Hands Off My Hobby - Chatter Behind The Bike Sheds

After my recent post including the bit about over priced dice and rules I thought I should tackle the problem about those rotter's who seem to be hell bent on making money out of my hobby, heel out of me!

One reason GW is so hated in the hobby is that they are rather good at making money out of it, not as good as they used to be for some reason cough FoW cough. Indeed it's been the height of fashion to rip in to them on behalf of the pimpled ranks. Lets ignore the fact that grown ups also play GW and some of them even seem half sane. Sure GW is the over priced champions of the world but when is all said and done most people who play their games don't get the money prised out of their pockets, it is choice when all is said and done.

Not sure which is supposed to be worse the fleecing the GW customer with prices that would make a loan shark blush or your small wargames hobby supplier done well. OK I do, it's GW but that's just to easy a target so lets move onto the ones we like.

Perry Twins hold an almost God like place in the eyes of a large part of the 28mm hobby, I have heard that once they were seen crossing the middle of a pond with not a bridge in sight but like many others questioned I did not see it myself. Indeed it's almost certain that all of us have one or more favoured supplier who may not quite fit the can't do no wrong certainly come close. For me I guess it's Leven Miniatures and Baccus as I have got to know the owners well enough to like them a great deal. Loki it's Warbases (I like these too) and indeed it's fine for Brigantes Studio to do very well for them selves too as Kev and Loki are great guys but again it's personal. But what about the bloody rest?

Given this is my hobby I am precious about it, passionate in fact. So what? so is just about every last one of us but too many forget or don't consider the fact that for all the companies big and small it has to be more than that for them, or indeed could be seen as LESS than that. It should be first and foremost their business. For some it's part time add on to their day job, in many a case in hope of it becoming a full time occupation. Some it's what literally pays the mortgage. 

Let me run that past you again, it pays the mortgage, well it does if they do well enough. If suddenly someone new comes on the block and carves into their market then they suffer and maybe things get tough. If this happens I have no doubt a great many will feel for them, plenty will even buy extra product just to try and do their bit.

OK so what happens if we get a sniff at the fact they are doing well, I mean really well? Nice new car, a better holiday than you have had in years? I am fairly confident MORE people would be pissed off than would be happy for them. I simply am not one of those. I guess you can blame it on my retail experience from running a very successful part of a multimillion £ business, well until it went pop but lets move on.

Can you imagine what it would be like say for instance Golf was ran with that kind of view? On the bright side crazy golf would suddenly seem not so crazy. But let me take you down the road of a few scenarios, after all wargamers like scenarios right?

Warbases. Not sure when they started to make an impact on the hobby but I discovered them three years ago, the MDF bases was new to me so I was rather smitten with the product I bought at I think Triples. But it was when I bought from them via their webpage I really fell for them. Service was top notch and oh so very fast and personal. Better still it has grown faster than I would have thought possible, it's a family business and it's amazing the ideas that have come from this company. It's possibly (looking from the outside) one of the fastest growing companies in the wargames hobby, certainly in it's field. But my friends what have they done with this business? Well given that they have bought at least one casting machine for a own grown metal range to compliment their other components and paid the cost of getting figures sculptured, even some resin pieces are made by or for them. Invested is what they have done. Not content with sitting back they have generated a large range of animals, many not available anywhere else. Investment = risk, now I don't know (or want to) how much they have had to invest or what business plan they have set up to recoup their investment (short/medium/long) or indeed how much deeper they plan to invest/expand. Good on them is what I say, though I do hope they at least get that holiday!

Baccus recently expanded and replaced their French Napoleonic's, that's not really in my eyes half as risk possible than Warbases as it's a fair bet even those who have enough French old style have been reaching into their pockets. However I am confident most will actually under estimate just how much cash Baccus will have sunk into this project. I guess it's years not months before Peter see's that range break even taking into account sales that would have gone on old style castings if he had just refreshed the moulds. But if you look at the ranges he has released over the past couple of years and these he is releasing now it's a major capital investment. His WWII tanks in 3d printing plus WWI/II metal figures are both fairly risky ventures that see's him having to invest profits for hoped for future gains and especially WWII into an area that already is reasonably well covered. Takes balls that!

I could go on but the point is these people and many others take financial risk to bring us the new toys and too many of them do it under tighter financial constraints that many a company in other fields would be prepared to do. 

However some companies fall into the it's a hobby to me field, never more so than the professional painter. Lets look at Brigantes Studio again. Andrew unashamedly states he paints for a living and does so at prices he can make a living. To some their price is too high, others may feel he is ripping them off due to his high prices. You see so many painting services are either earning extra, painting evenings and/or weekends or funding their hobby. They are not professional painting services, that does not mean they can't do a great job, many do, others don't. Kev and Andrew on the other hand have this as their income and yes if you go to their blog via the link above you will see they do a bloody fine job for a price that sure seems right to me given the level of work they have on the books.

