Behind the Lines…
At Rapid Fire! Publications
Introduction
The release of a new edition of the popular World War II rules set, Rapid Fire! has been widely welcomed by aficionados of the game in the wargaming fraternity. Discussion of the rule set on various web sites has mostly been positive, although there have been some contributors who seem not to understand that wargames companies are seldom in nature the giant corporation, but rather might best be described as ‘two men in a shed’! A recent visit to the ‘home’ of Rapid Fire! Publications - while returning home from Claymore, via
Rapid Fire! rules are the product of a life time devotion to playable wargames, coupled with an intense interest in the history of World War II, on the part of two men from almost opposite ends of
I did n’t get where I am today...
Colin began wargaming as a twelve year old at
Colin started work in 1975, a period which coincided with a ‘career break’ from wargaming, a hiatus which was ended in
Richard Marsh had been a member of Grimsby Wargames Club, but had left before Colin joined the group to take up a post teaching Drama in a school in
How was it for you?
During this formative period Colin and Richard began formulating and exchanging their rule ideas and philosophy. They also found themselves responding to questions from visitors to the Display games at various shows, who would often enquire what rules they used. The long process of rule generation was ended when Duncan Macfarlane suggested that they publish their rule set. Rapid Fire! was born. This coincided with a very big project for the group, including Malcolm Taylor and Colin Rumford, preparing a
The drive of the authors is to create scenario based games rather than competition games, although Grimsby Wargames Club has run successful knock out competitions amongst its members. Yes, if you are wondering, Colin has won these, sometimes! For Richard and Colin, the game is the thing. The rules are simply a mechanism to allow you to play the game out. The focus of the game should be not the micro conflict between two tank models, but the macro event of the whole game, which should reach a conclusion in an evening’s playing. So, for them, games should be based on history, on real people and real events. In seeking to recreate events on a table top battlefield the balance of the game takes priority over the micro event of individual conflict.
For Colin, as for many of us, an interest in wargaming is satisfied at several levels of interest and involvement. Campaigns and battles from World War II are to be studied from history, and then developed across table top battlefields, where the historic terrain features have been recreated in miniature. This terrain contains features and buildings which are the result of the creative pleasure of our hobby, while retaining the features which characterize the actual battlefield being represented. His collection is, as you might expect, is a comprehensive one; in fact it is huge! But, it is eclectic in nature and composition. No manufacturer is excluded, for Colin buys and collects what he likes! He is not even obsessed with scale, looking rather for the pleasing effect on the table of the whole. So, you’ll find 1/72nd, 1/76th and 1/87th scale vehicles and figures side by side during a game. Colin is very interested in how a game ‘looks’. One aspect he is very forthright on is the ‘scale of colour’. By this he means that games should not look dark and dour, rather colours should be carefully graded from their historical templates, so that vehicles, terrain and figures can be seen and appreciated by both players and spectators, whilst remaining ‘true’ to their historical experience. {After all, our ‘little lead heroes and their vehicles’ don’t really need to hide from one another – and from us – as a matter of life and death!} So, the whole look of the game enjoys a consistent style and colour range for maximum impact and enjoyment.
Building on experience...
Like most gamers of ‘a certain vintage’, Colin started to make his own buildings when he found commercially available models did not fit the requirements of specific games. He had also known fellow gamer Mick Sewell who constructed buildings for display games by their club. Thus he made a number of buildings for an
Who will buy?
Colin’s first venture into retailing came in the late 1990’s when his show stand stocked Sentry buildings and Raventhorpe miniatures. Under pressure from work and personal issues, this was reluctantly given up. Then, in 2002, Rapid Fire! Publications was formed, beginning to trade at shows in 2004. Now they visit between four and five shows a year - so far usually Vapnartak, Triples, Partizan and Elvington. Buildings are steady sellers, but there is a strong back order book for painted buildings and sets. Also stocked are the Ready to Roll series of vehicles produced by Raventhorpe Miniatures and mastered by, amongst others, Richard Marsh. The buildings and vehicles are also available over the web by mail order – see the Rapid Fire! site if you are interested at http//www.rapidfire.uk.com. The Ready to Roll vehicles are very popular amongst gamers and sell well. In addition to the rule sets and scenario booklets we are all familiar with, Colin plans to produce in late 2006 full colour PDF files for purchase electronically. However, for my fellow Luddites, Richard is working on a Battle of the Bulge scenario booklet in a hard copy version. This will hopefully be ready late in 2006 or early in 2007, after all, they both have demanding full time day jobs to claim their time first!
