Saddest Wargaming purchase?

[Sane Max]

I just bought 50 of these bad boys…

Single wall box Product code: CSW430X400X80
Board grade: B flute
Unit weight: 0.2920 kg
Internal dimensions:
(17×15.75×3.25 inches)
430x400x80 mm

My wargames storage system is officially full… I am going to have to take everything out and put them into these…. and I am really looking forward to it. That is a sad thing to be keenly looking forward to, I know, but my god when I saw reception putting laptops into these beauties i just wanted them so badly.

So, what is your saddest wargaming purchase? (obviously, it’s actually going to be entirely sensible, but you know if you tried to explain it to a unwargamer, they would look at you oddly.)

[Not Connard Sage]

The purchase isn’t so sad, the fact that you’re looking forward to filling is sad. Very sad.

Signed

A Wargamer.

 

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Sane Max]

the fact that you’re looking forward to filling is sad. Very sad.

egad, what’s wrong with you man? Armies currently in 2 boxes will be able to fit in one! no more trying to get all the infantry in one box, leaving all the cavalry only partly filling another box! The things I will find in by Bits Boxes I had forgotten I had! It’s going to be heaven!

I would say you are no true wargamer, but there are probably rules against going in that hard. I will assume you had not thought your reply through properly before posting it, is all.

 

[Not Connard Sage]

What can I say?

I bought some Irregular 2mm strips last week. The fact that I can paint and base two armies in under a week makes me inordinately happy 🙂

 

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here’s sad for you: got a link where I can buy me some of those?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[OB]

I’m a Weston A4 5 Stack man myself.  Each one can accommodate the contents of 10 box files!  I’ve never been happier in terms of storage.  And, yes the joy of rummaging the bits box is not to be sniffed at.  I just discovered an unopened Xyston mounted command pack of Late Persians.  Life is sweet.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[Guy Farrish]

Saddest wargames purchase?

Probably about two dozen hair rollers.

They were to make cheap 6mm horse and musket era armies, but by the time you’d cut them, trimmed the ends, glued them flat several time (they’re ‘curlers’ after all), primed them, painted them, varnished them to get the paint to stay on the soft plastic, figured out a way of making cavalry and artillery, bandaged up your sliced finger ends, you had: a box of painted, dismembered, hair curlers.

I’ve got irregular and Baccus 6mm Napoleonics now.

[Sane Max]

Thaddeus Blanchette wrote:

Here’s sad for you: got a link where I can buy me some of those?

sure!

https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/boxes/standard-cardboard-boxes/?rec=7074

They have other sizes as well… the ones I have will probably be too shallow for 28mm in this instance, unless none of your figures are waving spears in the air 🙂

They are nice and chunky, thick sided – I reckon even with lead they will stack several deep without damage.

[Sane Max]

OB wrote:

I just discovered an unopened Xyston mounted command pack of Late Persians. Life is sweet.

ohh do I detect a potential Eupator there?

avoid heroic. Dogged, weaselly, never gives up, but not heroic.

[Not Connard Sage]

Guy Farrish wrote:

Saddest wargames purchase? Probably about two dozen hair rollers. They were to make cheap 6mm horse and musket era armies, but by the time you’d cut them, trimmed the ends, glued them flat several time (they’re ‘curlers’ after all), primed them, painted them, varnished them to get the paint to stay on the soft plastic, figured out a way of making cavalry and artillery, bandaged up your sliced finger ends, you had: a box of painted, dismembered, hair curlers. I’ve got irregular and Baccus 6mm Napoleonics now.

 

Inspired by the article in Battle? Or was it MilMod?

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Guy Farrish]

Talking to Andy Callan at COW in Wargames Developments c1984 – but he did write it up in one of the magazines.

(His looked pretty good – or so I thought at the time – I’m probably just cack handed)

[Sane Max]

I always thought the Rice armies looked excellent. These ideas all had one basic flaw for me – they required you to be able to paint.

Did that chap selling 6MM 2.5D armies make a go of it? they looked great, cut out of MDF I believe

[Just Jack]

I believe I certainly qualify as sad, when I first got into wargaming I jumped into WWII in 15mm.  Not knowing anything about anything, I spray-primed the troops’ uniform color, then I:

-purchased toothpicks, which I used to paint the details of the troops.

