It's been a year already.

That went by quickly didn't it?

It has been a year  (well a year tomorrow but I'm too busy to post tomorrow night.) since I started waxing lyrical about lead and plastic soldiers, dice, board games, terrain (I love the smell of fresh laser cut mdf in the morning.) and even the odd recipe. I wasn't sure I would be able to keep it up but looking at the stats I have managed an average of just over two blog posts a month. Not bad.

What have I learned in the process? What have I done? Well, just some of the highlights....

People around the world have read my blog, people in Moldova are interested in what I waffle on about. Hello Moldova!

There are other bloggers out there that waffle about toy soldiers too. Some of whom I have met in person as well.

I have attended a couple of shows, UK Games Expo was my first visit, other shows I'm an old hat at.

I have written for Wargames Illustrated, yes it's book reviews for their website, but it's still legitimate. I'm calling it a win.

I've not nearly painted enough, although writing this blog has encouraged me to get some painting done. I'll be the first to say I'm not an amazing painter and some of my models are painted just to a tabletop standard and don't photograph all that well, so they don't end up on the blog but I'm okay with that. Some I am proud of and I have learnt a bit about photographing models.

Recently I have been mostly painting livestock. It's been a running joke with one of my fellow gamers that every time we go to a show he buys me some random animals. (I'm not sure how or why it started but tradition is tradition.) So when the DM of my D&D group requested if anyone had random 28mm scale animals I declared I certainly did and a frenzy of animal painting began. Geese, sheep, badgers, bunny rabbits, pigs, partridges and cows are not the kind of thing I thought I would be painting back when I first bought my first Space Marine paint set.

So what will the next year bring? Well, I've still got plenty on my painting table from show purchases. Some Frostgrave soldiers still in the box, some dungeon scatter terrain from Bad Squiddo, a copy of Blood Red Skies to open and peruse, a whole Prussian Napoleonic army still to even start! So, plenty to keep this old grumpy wargamer out of mischief.

On the horizon the Illustrious Wargaming Opponent has agreed to assist me in a demonstration game at Colours 2020 (if they'll have us) so that is a target I have set us to work towards. Giving myself a deadline for a project means I'm more likely to get something done so tasks that need doing for that include:

Writing some wargame rules

Painting some models

Building a tables worth of terrain

Writing some background flavour text for the whole shebang.

Nothing like setting a challenge. It's in black and white now though, so we have to do it, my Wargaming Opponent has agreed to assist as long as I do all the public talking and let him just skulk in the background. That's fine with me, I just need him along for his extensive model collection and ability to build awesome looking terrain out of yoghurt pots and sticky back plastic.

And finally.

In case anyone is still paying attention, I just want to state that Playing With Lead is going to slow down just a little bit. I'm still going to blog but just not as regularly. I always knew that I wouldn't have as much to blog about after a while as some of the things I have talked about are things that have simmered in my head for a while before I started and now I'm only going to have things to blog about when they happen. Obviously just like everyone else, I don't spend all my day wargaming, painting and role-playing, but Playing with Lead isn't going to stop. I also have some other projects on the go that will take up some more of my spare time. But I will still be photographing anything I finish on my painting table and hopefully soon the Illustrious Opponent and I are going to squeeze in a game of Blood Red Skies, so I can report back on how that plays. (He will be reading this blog and finding this out for the first time, but it's Okay I know he can't resist coming over if I promise to do roast lamb.)

Vandalism with no reason

I felt compelled to write something about this horrible event. Although not wargaming related, I'm sure we all can relate to how these guys felt when they discovered  what had happened Saturday morning. Market Deeping model railway club had set up their displays for their annual show ready for Saturday only to discover Saturday morning four young vandals had systematically destroyed the entire event.

Now as hobbying goes, there is a lot of crossover with our hobby (there is always a lot of flock involved and talk of scales) so I immediately knew exactly how the club felt. I am also the son of a train modeller,  so my childhood  home had Hornby train sets in the loft. It doesn't take a lot to transpose the event in my imagination to one of the many small wargame shows across the country and imagine how it would feel if it happened to our community. Some of these club members had spent years on their models and I can imagine no amount of financial compensation can mean they can be replaced exactly as they were.

