Fireforge Games Mongols

To my regret, I have never done as much historical gaming as I would like. Sure, I have collected 15mm Mongols, 28mm Vikings and American Wild West figures, even 1/72 scale Persians, but I have never gotten around to painting them or indeed using them in a wargame. All of those above have been moved on at bring and buy sales over the past few years.

I have hung on to various samurai figures (1/72 Zvezda and 28mm Perry Miniatures), which I am planning to use with Ronin. I also have a large collection of Ancient British and Colonial British Camel Corp., the later of which are being prepared for a game of Colonial Saga (as published in a recent Wargames Soldiers and Strategy).

Anyway, the reason for this ramble is the recent emergence on Fireforge Games Facebook page of their coming plastic Mongol range. I have have been fascinated by the rise of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan for many years. I have read every book I could find and have a large collection of TV documentaries (mainly of VHS tape - and therefore unwatchable - but I hope to transfer them to digital at some point) and movies.

So, it was fair to say, I was bound to be attracted to the Fireforge Mongols. My initial interest was tainted somewhat by Foreforge's decision to place their Mongol cavalry of horses rather than steppe ponies. However I understand their decision to produce a more "cinematic" look is probably driven by the look of the figures, which I am sure to an uneducated eye, would look out of place on  a smaller pony rather than the full size horses. I can't deny that I like the look of the figures and I like the horses too, I am just a little disappointed that they have been put together. There is a possibility I will source some ponies to sit the Fireforge figures on, I have 3D printed several horse at varying scales to see how difficult it would be to convert them to steppe ponies, and I am still considering it, but at the end of the day I have come around to their sculpts and I doubt if I could find the time to work up a full collection of steppe ponies for them anyway.

More and more photos are coming through now, cavalry, heavy cavalry and more recently infantry, all of which look excellent. At the very least I imagine I will have to pick up one box of each, and if that doesn't look that part I may aim at a sizable horde...

TARGE Wargames Show 2013

I went along to Targe 2013 on Saturday and had a most enjoyable day!

There were plenty of attractive tables on display, the Bring and Buy was well stocked and very busy and the selection of traders was also very good, with plenty of variety to spread ones spending.

I sold half of the items that I had put into the Bring and Buy, so I actually came away with more cash in my pocket than I arrived with too, so that was a boost!

Other than £3-4 spent on the Bring and Buy, all of my spending was with Crooked Dice (their first visit to Targe) and 4A Miniatures (they are so friendly I can't help but spend something there...).

Anyway, on to the photos.

As you can see, the standard of t tables is exceptionally high, everyone has attractive scenics and they were all happy to talk about the displays and the battles going on.
I had my boys with me so i had to be quite choosy about where my time went, so I only got to sit in on one demo game, a futuristic race game on a beautiful laser cut circuit. However, it turned out to be a great choice, as both my boys really enjoyed it, oh and I won...

I came away from Targe feeling re-invigorated towards the hobby, and got straight back into putting some minis together, something i haven't done for a couple of months. I plan to do some painting over the next few days too. So hopefully I will have something to show off before too long.

Elgin Model Fair 2013

I took the boys to Elgin Model Show last weekend (under the pretense of getting them out from under their grandparents feet for an hour). It turned to be a very good show. About 50% model railway displays, which were all very impressive, but the rest of the show was also very good. 

There was plenty to keep the boys occupied, between driving a few more trains and having another go at the Scalextric as well as driving an RC Dalek and K9...

Here is the photo dump!

There were a couple of wargames tables, one with a 15mm Napoleanic game and the other with a 28mm Saga game. They both had nicely painted miniatures and even though they were only of green sheets, they looked very inviting!

 

I will have to try to arrange a visit to the grandparents again next year when the Elgin Model Fair is on. Well worth the visit!

I will be going to TARGE at Kirriemuir on Saturday so hopefully I should get some more photos from that show too...

Aberdeen Model Railway Exhibition 2013

Weekend before last I visited the local model railway exhibition, I wanted to visit the Squires Tools stand as well as have a look around at all the displays.

It turned aout to be a very good show, and my boys both really enjoyed themselves, getting to "have a go" on a couple of train layouts each as well as having fun the two Scalextric (slot car) circuits!

In my usual fashion here is the photo dump...

First up we have the Aberdeen Wargames Club demo table. A beautiful Kelly's Heroes game...

My sons really enjoyed the Scalextric.

Aberdeen Modellers Society put on a exceptional table with some lovely paint jobs...

Of course, there were also some really nice railway displays.

 The next eight photos are all for the same display, truly stunning...

 Probably my favourite display was the Indian Railway Layout, but I am always attracted to the scenic boards...

 This next one was also very well done. It was too big for a simple photo. I stitched four photos together in my photos editing software.

If you would like to see some photos from the show, and a bit more dialogue, it is worth checking out my gaming pal Jeff's blog. 1, 2, 3

This post is a little late, but I thought I should get it out before the coming weekend and my visit to TARGE.