Weekly Waffle # 388 – Falcon Fulled Fury
2nd August 2025
This week for the Weekly Waffle I am going back to the future. And no this isn’t a reference to some new creation from Puppets War. No this is going back to some of my earliest posts on the site and to the first Kick Starter I ever backed. It was a game with lots of potential that burned brightly for a few years before disappearing into the realms of the forgotten. Although it does still have some digital support, in that all the rules you need are available for free download. In fact you can even get the full starter set of models as a free STL file if you have access to a 3D printer. So whilst this isn’t a game that is currently being marketed it does still have some limited support. And there are rumours that is set to increase in the not too distant future. At least in the digital space as opposed to new models or anything like that.
So that is a lot of waffle but what am I actually talking about. Guild Ball. This is a game that I really enjoyed playing, although I was never very good. And as I said earlier it was the first thing I ever backed on Kick Starter. It was also one of the first painting projects where I tried to document how I painted my minis and I really tried to step up my game when it came to painting. Instead of just slapping some paint down so that I could get them on the table I really tried to raise my game.
All in all these were responsible for me trying to take my painting to the next level and I still like how they turned out. It was also the first game where I tried to build a bit of community by getting others to play. I did quite a few demo games with people form my own group of gaming friends and a couple of local clubs. I don’t know if any of the wider group are still playing but turning up with a few teams of painted minis certainly got people interested.
On a wider note that is always something to consider when you are looking at getting into a new game. If you have invested in getting a starter box on your own. Get it all painted and then arrange games with your friends or at a local club. You can’t underestimate how much difference it makes if someone’s first experience of a game is with a fully painted force. That’s hard if you wanted to get someone into 40k. But if that’s the case you start them with Kill Team so they get the feel first. It costs you at the biggening of the process. But you get another half dozen people interested they you have a readymade player pool for the future. So try to think about that next time there is a game you are really wanting to try.
Getting back to Guild Ball I really enjoyed the game up to the point that they changed the way they produced the miniatures. It started off a what I would call a traditional miniature game where you had to have some painting knowledge to get a team on the table top. I think it came when we got to season three that Steam Forge Games changed how they were marketing the game. I personally didn’t like it but I absolutely support what they did. They expanded the game to a wider audience in a way that Cool Mini did with games like Zombiside. They didn’t change the rules or the stats cards or anything like that. They changed the minis. They went from being led to being plastic. Which meant each team could be a different colour so you could buy a box and field the minis as they were.
This moved the game a little bit from table top gaming into the board game space. You could still paint the plastics but they weren’t as crisp and that was when I fell out of love with the game. Like I say I understand why they made the change and it was the right thing to do. They have gone from strength to strength. It just wasn’t the right thing for me.
Now getting back to this week’s painting. I had been doing some work on the galleries for the site and was looking at all of my Guild Ball minis, amongst others. Which led to me looking at the Steam Forge web site to see if they still had anything on their relating to the game. And that we where I came across the current miniature line.
They don’t appear to be doing the plastics anymore, which makes sense for a game that is no longer in production. But they do still have quite a few teams available for sale. And these minis are all 3D printed. So I got to thinking that they may be a lot better to paint than the plastics were. Meaning I could expand on some of the teams I already had with new characters. Or I could have a look at a completely new team. Decisions, decisions.
In the end I though in for a penny, in for a pound and decided to go for a new team. They may never see the light of day in a game but they should be fun to paint. There are a few teams I don’t have any minis for but in the end I decided to go with the Falconers. Partly because I liked the official colours and partly because they only have one set of minis. So I could get everything available to them in one set.
One thing I would point out to anyone who is interested in either getting into or back into the game was the time it took for the minis to arrive. From the time I ordered them to the time they actually turned up was about ten weeks. I don’t know if I ordered at an odd time or if they wait until they have a certain number of orders to do a print run. But it did take a long time. Or at least compared to a lot of other places it felt like it had taken a very long time. So remember that if you are in a rush to get something on the table quickly. But they did turn up which was a nice surprise because I was beginning to think they had disappeared
The quality of the prints was very good but you do need to check them carefully for where the supports connect to the print. There are quite a few little ‘nubs’ left over and they are very easy until you get paint on the model if you are not carful. This isn’t unique to these mins and is just something we have to check for when dealing with 3D prints. Gone are the mould lines but in are the print stubs.
There aren’t many pictures out there about the colour scheme so I’ve going with what appears on the box art. But I would point out the minis just came in bubble wrap and plane box. Not a printed store type box. That means I’ve gone with a turquoise and red colour scheme. This keeps them distinct form any of my other teams but is still close to the box art so no one is going to get confused as to who they are.
When it came to picking my paints I’ve used a mix of AK Interactive Gen 3 paints and I’ve also tried out a couple of AK Quick Gen speed paints. Using the speed paints to block out the colours and get some basic shading and then on to using normal paints for the rest. And I have to say that like how the colour scheme has runed out. It has the same feel as the rest of my Guild Ball models but is clearly a different team.
But what do you think of the one mini I have finished. The captain of the Falconers Davana.
You can see more Guild Ball miniatures at my gallery here
As I’ve said I’m happy with how she has turned out and I’m looking forward to trying to get the time to work on the rest of the team.
THat’s all I have for you this week. I’m going to carry on with my Guild Ball retrospective and I hope whatever hobby projects you are working on progress with alacrity for you. I’ll be back next week so until then keep safe, have fun and I hope to see you back here soon.