Now I know there are more important things in this world than toy trains and toy soldiers, of course there are. I'm not so naive as to claim this is the crime of the century. To some people though their hobby is what keeps them going. I am sure that we all probably know a fellow wargamer or hobbyist whose mental health is improved by their hobby. I think an excellent example of getting into the mindset of a hobbyist is watching the TV series The Detectorists. I know nothing about metal detecting, but that show explains exactly what it feels like to me to have a hobby. I definitely recommend binge watching the lot.

The warm hearted feeling follow up to this story comes now though. The club started a just giving page to raise £500 to recover some costs after the incident, last I looked it's at £67,000. There are multiple comments from the wargaming community as well showing solidarity by making a donation.

I can only hope the culprits learn to understand the impact their actions have had, I claim to be no expert in the field of punishment but I feel maybe they should be made to contribute some of their time to the restoration of some of the exhibits. Maybe they will then understand what effort goes into them. We could jump on our soapboxes and talk political about youth culture, crime and punishment, lack of funding for youth clubs, etc. Let's instead take away from this the fact the because of the power of the internet, this small group of "train geeks" ( I call them this with the greatest of affection) had a horrible thing happen to them, that last century if it had happened, that would have been the end of it. In the 21st century though, they have been told by the internet that they are not alone and we love that they love their hobby as we love ours. They can stoke the firebox again and eventually rebuild.

You can read the news story here.

The day I failed the Emperor or how I almost worked for Games Workshop

I have a confession. Back in 1999 I was a massive card carrying GW fanboy. But you know that already. I would go to Games Day every year, I still have an entire company of Spam all lovingly packed in foam trays ready for an apocalyptic battle one day. I have a scratch built cardboard Warhound titan for them as well. (I'm not forking out hundreds for a Forgeworld one. I have a beautiful, understanding wife, but there are limits.)

She is looking a bit lop-sided and sorry these days.

I'm better now, but back then I loved Games Workshop. They were my altar. Going to the store every Saturday morning to play a mass battle was my church. Before I tell you this story then, let me confirm that everything that transpired was in my own control, it was my fault, I am not blaming anyone and I have the utmost respect for the GW staff involved in this tale. This is not a griping tale of woe, this is a confession of youth.
The manager of the store I used to attend was a brilliant manager, us kids all had a lot of respect for him. As I said, I would regularly attend Saturday mass battles. (This was before the name Apocalypse existed but essentially the same.) and as it was a Saturday the store was also busy with people buying so the staff were kept busy. Therefore sometimes, us older players took control of the game and kept things under control.
One Saturday the manager took me aside and asked me the ultimate question. "Had I ever considered working at a Games Workshop?" Well, as you can imagine, I went dumb with excitement. He went on to explain that although he couldn't just employ me, he could nominate me to go to an interview with his area manager and if successful there, the job would be mine. Well, of course I said yes. Get paid to paint models and play games, as that old philosopher said, find a job you love and never do a days work in your life.

So, one, Saturday morning I put on a shirt and tie, my leather duster jacket with the Blood Angels pin on the lapel, my Imperial Eagle belt buckle and grabbed my official Games Workshop carry case with some of my best painted models. The first part of the interview was a group interview. The usual talk about yourself in the group, some icebreakers, including where you adopt the pose of a GW model and the other candidates try and guess the model. Thinking back, all models then were just holding a pistol and a sword or a rifle in a very similar pose, I'm not sure how any of us thought we could guess any of them. I sailed through the first round, that wasn't the difficult part. The one on one interview however, urgh. I'm not normally a nervous interviewee, never had a problem with job interviews before or since. I guess I just really, really wanted this job. I came across as someone who knew nothing about the product, couldn't explain what a Space Marine was. I knew the whole physical make up of a Space Marine inside out! I could tell you the whole tale of Horus's betrayal and eventual fight with the Emperor aboard his Battle Barge. In this interview, it was as if I had never even heard of GW. I was even given a second chance, I was asked to demonstrate a game of 40K to the interviewer as if they were new to the hobby. I played this in my sleep, and yet at that moment I knew nothing. I panicked that I didn't know the exact stat of anything and instead of just making it up, I froze.
Of course afterwards it was explained to me by all the GW staff I knew that it didn't matter if I didn't actually know the exact rules, they were just trying to hear how I would enthuse about the product, describe how a game would play. Well obviously, if I had known that beforehand I would have breezed the interview of course! Why didn't they just say that? I felt like they just didn't want to employ me and purposely made my interview over complicated to prove I wasn't good enough.