It's not just the budget or part time painting services that undermine the full time hobby providers, too many figure suppliers out their do this part time, funded in part not from sales but full time wage, this gives a false impression of  value for money and leads to the idea that we somehow are paying over the odds sometimes. 

How about I close now with this one thought, if we were charged more for our figures, buildings and consumables (don't really count against wargameing budget anyway) maybe just maybe our lead mountains would be smaller and we ourselves a little happier with our lot?

Project Waterloo Three Baccus Light Infantry Battalions

Before I ran out of May I managed to get another three battalions of French Infantry painted up, that leaves me with just seven more light and ten line to finish off the French for Waterloo. I will not be painting up any more French infantry till the new Baccus French are ready which will be fairly soon. In the meantime I have nine Prussian Landwehr Battalions on the table and a couple of French cavalry regiments. That's all the Napoleonic's I have on the go, I also have two Zulu regiments in 6mm. I also have a bunch of 28mm but that's a different story.

These are the newer French standard infantry and see's me finish off two twelve Battalion packs since they were released which is not bad going given the other work I have done in 6mm. Again easy to work with and importantly paint up fast and look good.

2nd Battalion, yes I have used the Fanion's the same as I did the on the Line last time. If you look close you will see the little horn that denotes these are Light Troops.

The 3rd Battalion I based up in column, the dead in the background are Adler, I do love a well sculpted corpse. The reminds me I will have to paint up that special Battalion some time soon ;-)

4th Battalion sporting the rather nice blue flag. All three battalions painted up faster than normal, I used the Winsor and Newton brushes quite a bit, especially on the straps and shako cords. Not sure the quality is that much better than the Rosemary & Co, but the shorter bristle makes for a steadier line and so I am happy with using these for some of the work.

Finished them off in the usual way with the Tajima1 tufts and Woodland Scenic's bush clumps. It seems kind of surreal that the French are moving quickly towards completion for Waterloo and I know I won't have any issues getting it all done on time. In fact it's a great feeling though I might feel a little flat when I get there, can't wait to find out though.

Partizan the loot, the game and the chatter

What a great day we had at Partizan, but it Ain't Half Hot Mum. Well my son, Lee, Adi and I had a great time, my daughter less so as it was hot and other than the game she played it was not much fun whilst my son would have stayed to the very end just like Triples.

First up Loki had a gift for my son as he knew he was painting up his own SAGA force and knowing that I had yet to get the rules and dice (see last post) he surprised me with a beyond expectation gift. Loki had already offered his old 1st edition rules at Triples (in fact he gave us a 2nd edition set) and mentioned he would give me a set of dice for my son after reading my last post. It's a big deal to me how my son has been treated by other gamers and it's a MASSIVE deal to him. For a lad of seven to be given nice gifts, it's great, and whilst he does not know the value he really appreciates such gifts but what really makes it for him is how the guys talk to him, being engaged in conversations as an equal is such a wonderful thing for him. It started on the journey to the show, got better when he saw Gary in the queue and went up to him to say thank you for the figures that Gary had sent him and the couple of emails he has had gives him such a magical start in this hobby.

High on the agenda for both my kids was a chance to play a game or three, my son had got in a game of Dead Man's Hand at Triples and was wanting to get another go but he was awestruck by Sydney's game and jumped at the chance to play. My daughter suffering from the heat and not being able to sit down, this was a little more than she wanted to take but the boy, well he would have stayed and played all day. I was relieved to get away without having to buy figures for ANOTHER period. Cowboys and Saga are enough for now, he has said he wants to play with my Napoleonic's sometime (his words, I expected him to say pins LOL). Well he has a surprise as he's going to get the chance sooner than he expects as he will be commanding some of the French at Joy of Six in about seven weeks time. I just know he is so up for it and will be OK for the full show. Actually even though my girl was hot, bored and ready for home early on she was no trouble but it's safe to say she will give the next few a miss.

Craig the German was sneaking through the woods, he was to meet my daughters forward MG and platoon and whilst they carried the position she did enough damage that the attacking units were washed up and time was lost as other German units passed through them.

Reinforcements for the French, my son decided to move forward but was careful to leave a clear firelane for the rear MG, looks like I could have trouble from him in the future.

The German bomber squad was constantly receiving fire that kept adding shock to the unit and the odd loss. Each turn they would rally off some of the shock but every time they cleared a few they were hit again and again.

