Mike Bravo Miniatures

A package from Mike Bravo Miniatures finally arrived a week or so ago. It was a bit of an ordeal to get it, but I'm pretty happy with the figures. About a year ago they'd self-crowd-funded a new line of models: State of Emergency. It included British troops circa 1970-1980 and an assortment of armed civilians. By "self-crowd-funded" I mean they didn't do it through Kickstarter or any other crowd-funding websites, they just did it on their own through pre-orders - much like North Star Figures has been doing with their "Nickstarters".

As the fellow running it was just starting out there were a LOT of delays. At one point in the fall he'd offered to send partial shipments of the miniatures that were ready at that time and would send the rest along to others. I like to think of myself as a patient guy, and I dig the lines of minis this guy is trying to make available, and I'm aware for small guys like this it's more of a labour of love and that postage is a killer... So I said I'd wait until it was all ready.

In the new year I was snooping on their website and it looked like ALL off the range was now available for ordering... but I still had not received my stuff. So I sent an email asking if it was indeed available and when my stuff might ship. Got a reply stating that he'd be picking up the last batch of stuff that week and would send off my stuff presently - and even include a few bonus figures from the new Zimbalawi line! Hooray! The next day I received an email confirmation that the miniatures were indeed on the way. A confirmation from his webstore, mind you, not from a carrier with a tracking number or anything.

So I waiting in eager anticipation.

And waited.

AND waited.

After a couple months I thought I'd best get in touch as it seemed something had gone amiss. I had hoped that perhaps he'd simply forgot to mail it. I'd placed an order with Hasslefree miniatures around the same time, and they admitted they had simply forgot to post it... Such was not, apparently, the case with Mike Bravo. He said he'd sent it out and it simply must have been lost in the mail and he would send along a replacement.

In nearly 30 years of ordering stuff from England (and this includes pre-internet days when I would get a money order from the bank and mail off orders to companies I'd found out about in Wargames Illustrated advertisements) I don't think I've ever had an order simply disappear. packages have arrived bashed and broke. Packages have arrived missing items I ordered. Packages have arrived with the complete wrong order. Things have showed months after I ordered it. And on one or two occasions, businesses went out of business and never sent anything at all.  But I don't recall anything ever going completely missing forever? Maybe I've just been insanely lucky. How about you, dear reader? Has anything you ordered simply disappeared in the mail?

Anyway, the package finally arrived. It didn't include any bonus miniatures from the Zimbalawi line. It didn't even include the Iron Lady special figure that was supposed to come with any of the crowd-funded orders (it is listed in the webstore as an item that could be ordered - but was listed as Out of Stock when the replacement was shipped... so I'm guessing they were just out of them...). I did get a bunch of extra miniatures, though... so... If I ever order more (and I might,  not completely writing them off just yet!) and they have the Iron Lady in stock, I'll hit them up for one then...

Here are the first batch:



Some SAS types with M-16s - the pack was to include four, I got seven? I painted up four of them and then painted the other three. As I was finishing the last three I decided to repaint one of the berets green - so I could pass the figure off as a member of the Royal Marine Arctic and Mountain Warfare Cadre (which I think also made use of the M-16).



An assortment of modern irregular/insurgent types. Could be I.R.A...? Could be Tooting Popular Front...? Could be some really extreme football hooligans...?

I have a fair few more of both British and armed civvies. I'm not in any rush to get them done, though. I do really need to work on the Jet Bikes!!!

The pictures were taken between bouts of rain - I do like taking pictures outdoors in natural light. And I usually like taking pictures on overcast days when the light is more diffused. I'm also trying to figure out how to edit photos on my fancy new computer. I don't love the new photo program... 


In other news...

I have also finished off two troops of Scottish Horse - which finishes off my Company of Scots Government/Covenanters for The Pikeman's Lament. I'll put them up in a separate post later today. 

More Fantasy Stuff and an SAS Jeep

Wow… it’s been three weeks since my last post… It’s been a busy month around our house and I haven’t been doing nearly as much painting. I can’t even remember when I last played a miniature game… (Oh wait, yes I can – it was the Frostgrave Campaign weekend! Over a month ago…). We have gotten a few board games in over the last month.

