Bad Squiddo Resistance Kickstarter

My buddy Annie from Bad Squiddo Games is running a Kickstarter until Wednesday 10 September. It's primarily to produce a range of women from the WWII Resistance in a variety of countries. There's something like sixteen figures overall, all cast as single piece metal miniatures.

It feels like a good time to be celebrating women who risked (and in some cases lost) their lives to oppose fascism. Each of the figures represents a specific historical figure, but they could also be used as resistance fighters in historical wargames, or armed women in pulp or horror games in the relevant period.

Annie's got a couple of partnerships going on this Kickstarter, the first being texture rollers that leave the right type of tracks for Sherman and Panzer tank tracks.

Annie is also launching a Jon Hodgson World War Ruins backdrop with the Kickstarter, so this will be the first opportunity to pick these up. Given all the excitement around more modern conflicts and alternative history, like Trench Crusade, there's going to be plenty of options to utilise these.

Historical games aren't my usual thing, but I know quite a few of my readers enjoy such things. If this is something you like, or like to see, please consider backing it and picking something up. Small firms run Kickstarters to make sure that projects like these can happen. It has already funded, but I like it when my friend isn't worrying about making rent or guinea pig vet bills, so do consider backing, or telling your friends about it if funds are tight or its not your thing.

Peach Con - Painting Competition

 

I did not get many photos of the Peach Con painting competition, because a lot of people were looking at the pretty miniatures, and I didn't want to elbow my way to the front to take photos with my phone camera.

There was plenty of good stuff, though, like this medieval marginalia warband.

Unsurprisingly, given the fan crossover between Peachy Tips and Rogue Hobbies, there was a Rascaltown Gnome.

There was a whole bunch of cool big monsters and vehicles.

I often find, looking at painting competitions, I start thinking "I should do some painting myself". Do other people get that?

And thus we come to the end of my Peach Con coverage. Sorry for the delay on this last post, life got a little busy for a few days. Still at least I can leave y'all with a smattering of other people's painted models and get back to trying to bring a degree of order to the chaos.

An awful lot of cases

 

Part of the process of moving house is that you have to put everything into boxes then take it out again. This has a side effect of you starting to take stock of just quite how much stuff your life has accumulated.

This is my pile of KR cases of painted or assembled models. With the exception of a couple of Infinity cases, they're now all in the loft so they're out of the way while other sorting and unpacking happens. Longer term - this is more stuff than I have time to really play with, so they will be gone through for eBay at some point in the future.

The conservatory, our current repository of hobby boxes, is slowly getting to the point of being functional. We're now to the point of having a table space available, and the first planned activity is getting some things listed on eBay.

The current plan is to spend the bank holiday weekend taking photos and making listings, scheduling things to go live on the last weekend of August. 

That said, I am slowly finding all the bits I'll need to play Infinity, as there's some local folk keen to start learning. It's a little way off yet, as "delightful house" is higher on the priority list, but soon. Soon.

Peach Con - Mermaids (Siren's Oath) and Paint Brushes by Tesseract Miniature Studios

 

Continuing my "Peach Con" coverage, there were a couple of other small companies promoting cool new stuff that caught my attention. First up is Twisted Spire, a sister company to Warp Miniatures. They're producing a series of mermaid miniatures and a one shot TTRPG to go with it.

They were showing off some of the painted miniatures (one not shown here as it was in the painting competition), and had a preview miniature available for sale. I was reminded not to buy the preview miniature while we haven't finished unpacking at the house, but I was very tempted and needed some moderate arm twisting!

This is an upcoming crowd-funder. It's going to be on Gamefound rather than Kickstarter. You can give the campaign a follow so it reminds you when it starts. I'm super excited for it.

Also with a stall at Peach Con was Tesseract Miniature Studios. Stu has started a range of brushes that he's developed with a partner company, and it seems like they've been flying off the shelves. The stand had some little 3D printed frogs, wet palette, paints and brushes so you could try them out for yourself. I sadly didn't manage to drop by any time the space was free, but that's probably a good sign.

Stu was kind enough to gift my me and my wife a "Workhorse" brush to try out once our hobby stations are back up and running. He had a whole bunch of his recent pieces on display, as he's been getting more into display and competition painting lately.

He's also got some plinths for sale, and I believe his first miniature bust is due to be released soon.

I've assembled this Infinity TAG, and it's in my paint queue, but I don't think I'm going to be able to quite hit these heights. It's always lovely to see some miniatures you've seen pictures of online in person.

Peach Con was definitely a bit of hobby balm for the soul. Seeing this cool new stuff from Bad Squiddo, Twisted Spire and Tesseract has got me really fired up to finish clearing the space to start sorting my hobby area out. We're still a little way off yet, but there's a lot of enthusiasm for when it arrives...

Peach Con - Bad Squiddo and Trench Crusade News

 

One of the traders at Peach Con was the legendary Bad Squiddo. They had a few boxes of miniatures (including the ever terrifying Turkey Man) and backdrop books to sell, along with a couple of exciting previews!

