Fruits of the Kickstarter - Soviet Women of WW2

 

Today I got delivery of the first Kickstarter I've backed in ages (over two years?).  This one was Women of WW2: Soviet Russia from Bad Squiddo Games, which finished on 15 April and in true Bad Squiddo fashion is being fulfiled quickly and promptly.

The purple box of delights

WW2 isn't really my thing, so I did a very small pledge - a token of support really - chosing some items that would fit in with my Pulp theme.  As a result, I've got four figures, lovely sclupts by Alan Marsh, very crisply and cleanly cast.

Nightwitches

Sniper team

Shiny! Gunfighters

It's a long time since I did a post about new minis!  That's because it's a long time since I bought any.

For many people, the enforced leisure time Lockdown gave us was a chance to put brush to paint to lead/plastic.  Not for me.  I don't think I've painted a mini for almost 18 months.  In part, that's because of the domestic upheaval of moving into a new house (which doesn't have the great natural light I used to have), but also because my 'hobby time' has taken a new direction and I've been mainly playing RPGs with theatre of the mind.  I'm hoping that some new arrivals might get me back to the paint table.

But when Bad Squiddo announced that they were going to be stocking the new Gunfighters set from Great Escape Games, I couldn't resist and signed up for a pre-order.  With commendable efficiency, the box was delivered to me yesterday, the official lauch date.

I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I watched lots of Saturday afternoon Westerns as a kid, and couldn't resist.  And of course, being kits, they're adaptable.  Everyone loves Gunfighters in Space don't they?

So what do you get?  Two identical sprues, with enough bits to make ten 28mm minis (and have all sorts of bits left over).

I'm not one of those people who can look at a sprue and comment on the figures (a lack a visual awareness, I suppose).  The first thing to say is that I don't see the parts to make some of the characters from the splendid box art.  Well, these things always have some artistic licence.

One the back of the box, however, there is an indication of how some of them might turn out.

I don't have much experience of Great Escape Games' sculpts.  I remember being very disappointed back in 2014 with their group of three casualties: - two of them looked as if they'd meet their ends under a steam roller.  The fourth, however, was very charactful and ended up being a joy to paint.  I'm hoping I might be able to recapture some of that. 

Some of my best work

And looking at that post from 2014 reminds me that I've still got some of the Old West figures from Artizan to paint.  They're always fun.

Paint Table Saturday - 7 Dec 2019

I haven't done any painting since before the summer, but the prospect of hosting my own RPG sessions requires me to get some minis ready for the table.  The group often says nice things about the minis I put on the table, so I thought I'd let that be a prompt to get the brushes out (we all need some encouragement!).  In addition, we're having a bumper session at the end of December, so I thought it'd be nice to have some new options.

So what have I been working on?  Grouped here by manufacturer for ease of identification;

Shield Maiden and Lanterns from Bad Squiddo Games

Hirelings and Not-Bullwugs from Lucid Eye

Frostgrave Cultists

Gnomes from Krakon Games

Those photos are from last week as I did the prep.  I didn't get as far as I intended, but have made some progress...

Seconds after taking the second photo, I snapped the 10-foot pole the hireling is carrying.  Sharp-eyed readers may also spot that one of the gnomes has lost his axe-head.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X

Also, it's that time of the year again.  The AHPC starts towards on 21 December.

I won't be taking part this year: for the past few seasons I've felt like dead wood and that I've been clogging up the limited roster of participants.  I know no-one would begrudge me, but that does take some of the fun out of it for me.  If you are interested though, I would recomend it.  Its not a competition: it's a group of painters working in parallel, having fun and being supportive of each other.

You can follow the Challenge here.

Pulpy Shinies from Bad Squiddo

Bad Squiddo Games has just announce a couple of new releases sculpted by Paul Muller that scream out"Pulp!".  And I'm a sucker for Pulp...
 

These are available at the pre-order price of £7.50 for the pair (normal price £8.00).  They won't be shipped for a fortnight.

