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Heroic Knight
 
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| Hmmm, I read about this yesterday, and its a real shame.
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Heroic Knight
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Aside from some very painfully overpriced "character figures" in metal, and the fact that their paint sets no longer offer any real discount over individual purchases, I've been impressed by the revamped Games Workshop approach and some of the lovely miniatures they've been coming out with.
Especially the plastics. The quality of them is now really top notch, and the price acceptable for what you are getting, in my opinion. Admittedly, you need to weight them or base them on metal to stop them blowing away when a door opens, but that's not a major disaster.
The scenery they sell is nice quality, and it comes in sensible packaged quantities. The moulded stuff (ruined towe, graveyard, etc) is outstanding for the price.
I remember speaking to their marketing team back when the LoTR slump hit the share prices, and they were all rather stressed. They claimed that they expected a slump, but not so bad as it was... Whoops.
What I would love to see from them now would be a bit more variety again, and not all just mail order. I would love to go into a shop and pick up a new box of epic stuff with rules and miniatures and new 3d scenery all included for £60 or whatever, but that's not how things are packaged outside of the twin Warhammer tediums.
Loved the new 40k aircraft mentioned above, and yes they outstrip the Roborubbish, but they look like a total modellers indulgence rather than a wargame unit. I guess my question is, as GW push into the model aeroplane market - is this the end for Airfix?
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Champion
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Alastair (9/22/2006)
I guess my question is, as GW push into the model aeroplane market - is this the end for Airfix? A bit late as airfix went in to administration at the beggining of this month which I assume the link above is saying. so go buy there models now they are bound to be collectable in the future 
Tom J
PD: Comte Delano
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Heroic Knight
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Ah... that will teach me to skim read a thread.
Still, goodbye Airfix... Just didn't move with the times... Too little too late.
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Champion
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it helps that I happened to be reading about it elsewhere earlier in the day
Tom J
PD: Comte Delano
Forum at http://millen.freeforums.org/index.php (old forum www.mill-en.org)
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SG: Dr Kibble,
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Overlord
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Alastair (9/22/2006)
Aside from some very painfully overpriced "character figures" in metal, and the fact that their paint sets no longer offer any real discount over individual purchases, I've been impressed by the revamped Games Workshop approach and some of the lovely miniatures they've been coming out with.Actually the paint sets are very overpriced and have been for some time. Try dropping into an art shop for standard acrylic colours.
Alastair (9/22/2006)
Especially the plastics. The quality of them is now really top notch, and the price acceptable for what you are getting, in my opinion. Admittedly, you need to weight them or base them on metal to stop them blowing away when a door opens, but that's not a major disaster.Have to say I agree with the plastics being good quality now. However more than a £1 per plastic miniature is a huge markup.
Alastair (9/22/2006)
The scenery they sell is nice quality, and it comes in sensible packaged quantities. The moulded stuff (ruined towe, graveyard, etc) is outstanding for the price.You think so? I guess you don't browse around much. http://urbanmammoth.co.uk/um/html/home.htm http://www.amera.co.uk/future.php These are fabulous scenery components. The urban war ones are repackaged identicals to the old robogear (airfix) stuff. The hex set is particularly good as its strong click together plastic, meaning you can make something, that looks really good, then break it up and make somethig else. Both are vastly cheaper than the games workshop kits.
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I do talk a good fight
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Hmm, the Urban Mammoth skirmish game, Urban War, looks pretty good too -- a much cheaper, but equally good, alternative to 40K... tempting!
http://www.hyboriantales.com
PD: Ghostdance ("The most irritating curse I've ever encountered" -- NPC played by H.)
Riftworld: Rossar Kuug ("Clearly mad, because he thinks he's a Com-Trow Skirmisher" - Aela)
Hyborian Tales: Crew, cook, dogsbody, general labourer, toilet cleaner ("Dangerously overoptimistic ref" -- Tom Nowell)
Otherwise usually crew ("Quite spry & fit, & willing to wear a big costume & run around a lot" -- various event organisers)
"My other oversized foam weapon is THE LORD" -- Questionable Content
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Heroic Knight
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Agree on the paints in principle Allen, though I have terrible trouble judging consistency and so tend to use pre-mixed miniature paints for models, as I otherwise end up with something more like runny ink or a big blob which wipes out all the detail. My own incapability, I'm afraid. However, I use cheapish tube acrylic for scenery and vehicle painting. I recently scratch built an interlocking cavern network out of balsa and clay and that was all tube acrylic painted. I considered spraypaint, but actually prefer the seal and texture of thicker paints for that kind of thing...
I've seen the Urban War locking sets in games stores, and the Future moulded plastic things online, and have been very tempted. Presumably you could fill the plastics with plaster or something to weight them, but I've been meaning to ask someone who used them how they chose to base or weight them effectively? Likewise I was put off the Urban War stuff by the rickety demonstration model which looked like it would send your carefully painted miniatures plummeting off uneven surfaces or disconnected hexagons the moment someone knocked the table? What's your experience? If they are fairly decent and can actually be built competently to generate a level surface, I might be tempted to get a couple and try reinforcing them in a static position with dowl rod, wire and glue...
I've given up trying to find a convincing skirmish game where people using guns can actually kill their oponents. Too many games have people with fuly automatic weapons a meter away from someone completely unable to hit them, and even if they do, finding they have just knocked them over or whatever... *sigh* Am working on a set of skirmish miniature rules at the moment, which seem to correct those issues, but regretably they require placing a stack of counters (sometimes as many as ten) next to a model that is being shot at... Any advice on genuinely realistic skirmish rules which are still fast, simple and playable would be appreciated!
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