Unboxing - European Pikemen

Every day is like Christmas when you’re a butterfly...you never know which of the many (​Brother Handro: ​​many.....​)​ orders will arrive in any given day...

Despite appearances​, mainly the many hundred pewter soldiers grey and neglected in my hobby room, I love the Historical pirate era game Blood and Plunder! The team at Firelock games have designed and developed a stunning system which plays well, is easy to pick up, and (​Der H:​​ best of all...​) contains pirates!

Recently Firelock tried a new funding system; Firestarter. This system allowed pre-ordering with a view to being charged once a threshold was reached. Think of it as Kickstarter light!​

The result of this process is these gorgeous European Pikemen: ​

Two sets of 4 identical casts, each comes with a length of shaped metal for a spear NB not suitable for children/cats​!​ The unit sizes in B&P range from 4-12 usually so 8 is a nice number to get started with.

The casts are clean as always, and have some nice details making them generic enough to be ‘european’ without obvious restriction to which european faction.​

Ill probably put there guys together pretty soon, but painting them....well, that is the eternal struggle.​

I shall here VOW to paint my Blood and Plunder collection in the autumn, following the 2019 Melos campaign.... after all, I have 1000pts of Krieg and 1000pts of mechanicum to finish.​

Der H 

Thought for the day:   “Take what you can. Give nothing back!”

Blood and Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line

It. Is. Here! 

Firelock Games’ 28mm historical pirate game is something really special. I went all in for their first Kickstarter, so when the second arose I had to go big or go home!

[Brother Handro: “...is that why there’re still hundreds of lead coloured pirates in the basement?”] 

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter. It gives smaller companies the space to expand their range or start their business with guaranteed funds and a new player base from the off. I joined Alex Huntley’s 2nd and 3rd kickstarters for Arcworlde [Der H: “and haven’t painted much of that either!”  ] and always find that, with wargaming at least, the enthusiasm of the creators gets stuff finished and shipped out pretty promptly!

This Kickstarter is BIG, huge box...glad I took the landy to pick it up. 

Such goodies! 

The contents are far too numerous to list here, however I will post some pictures of the haul:

The ships are, as with the first Kickstarter, beautiful. The Paragua and Bark are relatively small, and the canoa are essentially glorified longboats with some extra rules.

The fun starts with the Fleut and the Galleon. The Galleon is a BEAST of a model, 4 decks and an impressive chunk of resin. It sounds hollow so I’m tempted to look into putting a Bluetooth speaker in to play dramatic navel music [Der H:   “Think master and commander...”  Brother Handro:   “yeeees! Do it!” ]

The faction boxes are a nice touch; the previous KS had loose figures!

The less clear miniatures are assorted characters, with beautifully crafted cards, and civilians. Always nice to see the disguised female pirates and monkey with blunderbus make an appearance! 

Like a kid in a toy shop....actually, exactly like that... 

The Deluxe/special edition/combined rule book is beautiful! Crafted with a raw cut edge... 

...it is styled to represent the style of many books of the era; Great work Firelock! 

I feel it will be a few weeks at least before I get my teeth stuck in. Exams, real life and the release of Titanicus have occupied much of my time. All being well the new year will see much more hobby time, but until then we shall plod along!

Der H 

Thought for the day:    “To wives and sweethearts; may they never meet”

Bolt Action Panzer 38(t) by Warlord Games, A Review

You can find a couple of video unboxings of Warlord Games' recent light tank offering, but none of them actually build the thing!...(Although Warlord Games themselves have ninja'd me last week. Should have posted this earlier!...)

Mighty artwork!

So what do we get in the box?

Two sprues (well, one and a half really) in the usual hull, tracks, turret pieces layout.

One set of Axis transfers (German, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian) and the modern info card and damage markers. Also included is a nice glossy instruction guide, paint scheme suggestions and transfers guide.

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First off, you essentially get the option to build either an 'early'  (Ausf. B/C) or 'late' (Ausf. E/F/G) version, (there are only minor differences, and rules-wise none at all) and the option to remove the hull MG for a platoon commander's tank. (Would probably do for the Recon variant provided in the rules). Equally you get an early-war tank commander with beret and a later version with standard sidecap.