-went to a hardware store and purchased bathroom floor tiles to use for multi-based stands.

-went to a toy store and bought a  “Scrabble” board game in order to use the letter tiles to individually base some troops for skirmish games.

V/R,

Jack

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I need a decent storage solution for 3mm.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[OB]

I reckon Just Jack may be the winner on this one.  What a great story.

Yeah, later Eupator now sorted at nil cost.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[Just Jack]

Thanks OB.  Wasn’t really looking to be the ‘winner,’ but I’m sure I deserved it 😉

It gets worse, too.  For some reason I thought it was cool to just leave the multi-bases spray-painted khaki, and the skirmish bases spray-painted a dark green.  It was about another year and a half before I discovered flock, three years until I discovered ‘washes,’ four or four and a half years before I discovered static grass.  About three and a half years into it is when I decided I should start painting my terrain, instead of just leaving it spray-painted khaki.  Oh, and I used cut up rugs as hills…

Some of that stuff is actually in the early batreps on my blackhawkhet blog.  I truly believe that starting a blog and posting for all the world to see was the driving force behind me stepping up my game, so to speak (and such that it is), to say nothing of the advice I received there and on various forums.

V/R,
Jack

 

[MartinR]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

The purchase isn’t so sad, the fact that you’re looking forward to filling is sad. Very sad. Signed A Wargamer.

Putting toys in boxes is the best part of wargaming. All lined up, neat and tidy…. Bringing order to a world gone mad.

Not a purchase, but the one which drives my wife mad is my tray of basing sand. An old baking tray full of builders sand which periodically goes in the oven to dry out and kill anything off.

 

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Not Connard Sage]

MartinR wrote:

Not a purchase, but the one which drives my wife mad is my tray of basing sand. An old baking tray full of builders sand which periodically goes in the oven to dry out and kill anything off.

Kiln dried sand is better for basing.   😉

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Whirlwind]

Sane Max wrote:

Did that chap selling 6MM 2.5D armies make a go of it? they looked great, cut out of MDF I believe

Yes, Commission Figurines.  My Napoleonic Prussians are largely made up from them.  I think he will be at Joy of Six show next month.

[willz]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Guy Farrish wrote:

Saddest wargames purchase? Probably about two dozen hair rollers. They were to make cheap 6mm horse and musket era armies, but by the time you’d cut them, trimmed the ends, glued them flat several time (they’re ‘curlers’ after all), primed them, painted them, varnished them to get the paint to stay on the soft plastic, figured out a way of making cavalry and artillery, bandaged up your sliced finger ends, you had: a box of painted, dismembered, hair curlers. I’ve got irregular and Baccus 6mm Napoleonics now.

Inspired by the article in Battle? Or was it MilMod?

I remember seeing how to make a hair roller army in “Miniature Wargames” or was it “Wargame Illustrated” at the start of the 80’s.

Willz.

[Northern Monkey]

Sane Max wrote:

So, what is your saddest wargaming purchase? (obviously, it’s actually going to be entirely sensible, but you know if you tried to explain it to a unwargamer, they would look at you oddly.)

A dead Starfish!

My attempt at a Blog: http://ablogofwar.blogspot.co.uk/

[Whirlwind]

willz wrote:

I remember seeing how to make a hair roller army in “Miniature Wargames” or was it “Wargame Illustrated” at the start of the 80’s.

Miniature Wargames issue 9.

[jeffers]

Is it sad that I spent time in Boots as a teenager looking for those specific hair rollers with no success?

More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/

[Guy Farrish]

Yes.

They didn’t sell them, you had to go to the equivalent of pound shops to find them. I felt a right twit buying bags and bags of the damned things in the small ‘beauty products’ sections of down market chemists.

At least they didn’t feel the need to ask if I required ‘anything for the weekend sir?’ My hair roller fetish made that question redundant.

[jeffers]

That explains everything. I have to lower my standards and look in poor people shops.

I also tried in Millman’s Chemist in Egham, which my family had used since before I was born. Mr Millman looked at me as if to say ‘is there something you need to tell your parents?’

According to Callan (Andy, not Edward Woodwoodwoodwood) the original idea was from a letter by J Tapp in the June 1980 Mil Mod. Yes, I still have the article….

