Wargames Foundry Oldhammer BOYL 2021

 

Postponed a few times due to that evil coffid thing, we finally got the dates for the first weekend in October... bags packed, dogsitting sorted and we were off...

Booked this year at the Beaumond Cross Inn as my usual (The Ashiana) was booked up... very pleasant and worth a few pics...

One thing to note with Foundry, they organise a lot of social events and are VERY experienced in catering... the grub is wonderful and plentiful... 

Pics are in no particular order from over the three days... I left before lunch on the Sunday due to needing to rescue the hound...

Geoff Solomon-Sims and his incredible Heroquest set up...

The display cases were full of old classics, many of which have featured in the early years of White Dwarf...

The two Tony's, one part Harry and a fleeing Maria...

My shrink wrapped Great Spined Dragon... the Nik Bibby classic... passed over to a certain Phil Gregory in appreciation of some work he will be doing on my The Little Soldier Company website.

Various shots of the shop area and more display cabinets...

The painting competition...

And the judges...

Was this Paul's mini? Please correct me if wrong. Anyway, it was one that Kev Adams had added a new head to at a previous BOYL and now joined in Friday's gaming.

Garth announcing the painting competition results...

The usual assembly, all qdos to Maria who took the pic. I'm looking dazed somewhere on the right hand side...

My lonely Saturday evening first pint as I got to the Prince Rupert about 10 minutes before anyone else... managed to book a room for the rest of the evening which was great... after we were kicked out of there we hit the something Circus... carried on till midnight before being moved on. I'm far too old to drink till that time of night now so must resist next year... or at Salute in November of course...

A quick walk around Newark Castle before meeting up with Mark and Gemma for breakfast... unfortunately the local parking ticket machines reduced my to a gibbering wreck (well, almost) so I went straight to Foundry and had a fantastic bacon and egg roll along with numerous cups of good strong coffee. Thanks Harry!

A big shout out and thank you to the Ansell team for hosting.

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/pages/events-at-foundry

https://www.bringoutyourlead.co.uk/

Well, that's it until next time folks... do me a favour and join the blog (towards the top left of the page) and help me feel wanted! Any questions (or if you're offloading old stuff!) send me an email (or leave a comment)... I do so love to chat about lead.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Drunken dwarves and gnolls and some frogs... what's not to like...

 

Well, amongst other bit and bobs, I've managed to finish the bar room staff set from The Little Soldier Company. Sculpted by John Pickford with the Westies being based on my Arya and his Meg.

https://thelittlesoldiercompany.co.uk/product/bar-room-brawl-staff

Also managed to finished a limited edition tribute to the old Citadel Fantasy Tribe 'Drunken Gnolls' from Satanic Panic Miniatures, sculpted by Martin Buck and available here.

Whilst we're at it, there's a new company on the block called White Mouse Miniatures who have some charming frogs for you all...

https://www.whitemouseminiatures.com/

That's all for now... lots more to come shortly though...

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Flash Gordon - home casting kits from the 1930's...

 

This is via a good hobby friend, Andrew Campbell. 

'Random old  school, and I mean *really* old school, miniatures discovery of the day. 

Apparently there was a company called the Home Foundry Manufacturing Company back in the 30s, possibly through the 40s or later, which sold home casting kits for miniatures. 

Most were historical (for casting toy soldiers), but at least one set dipped into the sci fi realm - a Flash Gordon home casting kit. Who knew that home casting of sci fi figures went back that far?'

My Google skills have only brought up modern casting foundries so have, so far, turned up no more information... over to you please readers!

Thanks to 'Joss Sticks on Jupiter' we have a link to painted ones!

http://alphadrome.net/forums/topic/13389-buck-rogers-and-flash-gordon/

The Flash Gordon serial debuted in 1936 so there were probably quite a lot of 'toys' out there at some point. IMDB has some more info on the serial here and, of course, YouTube has countless clips etc but you can see the entire first series here; 

Miniature wise there have been (and are) a lot of proxy types. My favourite current proxy ones are those from Hydra Miniatures. There is a game from the Pinnacle Entertainment Group that includes a few minis here (sculpted by the great David Sonderquist of Bronze Age Minis who has the best John Carter series in his SciFi section). There are the (currently unavailable I think?) Jim Bowen sculpts from Monolith Designs. Brigade Games have a few as well. If you do 15mm gaming there are some nice Hawkmen and sled riders from The Scene. Paper ones for the RPG from DriveThruRPG. Let me know if I've missed any please...