Looking back on the day, I realise now they bent over backwards to try and actually justify hiring me. The manager of the store that referred me must have really bigged me up.  Of course on the day none of this occured to me. They had stood me in front of a giant target with a bazooka and I had missed. I came out of the interview a failure. My friends tried to cheer me up with a trip to the cinema. I wanted to go see the new Mummy film, the trailer had looked awesome. They wanted to take me to see some new Keanu Reeves sci fi film called The Matrix. I was not happy, "What, like that godawful Johnny Mnemonic?"

And Finally,
Evidence that I did meet up with some fellow bloggers at Salute, pop on over to "Don't throw a 1" the blog of a lovely chap called Ray to see a photo of yours truly meeting up with the gang here.

Another year older

With my recent birthday I officially tilted over the hill as it were. It got me thinking, what legacy do I leave to my sons, what advice do I give them? Have I learnt anything in my 41 years on this earth?
So, here is a wargamers advice to his sons. Some may be a little tongue in cheek...

1. Craft knives are sharp, if it is being used to cut metal, it's going to make a horrible mess of your fingers at some point. Blunt knives are worse though because they jump about all over the place, replace blades regularly.
2. If you are going to use a Dremel to drill out the the rivets of a Hot Wheels car to convert for Gaslands, wear the damn safety goggles.
3. Always undercoat. There is no such thing as speed painting, apart from once a year at Salute.
4. If you are going to paint anything smaller than 20mm, do it while you are young and you can still see it.
5. Historical gamers may look down on sci-fi/fantasy gamers and they may look down on RPGers, but everybody looks down on LARPers.
6. If you are going to pour your own lead into moulds in the kitchen, it will put holes in the kitchen counter (Well, your Grandfather learnt that one, but it is still a valuable lesson.)
7. When making a spectacular crater filled gaming table, consider how the dice will fall when rolling them. They like to roll flat.
8. You can never have enough dice, buy more dice.
9. You will never paint all your models, just admit it, you will sleep better.
10. You could spend hours researching the perfect detail on a historical uniform, or you could, if asked, claim alternative history.
11. If you are going to spend a fortune on toy soldiers, spend a bit more on suitable storage. Don't let it get ruined by keeping it in a cardboard box that is going to collapse with damp in the garage.
12. Never wait for your friends to finish an army in the period you want to play. You will have to paint both sides if you ever want a game.
13.  There will always be shinier and prettier models and rulebooks.
14. Always undercoat in black so that if you miss a bit it just looks like a dark shadow on the model, unless you want the colours to pop, and then undercoat in white.
15. Scale creep is a phenomenon that we are just going to have to accept will happen. Measure creep, is on the other hand, just cheating and not acceptable.
16. There are loaded dice out there and people do try it. They should be made to swallow them.
17. Lose graciously, it's just a game. Just enjoy yourself, be a good sport.
18. Wargame the story, not the system, recreate a tale.
19. Don't be a metagamer. Nobody likes it.
20. Rulebooks aren't legally binding. If you want to come up with some house rules and you agree on them they go for it.
21. Better still, write your own.
22. Buy and paint a model because you think it looks cool and you think you'll enjoy painting it, you'll find a use for it later.
23. Don't make your hobby a chore. Remember you are not beholden to it.
24. Share your joy, in whatever way suits you, don't be embarrassed of your hobby.
25. Get out there and talk to other gamers. Unless they are LARPers, avoid the LARPers.
26. Wargaming will teach you many transferable skills. One of the most useful, how to find storage solutions.
27. If you are GMing a role-playing session, the longer you spend planning, the less likely your players will decide to follow the route you want them to.
28. You can paint kilts if you really put your mind to it.
29. You can also paint eyes if you really put your mind to it. Unless you are painting 8mm. Don't be a moron. You aren't that bloke that paints Mona Lisa on rice grains.
30. Be willing to try someone's else's game.
31. Always finish the base of your model. A flocked base makes a model look infinitely better.
32. Drilling and pinning is worth it.
33. You will superglue your fingers together at some point. Don't panic, just peel apart.
34. You definitely can never have enough dice.
35. There is no greater smell than the fresh smell of a newly opened board game or wargame.
36. Closely followed by laser cut MDF.
37. Be adventurous, scratch build, convert, surprise yourself.
38. Don't compare yourself to the painting competition winners, they are the exceptions to the rules. Paint to your own standard. You will improve with time, even if you never get to that unobtainable standard.
39. Invest in some good brushes, you'll be surprised at the difference it makes.
40. You will put your brush in your tea on the odd occasion, don't worry, it won't do you any harm, just don't drink the paint water.
41. Find an understanding partner. One that when shopping for a dining room table, considers the width as well as the length to ensure it makes a good gaming table, without even consulting you.

