The woes of inter-hemispherical wargaming...
The Somali pirate captain, or HM's customs, or whoever it was who has been 'minding' all our stuff for the last five months, finally deemed fit to have it delivered to our temporary accommodation today.
"Huzzah!" Says I. But then I thought to count the boxes... Two boxes missing.
"Oh no..." Says I. "...but wait, the box with all the little metal men is here. Huzzah indeed!"
So, I opened the box with great haste, mixed with just a tender amount of trepidation. You see I was keen to see all my wee lads (and ladies) again after all this time. I had grand plans of using them to actually play some games; get though AAR's up on the blog and have some fun. On top of that I wanted the rest of my scenery and access to my collection of static grasses.
However. What I saw when I opened the boxes and removed what I had believed to be adequate packing materials, my poor little heart died a little. I have to warn any of you with a weak stomach to turn away now and stop reading.
The pictures below are quite graphic.
Rather disturbing.
Very demoralising.
My DBA based ancients, and those poor wee HotT rats from Cheddar...
Five armies for Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End. Their resolve gone, their hearts scattered.
Now, I realise that I should have packed everything individually. But they were magnetised down with packing above, in boxes which I was assured would always be kept right side up. I was very naive - but then we hadn't the space to bring these really, let alone wrapping them up and creating more volume.
So sadly I unpacked everything on the table to take stock of the damage. The Cheddar rats had only received a very slight scuffing, two small breaks, some bent spears and a few scratches. My ancients stuff is a bit of a write off. Most spears off, most riders off, many shields off, lots of scratches. Some will be paint stripped and started again, probably based on 40mm square bases(...).
Some will make its way to a fire sale. There are some bits that I just don't want to have to deal with.
Most of the 1:1200 ships came off OK most of the flags are broken and a few sails knocked off. Haven't decided yet whether to fire sale them or try to eventually persevere.
Irregular Wars armies had a mixed success. Lots of broken or bent pikes. Lots of chipped paint. Not too many things that are that serious, but each army will be quite a project to restore. I will certainly set to work (once we move, so still several weeks off) fixing up the Hollanders, Spanish and Caribs. Haven't decided yet whether to sell the English and Irish to concentrate on a New World theatre, or to just leave them till last in the fix up stakes.
Either way, I have a rather long, lonely and depressing journey ahead of me. And just when I thought I had finally arrived.
"Huzzah!" Says I. But then I thought to count the boxes... Two boxes missing.
"Oh no..." Says I. "...but wait, the box with all the little metal men is here. Huzzah indeed!"
So, I opened the box with great haste, mixed with just a tender amount of trepidation. You see I was keen to see all my wee lads (and ladies) again after all this time. I had grand plans of using them to actually play some games; get though AAR's up on the blog and have some fun. On top of that I wanted the rest of my scenery and access to my collection of static grasses.
However. What I saw when I opened the boxes and removed what I had believed to be adequate packing materials, my poor little heart died a little. I have to warn any of you with a weak stomach to turn away now and stop reading.
The pictures below are quite graphic.
Rather disturbing.
Very demoralising.
Now, I realise that I should have packed everything individually. But they were magnetised down with packing above, in boxes which I was assured would always be kept right side up. I was very naive - but then we hadn't the space to bring these really, let alone wrapping them up and creating more volume.
Some will make its way to a fire sale. There are some bits that I just don't want to have to deal with.
Most of the 1:1200 ships came off OK most of the flags are broken and a few sails knocked off. Haven't decided yet whether to fire sale them or try to eventually persevere.
Irregular Wars armies had a mixed success. Lots of broken or bent pikes. Lots of chipped paint. Not too many things that are that serious, but each army will be quite a project to restore. I will certainly set to work (once we move, so still several weeks off) fixing up the Hollanders, Spanish and Caribs. Haven't decided yet whether to sell the English and Irish to concentrate on a New World theatre, or to just leave them till last in the fix up stakes.
Either way, I have a rather long, lonely and depressing journey ahead of me. And just when I thought I had finally arrived.
Oh Man, so sorry, at least they turned up.
ReplyDeleteOh now that is a horrific sight; terribly sorry to see that.
ReplyDeleteNot good! You have my sympathy.
ReplyDeleteAn awful thing to happen to your lead chaps, my sympathy is with you and them.Hopefuuly you will get them in some order without too much hassle.
ReplyDeleteOh Nic! Terrible news. Those images are scarred into my memory.
ReplyDeleteNot great.Its bad enough dropping the odd base but entire armies...OUCH.
ReplyDeleteJason.
When I moved my figures around the world I packed all of the boxes out with as much shredded paper as I could (our office had bin-bags full of shredded documents I was allowed to have). The bases shifted, but the packing paper stopped it happening with enough force to do any damage.
ReplyDeleteToo late to offer the advice now, I guess, but maybe a warning (and solution) for others. In my view you can't overpack the little men.
The shredded paper makes a heck of a mess when you unpack though :)
Having seen your armies in the flesh so to speak it makes one want to sit down and utter profane and rude language.
ReplyDeleteMichael C.
Absolutely gutted for you. I get upset when a pike or spear breaks off so I can't imagine what it's like to find something like that has happened. I have the dubious pleasure of working quite closely with a couple of shipping lines and their ability to nonchalantly damage other people's goods and then utter something along the lines of "Not our fault guv, must've happened somewhere else..." never cease to amaze me. Hope the other boxes turn up too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the kind words gents.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to say that the first (and easiest) army has now been restored. The Army of the Grand Duchy of Cheddar is now back in working order - just waiting to find a HotT opponent here in Ulster.
Next on the 'to do' list will probably be the Irregular Wars Spanish.
Urrgh, I don't know what I would do if that happened to me. My condolences.
ReplyDelete