The reason being for the most part a second squad of my son's which again he had brought forward to cover that approach and just kept up a lively fire.

So a big thank you to Sydney for allowing such a young per of recruits to have a go and Craig for being such a sport and not put off by such opposition, a real gent. Having played on some of the boards at Blog Con I was already used to the style of board but they did not prepare me for the fantastic work he has achieved. Believe me when I tell you the photo's just don't do his work justice.

After Triples being only two weeks before I did not have anything I wanted to buy so of course this meant I spent more than I would have expected and here it is. I actually spent most of my money on three stalls in a 4 store run!

Warbases saw me spend first, a stage coach, wagon and two horses for the cowboy games. Next couple of shows will see me getting a few buildings just to up the bar. I also bought a pack of Rendra barrels, again for the cowboys to hide behind.

I bought a pack of Austrian Lancers to stand in for Guard Lancers but won't now paint these up as Lee has the unit already painted up so will use his. I also bought a pack of wagons as you can always use them can't you.

Last up was a Otherword Miniatures Male Human Ranger which was supposed to be their female thief but I put the wrong one back on the peg, well he is a nice figure and will come in, just need to get the other one at some point.

So a great show from my view. It was good that my daughter got to try a show as she was a little jealous about her brothers fun from two weeks before. Now she will be happy to see us leaving for a show knowing that she will have some quality Mum time. 

666 The Number of the Post - Chatter Behind the Bike Sheds

As this is the six hundred and sixty sixth post I thought it should have something demonic about the post but having no imps, demons or devils to paint I have had to come at this from a different angle, lets deal with my own personal demons shall we?

Wargame Demons that is. Is it just me or are wargame rules way more expensive than they used to be? Am I just a tight sod? The thing is that whilst all the photo's are really nice and illustrations and artwork plates all add to the rule set but I would have all these bonus items trimmed back if it would be replaced with clear easy to find references and rules that are actually better than the old ones. Field of Glory is a prime example of rules tossed into a book with to little thought going into the order and relevance making it a difficult set of rules to look up answers to problems.

Figures have so moved on from my first incantation Well some have whilst others are the exact same ones I was not buying due to being poor quality, now you can add historically inaccurate to the list for a good number. How come we still except poor figures when often they are the same cost per pack of the better ones.

Rules that require something special. Or in the case of Saga, Flames of War and Boltaction something (I'm thinking dice here) not special at all. The tremendously overpriced average at best dice that have been designed into the game for ripping off the paying customer adding something to the game. Is it just me or is this a weak ploy just to get yet more cash out of the customer. How many slag off GW but then happily throw their coin in the direction of the respective supplier who is merely following GW lead for ways of making a fun bucks . Saga catches my eye at the moment as I will have to spend £24 on dice for my son and me if I want to go down the route of doing it right. The jury is still out on that one I can tell you.

One old demon nicely exercised I am happy to say is the terrain imp. In my last incantation I was happy with a plain table or at best one painted green and using whatever came to hand for buildings, no matter that they were the wrong scale or period. Now it would be a distraction to use buildings a few hundred years to early or late. Fortunately we have a lot more choice these days such as resin or the new super product MDF. Tomorrow I will look to buy some MDF products such as wagons and water buts to add cover for the cowboy games, I know I need to get some buildings at some point but I have to sort out extra space first.

Given that I am having to rebase all my old figures for new rule systems I don't have the problem of trying to work a better system in with an older one. Well that WOULD be true if not for the fact that a good chunk of my 6mm French are based using flock and the rest with scatter. I know I should rebase them but right now I can't face THAT particular demon.

Anyway thanks to all of you who have followed this blog, especially those from day one, next target will be 500 posts!

Adler Prussian 5th Dragoons

The third cavalry regiment to be painted in May was another Prussian, this time the 5th Dragoons and another regiment that was part of the Ist Corp 1st Cavalry Brigade. These again are Adler and leaves me with just the one more Dragoon Regiment for the Prussians to paint up.

Again lovely animation and the usual mix of two slightly different poses helps give the imprecision of movement. I have been adding ten figures rather than the usual nine on the last three bases but will go back to nine from here as it is a bit cramped.

Lots of detail as always from Adler and really well defined. The clean up was not too bad and this time basing them was not too difficult as they stood up better, possibly because I spent a bit more effort on filing the bases in clean up?

Again this regiment had mounted Jagers attached adding a nice green to the light blue of these Dragoons. I was really happy with the results on this base as they were done reasonably quickly and the black base coat really suited these figures. Painting over the shako's with Black Grey leaving some of the original black showing really worked.

