Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Walls, Flash Gordon and a quarter of a million page views!




Well, this is my 11th post in April (get back to those Mexicans, you say!) which just reflects my renewed enthusiasm for painting thanks to Sofie and her Paint Table Saturday (I always work best under pressure).  I got some more done on them this morning as I woke up earlier than usual, having watched the first episode of Fargo last night (like a bloodier Twin Peaks but in the snow) and, I have to admit, having had vivid nightmares about rampaging gangs chasing me (or maybe that was too much chorizo and Rioja too late last night), I decided to get up and do a bit of painting.  Just now the light is in that awkward phase of neither one thing nor the other; too dark to shade and too light to just rely on artificial light so I thought I would just sit here and write rubbish as usual.

I keep getting dragged back into a discussion on The Miniatures Page about Warlord Games new plastic walls "for 28mm wargaming", as it says on the box.  Now these are very nice and will be useful for that distant day when I actually set up a game of my own.  I bought a box at Salute for £14.  However, without getting into all the tedious detail about them, it turns out that they are in fact exactly the same as the Italeri 1/72 set (the Warlord set actually carries the Italeri set identification number on the sprue).  Except the Italeri set is priced on their website at £8.65, most online model shops in the UK are selling it for £7.50 and Amazon has it for £5.66.  Paul Sawyer from Warlord then chipped in and said that the Warlord set is, in fact, the same price as the Italeri one and anyway we shouldn't be using Amazon but should show loyalty to  the poor manufacturer.  I have to say that I found this attitude completely arrogant; not only by lying about the supposed equality of price but then, essentially, saying that you should give Warlord top price and not save your money.  Now I bought the Warlord set because I didn't know it was identical to the Italeri one.  I never looked at the Italeri scenics as I don't do 20mm.   Most people on the forums had assumed it was an upsized version of the Italeri 1/72 set, not an identical product.   Would I pay Warlord £14 for the next set I buy?  No.  Not when I can get it at £5.66 and save £8.34.  It's not the money per se its just I didn't (not for the first time) like Sawyer's reply to a criticism.


Sotnikova


Now, of course, Sawyer used to work as editor of White Dwarf and you might think he became tainted by the dark side when working at Games Workshop. You might think that.  I couldn't possibly comment.  However, he spins better than Adelina Sotnikova and so I was a little disappointed in the lack of imagination shown in his attempt at a rebuttal ("it's the same price").  Don't just lie and say your product is the same as something from Italeri when it's not, invent a proper excuse! I like a lot of Warlord products but for some reason Sawyer winds me up,  Nothing rational (apart from being a slimy liar (allegedly)) it's just that every time  I see an announcement of a new product I have to wade through the insincere, self-congratulatory rubbish that passes for marketing copy from them.  Every time I buy their stuff I wish I wasn't supporting this cringe-inducing PR approach.  

Anyway, that said, of course, I am contemplating buying a box of their new Peninsula war British infantry.  Fortunately, when I went into Orc's Nest last week they only had the Waterloo ones.  So I bought a Perry Prussian cannon instead, which will make a nice little project as a break from the Mexicans (but using much the same palette).  I had a conversation with Nick Futter of Boot Hill Miniatures this week and he is promising a Santa Anna in full military uniform (he already does him in civilian dress) and Mexican soldiers carrying ladders.  That's where I will spend the money I save on my walls!  Actually I have already put another order in as I need to paint a few Texians!




I've been watching the developments on North Star's Biblical range, now re-named North Star Kadesh, and they have hinted there might be Mycenaeans in the future.  I'm thinking about skirmishes from this period, rather than full blown battles, though.  I can't face painting armies which have so many chariots!  




Most exciting is that I have a wargame tomorrow at Eric the Shed's, er, shed.  It's VBCW using Bolt Action rules which I haven't played before.  I must remember  to take my glasses or I won't be able to read the rules!  He certainly has a beautiful set up so I am very much looking forward to my visit!  He sent me this picture of his board this morning.  It's got canal boats, sheep etc. and cows!  I think it will be the first wargame I will have played set in Surrey, where I live!  His is a contact that has arisen entirely because of blogs so I would echo Scott's recent paean to the wargaming blogosphere.


My BEF British


Speaking of Bolt Action I notice that Gorgon Studios continue to release figures for WW2 Norway.  I did contemplate doing this period and bought some of the lovely Mike Owen sculpted early war figures from Ian Crouch's BEF Miniatures and even started to paint them.  Then however, Warlord bought BEF (mainly for the vehicles, I suspect) and promptly stopped producing the figures, replacing them with an inferior plastic set which was too cartoon-like for me.  Evil Empire?  You might think that.  I couldn't possibly comment.  However, now there are some more British, also sculpted by Mike Owen, from Gorgon as well as Norwegians I may have to think about this again.  I'll have to see how Bolt Action plays.

The only cloud on the horizon is my total failure to avoid another trip to Colombia next month.   I will have to leave in only a couple of weeks so I will lose ten days painting! 




Having spent most of the Easter weekend listening to Classic FM's Hall of Fame (it's not a Hall of Fame, idiots, its a top 300 favourites list) I decided to go for something a bit different today.  Regular readers (more on which shortly) will know that the Legatus needs music to paint to and likes film soundtrack music to do so.  Now, nearly everyone my age has seen Mike Hodges camp classic Flash Gordon (1980).  Famously, George Lucas' failure to acquire the film rights for this resulted in him writing Star Wars instead.  It contains some of the worst acting by lead actors of anything outside nineteen seventies porn, with only Max von Sydow and an unseen Peter Wyngarde coming out of it with their reputations intact.  However, it has fantastic production design by Danilo Donati who also did many of Fellini's films, Red Sonja and designed the costumes for Bob Guccione's notorious Caligula (the Legatus once met one of the Penthouse ladies who appeared in this bizarre epic) and of course Ornella Muti.




