Motivation Monday – Community Spotlight – K Robinson
7th Mar 2022
Jonny Mann
Hello and welcome to Motivation Monday!
This series of blogs will delve into the wonderful Mantic fanbase to find stories and interviews with some of the most well-known and loved members of our community, with the hope and intention of inspiring the rest of us to dust of those sprues, pick up that brush or take the leap into a new game.
Today we speak to … K Robinson
Hi folks, I’m K, or Kay if you’re not into the whole brevity thing. You probably know me from resin casting, previous blogs, etc. Whilst I remember Mantic starting up, I didn’t know much about it until I joined the company late 2018 for the Vanguard kickstarter and was very surprised by the quality of the new releases, the resins in particular.
My tabletop gaming began in the misty age of Christmas 1996, bringing me to 25 full years in a few weeks (at time of writing). This is genuinely quite exciting for me, and has me feeling nostalgic, and looking ahead to the years to come. I recruited all my friends into Warhammer Fantasy at the time, and then 40k, and now plan to do the same for Kings of War and Deadzone. My hobby has waxed and waned over the years, inevitably, but never stopped entirely. There’s never been a time in the last 25 years that my desk hasn’t been covered in bits of miniatures, and that’s quite reassuring really.
What is your favourite Mantic game and why?
My favourite game is probably Kings of War, few things beat a rank and flank game for spectacle as hordes of models march around definitely dealing death and destruction and not rolling loads of 1s. The launch of Deadzone 3.0 definitely caught my attention, and I’ve waxed lyrical a number of times about just how much better it is than 2nd edition in terms of quality of presentation, colour, and shelf eye-catching…ness. That’s a thing. It’s quick and simple to play, and easier to sneak a game in here and there. I always return to rank and flank games though ultimately, and Kings of War is honestly the best.
What is your favourite faction or army and why?
If I had to describe my favourite faction (as if there were a series of questions laid out to follow), it would probably be the ogres. I had an ogre army back in the Fantasy days, and am working on a Mantic one now. I’ve always had a soft spot for plucky humans in dangerous settings, like GCPS, Kingdoms of Men etc, outmatched and facing all manner of monsters with nothing but a pointy stick. Ogres however are still a fairly unique concept as an army. All large infantry, towering over standard units. People always joke that it’s because of the small model count, but really what that allows you to do is work on each model, convert them, do something interesting. For Kings of War they’re also incredibly efficient in terms of footprint. It’s something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately with retrospectives on old models floating around. ‘Ogres do good combat’ as Sunny once declared, and has never lived down since. They really do, and do so on a reasonably small multibase.
Do you have a favourite mini?
My favourite mini in our range is the Abbess character (and ship, to be fair). There’s so much personality and detail in that single infantry figure. I also love the tail of the Slasher, and Hellboy’s fist. More recently, the Salamander Tyrants are lovely as well, as are the resin ogre characters. I’m going to stop there or I will ramble forever naming everything.
What’s on your hobby desk at the moment?
On my desk right now are three hordes of ogres being painted, and two more still in bags. Also some GCPS, and an Enforcer jetbike because I like to swoop it round going ‘nyoooooom’.
I am hoping to finish the ogres very soon and then start planning the next project. Currently deciding between Halfling cavalry, Salamander Corsairs, and Riftforged Orcs.
And finally anything else you’d like to add.
This year, I’m hoping to get a tournament or two under my belt, and play some games at HQ.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and I hope I’ll see you face to face across the table.