Where do I go from here?
Richard and Colin are very pleased with the initial sales of and general reaction to the refined rules newly released. Both remain enthusiastic and committed gamers – having battled it out with Colin over the weekend I visited with him I can attest to that personally, though I am honour bound not to reveal the result to anyone! They meet up for games in their respective wargames rooms when ever the demands of their professional lives give them the opportunity. As you would expect for the two of them, it is always a World War II game, though Colin’s collection includes AWI, World War I in
So, Rapid Fire! Publications is the work in the end of two chaps and their wives, no mega corporation here. If you have genuine queries about the rules, you will find that they are often answered personally through the web site by Richard or Colin. Richard has been hosting a number of games in the South West this summer, under the general heading of a Sunshine Tour – a true optimist there in the average British summer!
There is a bright future, I feel, for the rules, scenario publications, buildings and vehicles these two talented chaps market to us. If you’re not already familiar with the products, have a look on the web site, I doubt that you will be disappointed – a visit is worthwhile just to drool over the game photos alone!
I have to confess I'm not a fan of Kevin's style, or perhaps I should say I don't like the oversized blow ups we are used to in magazines and the web. After all, figures are 28mm tall or so and are seen that way on the table, so seeing them many times oversized is unreal. Having said that, there's no denying the man does paint well and figures do look nice in the 'flesh'. I'm always prepared to learn from others, especially as I rate my own skills as mediocre to fair - as Phil says, "They'll do!" So, I decided to buy Kevin's book to see what I could learn that was achievable for a man of my limited talent. Have I regreted buying it? Have I learned anything? The answer is a resounding 'No' to the first and 'I should say so!' to the second!!
It's 176 full colour pages for £25. That's the price of three figure packs, so not going to dent your next project too badly. If yo leave aside the first 11 pages of general consideration and the last 6 pages of Foundry advertising, that's still 159 pages of useful help and guidance. It takes you through several approaches to painting from the one colour method - the 'pink blob face' approach to the full 'three colour method' used by Kevin. So, it helps the beginner get started and the experienced painter improve. It demonstrates every stage of the process in text and illustrations, so its hard not to get the point of each tutorial step. His advice on varnishing I found especially appropriate as I this year I have suffered badly from clouding matt finish. Now I know why and can avoid that problem in future. I most valued the sections on painting horses, as I've always found it a chore and the end product has been unsatisfactory in many ways. I think the advice and illustrations offered have been a definate plus for me.
What did n't I like about the book? Well, could have done without the fantasy sections, but even there I found some useful ideas. Also, the full page figure pictures still grate with me, but I have to concede that they do help you to see what he's trying to show you. So, I'd recommend the book to you. It has helped me - though I cheerfully concede that I've a hell of a long way to go to his standards, but I'm happy I've picked up some decent ideas and solved one problem.
David
A Review of some of Redoubt Enterprises’ Boxer Rebellion range
If you attended a show during the first part of 2006, then you might have seen the Redoubt Enterprises stand with its usual colourful display of figures from their many ranges. What you might not have noticed amongst all the goodies on show was, unusually for this firm, a display of bare metal castings occupying one small section of the front of their stand. These were the first figures from a new range, almost hot from the mould, so new were they! They are the first figures from an extensive project covering first of all the various western nations whose troops participated in the Boxer Rebellion {known to most gamers I suspect through the film “55 Days in Peking” starring David Niven and Charlton Heston} together with the native Chinese troops and the Boxers themselves, to be followed later by figures for the Russo-Japanese War of the early twentieth century. By the time you read this you will perhaps have seen the figures for yourself, either at a show or on the Redoubt Enterprises’ web site.
The first release, appropriately enough as I’ve mentioned the film “55 Days in Peking”, comprises ten individually available US Marines together with a choice of two Colt machineguns and three crew figures, together with a larger number of Boxers - two sets of ten figures, BO101 and BO102, armed respectively with either swords or polearms. In addition there are a further eight individual Boxer figures, BO103 to BO110 - six armed with either musket or rifle, one advancing with a jingal and one blowing a conch shell! There is also BO111- a two man Boxer crew firing a jingal. For review I have the sets BO101, ten Boxers with swords; BO111 the two man jingal crew; the US Marines BO1 to BO10; and BOX1, the Colt machinegun and three crew. All very nice looking figures, pleasing on the eye.