Here are a few things I have been working on…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

First are a few female adventurers from Casting Room Miniatures that I picked up for a Frostgrave warband (to go with the Blue Wizards I painted last September.

Here’s what they look like with the rest of the Warband so far…I'm not sure what sort of wizards they might be... Illusionists, maybe...?

These guys from Black Tree Design are the first miniatures destined for a THIRD medieval retinue for Lion Rampant (or a Warband for Dragon Rampant…?)… because… you know… who can live with JUST TWO!? As the other two retinues were using Red/White and Green/Yellow, I decided the most sensible colours for this new retinue would be Black and Blue…

I also picked up a PILE Of Halflings from Casting Room Miniatures - like ALL of them – the entire line

 (of 5 packs…). They are ostensibly for Dragon Rampant or A Song of Blades and Heroes (but could be for any fantasy skirmish/role-playing games…). Here’s what I’ve finished up so far…

The halflings from Casting Room Miniatures that I've painted so far...

A command element - the leader of the Halfling Hollow Defence Committee Militia along with his standard bearer and a few musicians. 

A few more members of the militia. 

Father and son skirmishers. 

One of the main reasons I picked up all of these - there are female halflings! 

A fellow taking a nap. I thought I might use him as a casualty/battered unit marker - halflings never DIE they just tire of the business and wander off to have a good nap! 

Here is the whole Halfling Horde so far... 

I’ve been back and forth on how to organize them for Dragon Rampant. At one point I was thinking I’d organize them into the following units:

1x Militia Command (Light Foot) @3 points

3x Militia Foot (Light Foot, Mixed Weapons) @5 points each

1x Milita Archers (Light Missiles, Sharpshooters) @ 6 points

I could have them organized into more separate units of Light Foot and Light Missile – but light foot get the “wall of spears” special rule… and I only have a half dozen Halflings with spears… so I thought mixed units of hand weapons and bows might work (as the mixed units drop the “wall of spears” rule).

Or possibly…

1x Militia Command (Light Foot) @3 points

3x Militia Archers (Light Missiles, Sharpshooters) @ 6 points

1x Militia Skirmishers (Scouts) @2

1x Mob (Hordes) @1

Or maybe I’ll downgrade one or two of the Militia Archers (removing the “Sharpshooter” special rule) and field another couple units of Hordes…

I have a few more of these Casting Room Miniatures to finish up – along with a handful of old Ral Partha Halflings (which look like Halfling children next to most of my other Halflings… and that’s probably what I’ll use them for! Younger members of the Halfling Hollow Defence Committee’s Militia). Stay tuned for those in the coming weeks.

This is the first of a trio of SAS jeeps from Perry Miniatures.

I don’t know if any of the SAS jeeps used in WW2 were painted pink… I do know that some British units, at different times, used pink to camouflage desert vehicles – including some of the LRDG trucks. And I’m pretty sure the SAS and LRDG had a fair bit of latitude when it game to customizing their own equipment… So I figured why not paint one of them pink for giggles. The rest will probably be done in some sort of tan.

Each of the three jeeps in the set came with three crew. I wasn’t sure if they were meant to have three in a jeep or if they just came as “options”. On their website they’re pictured with three in each jeep, but I’m pretty sure they just operated with two in each jeep… So I’ve only used two from each…

I also have a pair of SAS jeeps from Company B (with the Rat Patrol crew… again, for giggles…) to paint up and another from Warlord Games on the way (along with two LRDG trucks!). I’m not entirely sure why I picked them up at this point… It seemed like a good idea at the time…? Of course NOW I’m going to have to find a bunch of trucks to make up a convoy for them to attack – or some airplanes to line up on a runway for them to destroy…  and do I get 1/72 or 1/48….? Just a few 1/48 aiplane models could end up taking up a bunch of space on the tabletop – but 1/72 might look a little small… There’s a raid scenario in the new Bolt Action campaign book Duel in the Sun. I wonder what scale of models they imagined people would use in that…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Last of the Halflings…? maybe some Elves…? SAS Jeeps…? a Lost in Space robot…!? who knows!? Lots of stuff on the workbench at the moment…