Post, Post Apocalyptic show post

Another Salute has been and gone.

This dude just kept popping up everywhere.

I did as promised, I did some live posting on Facebook of the day, although not loads as I was too busy enjoying myself. The journey wasn't terrible after all. All the panic about DLR stations being closed and finding alternative routes didn't phase the brother in law and I in the end. We made good time and in fact arrived in the queuing hall before 9am, a record even! Brother in law even had time to grab a coffee at Canning Town.


As I posted yesterday, it was a pleasant surprise to receive two models in the grab bag as we went in this year:

The model on the left is from Archon Studio. I've not heard from them before and the freebie did its job as I was intrigued and paid them a visit. They seemed to have a couple of prototypes of models and a generic dungeon terrain piece for D&D etc. A couple of things that did seem weird about the dungeon prototype was that they were stating it held together with magnets (not included) and their initial designs showed gridding on the floor but the model did not. Not really helpful for roleplaying on I suggested, this was received with a shrug. I wonder if this is a company to watch or are they going too big too soon. The sprue for the freebie model looks interesting though, I shall see how it goes together.

I was determined this year to not just shop and so one activity I wanted to do join in on was the speed painting competition. Twenty minutes to paint a Walking Dead zombie. Not really my kind of model, but I was determined to give it a go. There was a really fun vibe at the table with some great friendly banter. I didn't win the round, but that didn't bother me at all, it was the most twenty minutes fun painting I have had in a long time. I am definitely doing it again next year.

Brains...

So, shopping wise, what did I get? Well, I didn't get everything I wanted. I forgot that Perry don't bring metal, so no BEF, but that can wait. I did get my Frostgrave wizards that were launched yesterday and I also picked up some Frostgrave Female warriors, so some mix and matching and I shall make a couple of Female wizards too.

I made a visit to Bad Squiddo and had a quick chat with Sophie from Needy Cat Games who was helping out. We discussed our shared love of the need to populate a tabletop dungeon with physical items and so of course I picked up some of the new pieces, I shall be using them for Advanced Heroquest.

This is two sets mixed together. The sculpts are awesome.

I grabbed a years subscription to Wargames Illustrated so with my £20 voucher for Warlord I picked up a new villain for my WW2 game. Captain America will have to come out of the deep freeze again!

 I picked up Halvdan from Hasslfree miniatures and a rather dramatic looking Custer from Black Scorpion.

