Skellibobs and ponderings

 Hello all, couple of bits to report, nothing major but first.......

Something to listen to unrelated to my bobbins.

Thing to report primus:

   I painted a few Caesar Miniatures Skellies while i had some down time over the weekend:

Filthy Harold and his lawbringers have a bad ol' time of it!.

They were easy to paint and quite fun if you enjoy a spot of drybrushing now and then.

Thing to report secondus:

   I have been pondering what project to plunge into. I have some 20mm skirmishing in the offing which i have been painting the warbands for. I have several ideas where to go with it and it will revolve around a sleepy border town becoming the battle ground for a master criminal and the Law man obsessed with bringing him in (think a west country/cowboy/Magnum Force mash up, but with orcs and necromancers thrown in!). For rules i am even considering using this relic:

Second edition Warhammer, it works for single model skirmish games....honest!.

 Also with all this painting going on i have been wondering what to do regarding mass battles. I dont fancy painting hundreds of 20mm minis to play a decent looking mass battle command and control based game (and i'm up for a decent looking mass battle command and control based game) so i have been looking into other options, namely going into a smaller scale to ease the painting burden and create the type of 'mass effect' i happen to be after. To this end i have received some lovely samples from two very cool manufacturers to see what works, kallistra, who produce some nice 12mm stuff and Pendraken who produce minis in 10mm. The pic below will give you some idea of the actual sizes of their wares:

Yep i know i spelled Pendraken wrong in the picture, that is quite simply because i'm a prize tit!!.

 Both companies sculpts are truly first rate, i have to say i am very impressed with both with next to no mould lines or flash. Have a look at the pics below to see what i'm on about:

 10mm Pendraken

12mm Kallistra

 Both scales offer a great deal in the 'mass effect' department (big multi-based units with a small table top footprint allowing for more 'realistic' battle lines) and follow the 'paint the unit not the mini' style of painting i can get on board with to speed things along.....i mean, the idea of spending years painstakingly painting mini after mini just to actually get a game on is not appealing at all!!.

I am also considering some 6mm bits from baccus6mm but i have no samples to show as they want £7 for them (with postage) and i am one tight bugger so......

  I have also been looking at One Hour Wargames again and may use some of my 1/72 minis for that in units of about 10 bods for foot which may not be too much work...

Thing to report ...er.....three:

Another thing that has been on my mind quite a bit has been the fact that wargaming as a hobby can be quite pricey if you go down the wrong route. Some of the top manufacturers and popular systems charge upwards of £50 to get a small force on the table ( and thats being generous) and i think that yes, its a choice to play these games not a need so you can expect to pay to get on board but the price to switch system or try something new with the official minis can be bloody extortion...

£4 per mini, call me cheep but:

Now, bearing all this in mind i have been spoiled with 1/72 minis prices as they are beyond reasonable compared to several companies out there but (maybe) going into a different scale opens your blinkered blogger up to the horrors of metal miniature pricing. This leaves me rather urked as this gives the companies not charging the earth (like the three named above) a bad rep by proxy for those not prepared to investigate further. I know there are several ways to get the price of collecting an army down. So i wondered, who's up for a challenge?, such as:

Snappy!!.

 The idea being you buy and paint an army with a view to gaming with it for £30 (or the local currency equivalent) or less in a set number of weeks. The aim being to show this hobby is not the financial black hole it is often made out to be but actually quite easy to get into if you are pointed in the right direction (i.e. shopping around and setting reasonable expectations). This could mean thinking outside the box, like playing Kings of War in 6mm or Bolt action in 1/72 for example but very doable with a bit of thought. Who's up for it?.

 Well tats my head emptied for now, all that remains is to give a full blooded WELCOME Peter to the great big mental soup that is this blog!. Thanks for the follow and welcome along sir!. I cant see wether you have a blog or not , if you do please feel free to pop a link in the comments section as it would be great to have a look at what you are up to!!.

.....'till next time.......