Review and Painting - Wargames Foundry 28mm 'Armed Civilians and Slaves'

Greetings!

In this article - part 3 of 3 looking at Wargames Foundry's Ancient Civilian range. This pack is entitled 'Armed Civilians and Slaves', code CIV014, and is available from the Foundry website.
RRP £12.00

 

 

The models are strong 28's, the usual for Foundry and are generally nice sculpts. The muscle tone on the models is very nice. Mould lines are also very minimal, meaning there isn't much clean up work to do. The weapons are all cast on the miniatures so appear fairly robust.

Painting - Base Coat

This pack seems like a tale of two halves - we have the rough combat ready models, and the two more domestic/household type slaves. I decided to go with something a little more fancy for the household slaves, giving them white tunics, and one with a pattern.

The addition of hand/leg cuffs on a couple of the models goes well with the 'escaped'' look.

Overall, as long as you are comfortable painting flesh, there isn't much work needed on these models.

 

 

Painting - Advanced

 



As with the models in part 1 and 2 of my Foundry articles, a good wash with a brown/tan really works wonders on models as simple as these. Then pick out and highlight with the original base colour, leading to lighter tones where necessary.

 

Thanks as always for reading.



Any questions, or for painting commissions, please email me at Project_Vehemence@yahoo.co.uk

Chris

Review and Painting - Wargames Foundry 28mm 'Ancient Farmers Defending'

Hi all,

This article is 2 of 3 in a series looking at packs from the Wargames Foundry's 'Ancient Civilians' range. This pack is Civ-011 'Ancient Farmers Defending', models are 28mm, and the rrp is £12.00.

 

In standard Foundry fashion, the models are a strong 28mm foot-to-eye and the models are nice casts, not much flash or mould lines to clean up. The sculpts are well proportioned with nice muscle tones.

 



Painting - Base Coat

Being generic civilians they do not have any fancy clothes or trinkets, a simple tunic and belt in most cases, with the odd model having a pouch. This makes for very easy and fast base coating, and the models could be recommended for novice level painters, whose only difficulty may be with painting the archers strap on the quiver.

 

Painting - Advanced

 



With simple and easy tunics, a nice touch is a light wash for the shade, then to pick out the raised folds with the original colour, highlighting with a simple line on the very edges. This should produce a great result with little difficulty.

 

The weapons and belts are best kept simple, with a lighter colour sufficient enough to stand out from the models main tunic colour.

Thanks as always for reading.

I am currently taking commissions. Work to this quality is priced at £2.50 per model. The six featured here would only cost £15.

Chris

Review and Painting - Irregular Miniatures Pack Horses and Cart

Hi all,

 

In this article I will be looking at a simple two-wheeled horse drawn cart, and a pair of pack horses, from Irregular Miniatures 25/28mm range.

 

The cart has a rrp of £5.20 (with assorted cargo, not pictured).

The pack horses are rrp £4.20 for the pair (with 2 handlers, not pictured).





 

The Cart

 

The cart is a solid piece of sculpting, one thing that Irregular has going for themselves is that they don't skimp on the material. With a little trimming the whole cart fits together nicely, with no parts feeling fragile or like they will snap under pressure.

 



You cant really go far wrong with the painting - a full coat of dark brown is all that is required.

 



A model like this is better finished using a 'dry-brush' technique. Use increasing lighter shades of brown until you are happy with the result. The metal wheel supports are all the detail that is required.

 

 

The Pack Horses

 

As with the cart, both these models are solid pieces, weighty enough to feel of value. Size wise they would sit fine alongside most 28mm ranges.

 

A note on the quality of sculpt - Irregular have always had a 'lower-end' image when it comes to quality of sculpts. The more laden pack horses is a good example of this. The assorted gear is a little tricky to pick out what is flash and what is detail. I must stress though, this is not a major issue, it just requires a little effort to cut to shape.

 



 

 

 

I wanted to try and demonstrate a variety of colours for the 3 horses, and so went with a dark brown, a light brown and a chestnut. 

 

 

 

The models are straight forward to paint. There isn't much detail on the satchels/bags  that the horses carry and surfaces are generally round and smooth. This makes anything special a little tricky but not impossible.

Thanks for reading.

If you like the models you can find them for sale on the Irregular Miniatures website - http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/

If you are looking for a painter, please consider using 'Marching in Colour', this commission would have only cost £10 (4x £2.50)

Chris

Review and Painting - Wargames Foundry 28mm 'Ancient Revolting Civilians'

Hi folks,

 

In this article I will be taking a look at CIV-016 'Ancient Revolting Civilians', part of the 'Ancient Civilians Collection' by Wargames Foundry, rrp. £12.00



 

 

As is usual with Wargames Foundry the models are a 'strong' 28mm. Even foot-to-eye level is closer to 30mm. The sculpts are solid, the models look and feel like good quality.

 

 

Wargames Foundry always seem a tab expensive when compared with other historical manufacturers, but usually feel worth it once you open the pack. The only reservation I have with this pack is that it doesn't include the weapons for two of the models. For an avid gamer (with an extensive 'bits box'), this isn't a problem, but it could be annoying if you don't have spare weapons on hand. 

 

 

Painting - Base Coat

I really enjoyed the simplicity of these models and would recommend them for any level of painting skill. Aside from skin and a simple tunic, the only small details are belts and pouches.





 

 

Painting - Advanced

Thanks to the good sculpts, these models shade/highlight very easily. The tunics are good enough that even a light wash would suffice for shade.



Thanks for reading.

