As full of spirit as the month of May
As those of you who had to study Henry IV part one at school ( in the olden days ) might recognise, the quote above is Shakespeare. Notably from the same speech that says "I saw young Harry with his beaver on...." which hasn't dated as well. Anyway that out of the way I thought I'd write a quick blog about the stuff that has passed across the painting desk here "in the rebel camp near Shrewsbury".
First up some Super Fantasy Brawl. Fantasy Brawl is a board game of the arena type wherein players pick a team of 3 minis and their associated cards and battle it out attempting to defeat similar teams. It has now had two kickstarters and seems very popular. Kickstarter here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/super-fantasy-brawl-round-2?gclid=CjwKCAjwp7eUBhBeEiwAZbHwkeQqq8SJDF2SWyoY-Y1kHN7o2Pd5Pcw0foU4sHV0VKcB00l-cOtm_xoCYGYQAvD_BwE and Boardgamegeek link here https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/194517/super-fantasy-brawl
These 3 sets were from Kickstarter 2. I have painted KS one twice and there are pictures in the galleries. Each set plays together to provide synergies. The 'minis' are cartoon like in style and big old pieces of PVC plastic about 10cm tall in some cases.. They are not state of the art prints but good clean casts for gaming use.
Next up these Gates of Antares minis. Not painted any of these before and was pleasantly surprised as in the bare metal they looked like blobs of bare metal...not like the Infinity metal stuff I'm used to painting. However they painted up quite well and the plastics were also quite good, though not as sharp as Gw plastics.
Plastic C3 squad above, Ghar rebels heavy support below.
And some Ghar rebels.
Gates of Antares started with Warlord but has been moved to Skytrex and the original developers have just released a new rules set and a new website https://antaresnexus.com/ This looks really good and I hope they maintain what seems to be an interesting and well developed game with a big fanbase.
Archvillain Games The Blind Bishop was next across the table. This was my own 3d print which I painted as the leader of my Skavenesque ratmen army using AVG STLs. I was pleased with this big boy as he was a successful print and the painting was interesting as he is hyper realistic and detailed. This was the subject of a 'how i paint' blog as well - an entry or two below this one. Archvillain do just about the best 3d prints around I think. I have patreons with 4 stl producers currently and look forward every month to seeing what AVG are producing. Worth a look if you are considering 3d printing https://www.myminifactory.com/users/archvillaingames?show=objects
2nd SS Das Reich made another appearance with a big commission of 17 vehicles and numerous infantry in the Rauchmuster camo. The infantry were to be equipped as far as possible with the STG 44 assault rifle which I assume is pretty good in Bolt Action!
These Warlord plastics are first class miniatures and go together well and have excellent faces. They really do show up the older ones in metal as you can see below. Officer standing with Map is Rubicon plastic and very nice.
Warlord plastic vehicles are also excellent and made for gamers rather than modellers with as few actual pieces as possible. Below you can see a Panther, a Stug IV and an Opel Maultier.
The Maultier is a real favourite of mine as it looks really cool. The windows are a pain to build as they are thin sheets of clear plastic which need cutting to fit. I always just paint over them as can be seen in the pictureusing a sort of trick. The muddy effect goes on first then i paint in the dark areas by hand. A white edge to the side window and a glint off the windscreen helps the illusion and then a very quick pass with the airbrush when doing the rest of the weathering dust completes the trick.
Another fave is the 250 command vehicle which came along with a number of 251s. This is a Rubicon kit. Rubicon are the best 1/56th scale kits without a doubt but have too many pieces for my business!
This one isn't too bad piece wise but still lots you will literally never see internally. Lovely vehicle though. I always think of the 250 as the sporty version of the 251 which is an estate car! There were 251s galore here with standard late versions as well as an early survivor with 37mm gun and the Flamethrower version. This last seems like a poor idea to me. An open topped thinly armoured vehicle with onboard fuel tanks seems .... perilous. Not sure would get a health and safety certificate today.
Flame above, 37mm below
And one of several bog standard 251
Rear machine guns not attached as they would be unlikely to all survive shipping so I send as a separate part.
One other interesting vehicle in the job was the Sdkfz 7 with 37mm AA gun. This is a resin/metal kit which has excellent resin parts and less excellent metals.
In fairness the gun and crew all went together very well which is not always the case with Warlord metal artillery.
Something completely different were these three pieces completed right at the start of the month. The first is a halloweeny type set by Conquest games which seems destined for Frostgrave or DnD
Then there were these Village woman from Sally 4th ready to defend against enemy raiders be they human or fantasy. Seems a bit harsh throwing a baby at the attackers but tough times I guess. As an aside Buster Keaton claimed that his legendary physical comedy ability came about as a result of being part of his parents Vaudeville act from a very young age wherein he was thrown around the stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RUYeD-Gl3k whatever the truth man was a genius.
Lastly and completely randomly in this section was this lovely Roman Ballista. I am not sure but judging by the crew it looks Late Roman to me, very different to the Scorpion we are all used to seeing in Early Imperial contexts. Roman Artillery another of the vast range of topics I am not knowledgeable in. I think it is from Gripping Beast.
Penultimately we have some GW miniatures. I do not get much GW to paint, not sure why although I tend not to post much on the 40k/Aos forums and also there are loads of really really good painters serving that market. However recently a few more have come my way, a chaos knight in April and 2 lots of Eldar for this month. The first lot were this Corsair KT painted to some fairly detailed instructions but a useful warm up for the much bigger job.
They are very nice minis and came already built to a very good standard so that was nice. Having not done Gw for a while its easy to forget just how good their miniatures are. Whether vthey will stand up to the inevitable rise of 3d printing I dont know but I hope so.
Another couple of 3d prints painted after work! The first is an Orc by The printing goes ever on who publish a series of LOTR like minis https://www.facebook.com/ThePrintingGoesEverOn This chap is standing on top of an Asgard Rising tomb (also 3d) and making an excellent point...
The moss effect is a new (to me) product called Dirty Down Moss and is part of a range including rust and verdigris which I am yet to try.
The knight above is by Lost Kingdom Mininiatures and is from their Arthurian type range, which is excellent. Hopefully June will see the Lady of the Lake and some Pegasus knights also painted. https://www.facebook.com/LostKingdomMiniatures Once again the base is by Asgard Minis whose kickstarter bases are providing me with great value.
Finally in May some more Marvel Crisis Protocol. These are for a USA customer and reflect for me the popularity of this game as I have painted loads of MCP this year already and almost the entirety of the range except for Doctor Voodoo ( I know, never heard of him either) and the very latest releases. I suspect this is a game for people who want to game and collect rather than those who want to paint and game as this explains the numbers sent to me to paint. Below we have 3 lesser known examples! Name them if you can...
And thats all folks! May has been a busy month in quantity and variety, June looks the same with Bloodbowl Norse, GW Eldar, Infinity and more MCP all queued and ready to go apart from my personal painting.