Also on the positive side (did I mention Ornella Muti, especially when she is walking away from the camera) was Queen's first attempt at a soundtrack.  On my post on my Mexicans I opined that I didn't care for film dialogue on soundtracks but I make a sole exception for Flash Gordon, where it works well.  Now, I have, of course, the distinctive looking Queen Flash soundtrack album but there is some orchestral music on the soundtrack which wasn't written by Queen.


Did I mention Ornella Muti?


This music, which is even more apparent when watching the film, was written by Howard Blake, the British composer best know for composing the soundtrack to The Snowman and that seasonal Christmas hit I'm Walking in the Air.  Now the Legatus is always on the hunt for obscure soundtracks so was very pleased to receive today a copy of Howard Blake's orchestral score for Flash Gordon, the CDs for which which he commissioned himself in a limited edition of 1000.   And very good it is too, although I will now have to put the Queen one on as well, which means I will probably have to watch the film again tonight.  Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum dum, dum, dum...


Nadia Cassini in Malta for Pulp (1972)


Now, talking of pulp, (not Pulp (1972) that was another (underrated) Mike Hodges film starring a luminously gorgeous Nadia Cassini) recently Craig Cartmell, who is one of the authors of In Her Majesty's Name and maintains an excellent blog supporting the game, was discussing ideas about an adaption of IHMN for a new period.  One of the favourites was a nineteen thirties pulp version which would have been perfect for the Legatus as I have a lot of Mike Owen's splendid Pulp figures and have even painted a couple.


I painted this Artizan Sky Pirate girl about seven years ago.  I wonder where the rest of them are?


Sadly, the subsequent discussions with Osprey at Salute appear to have not gone well, as there is now no likelihood of them commissioning any more IHMN supplements.  Mr Cartmell is proceeding on his own with a mystical Japanese skirmish game: Daishō.  Now I wasn't very enthusiatic about this intially, having just bought Ronin, but on further consideration the IHMN authors did such a good job on IHMN and given I have bought lots of Ronin figures and even some scenery at Salute maybe I will follow it after all!  The Legatus is quite capable of U-turns!

Finally, and if you have got this far you obviously haven't got any Mexicans to paint, I have just passed 250,000 views on this blog!  The blogging tradition seems to be to have some sort of competition to celebrate, with a prize.  Now I'm not quite sure how to do this yet.  As a fan of Eggheads I wondered about having some questions such as "how many Penthouse Pets appeared in Caligula?" or "which issue of Italian magazine Playmen did Ornella Muti appear naked in?" or "which magazine cover did a naked Nadia Cassini appear on the first issue of?" but really they are more appropriate for my other main blog which has, incidentally, just passed 8 million visits but then it is full of naked women not soldiers.  So I will think about the competition and the prize over the next couple of days and announce something at the weekend!

18 comments:

  1. Paul Sawyer running as MEP for Bath & Wells? I could not possibly comment. But he sounds full of it enough!

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  2. A lot to think about there. But most importantly, congratulations on getting 250,000!

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  3. As entertaining as ever L - great read and congratulations on the hits!

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    1. Thank you. Although it does take time out of painting it does keep e slightly focussed!

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  4. Agree, congrats on 250K! I am glad you posted about the stone walls. I had plans to get a couple of boxes. Might rethink that one now!

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  5. Congrats on the milestone. As for the walls its everywhere been reading about it on facebook mostly in the bolt action facebook group. Have fun at your VBCW game I'm told its quite a good system so should be good for it.

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  6. Well done on hitting the 1/4 million mark. It shows just how entertaining your drivel is to the rest of us!

    I saw the TMP debate on the walls - I think you'd need several boxes to populate a table, so eBay, Amazon or your local model shop and Italeri are the way to go.

    I hope you have a great time with Ed The Shed - looking forward to the photos!

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  7. Congrats on the 250,000 views figure, well deserved. I was under the impression that the Warlord plastic stone wall set contained twice the amount of walls/sprues than the Italeri set hence the 'same price' comment, or have I just fallen for the Little Satan (son of the Evil Empire) propaganda?

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    1. No, they both contain two sprues with about 54 inches of walls in them.

      The contents are identical!

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  8. Then the 'same price' comment is deliberately misleading. Not surprised though, Warlord seem to have started to believe their own hype. At one show a while back I overheard Mr. Stallard reply to a potential customer's query on the price of a box set. To paraphrase the conversation "£50 I think, I'll just check, no..£75..still a bargain I'm sure you'll agree."...err...no.

    When the boss of any company underestimates the price of his own product by 50% it is disturbing. It altered my perceived value of their product from 'pricey but quality' to 'rip off' immediately.

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    1. Yes, otherwise they are an estimable company but the word "smarmy" does spring to mind!

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  9. Now you've worried me as I've ordered a set of the Rorke's Drift stone walls (and the damaged ones), I wonder if they are the same ones? I suppose I'll find out when they finally turn up! Anyway back to more important things - Bravo on the milestone!

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    1. No the Rorke's Drift set has resin walls with integral bases. They are quite different!

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    2. Thank goodness for that, thank you. Mind you still waiting for them to arrive. :(

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  10. Congrats on the 250k Legatus - richly deserved :)

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  11. Belated congrats on reaching 250k. Always an entertaining read and one of my favourite blogs. Keep up the good work.

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