I managed to meet up with the Illustrious Wargaming Opponent for a grand total of around five minutes, but as he is the wargamer I spend most time chucking dice with, we both didn't mind I'm sure. We both compared notes later and I'm sure will do so more later. I did manage however to meet up with some complete strangers at a Bloggers meetup. As I get older and grumpier I convince myself that I don't have the energy to meet new people but in reality I guess I can still have a slight attack of the shyness, so I gave myself a kick and followed through on the promise to meet up with some fellow online scribes. A brief meet, but I did get a few tips and it is nice to know I am not alone out there in the blogsphere.
Finally, I need to make an apology. In my last blog I suggested avoiding Forgeworld at Salute this year and I would like to apologise for this. Not for the suggestion to avoid them, but for suggesting that they would be there. After all my talk of researching my visit I just assumed GW would be at Salute and they weren't.

Salute 2019 - After the Apocalypse

That time of year is almost upon us once more. Yep, it's the big one, Salute. The theme this year is "After the Apocalypse"

 Image copyright South London Warlords. Obvs.

We all descend on the Excel Convention centre in London. Backpacks empty, shopping lists in our sweaty hands, cameras and smartphones in macro mode ready to snap away.
My Facebook feed already no longer shows anything my friends are doing, just all the various Wargaming companies reminding us they will be there for that one day in April where the Longbeards of dice rolling gather in the Great steel hall of trade.

We start the day with the long train ride, what is the best way to get across London, what stations are closed? Why didn't my Brother in Law bring himself a coffee like the rest of us always do and now he is in a caffeine grump. As we get on to the DLR we normally play the traditional game of "wargamer or marathon runner" as we normally share the Excel with all the healthy bods signing up for the London marathon the following day. Although this year Salute is early, so we shall miss those Lucozade swigging health nuts. (I'm not sure how many wargamers out there run marathons too. Although if they do they won't save on train fair this year.) One year we were totally thrown when two young ladies on the DLR didn't look particularly athletic (not dressed head to toe in Lycra) but also didn't seem the wargamer type. It turned out that year the same day at Excel there was a "Sherlocked" convention for fans of Benedict Cumberbatch's recent portrayal of the Baker Street detective. Totally threw us. Anyway, I digress.

So, a quick run down on my own personal list of things to look out for at Salute. Quick editorial disclaimer first, if I state a miniature company is new, it's new to me, or feels new as the many years of dice rolling fly by so quick, apologies if they have been going for years, blood, sweat, lead and tears, trying to sell their wares, I just haven't noticed them until now.

So, before Salute it is advisable to research who will be there, I have said this before and on a previous blog post I have hyperlinked all the companies attending a show. (Colours in September) luckily, South London Warlords have done the hard word for me here.

So, let's start with the old familiars. First visit is definitely always Hasslefree Miniatures. I've said it before, lovely company. I cannot stress how good the models are from this company, follow Kevs page on Facebook, Hasslefriesian, to see work in progress photos just to see how much effort goes into these toy soldiers. He is always open to discussion too, no matter how much he pretends to be grumpy. Although don't start suggesting he "does that character from that film I like" because he will shout at you for being a moron. (rightly so.)

I am loving the renaissance(?) in laser cut MDF terrain at the moment. Until this came along your choices for buildings on the table were expensive resin (which got dropped and chipped just five minutes after purchase) or build your own. Now not all of us are Anthea Turner or Diane Sutherland (How does she do all that crafting and keep such a wonderful manicure? See her book here.) So MDF came along as a relatively cheap option that looks so good on the table, especially for periods in history that involve a lot of wood, like the Old West. My personal favourite company are Sarissa Precision, mainly because they come unpainted, which keeps the price down and also they were the first I had. I won't lie, my amazing wife discovered them when looking for birthday presents for me back when they had a very small range of just Old West town buildings, now they have a huge range, I might even be tempted to buy their steamer boat this year.

Anvil are a reasonably new company that started out with just a few heroic scale compatible sci fi heads, arms, weapons etc. that could make your Spam army that bit different from the four billion other ones out there. They have since expanded and have their own proper range that you can still buy in mix and match.

