Miniatures: Infinity - Nomad Moderator with Spitfire

So following on from my Alguaciles post I thought I would do a review for the Nomad Moderator with spitfire.

This model comes in three parts: Left arm, right arm and body, all in a handy little blister and best of all his head is molded to the body! so no issue with gluing the head to the body!!

So buzzing on the excitement of not having to glue the head down I started to glue the arms; this is where the fun started.

The peg and shape of the shoulder on the right arm seemed to show it to go in one way, but that then didn't align with the left arm which needs to connect to the hand on the gun.
After much turning and twisting I finally get the two arms close, however they don't fully connect. The wrist touches but doesn't actually insert into the hand, I assume that it should and that a little more effort on my part would allow it to do so however, I am happy with the end result and if it becomes a concern I will just plug the gap with green stuff.
                                     

Miniatures: Infinity - Nomad Alguaciles special weapons

So this week I am looking at and building the Infinity Nomad Alguacile Special Weapons box set.

I know I'm not the first and I expect I won't be the last to review this; so here are my views.                                  

As you can see the box set consists of two men (Missle Launcher and Sniper rifle) and two women (HMG & Combi rifle with light grenade launcher). The two male bodies are identical as are the two female. So there's no confusion as to which heads & arms fit which bodies, which is good as the heads and arms are in one bag grouped by sex.

Each model consists of 5 parts: body, head, left arm, right arm and backpack

What will you need to put these together:

• Clippers
• Craft knife
• Superglue
• and patience: the likes of which hasn't been seen since before the invent of broadband

So lets look at each type:

Missile launcher

As you can see, a little bit of flash but nothing my clippers and craft knife would struggle with.

Once cleared of flash I decided to start with the head. The head has a hole to fit the "peg" that's on the neck, so after a quick dry fit (and by consulting the picture on the box) I understood which way it was to go (there is only one way) and applied superglue, then ensued several minutes of annoyance and pain as the head refused to stick, rolling off, sticking to my fingers etc. Eventually it stayed where it was supposed to. 

Following the experience of the head I expected the multi-part arms to be a lot more painful; so I was pleasantly surprised when the arms just popped into place and glued nicely. As did the backpack

Sniper rifle

As per the missile launcher there wasn't much flash, again a few clips and cuts removed it all.

Learning nothing from the missile launcher model I started with the head, and I experienced the same issue of it not staying in place, for what felt like several minutes before it did.

Next was the arms, they were a little fiddly as I tried to position then as per the slot in the body with the peg on the arm and the picture. After a few sticky moves the arms fitted, which again was less painful than the head.

Then I just popped the backpack on.

HMG

The flash was again minimal and took no time in removing. 

Looking back at the picture of this innocent model sitting casually upon my cutting mat I can now see the pain it was going to cause me...

Aaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaaaaagh! and Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh! some more. This model was a pain in the posterior! 

Firstly the head encountered the same issue as above but it took longer, a LOT longer! rolling off, not fitting snugly, sticking to my fingers (both with the glue applied and because the "buns" compress into my skin) not co-operating at all! So when it did finally fit it was a minor victory, but little did I know that the battle may have been won but the war was far from over!

Next the arms, fiddly thin, pain in the backside arms! They wouldn't fit in the slot correctly, when they did fit they wouldn't stick to anything but my fingers! After almost rage quitting, I took a minor break and came back to it, where everything just fitted perfectly and the result it a beautiful model. The pain before still haunts my dreams.  

Even the backpack fell off a couple of times!

Combi rifle with light grenade launcher

I would say that this model had less flash than the rest.

Like before, I experienced a little issue with the head, but more with the position as it never looked right, but it stuck and I settled for how it stayed.

The arms where a little fiddly, but nothing, NOTHING like the HMG <shudders> again the only issue I encountered was getting the position correct.

Then, like the men, I just popped the backpack on.

So here we have it, the four special weapon teams for my Infinity Alguaciles.

So what have I learnt from this experience

• I don't like multi-part models without the option of multi-position, what's the point? Or maybe I just lack the skills to make them multi-position
• I need modelling tweezers to prevent my fat fingers causing any issues.
• The end justifies the mean: the pain I endured has resulted in these lovely models

At least this is something to strike off my "to do" list...

Painting tip: Painting flesh (28mm)

Daniel Morgan posted on Facebook some beautiful models on the Necromunda group, with wonderful flesh tones and this is how he did it;

"I use bugmans Brown (Tanned Flesh), then reikland flesh wash (Ogryn Flesh wash/flesh tone shade wash (73204)) then cadian flesh (Tallarn flesh/Heavy Skintone (140))  then kislev (Pallid flesh/Pale flesh (003)) then highlight with Ushabti (Bleached Bone/Bonewhite (034)) and finally screaming skull then another flesh wash in deep recces again"

Key: First name in brackets dictates previous GW paint, second name after the slash is Valejo: source: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Firelock storming party

Following on from the Pike & Shotte post I made the other day here is how I painted my firelocks.

I have two different schemes (even though I can only have one unit of firelocks in my army) so they can be split for any intro-games.

Scheme 1
Undercoat Camo green (Halford)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: Bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather
Wash with AP strong tone

Scheme 2
Undercoat British Battle Dress (Bolt Action - Warlord spray)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather or left as undercoat
Wash with AP strong tone

I then glued sand to the base using PVA, once dry I painted it with graveyard earth, drybrushed with khaki. Once the paint had dried I glued on static grass.

Now it could be argued that the sand phase is unnecessary if its going to be covered with static grass, but I did it so if the static grass falls off then is not just a flat brown base.

