Arena Rex Gladiator

Finally got around to painting up another Red Republic Games figure from the Kickstarter I backed a few years ago. I really do need to get on with these as I really like the figures and it will be great to actually play a few games. 

This figure is Marcus Furius sculptured by Patrick Masson and is a resin 32mm Figure. Whilst the game is mostly based on Roman Gladiatorial combat some of the factions are more at home in a mix of fantasy and mythic genres this figure is actually mostly a historical one.

Not the best photo's really as the detail looks a bit soft but in reality the sculps are very detailed as you would expect from resin. At $17.50 obviously you would expect good quality and Red Republic do deliver.

I continue to base on a plain black base but wanted to be a bit funky so trimmed the shield and stuck it to the base to look like it had been wedged in the sand of the arena, despite the lack of said sand.

Unlike many Kickstarters from fledgling companies Red Republic Games have continued to release more figures to the range growing the possible combinations to the range and looks to be a stable supplier. Having not actually playing the game post playtest I can't really comment on how the rules shake out. Hopefully when I get a fourth figure finished I can give the rules a try, you never know it might even get me painting more of the figures I have waiting to get on the painting table.

Arena Rex Vargr

I continue to have little painting to show as my output is either slow or can't be shown due this time to being mostly my Santa Clause present for my target. But I can show you the latest finish from my Arena Rex collection. I had hoped to get one finished a month but that looks like it's not going to happen but still from an enjoyment point of view its a real blast.

This is Vargr, rather smaller than Aquila which was the first of the Arena Rex figures I have painted up. Not that Aquila is the largest of the Arena Rex figures I own. I selected this guy as my second model as I really liked the look of him.

Red Republic Games have used quite a few different artists to sculpt their figures but from what I have seen all are top flight sculptors and like all the others this one does not disapoint.

Great detail which makes the painting so much easier, though I have to say that I am extremely happy with the skin tones I have managed to get. Lots of layering and I think if I keep pushing myself I will really grow as a painter. I am more well known for my 6mm work so it's a lot of fun to show off something a little bigger. I think this figure is closer to true 32mm than many of the others, Aquila is 42mm toe to eye. This guy if he was standing straight would have to stretch to get to 30mm.

Unfortunately I was a little careless on cutting him off his sprue, snapping his ankle and pinning was not an option with the ankle being so thin. The fix ended up being a bit of glue and painting a leather band around his ankle to match the one just under his knee on the other leg. 

The action poses are only possible due to these models coming in multipart kits, in this case originally four, that is until I made it five part!

It's now possible for me to play a game with a couple of real models. It won't be much of a game but I am sure The Boy will be only to happy to hand me my ass on a plate.

Arena Rex, Finally Started.

The first Kickstarter I actually backed was Arena Rex by Red Republic Games which is a mythical Gladiator game using very high quality 32mm resin miniatures. It was like many kickstarters delayed a fair bit and by the time it arrived I had lost much of my drive to get these figures started. I also did not want to rush them and so put them to one side as the Analogue Painting Challenge was around the corner (more worries about rushing).

In the end I waited even longer before I finally got started properly. The first figure I choose to paint actually turned up before the kickstarter was funded as a gift for mentioning the project on my blog. I had started it when I received it but was unhappy with my progress so it sat unfinished for about two years!

The figure is Aquila and was the face of Arena Rex in the pre-production days and remains for me the figurehead of the range (pun intended). For $23 you get the multi part figure, base, activation token, stat card and art card. The figure was sculptured by Sebastian Archer and the detail is incredible, and far beyond my skill to truly do it justice.

I copied the shield metal finish from the fine work by Benjamin Williams, the first finished Aquila I saw and probably the first one done professionally. I originally was going for a sand effect finish on the base but changed to a totally black finish as I feel it brings out the colours of the figure better. The white flecking you can see in the images does not show up quite so much when looking at the model but I will be going over the black again as it looks to be the varnish having a bit of fun.

The cloak for me is one of the best painted parts of the model but was the easiest to get done. I went with a wolf pelt look and layered the successive lighter colours via the old and trusted drybrush method.

I also followed Benjamin's lead with the metal rather than leather armour look, it is Fantasy after all. I used five different metal finishes and added washes to various parts to give further variance. One mistake was to cut the end off the swords hilt thinking it was just a run off, shows how important it is to look at lots of images of the model before getting out the scalpel.

Overall I am quite pleased with the finish and it has me fired up to paint up more of these figures. Next Arena Rex model will be Vargr which is again sculptured by Sebastian, I hope to get it started in the next few days and finish it rather quicker than I managed with Aquila. I can see me buying more of these figures when I have the ones in my collection all finished and a few games under my belt.