First up was the Women of WWII Resistance Kickstarter that's coming later this August. They had a bunch of the sculpts to show off. While I failed to get closer pictures, they're really good quality. Given the fashions of the time, these are also excellent miniatures for period RPGs, horror and pulp games.

At time of writing, the Kickstarter hasn't started yet, but the preview page is up. If you like Bad Squiddo, women in wargaming or anti-fascist stuff, it's super helpful to "Save" the project whether or not you back it, because it helps the project get recommended to others. You should totally back if if you can, though, it looks super cool.

The other, more mysterious preview, was this! The Jon Hodgson backdrop books have been a huge "step up" for my miniatures photography. I'm very excited to see this subtle hint that we might possibly be getting a dedicated Trench Crusade backdrop book in the future.

My attempts to bribe Annie for more information about this were unsuccessful. You'll have to keep an eye on social media for more news, though I will do my best, if I spot it, to make a blog post about it when more news surfaces.

There was a little display of how you can take cool photos of your miniatures using backdrop books. Sadly, I'd not brought any of my own so I was forced to try it out on the fearful Turkey Man. Annie was probably in a little bit too cramped of a corner of the hall given how popular Bad Squiddo is, but it's only the second Peach Con, so the odd bit of teething issues are to be expected.

These weren't the only new and exciting things at Peach Con, so I do have another post coming later this week about those. In the meantime, maybe go and have a nose around the Bad Squiddo site, or save the upcoming Kickstarter?

Peach Con - General Event Thoughts

On Sunday, my wife and I went to Peach Con in Derby. This is a small convention in a school cafeteria organised by Peachy Tips. The event is in its second year - last year seems to have been more of a Patreon meet up, while this year has graduated to a good sized small convention.

This was the main hall, with a good mix of demo tables and vendors. There was a painting competition in a side room. I also heard later about a quiz being held in another side room, and the corridor to the main room had a table with free teas and coffees.

There were a good number of games to try out - from the Games Workshop games you'd pretty much expect, to Baron's War and Team Yankee.

While I saw Team Yankee's launch, it never took off locally to me while I was in London, so I've never seen a game of it played. It was interesting to see a full urban table and an awful lot of miniatures for it engaged in a big battle.

Trench Crusade also had a table there. Sadly, I didn't manage to find the time for a demo outside of times it was already incredibly busy.

Warlord was also there with a pretty big historical table, though I think it was a display rather than an active demo.

Similarly, there was a table for Relicblade that I think Exit 23 had bought.

Battletech also had some representation - I think Alpha Strike by the cards.

Of the Games Workshop demos available, I decided to take a photo of this amazing Bretonnian force.

The Tabletop Smithy had this Ork Furby, that was deeply disturbing...

This post has already gotten long enough. I'll be posting more on Peach Con, hopefully later this week. I saw a few cool previews or releases I'd like to talk about, and they deserve a dedicated post or two...

Nottingham Update

 

Nottingham is still going pretty well. It turns out its the sort of place where people stick wargaming stickers to the local bus stop.

I'm still deep in the unpacking mines as my main "hobby" and I'm playing the card game "Flesh and Blood" as my fun thing to do. I definitely recommend The Dice Cup for folk passing through Nottingham.

I will be getting back to the wargaming stuff as soon as I get a bit more free time, but there's not been much going on that's really bloggable.

A random display at Warhammer World

 

Between the heat, work being busy, and deep unpacking, I've not got much done of late. So here's some photos of a cool army in the Warhammer World display cabinets.

It seems to be an undead / underwater kitbash theme, and I'm not sure what they're meant to be. I couldn't see a thing saying who made it. Please do let me know if you know!

The hermit crab with cannon was what got my attention originally. Maybe the army is "Cities of Sigmar" given there's a handgunner in a crows nest?

The person I was with an I spent ages trying to spot all the parts - I reckon there's an idoneth boat, gobin giant spider, Tyranid claws and an ogre cannon. Am I missing anything?

A more general update on the author

I am pleased to report that I am safely arrived in Nottingham, although much of my stuff is yet to join me. There's likely to be no small amount of sorting and unpacking once it arrives, but I will from time to time have a little opportunity to do some things that are fun, still.

I managed to pop to The Dice Cup for a few games of Flesh and Blood last week. It seems like a nice venue, mostly based around board games, card games and RPGs. They also looked to have a few tables for skirmish gaming which I'll definitely look into.

I also dropped into Bugman's Bar on Sunday and caught up with Annie from Bad Squiddo Games. There wasn't a particular occasion beyond "I've moved to Nottingham". We had a good old natter and a short wander around the GW shop after. I didn't pick anything up, but did spot a few bits and pieces that I might write a short ramble on in the future.

I'm aiming to get back to at least weekly blogging from this point on, although it will probably be a little while yet before miniatures are being assembled, painted and played. But I hope it will be pretty soon.