Last Saturday I attended my first Warlord Games Open day. I was looking forward to seeing what they put on as well as the glut of impressive demo games for their different ranges.
On arriving (early as usual) I got my name down straight away for the first tour around their manufacturing areas.
The doors opened at 10:00am and the first tour started at 10:30 so I hung around the shop and managed to resist the temptation of the 50% off deal on all the Test of Honour range.
It was a tadge annoying as I already own the whole range! So onto the tour. A member of Warlord staff gave us a brief history of the building (
Raleigh Bicycle HQ) that Warlord now occupy and also told us about all the extra units that the company now has as well. Its in these extra units that most of the manufacturing facilities are housed.
First off was the mould making room. The very nice gent told us how moulds have evolved from the old black rubber type to the versatile pink silicon that is now used. Different temperatures and pressing times are used on different moulds depending on the type of figure being used.
After that it was onto the casting room. Again in here they showed us the process of casting miniatures using the previously mentioned moulds produced. You can see from the picture that this room is teeming with moulds for all the various ranges. whilst explaining the process they did an example spin of a miniature showing the liquid metal being transferred from the crucible straight into the casting machine and about a minute or so later take out the mould and there is the perfectly formed and cast mini - the process is really quick and the metal solidifies ridiculously quickly.
The last bit of the tour then took us to the resin room, with the lovely Rachel. In here Rachel explained the process on how the moulds are made to produce the resin miniatures - tanks, ships etc. The carving process is a real art form and I have a new appreciation for how large scale resin miniatures are produced and the pitfalls involved with the while process ie air bubbles and miscasts due to flow rate and misaligned moulds etc...
After the tour concluded I made my way upstairs in the main building to have a look round the many games and displays on show. Some of the tables and scenery Warlord manage to put together is fabulous. Pays to have your own company eh!
One of the new things on show and was attracting a lot of interest were two tables showing of Warlords new forthcoming (December) WW2 Coastal Naval Game - Cruel seas. This game is mainly going to be centred around Motor Torpedo Boat actions with Merchant Ships, F-Lighters and other vessels of similar scale. The largest vessel probably on the table will be Corvette size and possibly a small Destroyer (but that possibly only as scenario specific item)
six fleets will be produced covering the Royal Navy, Kriegsmarine, Regia Marina (Italians) US Navy, IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) and the Russian Navy.
A starter box is due possibly December in time for Xmas and should include (due to info from John Stallard) 6 RN MTB's and 4 Kriegsmarine S-Boats as well as dice, tokens, rules, card terrain (sandbanks and the like) etc. approx £50
Also produced will be fleets sets for the 6 nations with the RN and Kriegsmarine first. See pics of the models in the display cabinet for the miniatures possibly to be included (these are resin - the starter set models will be plastic)
Talking of plastic, available as a gizzit where two sets of sprue's - one ser for RN Vosper Class MTB's and one set for S-100/38 Kriegsmarine S-Boats. Now these were superb but the first print run and had a few issues so the finished product would be better tooled etc. (see separate post for details on these plastic boats)
Display case for Cruel Seas
 |
| Notice the plastic sprue's of boats |
Also on display and taking part was a small tourney for Blood Red Skies. This is a cracking game of WW2 fighter combat. The new RAF Hurricane and Mosquito were on show as well as the new metal USN Wildcat miniature.
Finally, throughout the day seminars took place for the the various ranges and games that Warlord produce. I attended the Blood Red Skies seminar with game designer Andy Chambers, which highlighted the way the game was developed and the direction it was going. Its nice to hear this game is going strong and will be consistant in its releases to bring in new fighter aircraft (as well as some other types as already seen) to move forwards in different periods of the war.
The Cruel Seas seminar with Paul Sawyer and game designer and Warlord Owner John Stallard was really interesting and informative and gave quite a lot of information about the release of the game, what will be included and how it was developed.
Finally I went to the Stontium Dog seminar, another game designed by Andy Chambers and now Warlord have the 2000AD license I was interested to hear what else was in the pipeline. Unfortunately hardly anyone turned up for this chat but as im a huge Strontium Dog and 2000AD fan I didnt mind as it ended up as my own personal chat with Paul and Andy. Great way to end a cracking day.
Oh and Paul I still want an Egghead miniature!!!
Well it's nearly the end of 2018 and I haven't posted much for the last few months due to one things and another.
