Asterix: The Village

The place of pride in my Asterix collection will have to go to the complete village in 28mm, released by Pixi minis. I can't begin to point out all the lovely details in this set, which aside from the houses and pallissades, comes with extra characters, animals, trees and objects. It wasn't cheap, but luckily I didn't have to pay the full price it is listed for either.

These images are of the official Pixi paintjobs, I still need to repaint these for the project.

Just a few of the main components:

The sleeping guard.
I mean, we know the Romans aren't really a threat, but still...

Asterix' home

Obelix' home

The fishmonger's home

The smith's home

The bard's home

The Druid's home

The chieftain's home

Asterix: The Egyptians

The Metal Magic Egyptian figures are sweet, but not very numerous. Luckily, Pixi came through with the throne room scene, which, aside from a seated Cleopatra and alternate sculpts for Asterix, Obelix and the druid, contains all sorts of courtiers, servants and guards.

These images are of the official MM and Pixi paintjobs, I still need to (re)paint these for the project.

Asterix: The Pirates

My pirates will once again be a mixture of the Metal Magic and Pixi range.

The Metal Magic range offers all the main pirates to use in a landbased capacity:

For something a bit different though, I managed to get this beauty from Pixi: the pirate galleon complete with crew, and Aserix and Obelix's smaller ship. The ships are detachable from the diorama base:

These images are of the official MM and Pixi paintjobs, I still need to (re)paint these for the project.

Asterix: The Britons

For these, I will stick with the Metal Magic range for now. The Pixi Minis Briton rugby game is magnificent, but also costs around £1000, so... um... no.

There are not enough individual minis to make a separate faction in the skirmish game, but I have collected enough of the rugby players to form two teams, so they will be my excuse to do a fantasy football (bloodbowl?) game. The regular fantasy teams never appealed to me due to the mixing of concepts that didn't work well for me, but these should be fun. The non-player figures will become bystanders for the game.

These images are of the official MM paintjobs, I still need to paint these for the project.

Asterix: The Romans

For the Romans, the bulk will be made from the Metal Magic range, with some of the Pixi Romans for additional variants. I also have enough of the female legionaires to form a small unit of those as well.

I will complement these with some 28mm Roman catapults that I will source from one of the many suitable ranges. The unarmed Metal Magic Romans will work well as crew for those.

Pixi also made a Roman turtle, that I haven't been able to lay my hands on at a reasonable price, so I'm not including it here.

These images are of the official MM and Pixi paintjobs, I still need to (re)paint these for the project.

Asterix: The Gauls

For the Gauls, I'll be going with a mix of Metal Magic and Pixi Minis figures. In some cases, the Pixi"s are better likenesses for the characters' later, definitive appearance. Although I will likely paint up the variants anyway.

For this part of the project, I've amassed the following (with a few more Pixis than are shown here. As mine are currently packed away in the shed, I had to borrow some pictures online. These images are of the official MM and Pixi paintjobs, I still need to (re)paint these for the project.

Metal Magic:

Pixi:

Here we have Asterix, Obelix and Idefix in both resting poses and action poses:

Some more Gauls, I have a few more that came with the village set.

Asterix: Introduction to the project

Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comics, which first appeared in 1959. It was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion brewed by their druid, named Getafix (Panoramix in the original French), which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the titular character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures. Many of the stories have them travel to foreign countries, though others are set in and around their village.

Miniatureswise, there are two compatible options, neither of which come cheap. 

On the one hand you have the out of production Metal Magic range, which offers the Gauls, Caesar and the Romans, Cleopatra and the Egyptians, the Pirates and the Britons. The Gauls are based on the first of the comics, which means their appearance is slightly off on some characters compared to their definitive look, but not much.

On the other hand you have the partially OOP and in any event Limited Edition Pixi minis range, which are also metal 28mm's, but come prepainted in a glossy paintjob that will cover many fine details. Being aimed at collectors instead of gamers, these are quite pricey as well. The range offers a complete Gaul village, the Gauls, some Romans, Cleopatra and her throneroom and court, the pirates and their ship and, recently, the Britons and their rugby field.

Over the years I've managed to collect a complete set of the Metal Magic range, as well as a good chunk of the Pixi range (to be stripped), so this section of the blog will detail the 28mm Asterix project I will build from that.