Oldhammer – Spotting and identifying Recasts
While you're looking for old miniatures on eBay and trading groups the risk of a recast is rather minimal, at least while looking for regular rank & file units in the one-digit value area. Some miniatures tend to be rare and very sought-after, creating prices for a single 28mm miniature of 30 EUR, 50 EUR or in some cases even beyond that on the second hand market. This demand and willingness to pay such prices, creates the interest of mischievous parties to cash in on this situation.
As I am doing the occassional coverage on Oldhammer projects, mostly 40k second edition so far, with a bit of Realm of Chaos, my personal risk is minimal. I bought a lot of the miniatures that are now valued either NIB or second hand from trusted sources. But when I added the Legion of the Damned to my Space Marine lot, of course I thought about Veteran Sergeant Centurius. The model was only available for a brief moment in / around 1996, for the opening of the 100th store in the UK. I am not sure about re-release in the US or Europe for similar events. But the miniature is rare and a real one, ideally NIB, easily sells for 50 to 70 EUR the right time. So I waited and watched the market space and eBay from time to time. I was a bit surprised that the prices dropped below 50 GBP.
Realm of Chaos – Sorting the warbands
While sorting out, what to sell and what to keep, I took a long deep look at my Realm of Chaos miniatures from the Oldhammer to early Midhammer era.
To me, the core of these miniatures, especially the Champions of the different chaos gods, are like the crown jewels of my collection. But just keeping them for the sake of having them, would be a waste. Similar to a car, they are build to be driven, and as such are miniatures not to be kept in blisters, they should be painted and in some cases to be used in games. Why do these old miniatures fascinate me so much? I got into the topic of Oldhammer a few times in the past, once in 2016 when I had my 20th anniversary with the wargaming hobby, and another time a bit more focused on the 2nd Edition of Warhammer 40,000.
Weekend Update CW 19/2020 – Of Ships and Cooking
This week I picked up the Lord of the Rings / Middle Earth terrain reviews, with the Lake Town House. I even started on the kitbash, completing the core build, that will need a touch up with green stuff / grey stuff. And the Frostgrave articles continued as well, with the crewmen for Ghost Archipelago.
For the Oldhammer skirmish project, a small package from Worcester arrived, covering some old Ghouls and a Skeleton banner bearer. Yeah I'd change ghoul #5 and #6 for ghoul #11 and #12, but the banner was a great find. As for the core skeletons, I'm looking into either Crooked Dice or trying to recover some of the late 90s original plastic kits.
Claymore Castings – Bretonnia at arms
I had an eye on Claymore Castings for quite some time now. I was amazed by their first ranges, sculpted by Paul Hicks, that included Scots, Highlanders and Gallowglass, for the Wars of the Bruce's among other conflicts. At some point Claymore Castings reconciled their range, brought in new sculpts by Matthew Bickley for the French and English, mostly of the Hundred Years Wars, and parted with some of the moulds and codes, that went to Antediluvian Miniatures, and are available now there.
Some of the Scottish, Irish and Gallowglass codes would be a good fit for my pseudo War of the Roses / Game of Thrones project, but the newer Bickley sculpts would stand out a bit with the slender Perry sculpts. As Claymore Castings doesn't do shows outside of Scotland, our paths didn't cross again for a while and I merely was astonished by the new, dynamic sculpts and incredible paint jobs that David Imrie shared with us via facebook for example in Saxon Dog Painting.
But then I had an idea and followed up on that by ordering a small batch of infantry codes at Claymore Castings.
Even in the current situation, David posted the order quickly and the Royal Mail / German Mail did their job as well, having the small package arrive here within a few days after I ordered.
Oldhammer Empire Banners
I used to have quite the collection of Warhammer Fantasy Empire miniatures. A total of around 22.000 points and therefore I was quite invested in that topic. I enjoyed input like the great WHFRP sourcebooks like Sigmar's Heirs or lore books, like Uniforms & Heraldry of the Empire or Blood on the Reik.
Oldhammer Khorne Berzerker
We have the undivided squads set with Chaos Terminators and regular Chaos Space Marines. Let's take a look at some Chaos Space Marines with a dedicated mark of a chaos god. And of course that has to be the mark of the most powerful of them all - KHORNE!
There are multiple ways to do so, you could give the mark to regular CSM, choose a chapter devoted to the Blood God or go full in, with the renegades of the World Eaters. Back then, they were not yet Khorne Berzerkers, but "regular" very frenzy CSM of the XII legion.
These Worldeaters (sic) got a mono-pose plastic kit, and depending on which year we're looking at different metal miniatures.
Return of Warhammer – The Old World
Games Workshop announced in the midth of november that the Old World of Warhammer would return. And this has created an incredible amount of buzz. So far it has been updated with an insight to the new map of the old world.
And so far, we only know, that it is still a lot of time until it returns. At least two or rather three years from now. The setting has been set into relation with Age of Sigmar, as Horus Heresy is with Warhammer 40.000. Interestingly enough the map adds to that theory, as the different coat of arms seen, could point towards a civil war like crisis, like the Time of Three Emperors. A very fitting comparison to the civil war of 40k.
Kick-Off 2020
As promissed, instead of closing the year with a summary, I want to look ahead into 2020 with a proper Kick-Off.
I could begin with the usual new years resolution, setting unrealistic goals like not buying any new miniatures before the others are painted and such. But I want to focus on activities that are fun, that are pro-active. And as such, I want to have a good time in 2020. The goal is not necessarily to have a better time, but to keep on having a good time with(in) my hobby. As pictures speak more than words, more of this:
Warhammer World 2020 – Exhibition Centre Part 2
The third part of the coverage on this visit, after covering the Gaming Area, Bugmans Bar, as well as the first part of the exhibition hall, will go for the dark future of Warhammer 40.000. Similar to the first part, this is an addition and update to the coverage from 2018, so you'll find more pictures on these and former exhibits there.
And similar to the Fantasy exhibit, the 40.000 starts early - with some Rogue Trader era goodness and some things that came briefly after that! We have the RTB01 Imperial Space Marines, build and on sprue, along with some amazing scratch build vignettes, covering the final battle between Horus and the Emperor, there were Sanguinus was slain (there is a great poster of that fight from 1990), as well as an Imperial Navy hangar.
Warhammer World 2020 – Exhibition Centre Part 1
Part of the Warhammer World experience is the exhibition centre, with a large gallery of miniatures, vignettes and battle scenes, across multiple rooms and levels. Some parts of the exhibition are updated multiple times during the year, including guest displays. Reason enough to give it another go and browse the displays, for some close ups. To see additional pictures of these and former exhibits, take a look at my visit to the Exhibition Centre back in 2018.
As before, the exhibition starts with the very early days of the Citadel and Games Workshop works in the first corner of the miniature hall. Among those are some of the very first miniatures and books of the 80s, along with iconic vignettes from the early 90s.