HarrowHyrst – Treeman and Griffin

Today for something special. It has been a while, since I've been gifted miniatures by my parents (actually, the very first Warhammer box I owned, was the Blood Bowl set for Christmas in the 90s), so I was very happy and surprised, when I received these for my 38th birthday back in September. Heartwood, the Treeman Elder, and Mockmoon, the Griffin, by HarrowHyrst Miniatures.

But why am I so excited about these miniatures by HarrowHyrst? Well, HarrowHyrst is not just any miniature company capturing the vibe of Middlehammer, because the person behind HarrowHyrst coined that era - Trish Carden (Morrison). She sculpted a lot of the larger creatures, monsters and mounts of many heroes of the Old World, not just in the era of Middlehammer but in the early 00s and for Forge World's Warhammer Forge as well. And "before" that, Trish, together with Aly Morrison, founded Marauder Miniatures in 1988, whose range were sold and later integrated by Citadel Miniatures.

I already own quite a few miniatures designed by her as part of my classic Warhammer collection and when these were announced, I had to had them and put them on my wish list (but didn't really expected them to be gifted to me), and from the other announcements on her page, it probably won't be the last. Another benefit, HarrowHyrst miniature range is distributed by Footsore, who are IOSS listed, so for European customers up to about 150 EUR the orders arrive DDP (customs etc. already taken care of).

Heartwood, the Treeman Elder, and Mockmoon, the Griffin came in a small box, with air cushion foil. No blisters, no artwork, simply the models them self in a bag with a MDF base each. But this seems to be the mail order solution, at shows you get from what I've seen cardboard boxes with printed covers. The miniatures are both casted in resin and come without assembly instructions, which is often the case with resin models. But due to their low piece count, that is not something I would expect anyway.

Heartwood, the Treeman is 30 GBP / 34,50 EUR and Mockmoon, the Griffin, 50 GBP / 58,50 EUR, shipping to Germany was 5,50 GBP.

Let us start with Heartwood. He has a solid main body and two separate arms, and he measures 9 cm from the roots to the top of his head. There was basically no clean up necessary. Only the casting supports below the feet and on the inside of the shoulders, but those were snipped of quickly. The casting is incredibly high value. I had no air bubbles and only the slightest amount of flash, this is probably the cleanest resin cast I had in my hands so far.

And what excited me beyond that. Usually when models are cut up for multi-part casting, you have little gaps that need filling. In this case they are so minor, that I only would have to a touch up the left arm. The other one fit right in there, closing smoothly. Impressive. I love the little details, that you can barely see due to the light grey colour of the resin, that will pop up later on during painting, as there is not only tree bark, but moss and little forest creatures living on Heartwood.

With HarrowHyrst covering fantasy miniatures, Heartwood felt like a proper addition to my small Wood Elf warband. As I didn't want to use Durthu, beside him being quite pricy nowadays, I kept my eyes open for a long time and as you can see, he fits right in there with old metal miniatures from the Marauder and Citadel range. The metal treemen were sculpted by Trish as well, as were the dryads, so only the Wood Elf Scout Standard Bearer on the last picture was not sculpted by her, but by Gary Morley. I put Heartwood on a 40mm square base, as treemen were in the 4th edition ongoing, but he would probably look better on a 50mm square. He'll get a round base any way.

I love how he fits in with the old miniatures but is clearly more detailed, without alienating his roots (unintended tree pun).

And if you feel the need for a Fantasy Football / Blood Bowl star player, Heartwood makes for a proper Deeproot Strongbranch stand in, as you can see next to my Halfling. And with 30 GBP he's fairly cheaper than the Forge World model (49,50 GBP). And as Trish recently showed us a conversion of a minotaur for Fantasy Football, this might not be the last sporty miniatures.

Now let us take a closer look on Mockmoon, the Griffin. Again, a very clean cast. Minor touch ups, mostly removing casting supports. As the Griffin is connected to the tree stump with a small insert, please do not cut that off, that is there to stay. Once again, see how neat the fit is, you can barely see gaps between the body, tail and left claw.

As Trish sculpted a lot of the Griffins of the Old World, I wanted to add a size comparison. Here with Beaquis, Louen Leoncoeur's Hippogriff, and Stormwing, Eltharion's Griffon mount, and most impressive the comparison of the wings to show how large Mockmoon is. Similar to the Treeman, you see the familiarity in design, but the much finer details and development over the almost three decades. A worthy successor.

The fit is so proper, that on this picture the wings aren't glued to the body, just pushed in. And the body is kept on place with a small bit of blue-tac. Very dynamic pose and due to the elevated position, should work well with rank & file wargames, as the body and broad wings are kept above most of the regular units.

And another comparison, with another Griffon from the Old World, this time Death Claw, Karl Franz personal mount. A more appropriate comparison would have been the Elector Count on Griffon next to Mockmoon, which wouldn't leave that big of a gap in size, but still be smaller than him. Unfortunately, I don't have him at hand (anymore) for this picture.

Mockmoon doesn't come with a saddle, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be able to carry a character into battle. With a bit of Green Stuff you will be able to fill in the gaps, but to give you some ideas on how it would look - here we go.

And obviously, no review here without the show case picture. Mockmoon is so large, that I had problems keeping him in frame on the backdrop.

Conclusion

Mockmoon got a price raise from 40 to 50 GBP since I got him, Heartwood was introduced with 30 GBP and stayed that range. Both miniatures aren't cheap, but you get an incredibly amount of detail and product quality on these kits. And as mentioned above, these might be among if not the best resin quality I had my hand on so far. Very proper fit, minor clean up, no air bubbles or miscast sections, and no warped pieces. They really know their craft and took the time to deliver a proper product.

And I think they are worth every penny. Because for one, it is still cheaper than some of the OOP prices and let's not forget, this is not somebody recreating the look and feel of somebody else, these are originals and that's value for itself. I am really looking forward to further release, among them currently mostly the Forest Wyrm Quercus, as that will fit very well with my Wood Elf warband and I have some hopes, that we might see something like a stag or unicorn, as a proper mount for some heroes and characters.

As these are resin casts, I strongly suggest that you give them a brief wash in lukewarm soap water to remove any possible left-overs of release agent. This could otherwise potentially irritate your paint job.

HarrowHyrst is distributed by Footsore Miniatures, who offer IOSS for EU customers.