These models are part of a current commission. I will be painting the rest and featuring them in the same style over the next few days.  Price for commission: £15. (6x £2.50)

Battle Report / Game Review - Critical Mass Games

I recently attended the Border Reiver show in Newcastle (which was a good show, very poor lighting but a great atmosphere!), where one of the display games that took my interest was a 15mm sci-fi game by Critical Mass Games.

Now Im a fan of sci-fi movies and video games but Ive never been a fan of sci-fi wargames. All the ones Ive played over the years always leaving me feeling more than a little disappointed. I am not a fan of 'line em up, knock em down' bloodbaths!

Still the models looked great (especially the human 'Arc' - the Halo style infantry and the truly amazing walkers), and following a quick conversation with the guy on the trade stand I learnt that the rules are (or where?) available as a free beta pdf.

So a couple of days later I emailed Critical Mass Games, and a couple of days after that we sat down to give the game a try!

Three points I should mention first -
1) We decided as this was the first play to ignore some rules and concentrate mainly on the moving/shooting/combat mechanics.
2) It reads as a 1v1 game, but there were 3 of us available and ready to play (a rarity!), so we decided to play 1v1v1.
3) The game is 15mm but as we had no 15mm sci-fi but plenty of 6mm Epic we used proxy miniatures.

The forces -
I am nothing if a sucker for playing humans so I choose 'Arc' - mech infantry with a sole tank in support.
Lee - choose 'Protolene' an elite alien race, going mainly armour/range, with 4 battlesuits and heavy weapon infantry.
Karl -also 'Protolene' but choosing fast attack, close assault troops.

The Objective -
2 buildings, centre left on the table. Control of each building being worth 1vp meaning 3 players - 2 objectives, at least 1 of us is going home in defeat!

The Set up and Initial Plans


I took the bottom, my mech infantry planning on a quick advance to the objectives, deploying and securing the location, while the tank roamed and picked off dangerous looking targets.
Lee took centre, a tough place sandwiched between me and Karl. His initial plan to move one unit of infantry up, with his armoured walkers in close support, covered all the way by the heavy weapon infantry.
Karl, knowing his units close combat potential, intended to edge his way to the objectives, avoiding enemy fire until his troops where close enough to devastate in hand to hand.

Turn 1

Lee moves the majority of his force to the left of the terrain blocking his direct advance to the objectives. My vehicles, having less armour in the side and rear were now unable to make a dash for the objective, so they had to square up to the Protene. Karl begins a caution approach to the objectives.

Turn 2

My mech inf got the better of Lee's infantry, so he issued new orders for them to pull out of the fire fight and head for the building. His impressive battle suits edging forward to engage my units and cover his infantry.
Faced with something more of a threat than a bunch of aliens with pop-guns (now a bunch of big fat aliens with pop-guns!) I decided to withdraw the mech infantry and deploy into firing positions - the gap being large enough to bring out my missile launchers to see off the battlesuits, all the time covered by the tank.
Karl unopposed, continued his advance to the objectives, making sure to hug the edge of the board and keep out of the range of Lee's heavy infantry, which had a commanding and unrestricted LOS through the middle of the board.



Turn 3

Lee's chewed up unit made it into one of the objective buildings, Karls combat troops claiming the other.
The trouble Karl had was this advance now put him within range of Lee's heavy infantry and they began to pepper the building with shots. This didnt help the Judge Dread style block war that was starting to erupt as infantry from both buildings began shooting at each other.

***FOOT NOTE*** - The rules are still in beta and whilst there are rules for fighting in/out/around buildings they seem mainly to cover single level constructs. We had to make a few rules up on the spot to help us out here, but that was easily done. Maybe we will see more rules for buildings in the finished version of the game.

Meanwhile my combined firepower was having disastrous results for Lee. Now that the troops had deployed, and readied the missile launchers, the Protolene battlesuits where forced to withdraw and seek cover.

Turn 4

Under fire form the heavy infantry Karl had no choice but to act. The troops in the first building made a head strong charge into the second building occupied by Lee's infantry, whilst the cream of his close combat effect and his general headed straight for a do-or-die charge against Lees heavy infantry shooting the building.
It was a route for Lee's already battered forces, and he lost every engagement. Faring no better against my Arc infantry, APC's and tank - losing all his remaining battlesuits, including his general, whilst being unable to even wound a single Arc unit!

Lee having suffered terribly surrendered, and Karl had to question if his depleted force was capable of taking on my untouched Arc force. As this was our first game just to learn the basic rules we decided to call an end to it there. (Assuming my Arc troops just moved in and moped up! Sry guys, couldnt resist adding this!)

Afterthoughts
We were all taken with the game, and had a great time!
These are beta rules and this our first attempt and while we did ignore some rules, and we were bound to make a few mistakes with the ones we did play, generally it works very well.
There are several patchy areas and a few things that seem odd, or seem would play better with a little adjusting, but I find that with most games.
As a beta tester I will be submitting my feedback to Critical Mass, in the hope that some suggestions make it, if not I will definitely be playing this game again, maybe with a few house rules added.

As for scale, it played very well in 6mm, more than I feel it would in 15mm. The movement and ranges seem to suit a 6mm 'battle' more than a 15mm large skirmish. It was suggested between us that we play up to and around 1500pts in 15mm and larger games in 6mm.
This game was roughly 500pts, with my Arc troops coming in at 465pts, having nothing to spend the remaining pts on.

All in all, a fast, much liked game, and I look forward to playing again once we learn the rest of the rules.

Chris

Critical Mass Games can be found at -
http://www.criticalmassgames.com/

Check out the Arc walkers - superb!