WoFun Before No Fun

 The last few days have been spent not working, which has been refreshing to say the least. I began the 4 day Easter break by cleaning out the studio and taking back control from the packages of work from clients which tend to line my benchwork.

I've been so busy again this year that I have tended to just pop stuff down and not always in a tidy and ordered manner, which is not how I like to do things. Not at all!

The weekend has been a couple of early morning trips to the Peak District, a very good Thai meal, an 80s film, and having three hyperactive grandsons over to watch 'Encanto' on Friday night.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning will have been spent crunching numbers and figure codes for the forces at Culloden, but with the added fun of doubling the numbers of Jacobites, to also allow a more even fight.

One of my main musings at present is adopting the use of the excellent WoFun perspex flat miniatures. Whilst I am luckily and thankfully able to bankroll pretty much anything I want these days, spending £5000 or so, every time I get an itch which needs scratching seems a pointles exercise.

So, I am seriously considering using the WoFun stuff for those periods I'd like to dabble in, but in all probability won't return to as often as others.

For example, I have a hankering to play some Feudal games, involving the English, Scots and Welsh, Flodden and Dark Ages, all of which I'd like to do with 800-1000 figures, but which I cannot justify 5 figure some. Well, I can, but what is the point? 

I currently have 1200 models off with my painter and another 800+ heading to him soon, all of which are already paid for, and which will easily take him the whole of this year to return. At almost 54, my days are shortening, and I am also quite ften looking back to the varied and sometimes inspired ways we gamed in the early 80s. 

If you can justify the use of Airfix figures for gaming, or the beutiful 'Cardboard Heroes' flat figures from Steve Jackson games, then it stands to reason that the WoFun ranges are the natural amalgamation and successor.

Adding traditional basing to the flat perspex models, makes them apear more 3-dimensional  and the fact that you have the gorgeous and colourful artwork of Peter Dennis for pennies per figure, must make these a viable choice. I think you would have to be a pretty special kind of figure snob, to cock a snook at these models.

Those of you of the same vintage as the author, may remember the absolutely stunning Standard Games cardboard 25mm miniatures, done by Gary Chalk? I actually have a load of the Saxons somewhere in my studio, uncut, and I'd planned to used them for a nostalgia trip, but I reckon they can stay pristine, and I'll buy WoFun.

Also, they are great for introducing kids to the hobby, and I could see these having the same effect as a box of Airfix Afrika Korps had on kids of my generation. 

I am actually considering a load of these and a copy of the KTG Book Of Wargaming, together with an inverted Subbuteo cloth and some books on the dining table. It would be a sin to take such a nostalgic trip, in my games room, after all.

But equally, I could see a couple of thousand WoFun on 'proper' terrain, making a bloody amazing display game. 

Those who bemoan the fact that they can only afford skirmish gaming, should consider these great little models as a way of being able to get the feel of commanding a traditionally sized army, affordably. There really is no excuse, and I actually have a little dark hearted hope that more people do look at WoFun rather than the ludicrously overpriced 'big book, big box' companies who are a constant and somewhat irritating meat grinder to the hobby. £2 for a Warlord metal figure? Fuck off... And doubly so, when so many of these ranges seem to never expand beyond an initial little 'fizz' when launched, because they are ranges, sucked up from their original owners, and often repurposed with a new big box approach. It's a bee in my bonnet as you can tell.

No, no, it won't do... Rather than no fun, try WoFun.

Our hobby at the end of the day is about playing with toys (No, it's not about understanding warfare and history, it's about little dollies and a few dice, so shut up, you at the back, wanting to be taken seriously in the pub) and if we can do more of that, thanks to innovative ideas, so much the better.

TTFN