About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Prize Draw Winners; Review: Conquest Games Norman Skirmishers

Just after midnight I took the names of all those who had entered the prize draw, bunged them in a spreadsheet and was flabbergasted to see that there were exactly 36 names. Good heavens - that would make doing the draw dead easy. Just roll 2D6 of different colours and Robert's the brother of one of your parents.

However, all good plans must surely falter on first contact with the enemy. In this case the enemy was a prolonged bout of sneezing, after which I'd forgotten which colour dice was for which column on the spreadsheet. 

That left me in a quandary - was the winner A or B? Do I reroll the dice? I did reroll the dice and amazingly got exactly the same result - a 6 and a 2. Clearly fate was telling me something. I soon figured it out - the prize draw was to celebrate my blog's birthday and having reached 300 followers. The solution was obvious - there would be two prizes and 2 winners.

Checking the spreadsheet revealed the lucky pair to be:
and

Please contact me to discuss what you want me to paint for you.


Review: Conquest Games Norman Skirmishers

You may recall from my post on Sunday that I'd placed an order that evening for some sprues and figures from Conquest Games. Well, they arrived this morning. 

The two packs I'm reviewing here are the archers and the crossbowmen. These are 28mm metal figures - I don't know if Conquest are planning to release plastic Norman skirmishers. I don't think they will as the demand for them is probably too small for it to be worthwhile. However, I think it would be useful if they could do a skirmish weapons sprue with bows, crossbows, quivers and appropriate arms.

Pack Details:

Archers - 6 different figures, £10.50
Crossbowmen - 8 different figures, £14.00 

The figures come in blister packs.


Casting Quality:

Figures are 28mm foot to eye, 31-32mm foot to top of (bare) head. The casts are crisp and clean with no mould lines. The only flash I found was a tiny amount on the crossbowmen.

Four of the crossbowmen come with the crossbows as part of the sculpt; the other 4 are in firing stance and have open hands to accept the separate crossbows.

Detail and posing looks good, although I am concerned that the hair texture may be too "soft" and will be obscured once primed and painted.


Pictures:

After giving the figures a quick wash in warm soapy water and drying them, they were glued onto 25mm metal washers. Once the glue had set, they were given a black wash to bring out detail before I took pictures.

Archers:






Crossbowmen:






Overall View:

These are nice figures, well sculpted and excellently cast. At about £1.75 a figure, they're not as cheap as plastics but for Saga you only need a few of them. Delivery was very quick, which is always good, and my order was well packed.

My views above are based on the unpainted figures - once I've painted them up, I'll give a final verdict.













9 comments:

  1. Congrats on the two winners, you are rather generous. I had some hideous stuff I was tempted to send if I had won ;-)

    Ian

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  2. There is a real sense that you love all aspects of your hobby, in all your posts. They enthuse me to get painting or planning my next project, so thanks for that! And you are so active - there always seems to be something going on at your workbench!

    I am determined now to get a SAGA warband ... next month ... (I've spent January's budget already ;-))

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  3. I suppose congrats to the winners.

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  4. Bless you! Congrats to the winners, although I was hoping for a second squad of paras... Thanks for the review of the Conquest skirmishers. Something about thei poses and proportions doesn't grab me, especially in comparison to equivalents from Crusader, but you will make them look great.

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  5. Congrats on the two winners!

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  6. @ scottjames - thank you. I do enjoy all aspects of the hobby (even if they are frustrating or tedious at times) and I'm glad it comes over on my blog. Even more so if my witterings enthuse others to do more or try new things.

    @ Andrew - I need to finish the 30YW horse first, but as the 30 I'm working on are almost done and it will be a few days before I can start on the extra 6, I might be able to make a start on the Normans early next week. At the moment they've had basing gunk added and I've primed them.

    @ Dux - they are a bit less chunky than other figures, but then the other ranges are chunkier than real people, so maybe their proportions are right? Looking at them again, the posing is a bit bland.

    @ Fran - just 'cos you didn't win this time, you grumpy Oirishman! ;)

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  7. Congratulations fellas, I like the look of the Normans they seem nice mini's

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  8. Hi, I like your Blog. If you don't mind, I.ve linked it in my bloglist! Cheers.

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