A restrained few bits and pieces

 

I had a pretty restrained Salute this year, due to the upcoming move and not wanting to buy things that would just get packed up to come to a new house. Still, I got a nice few bits and pieces that are making me happy.

There were a few freebies in the bag.  There's the metal show mini, which is some historical Napoleonic figure. I'm unsure if I'll convert it for Turnip 28 or eBay it. I can make the decision later. There's a sprue of Quar by Wargames Atlantic, which I will probably make up for Last War. Finally, there's a 3D print of a dwarf or something that should be a good Pathfinder NPC.

I also picked up a couple of freebies off stalls. I got the Baron's War show miniature, which is a plate armoured knight with a mitre, who will make an excellent cleric or paladin for RPGs. The 3D print was to show off YS Masterpieces' sculpting and casting services.

Finally, in one of the shop bargain bins, I found these half price rat swarms. They're meant for Kings of War: Vanguard, but again, I plan on using them for RPGs. I think there's something excellently low fantasy about rat swarms. I have some old GW ones somewhere, and a spare set of the Cursed City set, which I got from a bits seller. That's probably enough rat swarms on balance.

So, all in all, an achievable amount to paint, with only one thing Bought With My Own Money, so I did pretty well on the restraint front.

Two events in a weekend

So, many of the people who follow this blog will be aware of Salute, the UK's biggest wargaming trade show. It was last Saturday, and as usual I went along. But it wasn't the only nerd hobby event going on at the Excel Centre! The Flesh and Blood London Pro Tour was running from Thursday to Sunday in the hall next to Salute. And I went to that as well.

I am very tired.

One of the great things about Salute is meeting a lot of friends from the wargaming hobby. I wasn't buying much, but I saw a bunch of folk, had a nose at various stalls, and saw some pretty cool gaming boards.

The Flesh and Blood Pro Tour had a lot of advertising around the Excel. I'm not sure how many Salute attendees went to get a demo game to see what it was about... I played games there on Friday and Sunday, as well as after Salute on the Saturday, too. I may ramble more about this later, but for now, I'm going to go and have a nap...

Very Modest Salute Purchases

So, last weekend was Salute, and I tried to keep my shopping reasonably modest. We're trying to have a clear out, so it seems like a bad idea to buy loads of stuff without any intent on getting to paint it soon. Lets see how well I did at managing to keep it restrained... A couple of bigger items didn't fit in this photo, so lets cover them first.

First up is the Dungeons & Lasers Dwarven Mine . . . but in this case, it's pre-painted. I've not had time to dig into it just yet, but it looks incredibly promising and I'm stoked to dig into it further.

I picked up some area terrain from Playmats.eu pretty much moments before the show closed. These were pretty cheap and should add to my area terrain for both RPGs and for Infinity.

Between two of these, there's plenty of area covered by two packets. That'd be plenty for a typical 4 x 4 game table alongside other more traditional terrain.

The company Debris of War had a good range of resin terrain, but I picked up a couple of sheets of transfers. I'm pondering adding some graffiti to my Nomad Remotes when I get them painted, and these would be great for that.

On the Infinity front I grabbed the new event exclusive Varangian Guard (plus a second for a friend, which is now winging its way to him). I also hadn't picked up the Helen of Troy limited model when she came out, and I thought another Infinity civilian wouldn't be the end of the world, so I got her two. The Varangian will be heading off to my commission painter for a White Company paint job, but Helen is one for me to paint.

Annie was kind enough to bring some of the Community Miniatures I'd backed down to the show so they didn't need posting. The Community Miniatures project is a Bad Squiddo side project to make historical figures who wouldn't otherwise get made. They get voted on going up for pre-order, then when enough people have pledged a fiver to them being made, they get sculpted and made.

Here's the other Bad Squiddo model - the show miniature! There's a sculpted scull and crossbones on the flag, and it should be a fun paint.

Anvil Industry also produced a 3D sculpted show model, which you could either download, or pay them for a print of. I decided to pick one up at the show as we don't have a 3D printer.

