25mm Reptiliads by RAFM (1983)

[Texus Maximus]

My brother Bill recently handed me a box of "Reptiliad" miniatures that he bought in 1983 and wondered if I knew anything about them. He had kept them in the original box and had the receipt showing he had paid $23.70 for them. As a surprise gift I decided to paint and base them. So the time from purchase to completion was 41 years.



I was originally going to base them as individuals but thought they might look better as Triumph! (or DBA or HOTT) units. There is one base of Rabble, which are the five Gilla-Worm figures on foot. The Gilla-Worms on War Newts are Javelin Cavalry. The Reptiliads themselves are based as Raiders. There is whole book of lore associated with these miniatures but I didn't have easy access to it so I went with pictures of actual newts/lizards/salamanders as inspiration.

The figures were in good shape and had very little flash or mould lines. The spears have cast metal tips so it took a good while to drill them out and get the piano wire shafts inserted so they were not crooked. The only conversions I made were to add fingers wrapping around the weapon shafts, fixing an arm that snapped off, and adding a shield to the standard bearer and posing his right arm with the standard straight up and down.


The Receipt, the Bags, and the Bare Metal











Finished Figures

[RogerCooper]

A beautiful paint job. You should post your army list.

[David Kuijt]

Nice!

[Texus Maximus]

Thanks for the positive feedback. The models survived being mailed to Houston with only one popping off the stand. It was very satisfying to get those finished after so many years.

I don't have the official Reptiliad books, but I did run across a RAFM catalog from 1989 that had an order of battle. Based on that I would go with:

1 x War Turtle IBehemoth) 4 Points
6 x Raiders 24 Points
2 x Javelin Cavalry or Horsebow 8 Points
4 x Light Foot (Gilla Worms) 12 Points

From this catalog. it looks like RAFM had other lines of figures as enemies for the Reptiliads; some Zulu-inspired humans, Half-Orcs, A Knightly Order, elves, Dwarves, Orcs etc.

[Philip McBride]

I'm late seeing this, but they are quite spectacular and quite the boomerang gift. I trust Brother Bill has been putting them to good use. And having met Bill in 1998 as a Civil War reenactor, I'm tickled to learn that he was a fantasy tabletop wargamer in 1983--who bought more than he could paint, like the rest of us.

[Texus Maximus]

There are only four stands, so they have not been used yet. However, I just saw that the RAFM moulds are back in use so these figures (or possibly later/revised versions of them) are available again!