Winter War Kickstarter Wave 2 News and Arena Rex

I have had two lots of Kickstarter news this week but lets start with Winter War from Baker Company here is the bones of the email.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say I have just packed up the last of the second wave parcels to be posted and couriered on Monday :)

So you should all have received them by the end of the week (or beginning of the following week for those further afield).

Please note, if you received a second wave early on with fewer items than recently advertised, don't worry, you will be first on the list to get the third wave where these will be included.

Third Wave and Bulk delivery

As mentioned in the comments a few days ago, the third wave and Bulk deliveries will be starting to go out in a weeks time once I have made a few more moulds and caught up a bit with casting. This will take a month or so at least to complete, but I will keep you all informed of the progress. Photos soon once I have recovered from completing the 2nd wave...

Lee received his last Friday so again has had his before me even though he ordered his a month after me. This does bother me a little, the sense of fairness seems to be the main reason. When it was the first lot and Lee had had his well over a month and I was still waiting I had notified Gavin. Actually I notified Gavin two or three times but to no avail, seems me agreeing to have mine taken to a show to save him postage was a big mistake, not least because most of us failed to get them due to a hitch at Baker Company. So yes I am disappointed that I again have been left to the last batch when I was further up the chain but it's really irrational as I have not touched wave one yet! 

I also know that other than a look at them and a quick post these will also be assigned to the wait for another day pile. Indeed they will only heap shame on my mountain in a section I have little expectation to get down the huge pile in the near future. Maybe keeping track is a bad idea LOL.

The other kickstarter is my Arena Rex from Red Republic Games. Famously late and until recently without a shipping date. Well the date is yet to be cast in stone but they are looking at September to October for the majority of the figures along with rules, tokens and dice. Just a couple of the more difficult and larger figures will be sent on at a later date. Looks like the whole of my set will be sent together and so I am expecting these in the October to November period and wincing at the customs hit I may take.

So two kickstarters both late but both looking to deliver, how have my views changed since first looking at kickstarter in general and these in particular? 

Arena Rex was the first I backed and I backed it as I went back to work when really I should not have as funds were still stretched. I admit that this did put the whole project under strain for me but I really liked the figures and wanted in. Unlike many kickstarters the stretch goals were not actually that good in comparison to others, indeed rather tight but that did not stop it achieving it's goal and beyond. It was disappointing that delays have made it now more than a year late and the updates stopped almost altogether at one point and I was ready to write it off as a bad experience. However whilst late it looks great, will the rules work well, I am not sure but if they don't work fully or suffer unbalanced gladiators then tweaking may sort this. I have high hopes on this and the figures look fantastic so if only for the joy of painting it will still be great. 

Winter War, Gavin has had far better coms and better reasons for his delay. Also the task was far greater than that or Red Republic's who gave reasons of moving house, new job and baby for the three guys making delays whilst Gavin had a long running problem with his casting machine.

Other than having delays the two could not be more different, Baker Company gave huge additions as stretch goals and I think he just got carried away with the giving. It was hugely successful raising many times more than the original goal and became a victim of it's own success. The time frame became impossible simply down to the amount of figures that needed sculpting due to the additional figures added to the pledges. Unfortunately sculpting was rushed and standards slipped so far below what is acceptable. Whilst Gavin has many supporters who will be positive about the project the truth is that too many of the figures are so badly sculptured as to be a real negative to the project. The vehicles are fantastic and some of the figures of wave two are much better but plenty are not. The net result will be that I will paint up some of these and offload all of them possibly keeping some of the vehicles. I plan to make back my money and walk away meaning we will not be wargaming the Winter War. Instead we will probably go with WWII in 28mm as the Winter War project has at least caught our attention.

So where am I with Kickstarters now? Actually this could be seen as a good record, backed two and receiving two. Both late as is very often the case, one will deliver what it promised the other less than was expected but still massive in quantity. 

Timing though is the key, if you want to see results soon it's going to disappoint. Mantic have a Dungeon Crawl up at the moment which I was tempted to back but have decided to walk away from. That would have a good chance to arrive when expected but I don't see that as a true kickstarter as most of the work is done. It's a glorified pre-order system and as such works very well.

Lack of immediacy kills that excitement from the projects first showing and whilst I look forward to the Gladiators I know it's now a back burner project. Since committing to buy these I have since started six new periods or scales some of which are small such as WWI Planes. Others are much larger such as the Saga and Cowboys as these will take a life of their own. Delivery will tell if this will jump back up the painting queue or be like the Winter War and still be in it's box months after delivery.

The more the items are conceptual the more likely you won't get what you expect. Gavin did show us some of the finished figures both painted and as castings, these were not great and I amongst others chose not to see them for what they were. I was blinded by what I wanted to see and many a kickstarter backer falls into that home made trap.