Leslie's bits box, I've no idea where they manage to get their stock from but if you want old school Necromunda, Mordheim, Epic, Warhammer, go visit them. They also have a good range of new boxed stuff too.
Bad Squiddo, obviously, need I say any more than I have before. Annie is reducing her buying in of other manufacturers and starting to expand her own range. A bold move, but definitely the right one I think, starting at Salute with a range of scatter terrain that I shall be looking to grab for my Heroquest table.
Obviously Warlord games. I shall be visiting Wargames Illustrated to sort out my subscription for the year to ensure I don't miss out on any of the rest of the free sprues in 2019 and getting a voucher to spend at Warlord.

Perry Miniatures is a must. I shall be picking up some British Intervention Force as I am going to try a Pig War gone hot scenario. Already having some period American civilians, I just need to add some plastic American Infantry and find the pigs I bought at Colours last year. There are some handy scenario notes in Ospreys Men Who Would be Kings book that will mean the Illustrious Opponent and I will be exchanging polite warning shots across the backs of the greedy livestock!

Avoid Forgeworld like the plague unless you like contact sports and know in advance what you want to purchase from them. They don't have anything on display and previous years it's been a struggle to get a clear look at a catalogue. I guess GW assume their customers have a photographic memory for their range. I'm not doubting they have some nice stuff, as is obvious by how busy they are, but I haven't the energy any more for trying to get served like it is five to closing time in the bar on a Saturday night.

Looking at new people to visit. Firstly I am interested in a company called Blotz. I believe they have been going just a couple of years and have an interesting MDF range including a 28mm scale submarine that you can buy in sections so you can build any size sub you like and an interesting looking dungeon terrain system.
Atlantis Miniatures are getting bigger, they started with some lovely sculpts of very hairy dwarfs a couple of years ago and now the range includes trolls, orcs and bears, oh my! Seriously though, these are really nice "beefy" resin 28mm models, although that is reflected a little in the price. The orcs remind me of the orcs in the Warcraft movie. (Terrible movie but lovely design.) Finally of intrigue is Modblokz. A new looking terrain system, that consists of plastic modular sections that are held together by magnets. The professional looking videos make it look effortless to build and I am guessing it is designed for the wargamer with limited storage space in my mind. My wife would approve.

There are lots more obviously that I could go on about but this blog post is becoming an essay. I am possibly going to try some live Facebook posting on the day so be sure to like my Facebook page @playwithlead to see photos of the day as I enjoy my day pass and try to resist buying a new game system that takes up too much room and annoys my very understanding wife.

Ragnarok!

No, not the Marvel Movie, the original end of days. I'll be there, will you?

So, I thought my next post would be the great pre Salute prep post, but this came up today and I had to get my thoughts out there on the subject.
So, as you know I love Opsrey Wargames books, every now and then I am on my phone browsing the web and I exclaim, "Osprey have bloody done it again!"
"They have made another book you want, haven't they, my darling?" my encouraging and understanding wife asks.
Of course they have.

Cover presumably copyright Osprey publishing.

A dramatic cover, I hear you say. Well, that is the idea. Apparently, from the minimal infomation gleaned from the Osprey pages and the Facebook group. (I declared to my wife, I have been accepted to Ragnarok! What are you doing at the end of times?!) This game is meant to be played with an accompanying musical track of Heavy Metal tunes.

Remember this? Now can someone make a wargame out of this!

Written by Tim Korklewski, the game is a skirmish system with minimum 7 a side where you don't just hit each other with swords and axes. Apparantly you will be pushing and throwing your opponents around the battlefield using a mechanic called the Godspark. It's campaign driven, I am guessing your campaign ends when the great world tree finally topples and the realms come to an end. It's a very definite strong beat to a skirmish campaign system, something that normally just ends up being, whose gang ends up being the richest?

You can browse the first couple of pages of the book on the Osprey website here.

Now I definitely have some hardcore metalheads for wargaming friends, my normal Illustrious Wargaming Opponent isn't one of them, but I reckon he would still give it a go as long as we kept the volume down (although can one actually really listen to AC\DC or Iron Maiden with the volume down?). As you know I already have started some Footsore Vikings, so next month at Salute I think I shall be bringing out my inner Kappi to fight past the backpacks and trolley suitcases (when did they become a good idea?) and pick up some more suitable dramatic axe wielding warriors.