Sunday 31 October 2010

News

Last Sunday, YO and I were having a chat and she said that she wanted to get rid of some of her old stuff down at the local Tip/Recycling Centre. Ha, thinks I as a brilliant opportunity presented itself. The local Wickes' DIY Superstore is near the Tip sooo, if I went with her -coz I don't drive and she does- I could pop in and check out the prices of the nice insulation boards that everybody in wargaming circles has been raving about. Using proper English measurements, not the imported stuff, it worked out at £4.99 for a 4' x 1' 6" board. After a niggle with a rather monosyllabic staff-person over an advertising display that said, plain as day, Buy 3 or more and get them at £3.99 each we walked out with three. (Never did get to the Tip by the way, YO changed her mind.)

Now, up until a few days ago I was prepared, even though my sawing is not the best, to cut them into 6 x 2' squares. Then I had a St. Paul's moment. Leave them alone with the nice and, most importantly, accurate straight edges and work on them as they are. Brilliant...apart from one thing -I only bought 3 of them! So now I can have a brick pattern of boards or a long, thin one. I know, the answer is simple, buy another one, but seeing as YO lives over the other side of the city, I don't know when she will be coming over again to get it. Anyway, there really isn't any rush, all 3 are sitting up here in the tower still in their virginal pinkness waiting for yours truly to extricate his digit and clear out some of the accumulated tat. Then I will be able to set up an 8' x 3' 6" table. Don't worry too much about the width, after all, nearly all my wargaming figures are 15mm or smaller so there will be nice open flanks for my cavalry armies.

Had a good old think about this and have decided to have the boards basically flat with some low bits of lumpiness glued on to break up the playing field look. All other terrain pieces like roads, rivers and marshes etc, will be freestanding.

Once I get going on the project I will try to post some pics but don't hold your breath, the house lights up here are good but possibly not quite good enough for photography. We will see when the time comes.

Keep yer bristles straight.

Mick

Sunday 10 October 2010

Derby purchases

Just thought I would share with you my purchases this year at the show.

Figures
5 x 6mm Irregular WWII German nebewerfer plus tows for Das Reich
5 x 6mm Irregular WW II Russian 76.2 field guns plus tows
1 x 10mm battlepack of Irregular Ancient Gauls/British (100 pieces)plus 3 extra chariots, (making 12 in total), and some more warband to make up the numbers.
3 x 10mm cohortes of Romans (1 regular, 2 auxiliary) (90 figures)
3 x 15mm Irregular Sassanid Persian bolt throwers
30 x 15mm Donnington Sassanid Levy infantry
5 x 15mm Donnington Sassanid cavalry (general, standard bearer and 3 guards)
9 x 15mm Museum Miniatures Mongol LC. (I do like these figures, one piece castings, good variety of positions, full of animation and movement -hmmm, might even end up with a whole tumen of them later.)
6 x 10mm Pendrakan Roman bolt throwers

Bases and Terrain
Proper green paint by Vallejo for WWII Russians
3 x bags of different coloured thick flock powder and a set of 7 brightly coloured tiny bits to make flower heads from. Looked good on the Sheffield Irregulars stand. I admit it, I had a go and it seems to work okay.
6 x Timecast 6mm Russian Front buildings (for a bit of variety).
2 x packs of 14 pre-cut MDF bases
2 x pack of round bases for generals (got 2 because it was a BOGOF deal).
The last two items are from a company called Warbases, nice blokes, good deal. Unfortunately, you'll have to Google it coz I can't get the linky thingy to work.

Books
Plus what I considered to be a real steal from one of the bookshops there, a mint copy of Great Battles of the Civil War by J. Macdonald for £5 ( do your own conversion if reqd.)

Saturday 2 October 2010

Derby report

As I mentioned previously, I went to Derby today. Boy do I like that show, none of the hugeness and impersonality of Salute-in-the-aircraft-hanger that is Excel, but a nice sized friendly show. I even said as much to one of the organizers whom I got chatting to. A good day was had by all. YO dropped me at the uni campus then went off in a cloud of dust to go shopping in Derby with the missus -result. And guess what, I remembered the camera, in fact I took two just to be sure. 107 photos all found, some not bad, others okay and some a bit blurred but I know what they are so I'll keep them anyway.
Some really good games this year. A 40mm ACW with about 1200 figures and some outstanding and eye catching flags. A large 'L' shaped version of Waterloo and a game with a very impressive model of the granary at Apern-Essling, both in 25mm. And then I came across a game after a my own heart, a refight of Liegnitz (Mongols v Polish in 1241) by the Curteys lads, a nice 15mm version of Fontenoy and a visually impressive 25mm WWII involving a fight over two railway bridges. Got everything I wanted -and some stuff I didn't but couldn't resist, you know how it is. Also spoke to some people who gave me a tutorial on how to make some nice, flowery bases. More on this when I try it myself. Unfortunately, it was a bit uncomfortable sitting on a hard chair coz I have a mahoosive abscess on my posterior which is giving me some stick at the mo.