Monday 9 September 2019

"Colours" Loot 2019

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIP - The resin Giant Robot has been pinned and assembled
This past Saturday I was once again able to make the trip to Newbury Racecourse and attend the annual Newbury & Reading Wargames Society's show “Colours”. Last year's 'happening' was arguably the best I've attended since it was disappointingly reduced in length to just a single day, and despite not finding any bargains in the event's 'Bring & Buy' sale this time round, I felt the attending traders still put on a worthy gathering. It was certainly nice to once again briefly meet up with fellow blogger Tamsin Piper of the website “Wargaming Girl” fame.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" have always held a special place in my hobby heart ever since I encountered their wares on the eve of them first distributing their "7TV" rule-set, and I have been patiently collecting their substantial range of miniatures ever since. Recently, amongst an Occult Statue, Mushrooms, Dead Forest and trio of Protoplasmic Terrors, they announced the imminent release of a 90mm tall Giant Robot and fortunately I was able to find a pair of these resin models available at their stall.
"Magister Militum" WIPs - A pair of feathered Velociraptors and an egg nest
Sculpted by Andrew May, each kit actually comes with two hands, a fearsome pincer and a death ray, so I've decided to build one as a right-handed maniacal clawed monstrosity, and the other as a laser-gun firing fiend. As the robots are cast in resin, I found them really easy to assemble using a little grey-stuff, some super-glue and pins, and even went so far as to pin my test automaton to its "Citadel" 60mm circular base.

My other purchases were actually motivated by a pang of nostalgia, and a sudden desire to return to one of my favourite vendors and scales. Approximately eleven years ago, back when this blog was hosted on "CoffeeCup", I began work on a 'War That Time Forgot' project using both the 10mm Prehistoric monsters and World War One figures of "Magister Militum". I actually managed to finish a fair few dinosaurs, British, German and French soldiers, and even played a few games using them, but soon found myself put off by some of the Salisbury-based company's military sculpts.
"Pendraken Miniatures" WIPs - Two British Airborne armed with rifles, and one with a Sten gun
Having more recently spent some considerable time painting both 6mm and 10mm models I figured a re-boot of a 'War That Time Forgot' might be in order, especially as I believe I still know where my antediluvian backlog may well be buried gathering dust. As memory serves I actually already own a fair few of the range's larger flesh-eaters, so with this in mind I bought several blisters of the smaller dinosaurs, such as Protoceratops, Gallimimus, and Velociraptors, as well as three egg nests to use as objective markers.

In addition, I thought I'd inject some extra enthusiasm in the project by turning to "Pendraken Miniatures" for my soldiers, and relocating my 'war' to 1939-1945 instead. As a result, I decided to pick up a British Airborne Army Pack, plus some Bren Carriers and Churchill Tanks, and establish whether from these I could possibly build some semblance of a force with which to triumph over a horde of angry dinosaurs using some homemade rules...

20 comments:

  1. Well jealous of the robot. A couple of those are high up my want list from CD.

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    1. Thanks Simon. I was actually considering buying some other "CD" stuff, but as soon as I saw the giant robots on their display shelf I knew I had to pick a couple up.

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  2. That sounds a great idea, love dinosaur mash ups. Pendraken have a Martian range as well with tripods and loads of monster types.

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    1. Cheers Martin. I saw the "Pendraken" Martians and was sorely tempted with them too. Going to see where this madness takes me tbh...

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  3. Nice loots Simon! Good to chat with you on Saturday :)

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  4. Just about anything produced by CDG are worth looking at and I shall certainly be adding the giant robot models to my Shopping List.

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    1. I need to do a "CD" themed month at some point, Bryan, and start whittling away at my backlog.

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  5. Interesting selection of loot Simon, quite a diverse selection as well

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    1. Cheers Dave. That's what I like about visiting shows. I never know when an idea for a project will suddenly emerge and clear out my wallet!! LOL!!

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  6. That robot is really nice, and gives off a Larry Buster Crabbe style serial vibe to me. Looks massive too! A new dinosaur project? Hmmm, how many projects do you have on the go at the moment? You really are like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to minis!!!

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    1. I have a few projects currently on the go, Undercoat, but to be fair 'The War That Time Forgot' won't start in earnest for a couple of months, perhaps in "Dinovember" ;-)

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  7. Hi Simon, I know I haven't commented for a while but I do keep up on all the blogs on my phone (just cant figure out how to comment), but thought I'd have to fire up the old PC to say how excellent that robot is!! That is one very cool piece of resin. Love the 10mm Dino's verses WW2 troops too.

    Keep up the good work, I am watching...…

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger, great to see you commenting again :-) Hopefully the Giant Robot won't be too long in the painting queue, nor the 10mm dinos etc. But I've some "Star Trek" and "Warcry" to get finished first and the month already seems to be running away from me!!

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  8. I can almost be assured that you;ll have the most eclectic loot haul from any convention you attend!
    Love the robot (is it from a childfen;s book) but at 90mm !!!
    I gey warm vibes when someone gets back to an old project, good luck progressing it,

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    1. LOL Joe :-) I think the "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" just went with a generic giant robot rather than anything in particular. I'm hoping to get the dinosaur stuff going in November tbh.

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  9. Well that’s an unusual mix. Good to,see old projects rebooted I say

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    1. Thanks Dave. I usually never really know what I'll leave a show with tbh, and obviously I never thought I'd be walking away with some historicals... even if I do plan to mix them with dinosaurs :-)

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