Back from the past! It was 2012 and we were in Switzerland at the Paolo’s marriage. During a visit at a castle we found, inside a large number of showcases, an exhibition of flat tin soldiers which were owned by the former landlord. While I was viewing old photos I found them, so now I show them to you. But remember, it is only part of the exhibition. When you speak about the number of soldiers that you have got, you are never sure…

Instead, for the days of that holiday, go to:
Lac Léman & Lac de Neuchatel: summer holidays
Lac Léman & Lac de Neuchatel: castles
Lac Léman & Lac de Neuchatel: weapons

Watch how an army for Warhammer catch fire. At 8.30 start the flame.

A new kickstarter by Ganesha Games! Ops, I’m wrong, it is by Crossover Miniatures, an old mate of Ganesha Games. He produces 28mm superheroes miniatures and now he is realising another subject: aliens. They are small Greys and other are of insectoid kind. Moreover there are some human military squads that fight aliens.

Why are we speaking about Ganesha Games? Because together with the miniatures there are rules to play with them, that uses “Song of” engine applied to modern combat. So it is easy to learn if you know other games. Added to the engine you find specific features for the scenario and hidden alien movement with “ghost counters”. Campaign rules are supplied for longer games. To play you can use even other miniatures, because the game is not based only for this miniature line but you can use what you want. As in every Gamesha Games game.

The project has reached the money amount to start. Now it is time to pledge for more. It ends Sat, May 30. To know more go to:
U.F.O. Squad: Alien Invasion Minis and Skirmish Rules

Another post for Romics 2015 spring edition. This one is dedicated only to statuettes and similar things. Sorry, no cosplay girls, they are more naked Saturday or Sunday. I visit the fair only Thursday. Here my friend Paolo with the present sensation about characters in a cute dolls format.

Kaustic Plastik was present with their last products. Pity, this time I have no money for this, but at the first opportunity I want to add a 1/6 gladiator to my personal collection.

Action figures for Ma.k.s. I need them. But more realistically maybe I could copy the idea of put nameplates under my 1/6 figures when I will realise their new installation in the new house.

In this showcase the best piece is the crossover between Doraemon and Captain America, two of my favourite comic characters.

An here Suppaman from Dr.Slump and Arale. A real superhero.

Statuettes, another form of comics fruition. And Japan ones are the most popular around.

A dark version of Rei Ayanami. I watched the anime films and I found them lacking of a logic in the storyline, so I can’t understand why they are so famous. However as imaginary are great.

Another crossover, but this time between cute girls, cute animals and cute WWII planes. Only Japanese minds could concept sometime like this.

Another Japanese passion: boobs. And something to give a strong character to your bookshelves.

More boobs.

Another vendor but same kind of boobs.

Boobs and something more.

Next Romics will be at the start of October.

The new gladiatorial set by Kaustic Plastik. In the box one body, two helms, two shield and various weapons. So you can build one gladiator of a kind but you have pieces to build two more. You need another two bodies or you can change equipment to the present body when you want to do it. Quality is great and real metal is used for weapons and helms. Real metal is another thing rather than coloured plastic. My only concern are long necks, typical in 1/6 action figure to accommodate changing heads: helms are fitted too high so neck and shoulder protection is ineffective. However,… a must have! This Kaustic Plastik improves over time. Limited series, obviously.

Myrmillo

Thraex with sica supina

Thraex with spiculum. It isn’t an hoplomachus, but this is a common mistake. Hoplomachi are myrmillones with a more rhomboid shield and an helm with sides with a pronounced vertical shape.

Mainly I speak about gladiators and fairs. This time I want to show something about other wargame stuff of mine: resin stone walls. The best around.

The attention to painting soldiers have to be employed for terrain too. Instead terrain in wargames is subsidiary to miniatures, so soldiers usually fight on a flat surface, green coloured. Some small trees simulate woods, broken houses are randomly scattered around. We have to invest our time and money on terrain. The only complication is the space required to store terrain, less flexible than the necessary space to store miniatures. I’m still building my city for wargames. Space is what I need. Rather than large buildings I dedicated my attention to walls, that are a vertical obstacle on the battleground. I chose those ones by Stronghold, a small Germany company.

A friend of mine brought me these colours with earth tones. They are pastels with watercolour feature. I and my father draw every stone of the walls with a random effect. The result look a bit too heavy as contrast.

Then I washed all with my personal magic wash paint, obtained by acrylic wax for parquet, matt acrylic paint and chestnut ink. Due to watercolour feature, the coloured dusts melted. Moreover the paint amalgam them with surface. So the contrast was attenuate. Every stone has its characteristic tone, but all look realistic.

A photo with a RSI Folgore soldier with his camouflage uniform. You can look at painted walls and their available variants: a destroyed wall with broken and deformed railing; a gate with moving doors with a curved shape. However this railing with upper points is awesome. And absolutely not boring.

I like these walls so much that I bought a long circuit of them. Their modular system allow walls to be composed in various ways. I’m sure that they are a nice touch to my battleground. And now I stored them inside a old rigid plastic case for video beta tapes. It’s not this on the photo, it’s a very compact box.
If you want similar walls go to Stronghold shop.

I was a guest of the event so I had to stay at the stand for demonstrations, so I couldn’t walk around for my interests. But on 4 days and 10 hours a day I found some time to visit some things around, even if I lost cinemas, exhibitions, events, thematic pavilions and all these highlights of Lucca C&G. At least I visited the main areas.

This year the Japan area exploded from a “palace” to a “town”. Here you can find more things Japan relate, as food. And weird karaoke contests in Japanese language!

This area is the best for peculiar gifts.

Near the “town”, a church house some exhibitions.

You could find a lot of strange plushes…

…or unicorn and dragon meat, together with a cheering bust of one of the famous Giger creations.

More things to put in your living room.

Star Wars pavilion. A villa was only for Assassin Creed.

T-shirts too. And “Sith Happens”.

Shopping bags with peculiar character.

The helmet maker with newer stuff, in a crossover style.

When radical ideology is a dream and capitalism fails… The political movement for a return to feudal style of life.

But how to embrace feudalism? Easy, buy your personal armour!

Back in the games pavilion. This is the rear side with loos, under the walls.

The card game that simulate an activity as whores manager. A must have!

Illustrators in the making of painting for the final charity auction.

One of the computers in the fair. Note the video card and the huge cpu heat sink.

A miniature to play with “Harder than Steel” by Ganesha Games. More news about it in 2015…

Every year some new miniature for the gladiatorial dwarf squad for Blood Bowl by Cosimo Auricchio.

Lucca Comics & Games was not only this! Here there is only a small fraction of the entire. However I have other 7 posts about other things that you could find in Lucca, one each day. Follow me.

3Evan is a model makers and wargamers Italian team that we met at Lucca C&G convention. We are thinking to work together on something. I bought a mecha sculpted by them for their Epoque rules. I thought that resin could be easy to handle. Moreover, could be intriguing the using of special effects by Vallejo ranges as “Metallic Medium”, “Crackle Medium” and “Pigment Binder”. So I was too much confident and I made a lot of mistakes. I painted all one time, applied great decals and than I had to dissolve all due to ugly varnishes results. So I repainted all and applied not so great new decals. When I assembled all I discovered that some pieces had to be modelled by hot water for a better shape, and pivots were needed if you wanted to don’t pose it in a fixed way. This is called preliminary assembling by REAL modellers…

If you are more skilled and smart than me, you can buy these great models here: https://www.3evan.it/Epoque/model.html

However this is my result… Urban camouflage and some rust. Better than I expected after all my mistakes…