Pass O' the North Goths

[Robert of Port Angeles]

I received my Later Visigoth army today from Pass O' the North. These figures are of the highest quality. They are exceptionally well sculpted and mold lines are virtually non-existent. Details are are excellent, dare I say superb. I would recommend anyone wishing to place an order with Jeff Caruso for these castings to do so without hesitation. The quality is better than Essex in my opinion.

[Jeff Caruso]

Robert,

Glad they arrived there in time for your Saturday get together.

Coincidentally, I just received an email from the sculptor Juan Cortez who is down Mexico way.It was really good to hear from him.

Also glad to hear you like them and now Juan can read this stuff for himself. smile.gif

Jeff

[Robert of Port Angeles]

Just came downstairs from my painting room. I wanted to add a few more positive comments about my order.

The alloy that from which these castings are made is superior to Essex. The figures have good solid rigidity yet the arms can be easily adjusted and repositioned without breaking them off.

I can tell Jeff took to extra care to give me a variety of each figure pose and included more than enough different types of shields. These were in addition to the oval shields I ordered extra. The heads are slightly larger than Essex which is a good thing given the detail of the faces, hairstyles, and helmets. Still the heads are appropriate in size giving the overall physical appearance a well proportioned look. The relief of the carving seems to be more distinct and stands out more to the eye when compared to the Essex line. I am certain this will make painting and detailing work a bit easier. One thing that was included was the serpent standard or "Draco standard". This is not a flag or pennon, rather it is a vile looking mythical creature, terrify in nature, yet so detailed as to be a thing of beauty, inspiring fear in the hearts of the enemy. It is so cool!

There was a slight problem with my order which I believe was a mutual misunderstanding in communication. Yet this was a minor problem already easily resolved. Jeff I e-mailed you with the details.

All in all the wait for delivery was well worth reward. Jeff is a very friendly guy. My experience has been a positive one. I think after this army has been painted I may place orders for a few more matched opponents from Pass O' the North.

Jeff, you need to put Juan to work sculpting some more periods. He is quite talented.

[ February 22, 2004, 04:23: Message edited by: Robert of Port Angeles ]

[Ed Dillon]

I was going to tease Jeff a bit here, but I just can't bring myself to. The Goths are great figs. I am looking forward to a chance to take my Ostrogoths on to victory (quit giggling, Jeff... sheesh!) OK. I'm looking forward to getting them out and giving them some exercise. I can heartily recommend Jeff's lead.
Ed

[Ares]

Recently painting some Mirliton figures, I came to see the value of well-scultped, cleanly-cast figures - they do seem almost to 'paint themselves,' which makes the painting process more fun and rewarding. I recently acquired some of these Pass o' the North Goths myself for a Gepid/Gothic morph, and I will second all the opinions here: I'm actually looking forward to painting these figures, when I can get around to it!

Eric

[Hannibal Ad Portas]

Just got my Pass of the North Goths yesterday. Great figures!! I love the detail on their faces and Jeff Caruso was great to deal with. I plan on using these for an Italian Ostrogoth army....now I just need time to paint these and the other thousands of minis on hand!! I only paint on two or three armies at a time and the backlog is growing!!

[Jeff Caruso]

Since I'm not an "expert" on much of anything, just opinionated, I'll put out a few questions to those who have bought various POTN Goth armies or those who may be thinking about it.

1)Is the mix of figures right for the mounted figures?Armored/unarmored, etc

2)If not what would you like to see in the mix for the various armies?Chris commented at one point about the African Vandals or Italian Ostrogoths and their trend toward more armor the later in time.

3)What would you like to see added to the range of Goths?(Ha,Juan, did you hear that?)

I'm currently doing conversions for the Goth warbands, adding beards,hair,switching heads.Also trimmed off the piled up hair on a half dozen Alamanni and made them bald to which I'm adding hair and beards for a little variety.Trying to add more of the unarmored,unhelmeted variety of warband figures.

Will not repeat the mistake of Goth 1, where there are 8 figure variations but I only have four illustrated and they are one off conversions.I will make some more conversions of them to go into another production mold to increase production capacity.

Doing the same with the LIR figures,switching heads on the armored and unarmored Roman inf.Some of them look so neat I'm tempted tp just paint them up but they need to go into a mold.

Anyway, love to hear your opinions.

Jeff

[Hannibal Ad Portas]

I would definitely like more armored cavalry for my Goth armies. I intend to use the POTN figures to make an Italian Ostrogoth army and maybe a morph into African Vandals, so more armor is good!

[derek]

Hullo Jeff
I am a big fan of figure variety.
The more the better smile.gif
I find conversions are finiky and usually not as strong as single piece figures in 15mm.
[We have one very ham handed individual in the local club]
I like different horse poses.
Although I do not have any of your Goths I intend buying some in future.
I think that one logical route for more figure variety is to produce at least one or two horse poses with frontal armour to serve as Visigoths, or Clibanarii in your Late Roman range.
Kind Regards
Derek

[Martin Smith]

Hi, all. Sent an e.mail to Jeff, the POTN producer, and it seems that at the moment he doesn't anticipate resuming production, due pressures of work.
I was trying to purchase a DBA African Vandal force from him, but this now doesn't seem a possibility.
Has anyone out there got any of his POTN Vandals or Gothic Cavalry , surplus to requirement,and available for purchase (or might there be a retailer who stocked his miniatures who may have some left 'on the shelf')???
Any offers/ideas gratefully received ...
Martin