Yes I may well back other kickstarters but not now and not soon. I need to get done some of what I already have in the wings done first and really I don't need to look further ahead than where I am right now. I will be a little wiser in future (I hope) but don't feel I have had a bad experience from either project but would now be happy to have not backed either and actually if offered my money back on both would do so without a backward glance. That's not meaning they were bad choices but I could have made better ones.

Kickstarter Monday

It's kind of funny as both the Kickstarter's that I backed have reported updates on the same day for the last two updates. After I reported the points that both seemed to share in common they have since stated to show two rather different stories. 

Baker Company have for instance sent out around 160 parcels over last week and today and whilst still way behind schedule (still do not have their own casting machine back up and running) are working hard on getting as much out as possible and even have started work (externally) on the next Kickstarter, that being the Balkan's during WWII something that appeals to me and something I am likely to back again so as you can see my confidence is growing in this one.

Red Republic Games also are making progress but one month into their last extended deadline (1st Quarter of 2014 release) has now been replaced with no deadline offered. Simply they are unsure when they will be releasing their figures.

A quick look at the chart above will tell you why. 16 models are either in hand or in production. The other 20 are not, so given the time scale they have worked to this point it's fair to assume that the figures may not be ready in 2014!!! Seven of those twenty are at least at the caster for prototypes and if all goes well then may well be ready in this quarter. Only two more are advanced enough to possibly be done in this quarter but ten are Sculpt In Progress. I have see some of these and they look reasonably along the way but I doubt the figures, rules and other items have much chance of arriving before they are a year plus overdue. 

The good news is that I am more confident on this happening at some point than I was a couple of months ago. I don't mind waiting as it's not a project that is at the top of my list and was looking to be a bit of a distraction if it arrived around now. A distraction it will be as the figures look excellent and need to soak up a lot of tie to do them justice. I even think removing unrealistic release dates is a positive move, what worries me is that they may have thought the date was realistic. I at the time blogged that I would be surprised if they made first quarter and that I was so right about. The figures though are just lovely and when they do arrive will make a big splash.

Strange Purchases - Well it is Wargaming

I have been on the look out for a couple of things for wargaming that I have managed to get over the last week but at first glance they may seem a little...........odd.

Wilton Cake Stands?????????

So have I tipped over into Cake Decorating battles? Actually that sounds kind of fun.......

File for the Cake?

Now I have wanted a file for awhile, I was given the tip that using a large file to flatten the underside of bases really speeds up prep time. Got this one from B&Q for about £5, it has yet to see action though that will change over the weekend.

Mythical Columns

I was looking for Columns to be added to my Arena Rex set up as it recommends obstacles and pits to be included in the arena so that you can push other gladiators into these causing damage. Arena Rex have some great looking pillars but they are quite expensive and I thought of cake columns as being a good idea. I then came across these and felt they really fitted in with the fantasy side of the game, what could be better that crystal pillars?

And for scale we have Aquila a 32mm figure.

Each pillar is 7" tall and a pack of four on Amazon was just over £4 so a really good price in my book. I do think they are a little too tall so may cut some in half, I will try them as they are first though. Well first I will base them so that they will be a bit more steady.

Paper playtest figures.

I also have the card player tokens to try the rules with. Once I have tried the rules I should be able to have a good idea which figures I want to pick from the kickstarter and then all I have to wait for is the delivery of the figures. I hope to get a few games in sometime over the weekend with the kids, the rules are simple enough and I think they will like the idea. Not sure I will let them play with the real figures when they have arrived and been painted up though ;-)

Kickstarter Kicks In

I have had the rules and the cut out figures in PDF for Arena Rex for a couple of weeks now. I have not even got round to looking at them as yet, though this will happen this weekend.

I have pledged a fair old amount to this so really I should have dived straight in but it's been a busy couple of weeks and yes I am making excuses up as I go along.

However I have started the one resin figure I already own and I hope to sort out a trial of the rules as soon as I get some card in the printer to print out the figures.

However I did get up to an e-mail from Red Republic showing some of the greens that are ready and I liked what I saw. I am not so interested in the over large or fay out fantasy Gladiator types but I do like very much the two I have attached to this post.

These have great movement and look really good. I think they will be a joy to paint and add something a little different to my table. I keep having urges to start painting up Fantasy figures but at the same time I know I will have trouble getting a Roleplaying group together which is a shame as I really want to GM again. Maybe I can think up a solution that will allow me to paint up the figures even if I don't get to use them, just seems a waste though.