The parts are numbered in the guide but not on the sprue, which causes a little back and forth, but is still technically an improvement from the 'no parts labelling at all, just guess if it looks like the picture' days.

The kit goes together well, taking me about an hour and a half to complete. You can build it quicker but I'm a stickler for every part being cleaned up and dry-fitting before gluing.

Things you might find tricky;

You'll find it easier to build the track assemblies if you put the rear pieces (parts 26 & 27) in first, there's a slot which should ensure you don't go wrong, allowing the adjoining pieces to go in smoothly.

The front hull plate was a pretty tight fit. It'll need a little bit of pressure to pop in, or you may want to insert it before gluing both track sides to the hull.

The rear panel of the turret doesn't sit particularly well until the top plate is fitted, so get that part ready to go at the same time.

Parts 40 and 41, which sit on the rear hull and are something to do with the running gear are incredibly fiddly to attach. Get your tweezers ready! I have no idea why the weren't simply moulded as part of the hull. I think it might be possible to glue them in before attaching the rear panel but I didn't think of that at the time...

Part 39 (turret handgrab) is tiny and will also require tweezers, as well as careful removable from the sprue.

Extras include the signature German jack (placed differently or simply left off all the example models) and a fire extinguisher, of which there is entirely no mention and I can only assume is there for the sprue's other purpose, namely making up part of the Marder kit.

Interestingly (or not...) Warlord always style their kits as being made of 'hard plastic'. I presume that's a technical definition, but I found this kit to be relatively 'soft' - it was very easy to file and clean up in comparison to their infantry sprues and some other makers' plastic.

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Ta-dah!

She's a dinky little thing, I have a soft spot for many of the boxy early-war, bolted together death traps...here's a size comparison;

For the record, that's a British Sherman V, so infinitesimally longer than a regular one...

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In summary, this is a straightforward, no hassle tank kit that you should be able to knock together in no time. £18 is the going rate for Warlord's plastic medium tanks, so you might feel a little short-changed to pay the same for a light, but what can you do! If you play early-war you can gain same 'value' by buying the 3 tank platoon, and it's your only option if you want plastic, so what are you waiting for?  Panzer (38t) vor!

Handro

Unboxing - German Heer leFH 18/40 10.5cm howitzer (1943-45)

Behold, more frivolous purchases!

I finally caved in an bought my self a treat....amongst the many other treats!

I've recently met someone who has never watched Band of Brother - who doesnt love Band of Brothers right! As such, it must all be watched again. It doesnt take long to get to the infamous Assault of Brecourt manor with Winters' attack on a fixed gun battery.

In this sequence Easy Company take on a German artillery battery which, although initially thought to be 88mm guns, turns out to be a battery of LeFG 18/40 10.5cm Howitzers.....funnily enough, I know a company who makes those!

Helpfully, Warlord gave many people a voucher recently - under the guise of a survey to see why I havent bought anything recently....needless to say I spent MUCH more than they gave me in discount so they win again!

Its a nice looking kit....I'll take 4! (and two MG42s!)

The kit is, currently, unassembled still. This is because larger things are in the works. It does look very tidy. Nice casting as usual from warlord, and the addition of the three equipment, ammo and gear boxes is nice. Once the plans are revealed I will start some assembly and let you know how it goes together!

Did someone say shame?

Unboxing: German Winter Medium Mortar

Today we have an unboxing video of the German winter Medium Mortar. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Unboxing: German Heer HQ (Winter)

Today we're unboxing the German winter HQ AND the Armies of Germany Volume II exclusive miniature.

More to come! Not long to finish our monthly pledges now!!

Der H

Unboxing: Winter MMG teams!

A double whammy unboxing today folks - German and US winter MMG teams!

Enjoy!

Unboxing: German Heer 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank gun (Winter)

Time for another video guys, this time the German Heer 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank gun (Winter).

Let us know what you think guys!

Der H