As some of you know, Bad Squiddo is very much a one-person shop.  As anyone who has tried to run a business on their own knows, such businesses are even more at the mercy of Real Life than others.  Earlier this year, Annie had to make an unexpected move from Cardiff to Nottingham, finding new premises and shifting stock etc.  This coincided with the planned dispatch of her latest Kickstarter, which was well and truly effed-up.  That led to a backlog of orders, a huge backlog of e-mail (many of them negative).  Given that Annie has moved away from her support network and the part-time staff she had, this all fell on her shoulders: her health has suffered. 

The other problem caused by these backlogs is one of cashflow - fatal to small businesses.  Despite that, Annie made the decision not to release anything from her new releases queue until she could promise dispatch withing a reasonable period.  Annie is a good sort.  If her stuff appeals to you, I urge you to put an order in and help her out.

Gothic Horror SquidStarter

Annie over at Bad Squiddo Games has just launched (and fully-funded within three minutes) a Kickstarter for a range of 28mm Gothic Horror figures (mainly vampires and vampire-hunters, but I've got my eye on the Frankenstein's Monster and Wolfman promised as stretchgoals).

Not a proper Kickstarter, but really a pre-order scheme, the figures are ready to cast and will be dispatched this month.

The Kickstarter closes on 20 August, and can be seen here.

A Few KickStarters

A few Kickstarters to share with you...

First up is Bad Squiddo Games' Ghosts of Gaia.

The likelihood is that you don't need to be told of this, given that it's 733% funded.  In fact, when I first visited 15mins after the launch it was 115% funded.  Post-Apoc isn't really my cup of tea, but as I'm a supporter of Annie's efforts and know the great service she provides, I present it for your consideration.

Secondly, is a Kickstarter that started earlier today.  It's from Midlam Miniatures and is the Cultists of the Kraken Lord.  Some of you will remember that I subscribed for their apprentice wizards (which are now available for pre-order on their website) and which arrived dot on time in fine order.

Now tentacly cultists!  That is down my street!  So I've signed up.

And having done that, Kickstarter directed me to Mushimen Attack! by Toad King Castings.  This looks intriguing, but I think I'll leave it for now.

Dr Who Wednesday #16

Shinies

Last week Annie from Bad Squiddo Games announced in her FaceBook group that she wasn't going to include the Not-Doctor Who figures on her new website, and she was thus selling off her existing stock,  

I picked up these two - a Crooked Dice Not-River Song and a Heresy Not-Amy Lake.

Being a little dim, I didn't twig that Crooked Dice and Heresy had each removed their Dr Who lookie-likies from their sites.  I should have stocked up as soon as I realised that there were likely to be Cease and Desist letters!  I notice however, that Heresy have kept their "Emily Lake" with the simple expedient of changing her name and colour of hair.  I must stock up on Not-Firefly and Not-Blake's7 figures...

Spotted on the Web

As suspected, news from Warlord Games is coming thick and fast as Christmas approaches.  

The Silents have been released in sets of three lead figures for £11.99.  And we've had a a teaser pic of plastic Cybermen.

These leave me a little cold, but then I'm not a great fan of the 'new' Cybermen.

Gratuitous Sarah Jane picture

Gratuitous Sweep picture

200K Giveaway

Eagerly awaiting the next blog entry...

Some time on Monday the Blogger clock that counts completely spurious hits went past the 200,000 mark.  Given that a proportion of those hits represent real people, I'm choosing to mark it with a giveaway.

To enter you have to be a follower of this blog and post a comment on this post.  If you are also a follower of the Diplomatist Books blog you will get an extra entry.  You may put you down for any number of the prizes, but any one person will only get one prize - for that reason, please state you preference if you want to be entered into more than one draw.

• Prize A.  A £10.00 voucher from Diplomatist Books.
• Prize B.  A £10.00 voucher from Bad Squiddo Games
• Prize C. A £10.00 voucher from Black Pyramid Gaming

Edit

I forgot to put a closing date on this!  I'm make the draw on 1 Jul 2016.

