I’m not easily deflected from my ongoing modelling projects but this week the Necrons have been pushed to one side of the modelling board by the arrival of some advance samples from Mantic. I dont get too many freebies and when I do, I usually put them in the spares box or on the giveaway pile, but on this occassion I decided to get stuck into them, so to speak.

The new Kings of War Elves set arrived in it’s impressive plastic box and art work. This was enough to tempt me to take a close look at the contents, even though they are Fantasy figures! The hard plastic box doubles as a carry case for your figures when they are finished. What a clever idea!

There was just one sprue in the box as a sample. There are the parts for 10 models on the sprue but also included are lots of clever extras that you can use to customise you models. There are extra pieces of armour, weapons, shields, extra arms and heads for different poses, you even get a casualty in the shape of a dead or wounded elf lying prone.

So how do the figures go together? Well, nice and easy! There is very little flash or mould lines to clean up and because the plastic is fairly soft it is easy to remove with a quick scrape using your scalpel blade. Some of the figures have clip on arms so that you can try out the poses first, a useful option, whilst others need a bit more assembly, giving you the option of variety in your poses. The ten figures that I built were divided into five for the back rank in ‘ready’ mode and the five in the front rank that were in a more dynamic attack pose. Again, I think this is a clever way of allowing you to build ranked units.

So within 30 minutes I had my first ever unit of Fantasy Elves ready for cleaing up and undercoating prior to painting. Here are the pictures, with apologies for the rough background! The models are posed on my work board. So the next job is to get painting them, which will take a bit longer for me as I’m not the quickest but I’ll get back with the finished models.

One final thought, the figures have small circular bases, however, they are also supplied with square 20mm bases that allow you to clip the figures in on thier moulded bases. It’s very clever and allows you to use the figures as ranked units or skirmishers. Mantic have obviously thought very carefully about their design and the care that they have taken just shows at every stage.

The sprue that I’ve built is the troops sprue which is the only production sample ready at the moment. I’ve had a look at the other sprue that will be included and it’s even better, as you get more goodies, including a command group. I think that the official release date is about five weeks away but I will keep you up to date with prices and any other developments…..talking of which, I’ve also caught sight of the next race in development, SKELETONS! The master ‘three up’ looks superb….you read it here first….

There’s something about dice that I really like. I’ve always enjoyed playing dice based games since I was very young, you know, the days when television was black & white and sliced bread was the best thing….

So having graduated from snakes and ladders onto Ludo and then into the realms of Monopoly, I always enjoyed the element of chance that dice brought to a game. Chess was never my thing, it took to much brain power. I also had a sneaking suspicion that flair and risk taking was secondary to cold logic and that eventually a machine could do better than mere humans. I think that over time, I may have been proved to be right, although I’m not sure whether Deep Blue ever did beat Kasparov or whoever… Anyway, as usual I digress.

So I like an element of chance in a game and dice seem to be the perfect way of introducing it. As I progressed through board games (Risk, Campaign, Mine a Million, Cluedo, Air Charter and many more) I eventually started to use dice whilst playing toy soldiers. It seems a bit more sophisticated than throwing lego blocks at each others armies and along with the sound effects that my Brother Pete & I used to make, not quite so rowdy. It also meant that as I had started to paint my models, the paint didn’t get chipped off my soldiers!

So the jump from board gaming to wargaming wasn’t a big leap and I had a new life long hobby. Of course, rolling dice is a big part of this and you tend to pick up some strange habits when it comes to dice. My regular opponent at Warhammer World, Adrian, will never roll a high scoring dice twice in one turn. He always picks up the low scores & rolls them again on the basis that they will roll better the second time.

I’ve also heard people complaining that their opponent has cursed their dice by rolling them…and then there’s the gamers that will only use a particular colour. Yellow & green seem popular just recently. It may be because theres not too many of these around so your opponent can’t pinch your dice when you’re not looking!

The next time you are at a competition, just watch the rolling styles! There’s the guys that throw their dice around just like I used to throw my lego blocks. They end up knocking your figures all over the place. Then there’s the those who drop the dice vertically down on to the table hoping that the dice wont bounce too much so the 6 will land face up. Some throw with an exaggerated flourish as though it will affect the outcome. Mind you the ones that really irritate are those that cant seem to hit the table and send the dice all over the floor….

One of the most interesting, funny and rather risque books that I have read was the Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. The main character of the tale decided to make all the decisions in his life ( and I mean all!) based on options generated by the roll of a dice. Now it’s quite an interesting idea and may be the next time I can’t make a decision I’ll try it out but in the mean time, I think I’ll keep my dice for the wargaming table.

So all this is really just to let you know that I’ve extended my range of dice in my shop. I now have 21 different types to choose from in different colours & sizes so if you have worn the luck off of your dice or you just fancy a change why not treat yourself to a new set!

So why the pic & mix? Well you can now choose the colour combination that you would like so if you would like 39 yellow dice and 1 blue one, you can have them. Maybe you prefer the purple/orange combination? Or perhaps you would like some of each. Well you can now decide what you would like and just let me know, if you choose the pic & mix option! Oh, and if you cant decide what to choose, just roll a dice….

Well I suppose the big news is that it is pretty much confirmed that Games Workshop will be re releasing Space Hulk this Autumn. I’ve heard that it will be in partnership with a games company, probally Milton Bradley but that is just speculation. There’s been a lot of demand for the release of this game for some time and justifiably so, it is a superb board game and a great introduction to the hobby, so I’ll be putting it on my Christmas list.

