Introduction

Ok this is my third first touch with Ares Mythologic Company of Barcelona – Spain.
The motto of the company is “The ancient World in your hands” and that’s a real statement. From the first miniatures of the company that I layed hands on , I feel , that they are doing a serious effort to produce good quality miniatures for the modeler.

The themes lay all over the ancient world and with great choices of personalities to depict in the figures. And the company keeps bringin up all the time many new figures with interesting themes .

The one I will examine here is Scythian King, a 75 mm miniature with code ABAR – G 05. these miniatures come in Limited edition and this piece I have in hands is number 121.

The kit

A dark red hard carton box with inside zipper plastic bag and inside this foam protection holds safely all 11 white metal pieces of the figure.

The total of the box is heavy enough for a 75 mm figure, and that’s because the 2 pieces for the nice base scenery weight a lot The king stands on a stone floor holding his arch looking at u at a nice pose.
A small 2 sheet leaflet is included with , short historical notes in Spanish , and a painting guide for the figure , and the contact information for the company

Pieces:

The Torso with head in one solid piece

Left hand

Right Hand

Left foot

Right foot

Sword in Scabard

Shield in elliptical shape

2 pieces for spear

2 pieces for base . On the standing rock wall lays also the king’s helmet

Quality and Detail

As I have said before these figures are good. That’s the first thing that comes to say when looking the figure. Solid nice sculpting, with clear sculpted details and a nice face and sitting pose. Armor definition is nice and details on decoration bits are sculpted also nicely . Some thin molding lines are evident that will need some knife action , but it doesn’t run over critical point as face or detail spots, so u will remove them easily and with some polishing will end .

Material - metal – is good , the surface is pretty smooth and clean and the total look is this of a modern figures company.

Just to improve what you get, you will just to need a soft touch with fine wire wool, to polish the metal. Then some washing in bath with a mild detergent – water mix to make it as clean as it gets before priming.

Painting

This is a surely colorful figure to paint , with reds, purples, golds, silvers, and different textures also to recreate. So this will be a nice piece when finished.. Its not the easiest piece for novice painters , but also nothing extremely difficult The face has nice lines so you will be guided to paint it as it needs to.

Color combinations are almost standard on Kings dress, but I think if u do some research you could come up with some alternatives on this one
Give this figure the time it needs to paint the detail, and choose nice colors and u ll be surely rewarded. This can be a showpiece and a nice addition to showcase .

When I will paint this one I might add some backdrop scenery to enhance the feeling of the era, as I think that this figure deserves it.

Conclusion – Final Verdict

Check Ares Mythologic , is a good and decent company with nice figures and interesting themes. This figure is really nice and you can get to paint it with confidence that you get a good figure

Highly Recommended

Special Thanks to Jose of Ares Mythologic for the review sample
Stay tuned for more Ares Mythologic Miniatures figures to be reviewed soon

Historical Notes

scythian
BORYSTHENES (aka Dnepr or Dnipro, main river of Ukraine) commercial route for Vikings, Slavs, and Byzantines 9th - 11th century AD. At 1430 miles, one of the longest rivers in Europe, it rises in the Valdai Hills, W of Moscow, Russia. It flows past Smolensk, through Belarus, past Mogilev, through Ukraine, past Kiev, Cherkasy, Kremenchuk, Dniprostpetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Nikopol, and Kherson into the Black Sea. Between Kremenchuk and Nikopol, Dnieper makes a vast bend to the east. Its tributaries include the Berezina, Pripyat, and Inhulets from the west and Sozh, Desna, Orel, and Samara from the east. Dnieper is linked by canal with the Western Bug.
1200 BC SCYTHIA, SAKA, SKUDRA, ASHKUZA, ISHKUZA, SKTHIA, SCYTHIAE, SKITYAI. Scythians were called SK?THIA (Greek), SCYTHIAE, SKITYAI (Roman), ASHKUZA, ISHKUZA (Assyrian; one Cimmerian son is ASHKENAZ.) Some clans also called themselves "SAKA" in the East, and SKUDA, or SKUDRA in the West (Achaemenian.)
ORIGIN OF THE SCYTHS: Herodotus gives three legends:
"The tribe claims descent from a son of the river god Borysthenes TARGITAOS, who lived a thousand years before (ca 1500 BC.) The youngest son, COLAZAIS (Colaxais), is ancestor of the ruling clan of PARALATAE; from the other sons, LIPOXAIS and HARPOXAIS (Arpoxais), are descended minor clans, and the name of the whole people is SCOLOTI, not Scythae, which is used by the Greeks alone. (Slav Triple Kingship legend. Nomad Scyths - Ukraine; Scoloti Royal Scyths - Caucaus Mts.)
Variation: Ancestor TARGITAUS introduced plough, yoke, sword & flask. His father is Zeus (Zuisudra?), mother is daughter of BORYSTHENES. Her brother THOAS 3, is first king of Lemnos, later king of Taurians. (Tzar-Gutian? Thoantas, 1st king of Taurians ca 1600 BC; Thoas, king of Scythia; Thoas 3, father of Dionysus, king of Taurians)
Another legend: HERACLES had intercourse with a mermaid (half woman, half serpent or an Amazon) who bore three sons: AGATHYRSUS, GELONUS, and SCYTHES - first king of Scythians. (Nomad Scythians?)