Vikings Join the Painting Queue

[I wrote most of this on Friday - but spent most of the weekend without Internet access...  As you can see I'm so worn out that I have haven't even bothered to take the required photos.]

I've been rather taken up with health issues this week, so I didn't get the chance to report the arrivals of new goodies on Wednesday.

A little while ago Annie at Bad Squiddo Games made the inspired suggestion that if I ever wanted any of her fine stock we might do some swapsies with the fine stock I carry over at Diplomatist Books.  Well, some of will remember that my plans for Tribal include a box of Hirdmen...  Accordingly, (a mere 15 e-mails later) Annie has now a shelf's worth of books on  women in history and I have the following splendours:

So I thought I'd share my impressions on these.  Don't worry!  I'm not going to do one of those rambling opening-the-box reviews in which some YouTuber spends twenty minutes on why he thinks figures are best done in brown plastic rather than grey, neither am I going to get my gauge out and state that 23mm to-the-eye is preferable to 22.5mm.   But, yes, I am going to ramble.*

* I can't remember who said that the main selling point of my blog was the stream-of-consciousness randomness of it all - but, you're welcome!

Neither am I going to go on about historic verisimilitude.  First, because I'm not qualified to, but mainly because I don't care about it.  There are many fine people out there who do care that their figures and games are 'right' - I don't mean to belittle them in any way*.  But these toys (and this blog) are for my own use - I'm not going to put on any great showpiece displays - and I'm not an historical player.  Frankly, my hirdmen are more likely to encounter Doug McClure, dinosaurs or Cybermen than they are to meet Rus or Skraelings.  If on their encounters with 23rd Century time-travelers they have picked up a taste for Plus Twos and Argyle socks**, who am I to deny them?

* There are also some pretentious wankers - they I do intend to belittle.
**As we all know, a 23rd Century time-traveler wouldn't be seen dead in Plus Fours!

But, to recap, my needs for Tribal are some Chiefs, Heroes and units of  five Warriors each.  All to be armed with either 'short' or 'long' weapons.

[...and here I petered out. ]

The quick-and-dirty version of the un-boxing review is:-

•  "Gosh, isn't there a lot in a Gripping Beast box!"  
• <insert rant about buying boxes that mainly contain empty space>
• Duplication in the GB frames and the fact that the eight frames are identical (plus two identical 'Command' frames) and almost symmetrical along their long axis.
• <insert comments on the flexibility of the having bodies in two parts, a la Frostgrave soldiers>
• But conclusion that, you've still got a lot of plastic for your money and that worries about variety will probably be dispelled once I start taking them off the sprue.

Despite the half-arsed nature of this review, I'm am pleased with my 'purchase' and looking forward to getting to grips with them (it's just that I feel I need several nights' good sleep first...),

Tribal Plan - Update

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's post.

My cunning plan has worked.  After a flurry of e-mails this afternoon a proposed 'arrangement' has become concrete, and I should soon be the owner of a box of Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen.  As an extra (a wholly welcome) bonus, there'll also be some Bad Squiddo Shieldmaiden Berserkers.

You've got to love an 'arrangement'  ;)

Frostgrave Adventurers

Annie over at Bad Squiddo Games used her FaceBook group to announce a flash sale on Otherworld Miniatures adventurers the other day (stock she'd not got around to putting on the website, and was getting underfoot).  I've currently got five of their figures on the painting table and found them nicely detailed, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to add to the recruiting pool for warbands.

Accordingly, I present a Dwarven Cleric and a spell-caster  Two very nice figures which came with Annie's customarily speedy service and a complementary teabag.  Some will spot the resemblance between the wizard (who comes complete with a bandoleer of potions) and Nicol Williamson.

Giveaway Reminder

Don't forget to sign up for the 600 Post Giveaway - there will be draws for all of the prizes and some haven't had any takers yet!