oriental ogres by Rackham Miniatures

[BeneathALeadMountain]

But the range is so nice, I'm actually intimidated to paint them.

Right there with you (and that’s the reason Rackham failed, in the first place, sadly).

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[**GS**]

Great to see not everyone is as squeemish as I am though!

You should give them a try. The quality of sculpts actually makes the paint jobs easier. I use the old method: Black primer with a thorough white dry brushing on top to make the details pop out. Then you "only" need to pick the details one by one.

Right there with you (and that’s the reason Rackham failed, in the first place, sadly).

May be, but I think the adventure into pre painted plastics was the biggest mistake they made. And the game which had quite a big fan base in Europe at that time and was well supportet came to it's boudaries when it comes to keeping the balancing when coming up with expansions. They actually took the wrong turn. I am sad too, but now I have a fraction every two or three years to paint up. 6 done, 7 to go.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

GS, I fully agree the game started to sprawl and runaway with itself (much like every other one that wants to keep selling new books) and that the pre-painted plastics were the terrible design choice that killed the Company.

 But this was because of the fact that previously the Rackham professional painters did amazing jobs with amazing models (and at that time you didn’t have the internet to see the work of normal non-phenomenal painters - companies like GW love to show the full spectrum of paint jobs/abilities on their social media now). All you ever saw were excellent works of art that most people couldn’t achieve. They were also more fragile/delicate and harder to build than most comparable miniatures and this added to the problem with bringing in new players (most people don’t start at a reasonable skill level).

 Rackham thought they could change to pre-painted plastics to try and make this more achievable but ultimately that’s not what the majority of the existing customer base wanted and you ended up with plastic figures splurged with the tears of an underpaid “professional ” painter.

I truly loved them and wish I had more of some of the original ranges. I think if Rackham had existed today it may have fared better.

Looking forwards to seeing what else you have,

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Peithetairos]

Really like the warpaint on these Ogres. Rackham was my first love. Still have a significant collection of Goblins. All unpainted, obviously.

Temple of the West is currently working on a new edition of the rules and also releases new sculpts that very much resemble the original designs.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

All unpainted, obviously.

 

Maybe we need a “Paint your Rackham Confrontation miniatures” thread on LAF?

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[dwbullock]

I have painted 2 of my 12 or so Rackham goblins.  I, too, am a bit intimidated by painting them.

[**GS**]

Come on guys, give it a try. I'm not talented, too.

[OSHIROmodels]

They look great 

[Basementboy]

Love the octopus guy

[**GS**]

Thanks!

Here is Sulfur on his Red Troll:

[Thargor]

Lovely paintjobs.

Loved Rackham minis when they were still metal - the change to pre-painted plastics was their biggest mistake.

[Daeothar]

Yes; that was the straw that broke the camel's back for them, after previously overextending on AT-43 and its plastics.

A well and true shame, that. Because the success of that game prompted them to go for plastics for Controntation in the first place. My guess is that the fantasy crowd was a completely different beast from the scifi one. Also; Controntation was completely in metal up to that point and plastics were at the time not as detailed and sharp as metal, so a definite step back in quality, which did not sit right with the existing player base. The game shifting from skirmish to mass battle surely didn't help either though.

So those existing players with metal collections didn't take to the new plastics, and not enough new players could be attracted.

Sad part is that because of the failure of their plastic miniatures for the Confrontation universe, AT-43 also suffered.

I heard that after rackham's demise the AT-43 moulds were bought by some Chinese company which left them lying around unprotected outside for several years, resulting in them being effictively destroyed and only useable as scrap metal. So AT-43 has been well and truly erased, which is a right shame.

But I'm sure the demise of the plastic moulds for Controntation is not lamented nearly as much...

Luckily there are still plenty of metal miniatures around. I still see them regularly at conventions in discount bins and there's always something worth picking up

Also, the Cadwallon guys over in Ukraine are still in business; I ordered a bunch of bases from them earlier this year.

Their ownership of the designs might be questionable, but they have expanded the ranges with proprietary designs of their own and at least they keep (most of) the old stuff available.

Next to Gibby64's Confrontation Continuum of course, who has managed to get the original sculptor onboard for a most wonderful expansion of the old ranges and even an official updated rulebook!

(Which is a breath of fresh air after the money grabbing fraud that was Confrontation Resurrection...).

At any rate; there's no dearth of Confrontation fans and attempts to keep Rackham's legacy alive

[Philotep]

Always nice to see Rackham minis. It's true that they are not easy to paint, and you've done a nice job on them. I also have that Goblin pirate clan to paint, one day maybe...