The other news that caught my attention is that HaT are to release a series of 28mm hard plastic figures. I have always admired the HaT range for both the depth and variety as well as the standard of the figures themselves. Up until now the Company has developed a superb range of 1/72 nd or 20mm scale figures with a smaller supporting range of 1/32nd scale or 54mm figures. The beauty of the 28mm scale is that they will be compatable with the growing ranges of Victrix, Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games figures. In true HaT tradition though, they appear to be issuing the more unusual regiments & races.

This is great news for the Hobby and I look forward to seeing even more from this Company. I understand that the releases will happen in the Autumn so watch this space for more news.

Finally, some more new releases from another great little model company, Pegasus. They’ve just released 1/72 scale versions of the following: Russian Infantry in summer uniform; Russian Infantry in Winter uniform; T34/85; KV1 early model & KV2 ; KV1 with welded turrets; Russian Ba6 Armoured car and finally, BT7 Russian Light Tank. So great news if you’re a fan of Russian World War Two armour & troops and of course ideal for wargamers as the tanks are all quick build. I’ve no pictures to show you but I expect stock on Tuesday 18th August, so check in my shop to see these items.

And just to round things off, Pegasus are also releasing some great scenery items…. Craters, Bricks, crates and rubble…lovely stuff for wargames scenery……again, it will be in stock next Tuesday.

Thats all for now!

Yes, I know, the english grammar isn’t too good but hopefully it does make some sort of sense. The news is that we have started to produce our own range of resin scenery. It’s available in both painted and unpainted versions so you can decide whether to cusomise and paint it yourself or just to get it on the table ready for your next battle. The scenery is sculpted by Andy Williams. As far as I know, he can’t sing but he’s a very talented sculptor and mould maker, so you can be sure that the finished product is of excellent quality.

We’ve started off with the simple items that most people will need. That is Walls, Sand bags and Tank traps (or Dragons Teeth). To be fair, not everyone will want tank traps but I like tanks so I wanted them in the range. Mind you, I’m probally stretching a point when I say that they are suitable for Fantasy and LOTR games but you never can be sure of what those cunning stunties, I mean Dwarves, will come up with.

So take a look at the finished product. You can buy them post free from my webstore Arcane Scenery or you can visit my ebay shop if you prefer.

One of the joys of working with a community of like minded businesses is that you get to see some of the new products in the pipeline well before they are released. There’s also a great buzz and excitement around the product as the intitial concepts turn into reality.

Mantic Entertainment are a new Company, headed up by Ronnie Renton, (he has had many years experience in the wargaming business, (primarily working for Games Workshop) and they are about to launch a range of Fantasy figures under the ‘Kings of War’ brand.

New Kings Of War Elves Set

I was fortunate enough to see the intial ‘3 ups’ before the models went into production and they looked brilliant. The sculptor had done a superb job in capturing the Elves character and the figures looked like they were from a seperate race, rather than just humans with pointy ears! Mantic have also given a great deal of thought as to how gamers will use the figures, so they are sold in units that will ‘rank up’ to form battle squads and I’m told that the packaging will be different as well in that you can use it to hold your painted figures.

So I was very excited to see the actual plastic figures this week. They really do look superb and I am sure that you will agree, combine the lithe, elegant form that you would expect from Elves whilst looking sufficiently warlike to intimidate mere mortals!

I understand that the price of these new figures will also be extremely competitive and affordable so you will be able to build really big armies for a reasonable budget! The official release will be later in the year around the end of September.

It’s great to see new product from a new company and even better when it is as good as this. Well done Mantic!

I’ve just received the latest releases from Airfix and they reminded me of how long I’ve been making these kits….

My first ever model was of course an Airfix Kit. Airfix were the brand leaders and in the ‘olden days’, as my kids would call them, Airfix kits came in a poly bag with a stapled header. My first kit was the Golden Hind, Sir Francis Drakes’ famous ship. I remember it well, as I was traumatised because I made a bit of a mess of building it and I managed to glue the Masts in the wrong order. Still it taught me a lesson and from then on I made sure that I read the instructions first. Yes, in those days you had to read the instructions, not follow a pictogram. The first first line of the instructions was ‘Locate and Cement…’ To be fair the pictograms in todays kits are a bit easier to follow but with written instructions you got to learn what each part of the kit was, so I know what a fuselage is and where the cockpit is and so on. Oh! and cement was the glue, not readymix, in case you were wondering.

So back to Airfix and the new releases. I’ve just got sight of the new 1/76th scale Matilda ‘Hedgehog’ Tank and the WW1 Male tank. To be fair the WW1 male is a re tooling of an old kit (I made it years ago) but as far as I remember, the Matilda is brand new. So here’s a look at the New box art for both kits. They are available now from my ebay shop. If you would like to see more, just follow the link.

NEW From AIRIX! Matilda 'Hedgehog' Tank

If you’re feeling a bit nostalgic about Airfix kits of the past, then I also recommend that you have a look at the latest book by Arthur Ward. The Title is ‘ The Boy’s Book Airfix ‘ and the subtitle ‘ who says you ever have to grow up? ‘ says it all for me.

The Boys' Book of Airfix

Ah well, enough of this blogging, must get back to kit bashing!