54mm 'Toy Soldier' types are about as well...

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Two miniature purchases you really NEED to get...

 I've had to cut back so much due to the lovely prospect of losing the house but these 2 had to come first... both very well priced and excellent sculpting...

First of all is a tribute to the old Tom Meier Ral Partha classic Jabberwocky... based on the Tenniel sketch which is one of legend...

This is released by Jamie Loft at Old School Miniatures...

 https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/the-jabberwocky-1118-p.asp

All you need to know about the creature is here;

https://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/resources/analysis/poem-origins/jabberwocky/

Ral Partha still have the old sculpt available, perfectly cast up by Jacob Fathbruckner;

https://ralparthalegacy.com/products/49-0051

The second purchase was a set of Ratnik villager sculpts... cheap as chips and totally awesome... image purloined off their site purely for their promotional purposes...

'Sculpted by the very talented Igor Karpov. This is the first set of 10 figures which are part of a range of 18th Century civilians Igor will be releasing. Cast in metal these 28mm figures are suitable for most 18th century games'.

Available here for pre-order;

https://www.gamingfigures.com/product/16664/Ratnik-Miniatures-18th-Century-Civilians

More soon, just need to get my act together usual. In the meantime here's a pic of my schmoo Arya...

See y'all soon.

Games Workshop featured on TV in 1984

Courtesy of the Original Oldhammer Artwork Channel on YouTube... some great memories in this and an awful lot of geek time spent recognising the miniatures in use... I believe the female dwarf (Dwarf Queen from the old Dwarf King's Court boxed set) used by Ben Elton is a John Blanche paint job... keep your eyes peeled! A younger Tim Olsen is seen at the old Dalling Road Games Workshop back when there was only one shop...

 enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

That da**ed collecting bug... Oldhammer eat your heart out...

Well, with a Kickstarter or two under my belt it was time to collate the eBay finds of the last few months... some a little older that a US friend had sent over but all good stuff to add to the lead mountain... lots of Minifigs Mythical Earth and Sword & Sorcery... oh the joy!

Some Citadel AD&D minis... unfortunately they'd had their slottas taken off but still nice to find. Two versions disappeared to a friend in America to complete his collection. I'll find them again one day!

Lovely miscellany of old Citadel DA, Grenadier AD&D and early Ral Partha elves.

A handful of Minifigs repairs... so many broken ones appear that I thought it was type to get the drill out.

Vulcan Miniatures... hopefully from 'The Court of Fools' as per the old ad below. Early Bob Naismith sculpts.

Ackland Miniatures bagged Citadel Spacefarers 54mm pieces... one more still to get in the baggie though. Tony said the giant robot sentinel in the Spacefarers 25mm range was originally destined for these...

This was an interesting 'bid on a whim' - turns out to be a Michael Perry early large scale sculpt, now believed to be related to RAF apprentices - groundcrew - RAF Halton (info C/O Chaz Elliott who painted one back in the day).

More Minifigs...

An Asgard Snark Dragon and the old McEwan bag header...

More Minifigs!

Three of the 4 Dragontooth Personalities I was missing...

Dragontooth Crocodile Giant... accompanied by a hand-sculpted weapon by a friend, Michael Booker... thank you!

More Minifigs along with a lone Garrison S&S demon...

Finally a Nick Bibby Citadel Chaos Demon...

That's it for now... as if it wasn't enough... who needs to pay the mortgage! Any comments or similar lots to get rid of please give me a shout on;

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

The rise of the Khamaí!

 

A Kickstarter to raise funds for the expansion of those little chameleon-like devils... sculpted by John Robertson for The Little Soldier Company, there are two new sets forthcoming, a command and a beast handler pack...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1896378744/the-rise-of-the-khamai

Edit - now available here.

The Command Pack...

The Beast Handler and his two hounds...

Please back it if you can or give it a bit of a push if you can't. Every little helps and it'll also hopefully help more miniatures to be commissioned at some point for various ranges...

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk