Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Wofun Fun

Recently I've bought a collection of the Wofun printed miniatures. I wanted them because most of my armies aren't portable in anything less than a large people carrier (!), whereas I can pack two large armies of 15mm Wofun with terrain, rules, chits and cloths in a single holdall.  There are pretty forgiving to damage, too, compared to a lead miniature. Last night son'n'heir and I played a game with a couple of fine chaps from the London Wargaming Guild at Seven Dials (I've "borrowed" a couple of Daniel's photos, below, as I too no closeups).

First thoughts are that some sort of sabot would be quicker to set up and play with than the current individual stands. I think I will print some laminated bases, with unit names, saves, etc, colour-coded for commands and tack the bases onto them. Secondly, we had some issues with the cloth rucking up- I'll pick up a couple of 3' x 4' neoprene mats for use as a playing surface. Thirdly, I need some camp markers.

Had a blast! I'm definitely going to use these for playtesting and when I need a portable game.

Friday, 14 July 2023

Some of our cataphracts are missing


I finally managed to get hold of some decent metallic spray primers and seized a narrow window in the weather (between too hot and too wet!) to prime the cataphracts. I went mainly steel and gold, with some grey which I'll paint them in reds depicting lacquered or enamelled horse armour.

Here are some of the humbler horse archers. I bought most of these assembled, on eBay, but they needed a little repair work which I did last night. I am going to need a whole lot more of these- I have a hunch there's a bag of them somewhere in the loft.

I am also searching for some Parthians I was working on earlier this year. I stored them away, for safety, but I cannot for the life of me locate them; they are probably in one of five hundred unlabelled Really Useful Boxes. :-/

Realistically they won't be finished in time for the Britcon tournament next month in Nottingham, so I'm eyeing my collection for other relatively portable armies. Incidentally, if you are free on the weekend of 12th/13th August we are very keen to find another player as we currently have the Dreaded Odd Number of players. It's a relaxed event, not too competitive, pint of beer at the side of the table sort-of-thing. Last year I quite enjoyed seeing the Lardy stuff in the annex, and spent too much on books and the Bring and Buy. If you think you might be interested, please email me.

Friday, 7 July 2023

Nine out of forty cats

One of my four major projects for this year is to get a long-projected Parthian army on the table. Phase I includes these forty cataphracts, which is more than enough for a standard To the Strongest! game (the photo is "clickable). So far nine are partially painted. Phase II will provide 24 horse archers, most of which are happily already painted by chum Nick Speller, and phase III will double the numbers of cataphracts and triple the number of horse archers, and add some stalwart Daylamite hillmen and foot archers.

The miniatures are a 50/50 mix of Aventine (back) and plastic Gripping Beast Parthian riders (front), all on Gripping Beast horses, for reasons of portability (it is intended to be a "travel army"). The two types of riders match well stylistically. The Aventines fit neatly onto the GB horses, and provide a variety of poses and the necessary command minis and standards. The only major changes I'm making is to replace the plastic konti with metal ones, because they are slimmer and more pleasing to the eye.

With any luck I'll have them finished for our TtS! tournament at Britcon in August- I hope to see some of you there - please email me if you'd like details.

In other news... I've just updated the Free To the Strongest! Army list eBook, and am in the process of sending a copy out to everyone who has ordered a copy in the past. If you want, you can download it for free from here.  I've also put the Ancient and Medieval Army list books on promotion for a few days, and some of the chits are 25% off.

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Portable Parthians

 
I have, perhaps unwisely, started another army. I have a gap for a lightweight ancient army that I can carry on the train to distant tournaments such as Britcon and Godendag or Glasgow. These are the horses from the Gripping Beast Cataphract set combined with (mostly) riders from the super Aventine Miniatures range. I'm experimenting with basecoats; a couple have gold and chrome primers, above.

Below, for a bit of a laugh, I'm trying the "nail varnish" metallic shades from my ScaleColour 75 boxes; paints I have never previously used, and, frankly, never expected to ever use.  They are really odd, but I have a feeling that they might just work. If they do work, there are some other even bolder colours I might try later on, some pinks and a green... it might become a very flamboyant army!

Friday, 23 June 2023

Racking II and prepping

It has been on the hot side for painting, so I've either been writing TtS! army lists (for the July-Ancients  and August-Medieval releases), racking the BigRedBatCave or prepping minis. 

Above is the main area of the cellar, now racked along one side with six 90cm wide storage racks. There is potentially room on the other side for some more- perhaps three or four. That is pretty much the last storage space I can generate in this house. Once that's full, I'll have to start selling stuff in order to fit new things in. And I still have a ton of boxes in the loft that I need to move down into the remaining spaces, perhaps enough to fill them.

Below are some minis which will become Parthian cataphracts. My plan is to use (mostly) Aventine miniature riders on plastic Gripping Beast steeds, alongside some of the GB riders from the new Parthian set. The advantage of using the plastic Nisean chargers is that the army will be light to transport, so I can use it at tournaments like Britcon or Godendag to which I travel by train. I will spray paint these in metallics (per the two test figures on the left, Gold-fingerrrr) and then paint the non-metallic areas and ink wash. Sounds simple- probably an awful lot of work in it, for which reason this army may not be ready in time.

By the way, I just booked my tickets for the To the Strongest! tournament at Britcon in Nottingham in August- it's a great show, and I really like Nottingham, too. I hope to see some of you there!

Sunday, 11 June 2023

Racking


Above, today I've been racking the BigRedBatCave. The main cave is around 30' long by 6' high and should take a good few minis, although, I fear, by no means all of them. It should enable me to reduce the number of minis in the house, somewhat, to the relief of my beleaguered family.


I'm also working on a new project, of Teutonic bent. Here are some new standard bearers; mostly Foundry, some Black Tree. Later they will be joined by some Victrix. I'm trying to build in a lot of variety in the standards, and as many horns as I can find.

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Last 48 hours of the Early Summer Sale in the BigRedBatShop


It's the final 48 hours of my early summer sale of various to the Strongest!-related products, including the rules, army lists, various wobbly-edged bases, chits, magnetic basing materials and terrain. Discounts vary from a modest 10% to a mighty 50%.


Get them while you can! You can find all the Sale products here.