The car was working this week, apparently the problem is that I don’t use it enough so the battery is draining due to lack of use. Guess I just need to do more driving. Anyway it meant I could make for game night this week although I didn’t actually paly. I was watching Ken and Dan playing out a 6mm Napoleonic game that looked quite interesting. Ken’s manoeuvring looked more like something from Strictly come dancing than any battlefield manual. But he was adamant that’s how it was done when he was a lad so who are we to argue. It did look like a good game though.
On the hobby front I’ve had a change of pace this week. I’ve refocused a bit and move away from Guild Ball for a bit of break and gone back to Infinity. The only problem is that I think I may have opened a whole new can of worms. That’s because I’ve not gone for something that doesn’t add to one of my existing forces. Oh no, I’ve gone for something new. In this case it’s what I think is one of the coolest miniatures I’ve seen in a long time. It’s the Hardcases, 2nd Irregular Frontiersmen Battalion with tactical bow. Yes that’s right a sci-fi cowboy with a compound bow. I knew when I first saw it that I would have to get one at some point and here it is.
I’ve also pulled my finger out and done a painting guide for this guy which will be up on the site on Monday if you want to have a look at how I painted him.
Thinking ahead to a couple of other projects I will be working on over the next month or so I have been playing around with some base designs. The first is wooden one that I was thinking of using for some Malifaux show girls, but more on that later. The second is a different way of painting the wasteland style bases I have used on several projects. The difference here is that I have gone for a winter theme. I think that with a bit of snow added they could work quite well for Frostgrave, which Al is pressing us to have a go at. It may or may not happen but a least I now have a basing option.
Now then I had planned to carry on from last week’s waffle here and say that I didn’t get the Tau and instead went down the Malifaux route and got myself the Colette box set. But here’s where it turns from a waffle into more of a rant.
I ordered the box set two weeks ago and it’s still not arrived. The company I ordered it from dispatched it the next day. On Tuesday (27Th Oct) I receive an e-mail from UK Mail saying that they had tried to deliver on the 22nd Oct but no one was in. No card left to say they had tried to deliver otherwise I would have called them to re-arrange delivery. When I did try to call them you can’t actually speak to anyone and because no card has been left you can’t rearrange delivery. I’m now in limbo waiting for the company I ordered from to let me know what is happening. As it turns out I was waiting for another order, none gaming related what hadn’t arrived. On contacting that company I found out that UK Mail had also tried to deliver that but that it had been returned. Informed the company in questing that I had never heard from UK Mail their rep apologised and arranged to have it shipped back to me Royal Mail. She also informed me this wouldn’t be an issue with any future orders because they had received so many complaints they would not be using UK Mail any more.
The main point of this though is that we are at the mercy of postal and delivery companies. Some are good but a few are absolutely appalling. The sad thing is that before I use either of these companies again I will check to see if they are still using UK Mail and if they are I will not order from them. They could be the best company in the world but if you have no confidence of your order arriving you’re not going to use them.
So that’s the rant over, but I don’t want this to be all negative and I think that there is something we can do to help ourselves here. From now on whenever I have problems with a delivery then I am going to get in touch with the company I ordered from and let them know. Not in a shouty way just so that they know that their good reputation is being affected by the delivery company they are using. Then if it carries on I will simply order from somewhere else, but again I will them know why I have taken my business elsewhere. At the end of the day I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more if I could pick the delivery service, or at least pick from a couple of options. I know that for small businesses this may not be practical but I think it’s something they should consider.
I’d like to try and end on a positive note by thinking that Colette will eventually make a magical appearance and in the mean time I have another Malifaux crew to be working on and should having something for you next week. So have a good weekend. Enjoy the Rugby world cup this afternoon, I know I will and have a good week.
