October 2023 Hobby update

It's been a funny old month hobby wise.  I was away for the first week of October and since I've been back I don't feel I've achieved much.

Completed

Here's what I managed to get finished off:

• Another batch of Victrix 28mm Unarmoured Romans.  I completed these as Gothic warriors and you can see more here.

• I redid the bases on a Green Man and Werewolf (old AE:WW2 figures) that have been hanging around with no purpose to use for A War Transformed (well that was the original idea)!  They'll be good for Verrotwood.  

In progress

Here's what's currently on the table:

• From last month:
• Northstar Oathmark Elves. I finally did some work on one of these performing a cut and shut, and swapping a pair of legs from a Victrix Dark Age archer for the horrid pixie boot elf legs.  I even got it based and started painting it.  Not sure what I'll do with the other 4 as the intention for these was to use as a "wandering monster" for Ragnarok.  
• Warlord Games farm animals.  Still haven't done anything with these.  
• Victrix Dark Age figures. I've still got the torsos and legs of five based archers/slingers on the table that have been there since August/September.  I need to stick some arms and heads on these and get them done.
• Started on this month:
• Wargames Atlantic First World War Germans.  I'd bought another sprue to use as the basis for some figures for A War Transformed.  In the end I decided to make them as regular First World War infantry.  They'll be finished early on in November.
• Great War Miniatures First World War Germans.  I'd bought these last month and it made sense to paint them up at the same time as the WA ones.  It's has been an interesting exercise comparing the two manufacturers take on the same subject.  I'm going to do a post on this when they're all done.
• At the same time I repurposed some Warlord Games Second World War Winter Germans for First World War.  This involved replacing the arms with an MP40 and MG34 on a couple of the figures with arms and weapons from the Wargames Atlantic WW1 set, rebasing them and then a bit of work on the WW2 personal kit to make them more suitable.

Ramblings, Reading & Research

As I mentioned in the intro it's been a funny old month since the release of A War Transformed.  I broke my own rule with AWT by jumping on the hype train.  Usually I let a product launch, research it thoroughly and if it meets what I want I pick it up down the line.  

Don't get me wrong there's good in AWT, but now having read through I'm left feeling somewhere between underwhelmed and disappointed.  Perhaps this was due to anticipation being greater than realisation as I've been looking forward to this since February?  Perhaps it was just getting caught up in the pre-launch excitement on social media?  My main issue is that it feels unfinished.  The rules are disjointed and this is made worse as there's no index and no quick reference sheet.  There's missing text and generally it looks rushed.  I suspect this is more to do with the Osprey side of things rather than the author as he's obviously put a lot of effort into it.  Frei Korps aside I feel the other other forces are a bit bland and it hasn't captured my interest enough to warrant spending the time to build another force and learn the game.  There's no longevity in it for me.

Anyway there's been a few positives that have come out of this is.  All this thinking  about folk horror games reminded me to finally purchase Verrotwood, which I've been meaning to for ages.  I really, really like it.  There's an upcoming Old West version which should really hit the spot.  I've also given more thought to my own embryonic partisan warfare game set in the Nazi occupied Soviet Union.  And I've also rekindled my interest in the still to be released Coven, a Slavic dark folk horror game which looks rather good.  

The other key positive is that it's reminded me just how interesting The First World War and the period immediately before and after is.  It really doesn't need any bolt-ons.  It's a vast and engrossing subject. 

Continuing with my ramblings I've found Facebook to be overwhelmingly positive in the wargames community.  However, I recently voiced a fair and reasoned opinion on the quality of Wargames Atlantic kits and someone quite rudely told me to cease and get back in my box.  It turns out that said person does work for WA which of course undermines the integrity of their argument.  As he is cited as doing research for WA on the First World War Brits perhaps he's worried?  It's already been noted by others that it has some obvious errors and omissions.  I'm far from impressed with it.  

The important point of all this is that it raises the whole question of what we should expect and will accept in terms of accuracy and quality.  It's not just wargaming but there does tend to be a real trend across industries in releasing products that aren't really ready.  I'm not the only one that think both Osprey and Wargames Atlantic have plenty of previous in this area.  Ultimately I can't be bothered to invest the time to work on something that is inaccurate and flawed.  I want my hobby to enthuse and inspire me not disappoint me.  

Moan over, onto reading.  I read Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr at the start of the month.  This is one of the Bernie Gunther detective novels with Heydrich as the main protagonist.  A good yarn as ever as the cynical detective gets to the truth. 

I also read Dark Age, the second in the Pendragon trilogy.  As good if not better than the first a rip roaring adventure in 4th Century Pre-Arthurian Britain. 

Incoming!

I've been spending a bit again.

• As mentioned above I finally remembered to buy the Verrotwood PDF.  Serendipitously it was on offer so only cost £6.00.  I'll repeat that I really, really like it. 

• I've had a few sprues come through from The Sprue Shop.  Victrix Armoured Late Romans, Vikings and Germanic Warriors for the Fall of Rome/Dark Ages projects and Frostgrave Male and Female Barbarians for Verrotwood.  I'll be able to do quite a lot of hybridisation using these.

• The next thing to come through was a big order of 15mm Imperial Romans and Ancient Germans from Cromarty Forge sold by Plastic Soldier Company.  This took over a month to reach me and I chased up PSC when the 12 day delivery was well past.  To their credit I got an immediate reply explaining the situation.  The figures are lovely, realistic proportions, lots of variety and just what I wanted.  Faith restored.  They'll be used for Infamy, Infamy which I picked up last year but hadn't found a figure range I liked until now.  Shows that sometimes patience is the best policy. 

• The last figures I picked up was a pack of Copplestone Castings Russian Partisans, which I've long coveted.  These are useful for late 19th through to mid 20th Century.  Great service from Northstar, with me in 2 working days.

• And finally in what's been a bumper month for me I stocked up on magnets for my MDF bases.  250 should keep me going for quite a while.