Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Please Sir Can I Have Some More....
Some more civilians for the rebels and the redcoats to fight over...
And some more Swiss...
peace:)
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Chicken Feed
Some civilians for the Indians and the Rebel Militia to murder....
A recent episode of Noobhammer had rather interesting discussion about price, Mantic, Kickstarter and the way in which these three interconnect.
Anyone who has ever sold figures on ebay will know that a decent paint job is valued in the historical market and worthless if it is applied to a Games Workshop figure. There are perhaps reasons for this - notably the age group of GW players, and the way in which this may reflect the paint job - but the Noobhammer discussion did highlight the basic cynicism that lies at the heart of large sections of the wargaming 'community'.
Yet, it is curious - and this is something highlighted on Noobhammer - that when Mantic offer poor quality figures and badly edited rules sets, this attitude is reversed.
I have no idea what the resale value of painted Mantic figures is. And, perhaps it is a mute point, as I suspect the pile it high sell it cheap approach of the company just feeds the vast piles of unpainted figures that lurk the homes of all wargamers. Not that it matters to Mantic as they have got the money - and for some reason that I cannot fathom are the blue eyed boys of the wargaming media.
And, in my opinion Kiskstarter is pretty much the same.
It is increasingly difficult to find a podcast, or a blog, these days that isn't prattling on about which Kickstarter they are backing. Now leave aside the fact that the companies they are backing are simply using them to fund bubbles of growth of doubtful sustainability. What amuses me is the basic illogicality of the process, and the way in which it reflects the good old days back in the 1980's, when I was just starting out in 'the hobby'.
In those days there was no internet, and so one had to peruse the wargame magazines and read the runes in the adverts to try and get a grasp of what exactly it was you would be getting for your money. There were pictures - sometimes - but lets face it a picture is can only tell you so much and every order was a leap of faith. I recall the shock of receiving parcels of badly moulded figures, that bore only a passing resemblance to what it was I imaged I was getting. Not that it stopped me telling all and sundry about the wonderful models I had just received and how they were the est thing since Minifigs. Very few, if any of these figures ever saw a paint brush, let alone a coat of Humbrol enamel paint.
Of course I could have just gone into practically any toy shop and bought a box of Arfix soldiers.
But that wouldn't have been proper wargaming.
peace:)
Anyone who has ever sold figures on ebay will know that a decent paint job is valued in the historical market and worthless if it is applied to a Games Workshop figure. There are perhaps reasons for this - notably the age group of GW players, and the way in which this may reflect the paint job - but the Noobhammer discussion did highlight the basic cynicism that lies at the heart of large sections of the wargaming 'community'.
Yet, it is curious - and this is something highlighted on Noobhammer - that when Mantic offer poor quality figures and badly edited rules sets, this attitude is reversed.
I have no idea what the resale value of painted Mantic figures is. And, perhaps it is a mute point, as I suspect the pile it high sell it cheap approach of the company just feeds the vast piles of unpainted figures that lurk the homes of all wargamers. Not that it matters to Mantic as they have got the money - and for some reason that I cannot fathom are the blue eyed boys of the wargaming media.
And, in my opinion Kiskstarter is pretty much the same.
It is increasingly difficult to find a podcast, or a blog, these days that isn't prattling on about which Kickstarter they are backing. Now leave aside the fact that the companies they are backing are simply using them to fund bubbles of growth of doubtful sustainability. What amuses me is the basic illogicality of the process, and the way in which it reflects the good old days back in the 1980's, when I was just starting out in 'the hobby'.
In those days there was no internet, and so one had to peruse the wargame magazines and read the runes in the adverts to try and get a grasp of what exactly it was you would be getting for your money. There were pictures - sometimes - but lets face it a picture is can only tell you so much and every order was a leap of faith. I recall the shock of receiving parcels of badly moulded figures, that bore only a passing resemblance to what it was I imaged I was getting. Not that it stopped me telling all and sundry about the wonderful models I had just received and how they were the est thing since Minifigs. Very few, if any of these figures ever saw a paint brush, let alone a coat of Humbrol enamel paint.
Of course I could have just gone into practically any toy shop and bought a box of Arfix soldiers.