Whilst the command figures have not all been fully finished I have still managed to paint up three French Battalions and finally started two more Zulu regiments for Matt. I still have two days left in May so should make a deep indent into some more figures before the month is out.

I Got Liebster'ed

I have had the honour of being nominated by two blogs in the last 48 hours for the Liebster. These being Scotty's Wargaming and Dartfrogs Adventures in 6mm two blogs well worth checking out if you have not yet discovered them.

As part of the award we get to nominate others and this time answer some questions so first lets lake a look at the blogs I think you may be missing out on, in no particular order we have

Very Tiny Wars just discovered and what a hidden gem, if your into 80-90's Modern period this is the site for you.

Rear Guard Action quite a varied blog with good book reviews, at the moment Napoleonic books are in the lime light.

Blunders on the Danube has already been nominated but for me the award is about pointing followers to blogs you feel they should take note of so check this one out, despite the title you get more than just Napoleonic's here. 

Fidus et Audax A mix of Si-Fi and Napoleonic subjects are the majority of posts. Tim has took a five month break from blogging and painting but has just come back with a post on 6mm Si-Fi.

Gothridge Manor I break the rules somewhat here as Tim has over 400 followers (supposed to limit to 200 to give the award) but as this is a Fantasy Adventure blog and is outside my normal subjects want to break the rules.

Lead and Paint http://leadandpaint.blogspot.co.uk/ Another blog that really has too few followers for the quality. You get a good mix of subjects though Steam Punk and Fantasy are the main subjects.

Figurine Passion Captain LOL is one of the best painters out there and it's worth following just for the reminder of just how good it gets. Being a full time painter (I believe) we get treated to lots of posts and finished projects all the time. Mostly busts and 54mm+++ figures.

Dots of Paint mostly Napoleonic in flavour though other subjects are covered. Excellent AAR's and fantastic figures, again the number of followers is far lower than one would expect.

I could give more but will leave it there, so onto the questions

Why Dis I start blogging? My wife has her own blog and she encouraged me to have a go so I started a ASL blog which I still update on occasion. When I came back to figure gaming I thought it would be good to do the same.

If I could change one thing about wargameing what would it be? The exposure of the hobby to generate a larger following and improve the perception of those that do it. Would be a real boost to the hobby and it's suppliers. I think Flames of War have done this to an extent.

What is Best in Life? Having got through the hardest two years on my life I have to say wife and kids who have been great whilst I got better.

Fame or Fortune? Fortune, though I am not Mr. Poundnotes, better to have enough than far too much. It would be nice not to ever have to worry about rainy days.

What miniatures am I most proud of painting? The ones on my banner at the top of the blog were from when I was last painting well over 20 years ago. More recent would be the deluxe sniper reminders and some of the 6mm work I do.

How do I deal with burn out? Not really suffered it yet. Been to tired after work to paint recently but back in the grove now. I think working on lots of different periods and scales help. I always play music when I paint and that also helps keep me at it.

Why is a Raven like a writing desk? I have no idea.

Star Wars or Star Trek? Trek? Why have a phaser when you can have a BLASTER

If you could buy from one manufacturer who would it be? That's really hard but if forced it would be Adler as I love their poses and the extra time to paint them up would not matter given the ban on others.

Favourite Take-away? Chinese by a mile.

OK that's a wrap, hope you enjoyed it.

Baccus Soon to be Released French in Greatcoat Command

At Triples Peter at Baccus gave me a command stand for the soon to be released Napoleonic French to have a play with. Unfortunately I was not feeling the urge to paint them as soon as I got them as I was tired and not really wanting to paint. Fortunately that mood has passed and last night I stormed through the three French Battalions on my desk and also worked on this stand of figures.

Due to poor light and drizzle I can only take shots inside. Hopefully they do good enough justice to get the Naps fans queuing up to get their hands on the packs as soon as they are released. I am looking at getting at least one 12 Battalion Booster though I will buy a few more once the Waterloo French are finished. I will be looking at getting the Waterloo infantry as soon as they come out as well.

I added the flag to finish off the stand and will use this with my first battalion I paint up once I have the pack so these will have to wait for them. All depends on the date the new French will be available to what infantry I paint next. I have three French cavalry regiments already prepped so these will be slotted in, especially the Guard Light Cavalry as they will be needed for Joy of Six in July so need doing soon!

As you can see from the images above these are really nice looking figures and I look forward to getting a good number of Battalions of these painted as I think the mass effect will be very effective.

Anyway I am off to Partizan this weekend so hope to see some of you there. I will have both kids at this one and we are there to play more than buy as I have finally decided to try and rein in the spend by keeping a record of bought V painted starting with May, though at some point I will go back through what I have on hand and add those to the mix, watch out it's going to get ugly.