Hope this helps/inspires

Painting tip: Pike & Shotte: English Civil War

The following was posted by Rook Heath in answer to a how to paint p&s:ecw query by someone on the pike & shotte Facebook group:

Rough rule for English troops. Infantry : Don't use the Highland bonnets. Footwear brown shades, breeches greys and browns, armour black or gunmetal, equipment undied leather, shirts unbleached linen to white. Only the jackets were uniform colours. Go reds, blues, greys and green. Mutted yellow too. Nothing garish. Powder bottles on the bandoliers were generally recorded as painted black. Powder flasks (triangular ones) wood or leather covered with brass fittings probably.

Horse. Equipment and jackets as infantry. Leather 'buff coats' anywhere between dull yellow through undied leather to mid brown but I tend to go paler rather than darker. Buff coats could be long sleeved or for variety paint a few with jacket sleeves showing. No evidence of uniformed saddle cloths. Footwear black through brown.  Btw facing colours (cuffs and collars)  and shade you like but they would be used to identify regts. Eg skippons foot, red coats yellow facings, blue regt London red coats lined with undied linked. Hope this helps

Artillery. Not uniformed so think as infantry but muted colours, plenty of undied linen for shirts etc. Dragoons as infantry.
Armour and helmets were on the way out so for English Civil War avoid helmets in anything but pike. Montaroes (the funny looking peaked hat) were almost exclusively royalist except perhaps officers. Monmouth caps (wool bobble hats with or without peaks) were very common especially for pikemen with helmets removed.used as helmet padding.

I hope Rook doesn't mind me posting this as I know its a general query that comes up a lot.

This isn't exactly how I paint mine, although I follow some of the principles; I'll be posting an article on how I do mine shortly.

Pike & Shotte: English Civil War - For King and Country Starter Set

After watching a documentary on Napoleon's Russian campaign I got a spark of interest for Napoleonics, so looked into Black Powder. That lead to a journey of investigation into the world of historical wargaming where I found myself looking into Pike & Shotte, which covers (amongst others) the English Civil War.

Having an interest in ECW; thanks to living in various towns that played major roles in the war, I decided that it was time to invest.

So as a good starting place I bought "For King & Country"

I bought directly from warlord. Now I'm not going to go into detail about the issue I had with my order, suffice to say warlord resolved it fairly promptly...again (this was my second order with them directly, with my first also encountering issues)

so what do you get?

• A box - with everything in.
• Pike & Shotte rulebook
• Quick start guide
• 82 miniatures.

So lets review these one by one:

The Box

Good sturdy box, nice pictures and details around the side however no overall picture on the back to get an idea of what the end result should look like.

Pike & Shotte Rulebook

Hardback rulebook, which in my opinion is always a plus as I do love a good hardback rulebook,
The quality of the paper is good with great pictures and diagrams. The rulebook itself is a mixture of history and rules, with some tongue-in-cheek thrown in for good measure!
The rules flow nicely and allow for simple games to be played prior to adding in the advanced rules.
At the back of the book is a nice quick reference guide, which can also be downloaded.
However there isn't an index! now this bugs me no end, there's nothing worse when trying to look up a rule that you can't go to the index and find the exact page. The closest you get is the contents page, which sometimes doesn't take you where you need to be.

Quick start guide

I was told by my mother if I didn't have anything nice to say then not to say anything at all......so moving on.
In all honesty it's good as a reference sheet for the units, but you can't pick this up and use it without first reading the rulebook.
I think I've been spoilt by Flames of War: Open fire, Infinity:Operation Icestorm etc which have a slimmed down version of the rules that you can pick up in play straight away without fully reading the book.

The Miniatures

82 multi-part plastic miniatures that make the following:
58 pike and musket including command
12 Cavalry
12 infantry with Firelocks
The models look good and are quite sturdy, any flash is cleaned up easily. 

The 12 infantry with firelocks go together nicely, giving you two different poses with the arms, and a choice of two hats.


The 12 cavalry consists for 12 horses in two halves, with pistol accessories that can be added to the saddle. Then there are the 12 riders, three of which can be made into a command group (Standard, Musician & Ensign - this is only for unit facing and doesn't provide any benefits) 
The riders have a selection of arms with swords and pistols, although only certain arms fit the bodies. Also on the sprue is a selection of hats, and accessories.


Then I come to the Pike and Muskets.....the pikemen are nice and straight-forward with specific arms and pikes going to specific bodies, but leaving an extra man on the sprue with no pike arm. 
The muskets however are multi-part models most of which require the aligning of the arm holding the gun with the other arm and this becomes a fiddly pain in the posterior. 
As per the other sprues this sprue includes various hats and accessories, although I am unsure where the accessories fit on these infantry as there doesn't appear to be space. 
Then there are two command sprues, which allow you to build a musician, standard and ensign with each, with several accessories also on the sprue.


Overall the models are good quality however there isn't any instructions on how to build these and how they fit together as a unit. 
I have several years of experience with building models but even I had some issues when I was building the cavalry and Pike & Musket infantry. 
The lack of instructions left me bemused as to why I had 4 models left on the Pike sprue with no arms left to be able to use him.* 
Also there aren't any bases, so you need to purchase these on top (or use any bases you have laying about), although they have stands so they can be used as they are off the sprue.


In summary this box set is a good starting point but with areas of improvement - some of which I have addressed with Warlord Games, I await their reply.

*I have since learnt, thanks to the purchase of a parliament infantry box set, that the spare man is to go towards the command group, using the arms from the command sprue

The return...

You may have noticed that I haven't updated my blog in some time; to be honest life and wargaming just got in the way. But I'm back and I hope to make more frequent entries.

As for the necromunda campaign I was covering; I lost. Essentially the club I was playing at didn't impose any game restrictions so other players just played as much as they could so those of us who have restricted gaming nights were at a disadvantage....Oh well.