If you see Norman, tell him!

Apologies for the hiatus, loyal readers! Been rather busy doing hobby and real-life things.  But only the hobby things are of interest here! :)

Specifically, I've recently assembled and primed 31x 40mm Old Glory Normans for the Old Glory Speed Painting competition that Sheffield Irregulars will be running at the Triples show in Sheffield next month! The Triples event is run by the Sheffield Wargaming Society and is on 17th & 18th April at the English Institute of Sport, if you're going to be in the area!

I'm really rather impressed with the figures themselves.  There was a bit of fash to clean off the five different bodies, three variant heads and four types of kite shield, but so much fash as to be annoying. Once they'd been cleaned up, they went together really quite easily with just a bit of superglue. If I was assembling them for myself, I think I might have pinned the heads, but since they're for a speed painting event, I'll take the risk as well as taking some superglue with me on the day :)  Overall they took me about three hours to assemble, although I was faffing about a lot as I was enjoying doing it. Could have done them in less than 90 minutes if I had been more focused!

The it was just a quick squirt with black primer - Boris insisted on black primer, since she's seen speed painting entrants repaint a figure with black before starting on their paintjob before now *faceplam*. They look pretty nice already and they're done and ready in plenty of time!

They're not quite as stable as I'd like them to be on their integral bases, so I think I might have to make up some simple larger bases for them using mounting board before the event. We don't want any of that great speed painting ruined by minis falling over whilst wet! :)

I'm not 100% sure which models this are as they were handed to be in a ziplock bag in a pub (an event that is becoming all too common!), but I think they are this pack on the Old Glory UK website

No photos of them, though - nearly three dozen figures just primed black do not photograph well!! So if you want to see them, you'll just have to pop along and say 'Hi!' at Triples and enter the competition yourself! :)  There will be six sessions of 30 mins, with five entrants in each one: four on the Saturday and two on Sunday morning,  Brushes and Paints will be provided - although make sure you come in plenty of time to get a seat!

The 31st figure I primed will be painted by Jason from Sheffield Irregulars in advance of the competition - although I think he plans on spending more than thirty minutes on his paint job, the dirty rotten cheat! :D

Hope to see you there!

Prince Azalea.

Black Pyramid's Tea Wars

I first stumbled across the Tea Wars site sometime in the autumn of 2009, but there was not much on there, except background information and some shots of the greens, but no actual figures to buy yet (as I remember it, anyway!).  So I was quite surprised a couple of weeks ago when the manufacturer posted to the thread I'd started on WaMP to my online friends about the neat ideas in Tea Wars. So, knowing the Tea Wars figures are now available, I made a test order from Black Pyramid, which I received at the weekend.

I'm quite impressed with the multipart figures - they're rather better than I was expecting. I've only had time to dry-fit the parts together, but they work pretty well and having seen pics other have assembled, I'm sure they'll go together no problem at all, as soon as I find some time! They do have that slightly chunkier style which is more preferred by wargamers than some of you highly skilled fine artists on WaMP and CMON ;)  But I think they'll be a great addition to my British VSF army.

The pins on the feet are a really good idea - especially when combined with the resin bases. Saves all of that time chopping down a slotta tab into a pin! I am pretty taken with the resin bases as well, because they've got detail enough to use as they are. But equally, they're not overly decorated and have plenty of space for fitting the figure and customising the base with extra grasses or bits without being constrained by what is already there. A great balance!

I should also mention the weapon packs, which are perhaps the best bits of all. I've got a something of a bits-box collection of weapons already, but these especially the auto-rifles and the special weapons, will definitely find their way into a number of different projects in the future! :D I'll certainly be using a number of the extra special weapons I ordered with some of my other British VSF figures as I expand my forces, and maybe even with a small 40k Imperial Guard force I've got in the planning stage.

Overall, as I think you've already figured out, I'm pretty impressed and am likely to order more Black Pyramid stuff in the future!

GMs Day Yesterday

Yesterday was two years to the day since the passing of Gary Gygax.  I should have posted yesterday about this, but in all honesty I spent my time after work doing gaming-related things. Which I think is the way it should be.

I don't think I really need to big up the influence that Mr Gygax has had on my life - there are lots of other blogs and web pages out there that do that a lot better than I can, but I would just like to encourage anyone reading this to play some kind of game in the next week - whatever it is!

As for me, two days ago I took part in a Call of Cthulhu adventure, yesterday evening I was building terrain boards for wargaming and role-playing. Tonight I shall be printing out and building card-stock scenery and this weekend I plan to try and talk my wife into a couple of games of Munchkin. I've also got a game of Warhammer 40,000 scheduled for the middle of next week.

The anniversary of Mr Gygax's passing is becoming known as GM's Day - a time to celebrate your GamesMaster or whatever you call the person that organises your games.  To celebrate this a number of publishers at RPGNow are offering 25% of their games. I should say I'm just a happy customer of RPGNow, not linked with them in any other way. I took advantage of the sale to fill up on some more card-stock PDFs from Fat Dragon Games and I'm really looking forward to building some of them tonight!

God Bless You, Mr Gygax, and I hope you're rolling in your grave in the best possible way! :)

Prince Azalea.

Games that help you Game

I've just finished writing a review of the Victory At Sea rules by Mongoose Publishing that I hope will be included in issue 4 of Irregular Magazine.

Whilst I do not want to preview that review here, I do want to say how impressed I am with a Victory At Sea in the specific of being a wargame rulebook that includes a comprehensive set of counters at the back of the book that can be photocopied.  This allows you to copy the counters, then dive straight in and give the rules a go without having to assemble miniature fleets in advance. Its a game that helps you game! I like any game that helps you play, rather some games you come across that seem to actively hinder your ability to play!

If you know of any other wargames that are as easy to get straight into, I'd be interested in hearing about them, if you'd like to comment.

Prince Azalea