Compatibility with Magister Militum Dark Ages Range

[Daniele]

Hello everybody, it's Daniele from Italy.
I would like to collect a 10mm. bizantine 10th-11th century force.
In this moment only MM has a bizantine range in this scale.
My idea is to collect a Norman force too and I wanted to buy it from Pendraken.
The miniatures seem me very nice and Leon was so nice to send me some free example.
Do you think the two ranges are compatible?

[fred.]

With most manufacturers there is some variation between lines within their own ranges - so it can be very hard to judge compatibility between different lines and different manufacturers, unless you have both to hand. 

I do have MM figures - medieval Arabs and WWI. I'd say that as opposing forces they will work fine, as part of the same force, I wouldn't mix them on the same base. 

MM infantry tend to be bigger than PD, as much in the bulk of the figure rather than the height. 
MM cavalry tends to be on pretty small horses. 

The TB line cavalry sold by PD is much bigger than the MM cav. 

[FierceKitty]

Old Glory (US) anno anche delli Byzantini.

Nelle pitture si vedono i Normani ed i Byzantini da Pendraken e da Irregular Miniatures.

(Non mi chiamo Petrarca. Scusi!)

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

You seem to have keyboard problems there Kitty

[FierceKitty]

Crepa, porco!, as my Italian teacher used to say.

[Daniele]

Thank you very much, everybody, for your answers.
I often read that MM miniatures are a little chunky if compared to Pendraken, but I couldn't verify this by the few miniatures I have (MM too sent me a couple of free examples from Dark Age Range).
As you can see in the photos, MM on the left are similar in size for infantry, for horses MM horse is as tall as the Pendraken one, also the heads have similar size, MM rider instead is shorter and also thinner. According to this phot Pendraken knight seems to be chunkier and not the opposite, but we must consider that the pendraken miniature is a Norman eavy knight with chainmail and helmet meanwhile the MM miniature represents a light cavalryman armed with javelins and with only a tunic as dressing.
May probably the answer to my question be very different according to the range?
FierceKitty I really didn't know that Old Glory had 10mm. byzantines, thank you very much for your information.
From you photos I didn't understand if they are compatible with Pendraken or MM, can you tell me anything about this? I like some photos I saw on the net and I can considerate them a valid option for byzantines.

[fred.]

They look a lot closer than other MM to PD comparisons I have seen - which is good news!

OG generally scale pretty well with PD. So sounds like you have several ranges to pick from (or just get all of them!)

[Daniele]

They look a lot closer than other MM to PD comparisons I have seen - which is good news!

OG generally scale pretty well with PD. So sounds like you have several ranges to pick from (or just get all of them!)

Considering dark age is a period where armies had not standard uniforms or equipment I think that mixing is a good idea to give the right look to my armies. I'll give a try both to MM and OG for byzantines, meanwhile for Normans I think I'll buy the army pack from PD and may be, later add some MM to give a little variety.

[John Cook]

I have three 11th/12th century armies, one for the Norman Conquest for which I used Pendraken figures exclusively, one for Hattin for which I used Old Glory figures and one for the Civil War in England between Stephen and Matilda, for which I used Magister Militum figures.  Old Glory figures are good, but the infantry comes in strips, the cavalry have separate horses and riders, and you have to provide your own lances from brass wire or something similar, so assembly is quite time consuming.  Old Glory figures are also small in comparison and not really compatible with Pendraken's or Magister Militum's.  Magister Militum'd figures are also at the larger end of the 10mm 'family'.  They are very good figures and the range is comprehensive.  They are just about compatible with Pendraken's but the styles are quite different.  I would not mix any of them and prefer to stick to one manufacturer for each project.

[mmcv]

For what it's worth, I have a lot of medieval figures from both and find they mostly mix well. I find that generally Pendraken are a little smaller than MM, particularly the Norman range which is possibly an older one, while the TB Line (also by Pendraken, though possibly a little out of period) are a little bigger. But I've mixed them in my armies without too much issue.

These are some comparison shots I did a while back, the Norman is in black (hard to see!) A TB knight in the brownish grey in the middle and some MM Arab cavalry (I think) beside



These are TB in front and MM behind, the knights being heavier than the men at arms behind


I think they're all pretty compatible, depends how compulsive you are, some may not mix on bases but fine in the overall army.

[mmcv]

The infantry all mix pretty well too

[FierceKitty]

Mi dispiace, sbaglio - da Magister Militum.