Anyway look to see some kind of report on the rules and mechanisms in the near future. Today though I have no time, I'm off to try out the Quatre Bras scenario, won't look to fancy as it's more to test the playing area and not be a visual game. If all goes well we can then start work on the terrain, if it's too cramped we may have to build a bigger boat  ;-)

One useful point has come out of the playtest already though. I NEED a lot more command bases painting for my French, so much so that I will need to buy more figures, exactly when will Baccus have their new ones ready? I also fall short by seven battalions of French Infantry for the battle and a Lancer regiment which at least I have the figures for both. Strictly speaking I am short by the two Guard cavalry regiments but I am not to worried as these should be supplied by Lee when the big day comes round.

Red Republic Games Giveaway Winner

Last of the original giveaways but no means least was for a unpainted copy of the figure shown from Red Republic Games.  Arena Rex will be a gladiatorial combat game that has one foot in history with the other leaning on fantasy and allows far more scope than keeping it factual. So far (I am glad to say) no sign of magic has been raised so I do not expect it to become a factor of the game.

So who has won the figure, well that would be Derek who runs the blog Lead and Paint. Looking at some of his work I can't wait to see what he does with this figure. Well done Derek and I hope you love the figure as much as I do.

So all the current giveaways have ended and a 24 hour break is now in place. Again many thanks to all the companies that have supported me in this venture and I hope that I have helped bring to attention of other gamers companies and a fruitful relationship for all will develop.

Arena Rex Giveaway

The Ides has passed! The Kickstarter for Arena Rex has begun, and all of us at Red Republic Games are really excited about the support we've received. We also want to support The Blog With No Name and their great historical content! All you have to do is

Add a comment below to be added to the draw. As in all the giveaways you can enter this one as well as any of the others.  Winning one giveaway still allows you the chance to win any of the others.

We'll ship it out with a resin base, an activation token, and a 4"x6" art card. Good luck

The image above is a painted version of the 35mm resin figure up for grabs, you will of course have to paint it! A tutorial is here.I am actually rather excited about this kickstarter and plan to be in on it. The first stretch goal is less than $5000 away which will entail an extra free mini included in two of the commitment levels (five figure and ten figure levels). If you buy into the kickstarter you get to pick which mini's you get so straight from the off you get to customise your gladiator school. Backers get the rules including a sneak preview via the playtesters version as a PDF. I think this will allow you to make informed choices on which Gladiators will suit your style of play. So far they offer fourteen basic level glads (Field of Mars) four Fields of Jupiter and a pair from the Fields of Titan's. Each higher field comes at a higher price but this is due to the size of the figures rather than a pay more to have a better chance of winning play. Though I would say that if you were the only one to have a higher level Glad I would expect you to have an advantage. As further support is gained more choices are released. 

It's also possible to select more figures beyond your level of support (as well as any stretch goal rewards) and other extras are being offered and added to as time goes on. The dice at $10 for ten is calling me as they look cool and since when do you have enough dice. 

So you have a week to get in on the act for this giveaway and 22 days left to join the kickstarter. As for the other giveaways they are starting to tick down, the Leven Miniatures offer is drawn in two days so if you fancy those 6mm and 10mm buildings you had best get your skates on and the others will sfollow suit quickly.

Arena Rex Kickstarter Launched

Yesterday Red Republic Games launched Arena Rex Kickstarter project that has caught my attention. It is based on Gladiatorial combat but mixes a little bit of fantasy with history. This of course will immediately turn away some from the project and for me sends up a few warning flags. Handled right and it's going to add to the game not detract, too heavy and balance and believability can be lost. To this point only the one figure has been sculpted to my knowledge and six have been given away in recent giveaways that Arena Rex have used to try and increase interest in their new venture. Well it seems to have worked given that in about 24 hours they have already secured $26,444 and have a further 36 days to go.

The figures are 35mm and cast in resin, this combination means a higher price than your standard 28mm metal historical figure but the first finished model I can attest to looking gorgeous. Standard figures are expected to retail at $23 but can be bought through pledges at $17 so a fair saving. 218 people obviously think it's a good offer and are already pledged. I am still on the fence a little right now, I need to know that at least one other local opponent will also go for these to make it worth while. The good news is that you don't need many figures to play, indeed I am sure you could just use normal figures but I feel you would loose some of the atmosphere. So far not a great deal has been released about the game but it has a presence on Facebook as well so more should flow as time goes on. What I gather from watching the video is that the actual combat system is as they say streamlined but detailed. 

Not that all you get is a selection of miniatures at $17 each. If for instance you back this at the $55 level you get to pick three mini's from the basic level plus five favour dice, a token per figure, game cards and a printed rule book. But you will also get a PDFS of the Playtest rules allowing you to not only see the rules before release but give feedback. Already someone has suggested a thumbs up/down die for the campaign rules which they have mocked up. They are close to unlocking the next stretch goal, yet another figure and it's for this that they seem to be needing the kickstarter the most. The more money they raise the more of the proposed figures can be sent for sculpting. 

So take a look if this sort of thing interests you and maybe, just maybe meet you in the arena.