Random dents in the painting pile

Following on from my "shame myself" post about my rather eclectic lead pile, I've actually gotten off of Facebook, Yahoo Groups and every forum going and started painting some stuff again.

The rather random mix of "done" is presented for you here:

Here are a couple of sadly now discontinued elephants from Corvus Belli. My "Greek and Roman" elephants from Essex had gotten a bit aged and sad, and so when these came up at a fire-sale discount a year or so ago I jumped in to pick some up. Their predecessors may well be on sale in the Bring and Buy at Warfare I suspect...

A simple paint job, dry-brushing over black

I also picked up two Carthaginian elephants without howdahs - having never really had any like this before other than the odd one from Xyston, which is now a Generals element

And now for something totally different - a load of baggage and cargo, for obstacles for Malifaux to make my town look a little more lived-in

This is a mix of bits of barricade and luggage from Andy at Ainsty Castings and others. Some are multi-item castings, but at the back I have glued a few individual boxes together as well.

All of these should be clickable as larger photos

Dead Man's Hand

After accidentally buying lots of Wild West figures, terrain and buildings for Malifaux, the inevitable has happened and I have expanded into the Dead Man's Hand Wild West game.

I know it's been out for several years already, but this is my first game of it, and I must admit that it was a real hoot! Easy to play and learn, very simple but still delivering a cinematic cowboy experience as well.

See what the hand of fate dealt me in a 3-linked-games match report that is also a review of the rules and walk-through of the key mechanics as well.

Unusually not all of the pictures have captions, but that's because I've tried to play with some different effects to make some of them look "old" - see what you think!

Thoughts on Salute 2013

I went along to Salute at the weekend, and was very impressed. The massive numbers of attendees alone would tend to refute any idea that the hobby is struggling or that the internet is taking away from trade shows!

Warlords do a very good job of putting on an event which has a very short set-up time and cannot really afford to put in many of the creature comforts of "proper" events held in a space like ExCeL - for example, carpet would be nice, but would probably add more than 50% to the cost of hall rental, and hence admissions, and a second day of opening would double the costs and also the costs to exhibitors of staying down at the show.

A few people on TMP have whinged about ExCeL, however it is the only place in London with space and availability to host a show of that size, and those who complain about the catering are missing the point - the range and selection of catering is far better than any other equivalent venue, as long as you are prepared to walk along the central boulevard at ExCeL to find the outlet that suits you. Salute also benefits from the presence of the Marathon alongside in this respect, as all the catering outlets are open - this might not be the case if Salute were the only event in the venue that weekend.

My impressions of the exhibitors was that;

•  Historical, and especially 28mm historical skirmish gaming seems to be having a bit of a renaissance at the moment,
• Vendors are selling, and gamers are keener to give a try to "one box" solution games where you can get everything you need (rules, figures etc) from one supplier for sub £100 - of course you end up buying more!
• The market for resin-cast buildings and scenery is shrinking rapidly as the number of laser-cut pre-painted MDF ones explodes. I felt quite sorry for some of the resin scenery exhibitors as their stands looked deserted.
• Osprey will soon publish every rulebook in the market,
• Plastics are a now given, to the point of almost a default for some new ranges, and the debats has moved onto whether pre-paint is now starting to be a serious option,  
• Figure design is really moving onwards and upwards - again like the resin/MDF split some of the companies I once considered "old stalwarts" like Essex Miniatures looked out of place and their stand wasn;t that busy - they may end up being the Hinchcliffe of 15mm without more pzazz injected into the lines and display cases,
• I have no idea what Foundry are up to right now - for all the talk of a new era of product, branding and marketing they had a rather confusing and low key presence,
• Traders take note - having a banner to advertise your stand location is a must - there is almost no other directional signage at the show other than the catalogue, and with no reference points it was sometimes hard to see where you were even with the plan in front of you,
• The Bring and Buy was such a scrum that I didn't even consider going near it. I know the B&B is a staple of wargamiong shows, and makes money, but whether a show like Salute still really benefits from having a downmarket melee in one the corner it is something I'd question - using the space for more traders might now be the sensible option,
• Turn up at 11am, not 10am - the show is still open for another 6 hours, and it avoids the queues !

I only spent around £50 all in all, but that was mostly because I didn't want to buy anything - I think the £50 went out of my wallet through a form of wargaming osmosis which seems to afflict me at many shows...

   

Hedges & Trees for terrain

With spring in the air here in the UK, I've added Auction Listing pages for you to buy wargaming trees and also clumped foliage for making hedges & bushes, so now you have no excuse not to make your scenery as good as your figures!