyes, 26mm to top of his raptorial tibia. Note that the joints on the arms are thin at the 'elbow' so be VERY careful trying to bend them to create alternative poses!

The minis are very well detailed and I'm expecting them to respond equally well to washes. There's no reason why they have to be green. Yellow, red, black, purple base colours could turn the Mantis into striking otherworldly alien fauna.

Having played around the the bare metal castings over the past 24 hours, these are definitely my 'bugs' of choice! I'll add a pack of Mantis Stalkers to every order placed with Khurasan over the coming months to build up my 'swarm' by increments.

I think there's plenty of potential to use the miniatures as more sentient insectoids - weapons, tools and even hive command figures would create VSF or Sci Fi lunar or Martian "Selenite" bugmen.

So, you can keep your Aliens and your Pseudo-Arachnids. Boiling swarms of rushing, 'hissing' Mantis are the stuff of nightmares and a must for any 'Bug Hunt' be it in the sewers of Los Angeles, the jungles of Epsilon VI or the corridors of an abandoned Asimov class Star Destroyer.

Cheers
Mark
.