Speedpaints 2.0
Company: Army Painter
Size: Any scale
Era: Any
Price: $4.00 per paint (approx. £3.00 per paint)
The Army Painter has relaunched its range of Speedpaints, now increasing the range to an impressive 90 colours, including metallics. The principle of Speedpaints is a one-coat solution over a light undercoat to give a finished model. The original formulation of the paint had a minor issue with a few of the colours reactivating with water, so the new range has been completely changed. Each comes in its own dropper bottle with an agitator ball for shaking and mixing, so you can not only control how much you use but ensure it is ready to use. The new colours are great too, as we now have Warrior Skin, which gives a great brown skin colour, or Saddle Brown, a dark leather colour. There are a host of new greens (great for webbing) and other hues. Before, the range was limited to mainly primary colours; now it will give pretty much any colour desired straight from the bottle or with a little mixing. Recommended.
Epic Pike and Shotte
Company: Warlord Games
Size: 14mm 'foot to eye' or 16mm to top of hat
Era: Thirty Years' War and English Civil War
Price: £26.50 for 120 pike and 120 shotte (three units)
Warlord Games' latest range, Epic: Pike and Shotte, brings the world of seventeenth-century warfare to life in a small scale. The miniatures are a tad larger than the previous Epic ranges, being 16mm tall and 23mm for cavalry. The infantry come as strips, with ten men shoulder to shoulder. This range of plastics is designed to be used for either the Thirty Years' War or the English Civil War (just make sure the Royalists get most of the floppy hats!). The main advantage of this range (and of previous Epic ranges) is expense - Warlord is providing a relatively inexpensive way of fielding an impressive number of troops. There are limitations: the majority of the pikemen have helmets - and even I'm not mad enough to attempt swapping a dozen heads around! Bases and flags are provided as standard. Hopefully Warlord will bring out Scots and other regiments (Irish Brigade? Yes please).
Zulu huts
Debris of War 28mm (1/56); also available in 15mm Colonial £8.00 to £15.00 each (28mm) plus £2.00 for doors