But that wouldn't have been proper wargaming.
peace:)
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Shopping Lists Without Cash
While sorting out my AWI stuff, I took the opportunity to take a picture of all the stuff I have already painted...
Another 10 Germans have rolled off the production line.... ignore the frosting (I intend to)....
My terrain project has been delayed due to the expense of replacing a dead computer, which is a shame as I have been having lucid daydreams of what I want to do. Though on the positive side it gives me chance to not rush in and create practical nightmares... plus it gives me a chance to do that most unwargamingly thing - to paint the stuff I have already bought.
Not that it stops me lingering in front of the wargaming section in Boyes and furtively fingering a box of PSC MkVI's, or casually checking out the Perry Renaissance cavalry. Not to mention mt nightly visits to Peter Pig to check out 88mm flak guns and pirates....
And while discussing needless consumption I have been hanging around builders merchants and hardware shops more in the past week than I ever thought possible. And worse have found myself being very interesting in gromits and widgets and two by four. One of the more crazy ideas I have had is to build myself hot wire cutter, in order that I can cut sheets of 8 by 4 foam board into 2 by 2 sections.
Oh and I need 200 magnets - so if you hear over the next few months about cars being sucked from the room and sticking to a house, it will probably have something to do with me.
peace:)
Not that it stops me lingering in front of the wargaming section in Boyes and furtively fingering a box of PSC MkVI's, or casually checking out the Perry Renaissance cavalry. Not to mention mt nightly visits to Peter Pig to check out 88mm flak guns and pirates....
And while discussing needless consumption I have been hanging around builders merchants and hardware shops more in the past week than I ever thought possible. And worse have found myself being very interesting in gromits and widgets and two by four. One of the more crazy ideas I have had is to build myself hot wire cutter, in order that I can cut sheets of 8 by 4 foam board into 2 by 2 sections.
Oh and I need 200 magnets - so if you hear over the next few months about cars being sucked from the room and sticking to a house, it will probably have something to do with me.
peace:)
Monday, 1 July 2013
Insert Quote form Mark Twain
I thought it was about time I did an update...
I've been working on a few projects.
The first is some Swiss...
They are Perry plastic mercenaries. I choose them to be from Lucerne as it had the easiest flag.
I've painted some more Americans for the Musket and Tomahawk project...
For some reason I photographed the unit I have already posted....
And lastly I have been working on some 15mm WWII Germans...
I'm not sure whether I am going to use the Germans for the Eastern Front - focusing on Kursk - or Normandy.
I have also had a couple of trial games of Musket's and Tomahawks with my oldest lad (who has the uncanny knack of rolling sixes).
Other than that I am in the process of assembling the materials for a terrain project for Musket's and Tomahawks. And then depending on how that goes, I'll make the decision on whether to go Eastern Front or Normandy for the WWII project - though this will also depend on the release schedule of what PSC, and how it coincides with my painting progress.
peace:)
I've been working on a few projects.
The first is some Swiss...
I've painted some more Americans for the Musket and Tomahawk project...
And lastly I have been working on some 15mm WWII Germans...
I have also had a couple of trial games of Musket's and Tomahawks with my oldest lad (who has the uncanny knack of rolling sixes).
Other than that I am in the process of assembling the materials for a terrain project for Musket's and Tomahawks. And then depending on how that goes, I'll make the decision on whether to go Eastern Front or Normandy for the WWII project - though this will also depend on the release schedule of what PSC, and how it coincides with my painting progress.
peace:)
Friday, 19 April 2013
And Called it Macaroni
The first unit of the rebels is done...
They are the 1st New Hampshire.
I opted for brown coats, instead of the later green, as it appears that in the early war they wore captured British uniform dyed brown.
And now for some scenic snaps...
peace:)
I opted for brown coats, instead of the later green, as it appears that in the early war they wore captured British uniform dyed brown.
And now for some scenic snaps...
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Friday, 12 April 2013
Crossing the Rubicon
Half of the river sections are done...
So what better than to offer a couple of non-blurry pictures of the 53rd Foot?
peace:)
peace:)
Thursday, 11 April 2013
The Water's Lovely
The scenery project continues apace...
The river sections are in six inch lengths and I have made enough to make four feet of waterways. When the water effects are dry I shall press on with doing the banks.