I got some orcs from Forgemaster Miniatures, too. This is another small company 3D printing miniatures, and these orcs looked like a useful set of models for Pathfinder, D&D and so on.

The company Warbases has a new range of minis, called Bifrost Miniatures. I've got a Gnoll wizard planned in Pathfinder, and while Gorrit here is marketed as an artificer, my character comes from the Mana Wastes, so can look a little technological. I'm hoping to get him painted up in time for the UK Game Expo when I'm hoping to get some games of Pathfinder in.

Some nice gentlemen were handing out free sprues of Wargames Atlantic "British Expeditionary Force". I'm thinking of assembling them as a Last War warband. Probably a good opportunity for an unusual paint scheme for otherwise historical miniatures.

A couple more 3D printed miniatures, this time from "Modular Worlds". I got a Leshy, which I'm a big fan of from Pathfinder, and a skink familiar holding a scroll in its tale which is perfect to add some flavour to a friendly NPC wizard.

Only Games was doing a promotional offer where they gave you a model if you signed up to their mailing list. This model is intended for One Page Rules, which I have enjoyed playing the sci-fi versions of.

And finally, the Gaming Vault was giving out little packets of freebies. They're a gaming shop that has a sideline in 3D printing bases.

The freebie packet included a sci fi base and some sweets. Not sure what I'll use the base for, but free is free!

I don't want to let this lot build up, so I'm planning to work through getting these assembled and painted pretty quickly so they all end up done and painted sooner rather than later. I'm not sure how quickly that will be, but I'll give it a shot.

A short Salute post

 

I went to Salute 51 at the Excel Centre on Saturday. It was a pirate themed event, and my friend Annie at Bad Squiddo Games had made the show miniature! I'm super impressed with how far Annie's come with her company, though apparently not impressed enough to take an in focus shot of the show miniature she had made...

Here's the Titan Owner's Club "Titan Walk", playing Adeptus Titanicus in 40K scale. I couldn't get an angle to actually get the whole board in! I didn't put the effort into getting a ton of photos this year, preferring to wander, look at what was about, and pick up a few bits and pieces without going wild.

This was a project to model the Italian town of Gradara in the Renaissance. This is a historical project that was sponsored by the EU and the town in question! They were also cross promoting a renaissance skirmish wargame called "Force of Virtue". It's also absolutely huge, and the photo doesn't do it justice.

That's all I've got on Salute this year. It was good fun but I was hard pressed to think of what to write about it beyond what I've said already about previous years. It remains something I'll attend any year it doesn't clash with Empire LRP.

Mammoth Miniatures

 

During the evenings, I managed to finish up a couple of models by Mammoth Miniatures. I picked these up at Salute last year. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've finished painting something I got at Salute within a year of getting it, so I'm definitely taking that as a sign of growth and improvement...

I'd kind of not been counting the treasure tokens I got done in February as I sold those, and I'm intending on keeping these two. I'm feeling really positive about the pace of painting.

This weird little fellow is described as a Scribe. His face was a little weird, but took contrast paint really well, and I was easily able to dot in some eyes and draw out a few highlights on the skin. The rest of him is a Zandri Dust undercoat, with an Agrax Wash and a heavy drybrush (maybe Typhon Ash)? Then contrast and a light drybrush of Karak Stone.

He's not the most detailed of sculpts, but he has some quirky charm I quite like.

The other model I grabbed was this "Half Dwarf Fighter". His helmet isn't quite in the right place for his eye holes so I thought he was wearing a blindfold at first! I'm classifying that as "quirky charm" too. I think he best suits into a grubby homebrew type system. He feels very much like a grimy 'old school' RPG NPC to me, and Mammoth do produce Brutal Quest. I'm not sure if he's edgy enough for Forbidden Psalm - though I think he'd work if he has some more "out there" companions.

Salute 2021: Bad Squiddo Games

 

In the last of my posts from last year's Salute, I'm showing off the display cases from Bad Squiddo Games. Here you can see an assortment of their fantasy range.

One of the earliest ranges that Bad Squiddo produced were a line of Shieldmaidens. I'm not into my historicals, but I think that they will well suit low fantasy as well.

