Genesis of the Parthians.

The Parthians have arrived from A&A miniatures in a very reasonable turnaround of 6 working days & very good they are too.

For starters I've bought 18 cataphracts and six horse archers, the idea being to keep with A&A for the cataphract units and pick and mix from other ranges for their nimbler fellows. The Stafford Games Horse Archers look particularly good.
Overall first impressions are very good; crispness of detail on both riders and mounts is excellent although I would have preferred less chainmail and more lamellar or scale armour on the riders, the intention after all is to build an early parthian army circa 3rd century BC and I'm not sure chainmail would have spread to the asian steppe this early on. The only real gripe is the kontos( whats the correct plural for these by the way) supplied with the packs, these really do fit the term 'bargepole', see below for a comparison with the Northstar items that will be their replacements:

Finally see below a comparison shot with one of 1st Corps Hetairoi:

Size wise these chaps match up fairly well. The A&A horse is much stockier and has a more natural stance, though frankly neither mount does a great deal of justice to our equine friends. The really noticeable difference is how much better the fit is between the A&A rider & mount, there's just no need to pin rider to horse to achieve a good join - a spot of 5 minute epoxy and hey presto! In contrast the 1st Corp horse and rider need the saddle blanket building up with green stuff or similar to get anything like the same quality of fit, its not a problem exactly but still makes leisure time feel like work.
Hope the above is of some use, painted goodness to follow soon.