Turning first to the releases for the US Marines, appropriately enough BO1 is a marine officer holding a sword and firing his pistol. In the Redoubt tradition this is a large figure, some 28 mm from foot to eye. He stands side on to his opponents, left arm outstretched levelling his pistol for an aimed shot, while his right hand holds a sword down against his right leg. He sports a slouch hat, a tunic worn formally, his trousers tucked into his boots. Figure and weapons are nicely sculpted in a useful pose and cleanly cast. BO2 is a Marine standing firing, again 28 mm foot to eye, wearing slouch hat, shirt, trousers, boots and gaiters - as with all the other marines he has light equipment of ammunition pouches, belting and bayonet. He is well posed, leaning slightly into his next shot, and cleanly cast. He is followed by B03, in this case a Marine kneeling to fire. He is only some 18 mm foot to eye in that pose, one of the few realistically scaled kneeling figures I can remember seeing. Again the figure is in shirt sleeves and with light equipment, nicely sculpted and cleanly cast. Unlike these first three figures, BO4 stands almost square on to his opponent in a loading pose, knees slightly bent, as he reaches into an ammunition pouch. He is only 25 mm from foot to eye in this pose, again cleanly cast with crisp details which paint up easily. He is complemented by BO5, a marine standing in the ‘at the ready’ pose. BO7 is a kneeling variant of the same pose, enabling different units to be fielded without too much early repetition as the range develops. Both figures are in the same shirt sleeves and light equipment order, so they do not look out of place dispersed within a generally ‘firing posed’ unit. B08 is a casualty figure, lying on his right side, his right arm outstretched. Now I know that not every gamer likes to have casualty figures in their army, but they do make nice marker figures to save taking off full figures all the while, as well as being suitable for morale markers. I mark my casualty bases now with little stones grouped in one, two, three and four along each bases edge, turning them to show the number of casualties a unit has suffered.
BO6, BO9 and BO10 are rather out of the flow of the other figures at present. BO6 advances, looking to his right, with his rifle at an upward angle. As all the others so far released are stationary figures its hard to see him fitting into any unit at present. BO9, the bugler, and BO10, the standard bearer are nice figures, but a little too stiffly posed I felt to go with the firing line figures. While they are both cleanly sculpted and cast I just did n’t think that the poses were as pleasing to the eye as the others in the range; a little too much parade ground for me and not enough life for an action unit pose. This is especially true of the standard bearer who could have been pointing with his right hand perhaps and standing less stiffly. Turning now to BOX1, the Colt machinegun and crew, I felt that the designer was back on top form. The gun comes on a wheeled carriage in a four part kit of gun, carriage with ammunition boxes and two small wheels. It fitted together without a hitch and measures 35 mm deep,24 mm wide and 19 mm high. One marine sits astride the trail on the seat firing the gun, perfectly sculpted and cast for his clenched hands to take the small plug on the gun itself so that the figure does actually look as if he is firing the thing rather than with so many others I have seen sitting behind it. He is accompanied by two other marines in kneeling poses. One kneels on his right knee, pistol drawn and resting on his right shoulder. His slouch hat is turned up at the front and he sports a rather natty moustache! He seems to fit to the left of the firing team. The other figure is also kneeling on his right knee, rifle in his left hand he points dramatically with the right, while looking straight ahead. He seems to fit to the right of the firing team. This is a very nice little set, full of life and interest.
Turning now to the Boxer figures I have BO101, the set of ten Boxers armed with swords. With the exception of one figure leaning back, defending himself with a sword in his left hand while raising the sword in his right above his head to strike an enemy, all the figures are depicted in charging poses. One rushes forward with two swords aloft, four are depicted charging forward with sword in their left hand and dagger or knife in the right. One strikes overhead with his sword held double handed, a further two figures are charging armed with one sword held aloft, the final figure cradles his sword blade across his chest in a very sinister pose! All the figures are sculpted in lovely action poses, clean and crisply cast. They all wear loose fitting tunics and trews with a variety of head gear, from head cloths, coolie hats and caps to a bareheaded figure, hair swept back into a tight pigtail. All very pleasing to the eye and very straightforward to paint up. They would also make a nice rabble for you poor lost souls in the Back of Beyond! Finally we come to BO111, the two man jingal crew firing. This is a lovely piece of work, the firing figure leaning forward and sighting his shot along the barrel of his piece with some care while his partner squats on his haunches supporting the long barrel of the jingal on a two legged rest. The firing figure has a powder flask, the supporter a pouch supported on a belt over his left shoulder. Both figures are in loosely fitting tunics and trews and, as with all of BO101, wear shoes on their feet. Like the Colt gun set this is a really nice piece which looks first rate when painted and based.