The Temptation of Nick

I am slowly sorting through the unfinished projects left behind by my friend Nick and I found some half painted plastic Vikings. I realised these were the figures that were being referred to in a forum post that he posted many years ago and I thought I'd share...

Posted by Nick on April 15, 2014 at 11:50 AM     

Nick went to Salute. There he met the Devil. The Devil said to Nick " buy these little Gripping Beast Vikings, they will be quick & easy to build." Nick had been tempted by the devil before - he had bought plastic figures before & always they had been found wanting. "But perhaps the Devil was right", one of Satan's minions whispered in his ear. " Desist, be not tempted", whispered his Guardian angel in his deaf ear. Too late! The money was already in his hand (briefly) before the evil trader eased it from his grasp, Nick had the figures! All the way home he was so excited, imagining how beautiful these figures would be. When he opened the box Nick found millions of tiny, ill fitting bits to cut out & stick to his fingers. He persevered, travelling on the Path of Righteousness & was rewarded by a collection of misshaped contortionist dwarves that reflected the Satanic image of their evil master.

Buying plastics is a triumph of Hope over Experience.

LOL  Well if anyone wants the 20 resultant "misshaped contortionist dwarves" they're yours for £10 + postage. I'll throw in the 19 Wargame factory Vikings that were in the same box.

 

A Visit to Wargames Foundry

 I was able to divert a journey a couple of weeks ago to go past the new home of Wargames Foundry near Newark. I found the pleasingly characterful and slightly dilapidated building (originally some sort of stable block for the nearby Stoke Hall) very easily, following the directions on their website. As I was strolling into the large gateway I encountered none other that Bryan Ansell himself and we fell into conversation. He gave me the tour of the new shop/ display area, and we had a interesting chat about the unreleased ranges of figures and different plans for the immediate future at Foundry. Bryan tacitly admitted that some of the previous administration's choices in commissioning new sculpts had been a mistake. Some of the miniatures are more Peter Gilder  in style that Perry twins. The other chap there was alo very friendly and helpful and none of this was very useful at preventing me from several impulse purchases. (Well they fed me tea!)

 One of the ranges that I had not seen before is a civilain "mobs" line. These are figures in vaguely 18th / early 19th Century garb, armed with a variety of improvised and some more purposeful weapons. There are loads (maybe 30?) packs including mounted civilians and civilian artillery. The style is relatively simple with reasonable proportions and should be easy to paint. I picked up a blister each of the armed women characters and the armed clergy, as the most unusual examples.

I can see a fair bit of use for these, in Donnybrook skirmish games if nothing else.

The other range that I hadn't seen much of (just a glimpse at Salute this year) was the Napoleonic Mamluk range. These have quite a chunky and dynamic style, if lacking a little in subtle detail. Quite an unusual subject though, I can only think of one other line (Brigade Games?) I like them and I will have a place for them in my 18th C. Ottoman army. At £2.00 a pop for infantry / £4.00 for cavalry (unless you buy enough packs to get the freebee deals) I won't be able to afford a lot of them.

The last of my impilse buys was chiefly acquired to enrage / get a laugh from one of my regular opponents, Les, who has owned a Carthaginian army ever since I can remember.

It was their title that had me chuckling! I don't know if these new "pikemen" are named for their counterparts in the earlier (Dave Gallagher?) range or nostalgia or just as an homage to the late, great Peter Connolly. (I didn't ask.) Generally the idea of a Carthaginian pikeman has been debunked, at least in wargames circles but I remain to hear that there is some new evidence that they existed... Again slightly rough and quirky sculpting but I will happily use these as alternative command figures in units (they have a bit of an old style Irregular Miniatures feel to them IMHO, but larger of course.) 

Plastic Ansars

 Two boxes of Perry Miniatures Sudanese Tribesmen were part of the goodies bought at Cavalier. The first few have now been assembled, there are 40 figures to a box, great value at 45p each (plus labour!)

The box contains 3 x main sprue and 2 x "command sprue", as well as a set of plastic bases (for eBay) and a leaflet about Sudanese dress with some nice banners included.

There are enough heads in the box to field every figure as a turbanned Arab or every figure as a Hadendowa / "Fuzzywuzzy". There are a mixture of weapon options on the basic sprue but only exactly enough arms in total so every weapon set will have to be used (you cannot make all spearmen or all riflemen from one box.)

The "command sprue" again allows both figures to be either Hadendowa or Arabs and this time there is more choice of arms. You get a rifle, a sword, a drummer or a clenched fist and left arms holding a flagpole or pointing.

The figures go together very nicely as you'd expect. The arm options and seperate shields mean you can get a huge variety amongst your mobs of Mahdists. Pondering on the huge number of spare heads in a box I tried a quick experiment with some spare Wargames Factory  "Numidian" bodies and I think they go with the superior Perry figures rather well. (Front row 2nd and third from the left.)

If you can pick up any of these very cheaply they do add a bit of variety to your warbands and for the frugal use up some spare heads.

Hoplite Comparison

 I have suddenly become aware that 2012 is just round the corner (must be the annoying M&S Christmas ads.:roll:) and the realisation has occurred that painting time for the SOA Battle Day is slipping away. As a first step I decided to audit what figures are available from my lead pile to be inserted into the painting queue before April. Results summarised below:

Hoplites (28-30mm): 319 of those 136 are painted.

This seems better that it really is as the majority of the painted hoplites are in fact Etruscans. They will do in a pinch I suppose but I would like to have proper Greeks for Platea. This leaves 2 units of hoplites ready for action and 14 units of potential recruits (7 of these units look distinctly Spartan.)

My figures come from a wide variety of manufacturers (some comparison photos below) but I am hoping that if I can keep the large round (Argive) shields consistent variations in height and heft between the different sculpts will go unnoticed.

(The grey figures in the middle are Warlord / Immortal Miniatures plastic hoplites, great value for the aspiring Greek general.)