(Historically absent 700 years -- unless Scythians are SIKILS, Sea & Land Raiders.)
SCYTHIANS were members of a nomadic people speaking an Iranian language, who immigrated from Central Asia to Southern Russian in the 8th - 7th centuries BC. According to Herodotus, Scyths or Sacae, (or some of them) claimed to have migrated from the Altai Mountains at the eastern extreme of the Western Steppe. Some scholars speculate that barbarian invasions of China that brought the Western Chou dynasty to an end in 771 BC may have been connected with a Scythian raid from the Altai which occurred a generation or two before Scythian migration westward to the Ukraine.
Scythians were feared and admired for their prowess in war and for their horsemanship. They were among the earliest people to master the art of riding, and their mobility astonished their neighbors. The migration of Scythians from Asia eventually brought them into the territory of Cimmerians, who traditionally controlled the Caucasus and plains north of the Black Sea. In a war lasting 30 years, Scythians conquered the Cimmerians and set themselves up as rulers of an empire stretching from west Persia through Syria and Judea to the borders of Egypt. Medes, who ruled Persia, attacked them and drove them out of Anatolia (Turkey), leaving them finally in control of lands which stretched from the Persian border north through the Kuban and into southern Russia.
The Scythian army was made up of freemen who received no wage other than food and clothing, but who could share in booty on presentation of the head of a slain enemy. Many warriors wore Greek-style bronze helmets and chain-mail jerkins. Their principal weapon was a double-curved bow and trefoil-shaped arrows; their swords were of the Persian type. Every Scythian had at least one personal mount, but the wealthy owned large herds of horses, chiefly Mongolian ponies.
Scythians erected a loose confederacy that spanned all of the Western Steppe. The high king heading this confederacy presumably had limited control over the far reaches of the Western Steppe. But on special occasions, Scythians could assemble large numbers of horsemen for long-distance raids, such as the one that helped to bring the Assyrian Empire to an end. After sacking the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC, booty-laden Scyths returned to the Ukrainian steppe, leaving Medes, Babylonians, and Egyptians to dispute the Assyrian heritage. But the threat of renewed raids from the north remained and constituted a standing problem for rulers of the Middle East thereafter.
Scythian Art is also called Steppes Art, decorative objects, mainly jewelry and trappings for horse, tent, and wagon, produced by nomadic tribes that roamed Central Asia from east of the Altai Mountains in Inner Mongolia to European Russia. What little is known of these tribes, indicates that they established control of the plain north of the Black Sea over a period of several centuries, from the 7th - 6th century BC until they were gradually supplanted by Sarmatians 4th century BC - 2nd century AD. (Scythians defeated Cimmerians. Sarmatians defeated Scythians, Huns defeated Sarmatians, Sarmatian influenced Bulgars settled in Thrace. And we're back to where we started.)

Most Scythian archaeological digs are located in Ukraine. The biggest goal and dream of historians and archaeologist is to find the city of GERRHI. Herodotus said it was the center of Scythian wealth and included the most heavily gold laden tombs in all of Scythian history. Herodotus wrote about Gerros, the region and the river. The river Gerros, (branch of Dnieper) divided the land of Nomad Scythians from that of Royal Scythians. "There's the five-mouthed Ister and afterwards the Tyres, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerros and the Tanais. He led the host of the SCYTHIANS to the Borysthenians' town; those Borysthenians say they are MILESIANS." (Borystenes from Borsippa or E-barra Sippara, "city of the sun," pre-flood city in Mesopotamia, aka Sippur. Sun god Utu.) The region Gerros and the river of the same name -- as the source of a major river which also had a name Gerros (Molochnaya, the Milky river, emptying into the Azov Sea). In Ptolemy's time the river was named Kerkinida (Kerkinitida, Crimea.)