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!