More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/

[Guy Farrish]

After several minutes describing the type of roller I was looking for, it was explained to me in Boots that they weren’t ‘the sort of thing’ they sold there – the assistant assured me the much more ‘refined’ types they stocked would suit my needs better.

Given the shortness of my hair at the time, I wondered what she thought my needs were – the rolers they stocked certainly wouldn’t have made good toy soldier substitutes. (And H&R would have been cheaper).

[Hafen von Schlockenberg]

I’d have to say my saddest wargaming purchase was my first one — at least the first dedicated metal wargame figures I ever bought: a pack of dwarves, whose heads, including caps and beards, made up about half the figure. Pretty grotesque, “Disneyfied” things. The wargamer I got them from must have thought so too.

This was way back in 74 or 75, so they could only have been Minifigs (or Hinchliffe, maybe?). They were advancing with axes held over their heads, and IIRC, big goofy grins on their faces. Anyone here “of an age” for whom that rings a bell?

I did paint and use them, though.

[General Slade]

Is this the chap?

Minifigs Dwarf DWF8 from the Dungeons & Dragons range

Taken from Lost Minis Wiki

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

At least the war axe is historically proportioned. Or pick. Hard to say what it is, but it is the right size!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Hafen von Schlockenberg]

Nope, I  should have said one-handed (the right one). Thanks for the effort, though.

That fellow is quite handsome by comparison!

Come to think of it, might have been some sort of misshapen hammer. I’ll try to track them down when I get a chance. They’re “in a box somewhere”.

[General Slade]

I’m actually rather glad I got the wrong guy because I love the Dwarves in the Minifigs D&D range.

Was it maybe this guy from their Aureola Rococo range?

Lost Minis Wiki Aureola Rococo Dwarfs

Or this fellow from the Minifigs ‘More Fantasy’ range:

Lost Minis Wiki Minifigs More Fantasy

Or maybe the guy on the right from their Mythical Earth range?

Lost Minis Wiki Mythical Earth

And if it was Hinchcliffe rather than Minifigs it could be this guy?

Lost Minis Wiki Hinchcliffe Fantasy

 

 

 

[Hafen von Schlockenberg]

Good lord, what is that thing on the top — a Deep Ones dwarf?!

Not any of those either, sorry. Now you have me worried.

I liked the D&D dwarves a lot, too, BTW;  bought some when they came out. And the orcs — both “Samurai” and pig-snout. But these guys predate that line.

 

 

[General Slade]

Hafen von Schlockenberg wrote:

Good lord, what is that thing on the top — a Deep Ones dwarf?! Not any of those either, sorry. Now you have me worried.

The Aureola Rococo range did feature some pretty hideous figures.  I think they were trying to do something different with the dwarves because they came out looking like an unnatural liaison between a hobbit and a goblin.

 

[Hafen von Schlockenberg]

Aha — I think I’ve located it. EO-15, here:

http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Earth_of_Olde

Sorry I can’t post a pic, but Michael’s new filters block my pic hosting site.

And the pic there is pretty fuzzy, though you can see what I mean about the head. EO-14, next to it, is clearer.

Anyway,  the time is about right. I guessed wrong on the maker, though — very early Heritage (US).

[Mike]

Hafen von Schlockenberg wrote:

Sorry I can’t post a pic, but Michael’s new filters block my pic hosting site.

TWW does not allow images from unsecure sites to be shown, but you can upload it direct?

 

[General Slade]

I see what you mean. Even by the standards of the day that is not a pretty dwarf:

Mind you, I still think it is a hell of a lot better than the Hinchcliffe one I posted earlier.

[Hafen von Schlockenberg]

Hmm. . .well, a matter of taste,  I suppose. That Hinchliffe fig is a bit Assyrian-looking in the  face and beard department.

Sorry,  Michael — your uploading tutorial goes so fast, it bypasses me completely. What can I say — I’m old and slow.

I’ll give it some more views.

[Mr. Average]

Thaddeus Blanchette wrote:

I need a decent storage solution for 3mm.

Magnetic bases and surplus 40mm ammunition cases.

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Wouldn’t you have to construct so e internal shelving for that?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

I once bought a bag of onions so I could use the plastic mesh bag as a net for a gladiator figure. Epic fail. I couldn’t get the net to hold paint and bright red plastic just didn’t help suspend disbelief.

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[Author]

Posts