Reinforcement straight from the foundry
I usually pick up Wargames Foundry at shows likes Crisis or Salute, but with the lack of shows "lately" I went for some direct ordering. As I have friends in the UK, I'm able to order without the hassle of customs and fees. These were ordered in April, Foundry did a great job having them delivered only a few days later within the UK, and I only recently came around to arrange the hand over. So that's only a solution for some non-time critical items, never the less - let's take a look at what I got myself.
Twelve months, 20,- Euros – Part 7
As you can see, I'm writing my review for July with some delay this time. Yesterday, as I was thinking about how this actually happened, it occurred to me that I seem to always have a bit of a hobby slump at the same time of year: July and August. On a rational level, this is due to a combination of repetitive reasons, all of which can be summed up as a "temporarily growing amount of obligations."
Nevertheless, there is at least a small update. For some time now I've been chasing the Animated Statue from the Halodyne range of the game Godslayer. No matter where you order online, it usually costs around 30,- Euro. Even with the 4.17 left over from the previous month, this would not have been possible.
But as fate would have it, Daniel, also known as blackmail82 in German-speaking forums, actually had this model at hand and left it to me for 15,- Euro including shipping.
Black Hussar Miniatures – French in Canada
While looking for beautiful figures for the French and Indian War, I came across the manufacturer Black Hussar Miniatures some time ago. We don't have a particularly large number of manufacturers in Germany for historical figures in the 28mm scale, so we want to take a closer look at this manufacture today. The models had been here for a while and I am also very sorry for the long delay, but the pandemic conditions made it very difficult for us to photograph the models appropriately. The pictures therefore do not necessarily show the quality that is otherwise known from the chaos bunker. It was just not possible for me to have a photo session with Dennis. I would like to apologize to the manufacturer for the long waiting time.
The manufacturer
Black Hussar Miniatures was founded in 2015 by its current owner Sascha and his buddy Florian. The two Berliners needed miniatures for their own project and since they couldn't find anything suitable, they asked an friend to model corresponding figures for them. A few test figures became very extensive series for the Kingdom of Prussia and the Kingdom of France in the Seven Years' War. The French were also expanded to include a few models for the Canadian theater of war. The miniatures were so well received that the two decided to sell them in their own shop.Black Hussar Miniatures is now well established on the market, but that does not mean that you can make a living from historical small series. Sascha, who now runs the company alone, invests all profits back into new miniatures. In the meantime, another series has been added for the Napoleonic period. This - originally brought into being by Westfalia Miniatures - is the mainstay today, as this era is in much greater demand, especially internationally. Three freelance modelers are currently working on the series on a regular basis, so that they are continuously expanded.
June review
Managed to get some things going in June. Some new and final arrivals to my collection.
I am a huge fan of the work of Paul Hicks, and one of rarer miniatures (besides the event miniatures he sculpted) is this set of British Napoleonic soldiers, strongly influenced by Sean Bean in Sharpe. After looking for a trader in Europe and trying to get these second hand - but with no results for over almost a year, I decided to order directly with Brigade Games. Shipping wasn't cheap at 28 USD (for a total of ~50 USD worth of miniatures), but went incredibly fast, as these arrived within 10 days - incl. going through customs.
This isn't going to be some mass combat, but really a small skirmish setup around Sharpe's Rifles. So after looking at Osprey Games' Chosen Men, but putting that aside for it being far too large, as it is more like Saga at 40+ miniatures and not what I had in mind for the small battles, I went with Song of Drums & Shakos by Ganesha Games. Tabletop Stories has a review on the rule set. And if you're already there, give their Mecha-Spin off of What a tanker a go.
May review
Another busy month, only a few new articles published, two reviews - the Warmaster Titan and the Tiger II by Rubicon models.
Twelve months, 20,- Euros – Part 5
May is over and as expected I haven't had that much free time due to my new job. But as the saying goes, sometimes class counts more than mass. Following this motto, I managed relatively early in the month to paint my leader for the troop of Greek mercenaries and Corinthians.
Since he got a completely new miniature, I also gave him a new name: Diamachos. The name is derived from the greek word for quarrel (diamachi) and is supposed to represent that this fearless mercenary captain lives from the conflict of others.
Rubicon Models – Tiger II with Zimmerit
This is going to be the third time that I'm doing a review on a King Tiger, but this time it is the one by Rubicon Models.
I've had the older resin kit by Warlord Games with the Henschel turret on here, as well as the Italeri / Warlord Games plastic kit of the King Tiger with Zimmerit, so I'm quite curious where the Rubicon kit stands in comparison.
Twelve months, 20,- Euros – Part 4
The good news first: I found a new job and am more relaxed about that issue now. On the other hand, of course, this means that I have to concentrate on learning the routine and, at the same time, my hobby time is melting away.
So, I'm not surprised that I easily stayed within my hobby budget in April and again only painted one miniature. Since I was somehow not satisfied with the first iteration of Dromeas, I painted another model with the same background story in mind.
Bolt Action Campaign Mariana & Palau Islands
A bit of catching up to do. While Bolt Action returns to D-Day with the current and next campaign supplement, we have to catch up and revisit the pacific with Bolt Action Campaign Mariana & Palau Islands.
For those of you, not familiar with the pacific campaign, a brief intro on the campaign might come in handy. We have had releases covering the (South) East Asian conflict for Bolt Action with Empires in Flames and New Guinea. And with Mariana & Palau, the US Forces, especially the Marines are moved into focus, in their battles against the Japanese. At 160 pages it doesn't set a new record in thickness, but is still broad and covering a lot of ground for the campaign. Pricing stays with the usual price band of 20 GBP or 30 USD (about 25 EUR). And as often with the Bolt Action / Osprey books, we had an early cover (left) and a changed final cover of the supplement (right), replacing the US Marine with an IJA soldier.
Valentine for Operation Lightfoot
One of the final pieces to add to my 8th army motor pool is a Valentine infantry tank. As the army is themed around Operation Lightfoot, a mid-war tank and mark would a great fit. As I've stocked the british themed army mostly with Rubicon vehicles, I wanted to keep on doing so. It is just ridiculously difficult to receive stock. The Valentine is part of the second wave 2020 novelties and it took until this week to get my hands on a boxed set.
I kept looking for it on my usual suppliers, like Fantasy-In, got in touch with them, but due to Brexit and the incredibly bad preparations by Rubicon UK, there was just no info on when it would be deliverable. Earlier this week Tabletopper.nl posted an update on their stock, covering the Valentine as well, and I gave it a go. As they "only" charged 7,90 EUR for shipping from the Netherlands to Germany, and even had some other items on stock that I was looking for for a while now (for example Empress' WW2 range, which I ordered through a german store in November and Empress didn't manage to supply them with stock pre-brexit nor afterwards), so I had an order with a total beyond 100 EUR it was free of shipping costs. But what amazed me the most, I ordered it on Wednesday morning and within an hour my order was picked and packed, and I received my tracking number just 75 minutes later. DPD did a great job as well, bringing the package within 48 hours to me. So chapeau to Tabletopper.nl, will keep an eye on you from now on.
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