The trees were bought on ebay from a Chinese seller. One hundred trees for twenty quid is not something to be sniffed at. The one possible drawback is that I do wonder how they will stand up to handling, as the flock has been falling off - not in great quantities - but in enough quantity to lead me to believe they were made for train modellers rather than wargamers.
I suspect when I next go into town I shall look at purchasing some spray on glue.
While working on the house and the barn, and specifically cutting out and gluing on the individual tiles for the roofs, I found myself pondering about how much the buildings would be worth. Given that the roof of the barn took between four and six hours (I made no allowance for tea breaks in that estimate) that would immediately make it around thirty quid because of the minimum wage. Then you add the cost of the materials, and the mark up to allow for postage and packing, marketing/ebay fees, profit etc and the price soon went up to seventy some-odd pounds.
Not being Ian Weekly, I thought it highly unlikely that anyone would pay that amount.
In an idle moment - no doubt while crawling around on the floor relying picking 1/16th inch square bits of plasticard up with tweezers, to complete the current row of tiles - I did consider learning the arcane arts of cast resin models, in order to go the route of mass production instead of bespoke.
Instead I contented myself with making the models for myself, having a good looking table for my own games, and being content with learning a new skill.
Oh, and perhaps more importantly - these being the first buildings I have ever made (beyond the matchstick creations I produced for my aborted Russian Civil war project) I surprised myself how much easier it was than I imagined (trigonometry ruined maths for me at school, and not even the beauty of quadratic equations could make me like it again). Which has encouraged me to consider more difficult and elaborate projects.
Having said all this I fully understand why people would opt for the solution of buying their own terrain and buildings.
However, listening to back issues of Meeples and Miniatures I was alerted to the buildings offer by Hawk Wargames to support their Dropzone Commander game.
£740 for fifteen 10mm scale buildings?
I suppose you don't get unless you ask, and the buildings are nice, and very little annoys me more than people carping about price of things and expecting everything to be dirt cheap, but....
Having said that if I was single, earned fifty grand, didn't do much but play wargaming, and had a completest attitude, that price tag might not bother me.
But as I am not, I shall stick to mucking about with plasticard and glue.
peace:)
The trees were bought on ebay from a Chinese seller. One hundred trees for twenty quid is not something to be sniffed at. The one possible drawback is that I do wonder how they will stand up to handling, as the flock has been falling off - not in great quantities - but in enough quantity to lead me to believe they were made for train modellers rather than wargamers.
I suspect when I next go into town I shall look at purchasing some spray on glue.
While working on the house and the barn, and specifically cutting out and gluing on the individual tiles for the roofs, I found myself pondering about how much the buildings would be worth. Given that the roof of the barn took between four and six hours (I made no allowance for tea breaks in that estimate) that would immediately make it around thirty quid because of the minimum wage. Then you add the cost of the materials, and the mark up to allow for postage and packing, marketing/ebay fees, profit etc and the price soon went up to seventy some-odd pounds.
Not being Ian Weekly, I thought it highly unlikely that anyone would pay that amount.
In an idle moment - no doubt while crawling around on the floor relying picking 1/16th inch square bits of plasticard up with tweezers, to complete the current row of tiles - I did consider learning the arcane arts of cast resin models, in order to go the route of mass production instead of bespoke.
Instead I contented myself with making the models for myself, having a good looking table for my own games, and being content with learning a new skill.
Oh, and perhaps more importantly - these being the first buildings I have ever made (beyond the matchstick creations I produced for my aborted Russian Civil war project) I surprised myself how much easier it was than I imagined (trigonometry ruined maths for me at school, and not even the beauty of quadratic equations could make me like it again). Which has encouraged me to consider more difficult and elaborate projects.
Having said all this I fully understand why people would opt for the solution of buying their own terrain and buildings.
However, listening to back issues of Meeples and Miniatures I was alerted to the buildings offer by Hawk Wargames to support their Dropzone Commander game.
£740 for fifteen 10mm scale buildings?
I suppose you don't get unless you ask, and the buildings are nice, and very little annoys me more than people carping about price of things and expecting everything to be dirt cheap, but....
Having said that if I was single, earned fifty grand, didn't do much but play wargaming, and had a completest attitude, that price tag might not bother me.
But as I am not, I shall stick to mucking about with plasticard and glue.
peace:)
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