The Hobbit – Lake Town House
We started into 2020 with a few articles on Middle Earth terrain, beginning with the Rohan House, and due to the positiv feedback on the overall coverage, I've decided to extend the series and take a look at the Lake Town House as well.
The Lake Town house is a plastic terrain kit in 28mm scale and as such worth a look, not just for players of the Middle Earth games but far beyond. So let's see what is in the box.
Boot Hill Miniatures – The last stand of Wild West miniatures
Most of my Wild West miniatures are by Artizan Design, most of them - and that might shock you - even painted.
The last time I added to that collection, were Wargames Foundry Old West models that I bought at Salute 2018. Similar to Claymore Castings, I had my eye on Boot Hill Miniatures as well for a longer time, but they don't do shows so I had no chance to pick them up at Salute nor Crisis, but Helion & Company is one of their stockist (a fact that I was made aware of _after_ I went to Salute). So now with no shows happening for the foreseeable future and a dropped pound, I decided to order directly (the roughly 7 GBP shipping cost was something that kept me from ordering).
Frostgrave – Cultists
The Cultists boxed set was released shortly after the regular Soldiers for Frostgrave, and I got mine as part of the Nickstarter Thaw of the Lich King, back in 2015 and I didn't come around to cover it here, but thought for the sake of completeness I catch up on that.
I went for the Level 3 pledge, that included the book as well as the back then new Frostgrave Cultist kit and a few Nickstarter bonus contents, among them a single regular Soldier sprue to mix in.
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.
Frostgrave – Wizards II Female Wizards
North Star and Osprey Games really spoil the Frostgrave player base, for a skirmisher we have access to much more than an average amount of plastic kits. Most would have been fine with the regular Wizards, but we even got a plastic kit, that I covered last week and then they even added another one, Frostgrave Wizards II, bringing us even more options and most notably female wizards.
You still have access to a broad selection of wizard, covering the wizard and an apprentice each, for 6 GBP per blister pack. This second Frostgrave Wizards plastic kit gives you similar to the first one the opportunity to build 8 miniatures for 15 GBP.
Oathmark – Goblin Wolf Riders
After covering the infantry kits of Oathmark, today we have the opportunity to show the first cavalry set of the range - Goblin Wolf Riders. These were released only a few weeks ago.
If you're not familiar with Oathmark. It is a project by Osprey Games and Northstar Military Figures, with Renedra covering the casting. The full name is Oathmark - Battles of the Lost Age and it is going for a 28mm mass combat range, with rank & file regiments and a few characters. I haven't had the chance to look into the rules yet.
Frostgrave – Wizards
North Star and Osprey Games did land quite a hit with Frostgrave, and with the second edition coming up later this year, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on some of the available plastic kits - beginning with the Wizards plastic kit.
The Frostgrave range already covers a broad selection of wizard blisters, covering the wizard and an apprentice each, for 6 GBP each. But to give you more flexibility in building and equipping your own wizards, they released a plastic kit covering 8 miniatures for 15 GBP.
Warhammer 40.000 Adepta Sororitas Battle Sanctum
Games Workshop revisits the Sector Imperialis terrain range for Warhammer 40.000 and adds a Sororitas themed building to it - the Battle Sanctum.
The Sector Imperialis building and ruin sprues were introduced along with Kill Team and came with multiple boxed sets. I've covered the Basilicanum back in 2018 from that range.
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.
Rubicon 2cm Flak Vierling 38
To create the Sd.Kfz. 7/1 variant, the Selbstfahrlafette 2-cm-Flakvierling 38 auf Fahrgestell Zugkraftwagen 8 t (self-propelled anti-aircraft half-track), I'd need flakvierling kit by Rubicon.
These kits are already planned in a way to be combined, so it can be build either as a weapon team of itself or optional mounted on the flatbed of the Sd.Kfz. 7.
The kit comes with a crew, of which I am not really fond, so these will be replaced with the proper crew from the Perry Miniatures as range, as this vehicle and AA-gun will be deployed with my Afrikakorps.