Come on Down, the Price is Right! Podcast goes viral..

As the festive vaccination season looms large in the minds of wargamers around the world, the Madaxeman podcast team are back with an honest to goodness actual discussion about a topic which seems to be on everyone's Christmas list, why are so many wargamers seemingly more obsessed with the price of a figure than the quality? 

The core premise of the discussion is that for the rules we all play, a typical 15mm army comes in at 120-odd figures. That means the price difference between buying an army of the most expensive figures on the market today (50p each = £60) vs the cheapest (31p each = £37.80) is just £22.80.

Given figures are at the heart of everything we do as gamers – playing, painting, collecting – and we all keep our collections for years (decades even), we spend loads on paint, terrain, gaming mats (heck, even box sets of naval games from Warlord Games that we've still not assembled and which we all know that we'll be lucky to play even once) – in what part of our collective psyche does it make sense to spend ages calculating how to ‘save' £22 on 120 figures we'll spend months painting and play with many times if that means we are compromising on "quality" by not just buying the figures we like the most ?

Why don't we instead spend the same time simply choosing the figures we like the best and then buying them, whether they are 31p, 40p or 50p a pop?

There is also all of the usual painting, gaming and Gallic techno-driven military themed obscure general knowledge to fill your early December weekends and evenings as well as a quick diversion into airbrushing, a cough-assessment section (no, not like that..), a fairly comprehensive listing of those world museums displaying collections of "stand alone" military legs, many admissions of accidental purchasing, and a lengthy almost-feature on how to make an old rusty skip look like an old rusty skip using hairspray and fake rubble. 

Podcast Link to Podbean , or search for "Madaxeman Podcast" using any of your usual podcast providers.

(The "price vs quality" chat starts around 43:30 if you want to skip the rest)

The topic has already stirred up some discussion on TWS - here's the thread  and on Twitter 

War & Empire Numidians (15mm)

I recently bought some Numidians from War & Empire (Forged in Battle) , which have managed to get painted extremely quickly - probably due to their simplicity!

They are led by some Baueda Generals working in tandem with W&E infantry officers on 40mm round bases for ADLG.

I've also posted some comparison shots to show how they scale with other ranges of Romans and Carthaginians (who they will be fighting with or against I suspect).

All these photos and many more are online now on my site, where I also explain the painting techniques as well (for what they are worth). The figures can also be seen in the 15mm directory

El Kraken added to the 28mm manufacturers directory

Spanish company and authors of the Tercio rules, El Kraken (gotta love the name...) have been added to the 28mm Renaissance manufacturers directory whilst I fight with myself not to invest in their kickstarter on the basis that I already have far too many 28mm TYW troops...

They also very kindly sent me a copy of their Tercio rules some months ago, but unfortunately life has gotten in the way of me even getting around to reading them - so one day you might find a review on this site too!

By Fire & Sword Ottoman and Polish Commanders

At Salute 2014 I picked up a lot of stuff I didn't really need - but this sort of fell into the "might be able to justify" category - commander packs from Fire & Sword for Poles & Ottomans.

Admittedly it was as much about seeing what these figures looked like in the flesh as any real need to add more generals to these two underpowered FoGR armies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much "stuff" each pack comprises. 6 Generals/officers/Musicians, wire spears (pretty long...) which are the pointed type, plastic bases (for By Fire & Sword rules I guess) and some nice high resolution flags on good quality paper.

The figures are now undercoated and added to the painting queue - from first impressions they are a bit lanky and the horses are the same, but the detail is very good if a little fine compared to some of my other figures. Pictures to follow when they are done (don't hold your breath..)

Half a dozen manufacturers added to the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers directory

Parkfield, Mirliton, Crusader, Crann Tara, Warrior, Scheltrum and Curteys all now listed as having some Renaissance ranges somewhere between 25-30mm ...

Want to make your views on them known?

As they say, vote early vote often !

Impressive service from Front Rank Figurines

I ordered a handful of 28mm figures to paint up as trophies for the Central London round of the FoGR Southern League from Front Rank Figurines only a couple of days ago (actually about 10 o'clock at night on Thursday the 8th May) and here they are, through my letterbox first thing on Monday 12th!

Not only is that amazing service, the figures are also absolutely stunning too. I'll have to go and vote for them on the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers Listings page on this website !

Here are a Scottish infantry commander and a Louix XIV Era foot officer, both ready to be based and painted as 15mm FoGR Great Commanders.

Let's see if my painting skills can come anywhere near close to those of the sculptor ...

VEPA Figures added to the 20mm Moderns Directory

I've just been contacted by a relatively new company, VEPA Figures, who do a small and growing range of 20mm Moderns - so their website has now been added to the 20mm Moderns Directory on this site.

That means you can also go to the Directory and rate their figures on a 1-5 scale, and compare them with the other 18 (yes!) metal figure ranges listed there.

Aquilifer added to the 15mm Renaissance Manufacturers listing

Italian manufacturer Aquilifer have now been added to the 15mm Renaissance listing, with their range of 12 Scottish and Highlander figure packs.

They now have their own website, which has also been added to their listing in the Ancients 15mm directory

Looking for 15mm Napoleonics?

I've just finished pulling together a new Manufacturers Directory, covering the Napoleonic period, and the completed page in all its glory is now up and running on this website via this link.

So, if you are looking for 15mm Napoleonic wargaming figures to use for FoG:N, Lasalle, Shako, Piquet, To the Sound of the Guns, Grand Armee, Volley and Bayonet, Empires and Eagles, General de Brigade, L'Empereur, Napoleonic Principles of War, Black Powder or any other Napoleonic ruleset you've come to the right place, as my new 15mm Napoleonic Manufacturers Directory page has information about all of the ranges carried by ALL the 15mm Napoleonic suppliers.

Each manufacturers individual listing has details of the nationalities they make, taken from the list of nations explicitly mentioned on their websites - these include: French, British, Prussian, Russian, Austrian, Spanish, Polish (including Grand Duchy of Warsaw), Bavarian, other minor German states (Saxony & Rhine Confederation, Wurttenburg, Hannovarian, Hessian, Saxon, etc) Italian/Neapolitan, Dutch/Belgian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, and Turks. Many also have generic equipment and dead and wounded ranges too.

For each supplier there is also an indication of whether they are making "15mm" 15mm figures or "18mm" 15mm figures, how they package and sell the figures (singles, packs of 8 etc), details on how you can order from them and a link to their site.

There is also a set of new Auction Pages pulling live auction listings from UK eBay for 15mm French, British, Prussian, Russian and Austrian troops if you don't want to paint your own!

I'm not personally an expert on Napoleonic gaming or indeed the figures so I had some assistance from some of our club members who are - but if there are oddities in the way I have classified and categorized each manufacturers range, please let me know and I can correct them and update the page.

The page is live and online here

New Year Sales & Offers

A number of manufacturers run special offers in January, so I'll be posting those I know about here:

• Museum Miniatures - 25% Off all Figures, Armies, Equipment and 1/300^th WWII aircraft, plus no UK VAT increase.
  
• If you know of any more, just drop me an email at the above address and I'll add them to the site.

Loads more photos in the Ancients Gallery!

...... New photos of LKM, Lancashire, Alain Touller, Irregular, Magister Militum, Museum, Black Hat, Grumpys and 2-Dragons now added. The Supplier Listing has also been updated