Here you can see more of the fantasy range, mixed in with some of the Bad Squiddo Scenics. I've got a bundle of these from a couple of the Kickstarters, and I really should knock out a few of them as they look like nice easy paint jobs.

I'm not really into the historical side of wargaming, but Bad Squiddo also do a line of female Soviets.

There's also a nice feudal Japan range, covering a mix of historical and fantasy figures.

Bad Squiddo definitely ambles into the realms of whimsy at times. Due to Annie the owner's "mild" guinea pig obsession, you can pick up a line of angry War Peegs. If you look closely you can also spot a Raging Annie in among them.

This shelf is a bit of a mix. I can spot some of their animals, Amazons, Dwarfs and some scenery.

More of the scenery and fantasy range mixed together to show how they could work in roleplaying games as well as wargaming.

Going through all these different photos, which contain many models I own I haven't even cleaned and undercoated yet, is definitely making me want to go dig through my stash and paint some more up. They're an absolute joy to paint, especially with contrast and washes. They're not super detailed, so you can get them table ready in no time.

Salute 2021: Tangent Miniatures

 

Another company taking advantage of the rise in 3D printing who was at Salute this year is Tangent Miniatures.

They had some weird little fighty robot models that look quite interesting.

I think I'd probably paint these "pen top bots" a little differently myself, but they're certainly a distinctive look.

There's also a few models that might look a little familiar. This seems to be relatively common in the 3D printing space and I'm not a huge fan of that approach.

Salute 2021: Fenris Games

 

As we near the end of the photos I took at Salute, we're on to all the photos I took of the Fenris Games display cabinets . . . Because of the low light in that corner of the hall,  I've made the photos a little larger than I usually do to help you see all the cool and interesting stuff there. Hopefully it won't break your viewer!

First up we have a bunch of models from the Cauldron Warband, a disease ridden bunch of humanoids well suited to fantasy skirmish games or similar.

Here you can see some more members of the Cauldron warband. Surprisingly, the two dwarfs in the bottom left are also listed there... The big lad in the back is the Troll King, who's really rather a hefty model!

Next up we have the lovely Toadstool Brownies. You may recall I painted a few of these when the crowdfunder to produce them was on last year.

I'm not sure if they're in normal production just yet, but if you check in with Fenris Ian he'll let you know if you can order them. I mean, you already follow Fenris on social media and are subscribed to their newsletter, right?

Fenris were also showing off their Wyrdworld Recreated models, which just last week finished a second wave of crowdfunding.

They're a really nice range of assorted anthropomorphic animals. I recently got my pledge and I'm pretty excited to get to them!

Fenris also produce a range of ruins called Rubble City. These are a really clever set of modular resin terrain that will suit a huge range of historical periods due to being large stone buildings that are mostly rubble. I picked up a set of them at Salute and while they're a pretty big modelling project by my standards, I'm hoping to get to them this year so I can show them off on the blog . . .

The Lost Shores Oracle is a huge centrepiece terrain kit that you could happily put on a battlefield or use for a finale battle in a roleplaying game. I literally need to buy a bigger house before I can get one.

Sadly, the druid with the staff in the centre of this photo is only just back on the Fenris website. I dearly love him and do need to get him soon. The Rubble City Adventurers page is where the two folk on his right (our left) are.

You've already seen that I've got the Fenris Ducks. I love them. You should get them too, they're great.

I've also got this Serpentman with two of his buddies in my paint queue. I'm very excited.

Fenris also produce some undead Draugar.

I have a set of the Plague Cultists undercoated and ready to paint. I'm thinking about trying out some weathering powders with them...

Fenris have a really big range of animals, such as these Giant Rats.

Meanwhile, these wolves were part of the Toadstool Brownies crowd funder.

The animal options also include zebras and wild dogs...

There's a wide range of Cthulu monsters... The Fenris range just keeps going on and on!

As any good varied supplier of miniatures, Fenris also have an assortment of zombies.

There's also an assorted range of modern adventurers branded APEX investigators.

Hopefully, this has given you an idea of the wide range of miniatures that Fenris produce. It's worth giving their shop a look!