Weekend Update CW 17/2020
It feels like we're taking up speed, this week just flew by. We opened up a new can of primer, covered the next Frostgrave kit, the female wizards and taking a look into the next Middlehammer project.
Claymore Castings – Bretonnia at arms
I had an eye on Claymore Castings for quite some time now. I was amazed by their first ranges, sculpted by Paul Hicks, that included Scots, Highlanders and Gallowglass, for the Wars of the Bruce's among other conflicts. At some point Claymore Castings reconciled their range, brought in new sculpts by Matthew Bickley for the French and English, mostly of the Hundred Years Wars, and parted with some of the moulds and codes, that went to Antediluvian Miniatures, and are available now there.
Some of the Scottish, Irish and Gallowglass codes would be a good fit for my pseudo War of the Roses / Game of Thrones project, but the newer Bickley sculpts would stand out a bit with the slender Perry sculpts. As Claymore Castings doesn't do shows outside of Scotland, our paths didn't cross again for a while and I merely was astonished by the new, dynamic sculpts and incredible paint jobs that David Imrie shared with us via facebook for example in Saxon Dog Painting.
But then I had an idea and followed up on that by ordering a small batch of infantry codes at Claymore Castings.
Even in the current situation, David posted the order quickly and the Royal Mail / German Mail did their job as well, having the small package arrive here within a few days after I ordered.
Easter-Weekender
Happy Easter! Virtual easter eggs today. Three reviews on here this week, the warbands of the Wurmspat and Hrothgorn, as well as St. Celestine with Battle Sanctum.
I had chance to take a first glance into the Claymore Castings package, that I ordered. And this week a small package by Troublemaker Games arrived, with some samples for 6-8mm plastic terrain, that I'll look into shortly. The prolonged weekend enabled me to go through a couple of Frostgrave sets, preparing some articles that will go along with Dino's ongoing series A sword and sorcery adventure.
Weekender – Home Office Week 3
We went into the post-ww2-war era this week, with two reviews covering the Korean War, and the far future of Gaslands and the Horus Heresy. And I've taken the pictures for two upcoming Beastgrave reviews.
Bolt Action Centurion Mk III Heavy Tank
This is a review, that I was really looking for, as that tank is simply a must have for myself - the british Centurion tank! Warlord Games added the main battle tank to their range as part of the Korean supplement.
The Centurion was a successor of the cruiser tank line, with prominent ancestors like the Cromwell or Comet. These were proper tanks, but were no match to the heavy guns, the Germans could put into battle. So one of the requirements for a new, heavy cruiser tank, was that it had to withstand a hit from the feared 8,8 cm gun. They didn't solve that by giving it thicker armour, quite contrary, with 76mm the first prototypes of the Centurion Mk I had much thinner plates than a Churchill (101mm) or later Mk VII and VIII (152mm), but it was highly sloped, creating an effective thickness far above. Something the Russians brought into WW2 with the T-34 and was later picked up by others, like the German Panther tank.
Bolt Action – Korea
For the first time ever, Bolt Action steps outside of World War 2. We had a brief "what-if" scenario with Operation Sea Lion and Campaign Gigant, but that was as far as we went from the '33 to '45 conflict. But that was changed in the second half of 2019 with the release of the supplement Bolt Action: Korea.
Weekender – Home Office Week 2
We're closing on week 2 in the home office. So what happened since the last weekend update? We had two reviews this week, supported some local stores, stocked up on candy and craftbeer, ordered at three miniature companies / FLGS that are currently missing out on sales due to closure and cancelled events.
Cruel Seas Kriegsmarine R-23 R-Boat
I've added the Fairmile D to my Royal Navy, so I needed a medium sized counter part for my Kriegsmarine. Something the R-Boat could take care of.
Similar how E-Boat was an allied term for Enemy Boats, R-Boat is a term for Räumboote (meaning minesweeper). These R-Boats were build already before the second world war, and saw service post-war for clearing naval mines.
Cruel Seas Royal Navy Fairmile D MTB 624
I had the Royal Navy flotilla from the starter set already increased with the Flower Class Corvette, but I was looking for a mid-sized ship, that could be used in smaller to medium battles and went for the Fairmile D MTB.
The Fairmile D Motor Torpedo Boat is a british MTB, that was built by Fairmile Marine. A Fairmile is bigger than the earlier MTB/MGB (Motor Gun Boats), for example the Vosper or PT Boat, but slower in speed. They were named Dog Boats, and were designed to combat the more advantaged E-boats by the German Kriegsmarine.
Weekender – Home Office Week 1
So, the first week of social distancing is over. I swapped the coffee at work for a cup at home, and on friday we even had a virtual after hours drink. Where we used the infrastructure that was used for dailies, stand-ups and other meetings, for a beverage of your choice and some off-work chat. Working longer than a day or two from home was a bit strange at first, due to the lack of personal interaction, but thanks to my amazing colleagues and employer it went very well.
A side effect was that I gained an hour a day, that I wasn't commuting, and was spend on having breakfast / dinner with my family. And due to the fact, that most of my friends were in similar situations, most had already setup the facilities to work from home / participate in video calls, so we came together in the evenings for a chat and some virtual wargaming gathering a bit more often than usual.

































