Krakow trip.

Well, that seemed to come around really quickly, one minute it was Christmas, then my birthday -a landmark 60th if you must know the numbers- and then suddenly it was off to Kraków in Poland for the weekend with my daughter. She had wanted to do something special for the occasion and this was it.
   Now there are two things about Kraków (pronounced Krakuf), one I knew and one I didn't; I knew it was going to be perishing cold in January -it reached -6 C with snow- so that was no real surprise but I didn't know how nice both the city and the people are. Some of them who were trying to sell you tickets for a horse and carriage ride would quite happily direct you anywhere you wanted to go...and smile while they were doing it! My daughter had worked there in the summer so she made a pretty good guide -for pubs, zapiekanki (street food) sites and vodka bars...but she didn't know much about the museums. Luckily, Google came to the rescue and I found a few on there including Wawel (pronounced Vavel) Castle. I had previously made a list of interesting places -to me anyway- that I wanted to visit so we worked out a plan of action. We flew out of Gatwick at 0815 on Friday and arrived at 1215 (Kraków is an hour ahead). Friday afternoon -a walk around the old town on the way to Wawel Castle while checking out some of the local restaurants for an evening meal. Some of the buildings date back to the 18th Century and some churches are from the early medieval times. One, St Andrews, along with Wawel Castle, were the only stone edifices left standing after the ten day siege by the Mongols in early March 1241!

   

(I have other pics but for some reason it wants to display them as landscape rather than portrait).

About Wawel Castle. Hulking great place, quite a good museum with lots of armour and bits from the husaria period (Renaissance Winged Hussars to the non Polish speakers). Looks the mutts thinks I, got to give that one a look over. Walks in goes up to the ticket counter and sees a sign saying that the Castle Armoury section is closed until Jan 25th. If we had turned up the bl**dy day before it would have been open but... Not happy but nothing you can do; so I bought a guide instead. It was almost like a Bullseye moment when Jim Bowen used to say "Lets see what you would have won". Gutted, especially after looking through the guide. So this is as close as I got to husaria material in Poland -a model display in the shop!

But you have to be the bigger person and move on so we went to the Aircraft Museum (Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego) and boy did that come good!

Here is a link to all the planes they have there:

http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/zbiory.php?w=a&zb=aeroplanes

These are just a few of the pics I took.

 No idea what this is but took it for the colour scheme.

 Spitfire Mk 26

 Me 109 G

 Junkers JU52 (Tante Ju)

Mig 29 (Fulcrum)

At one of the art museums (the Krzysztofory) -a converted palace, I found this which I was quite chuffed about.

Jósef Brandt (1841-1915) and entitled Fight for a Turkish standard, (Walka o sztander tureckie). Quite the action pic. There was also a famous painting by Piotr Michałowski depicting the uphill charge of a squadron of Polish Lancers at the Somosierra  Pass during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain but that only loads sideways as well. 

I found these in the courtyard of the Palace of Bishop Erasmus Ciolek (Palac Biskupa Erazma Ciolka). This place was full of religious paintings and statuary but in the central courtyard were these. Bit random.

The size of the mortar bore is anybody's guess but the size of the stone cannon balls are intriguing.

I took over 300 pictures of various buildings, churches, aircraft and all other sorts of whatnot, picked up a number of museum guidebooks with useful bits and pieces in but the prize was a book called 'Digital Reconstructions of the Historic Built up areas of Kraków'. 170 pages of larger than A4 size with fold out full colour pictures of the evolution of the city. Early timber frames, stone, the lot. Cost me 60 złoty (about £10) and was an absolute steal if you are interested in making your own, reasonably accurate terrain like wot I is. 
     Monday morning came around too quick. We had to leave the hotel at 1000 because our flight was at 1215. The temperature had dropped significantly overnight which is where the -6 comes into it but as well as that, while at the airport the snow started to come down in large flakes and we had to have the wings de-iced before we could take off! 
     Luckily we made it safely back to good old Blighty. It was a fantastic experience and I would definitely go again if the opportunity presented itself...especially to the displays at Wawel Castle!

I went, I watched and then came home again.

Well, the Blues are off to Wembley to take on Arsenal after beating the Irons 4-3 on aggregate. Carlton Cole put away a screamer after splitting two defenders and everyone thought that's it, 3-1 over both legs. Do you know how difficult it is to sit there with clenched teeth and fists in your lap when your team score and you are amongst at least 16,000 of the opposition supporters? Let me tell you, when Cole scored I felt like jumping and screaming like a banshee, but I couldn't...unlike like my mate and MO did when Blues scored. I put on brave smile, stood and clapped magnanimously.
Everyone thought it was game over except Alex Mcleish, the Blues manager. The b*gger did it again,put a rocket up their bums and Blues came out in the second half like a different team and scored twice to even it up. About midway through the half McLeish decided to bring on the head on legs that is Nicola Zigic -as MO put it 'he's good at being tall'. (For those who don't know, Zigic is 6" 9' without his socks on.) Luckily he can't jump -not that he has to- but he most definitely is the comedy element. Using his head and both feet, he sprayed the ball everywhere -to Hammers players, off the pitch and even into empty space. Boy did we chuckle. And then, in the first period of extra time, the lanky swine only went and made a pass out into the space where Gardiner was lurking.
Gardiner tee'd it up and wellied it, low and hard down to Green's right. Keeper managed to get a solid hand on it but it spun over his arm and in. He obviously thought he should have done better because he immediately held his head in his hands.

Overall, I would have to say that the Blues were a bit hungrier, having more shots -and on target- than the Irons. But nevertheless, it was a bl**dy good game and I'm so chuffed I got to go. Ta again MO!

PS There's even a chance of me going to Wembley with MO and my mate. This time I will definitely follow the Blues and holler and shout like the rest of them...but I draw the line at wearing a Blues shirt. Although they are my second favourite team in the country there are limits.

Only about football, this one.

MO came up from the smoke for the festivities, got turfed off the train at Coventry with no explanation only that trains weren't going any further, (found out later power lines were down between Coventry and Brummagem International), on the day before all the white stuff fell from the sky. While he has been up here he has already bought my birthday present, wait for it, wait for it...a ticket to see the Blues v the Hammers in the second leg, Carling Cup semi-final. So on 26th January, MO, my Bluenose mate across the road and myself will be going to St Andrews for the match. Outnumbered again, and I will have to sit with the Blues fans but I'm going, that's the main thing. Can't wait. Meanwhile MO, the lucky so-snd-so, has a mate darn sarth who is also a Hammers fan and the git is also going to the first leg at Upton Park on 11th January.

Ha! Ha! Fooled You!

Whilst going through my Blog Settings just a moment ago I noticed a little tick square to show location on readers page...so I ticked it. Now you can all see that I live in Middle England in a small village called Brummagem, a mere stones throw from Sutton Coldfield. But, I hear you cry, you are a follower of a football team that wears claret and blue and is not Aston Villa (or Burnley for that matter). Of course not! I originally hail from further daan sarf, at the eastern end of Thames River to be exact (Google it if you're not sure, why should I do everything for you?) I moved to my current domicile in just-before-the-middle-of-the-eighties and have been here ever since.  The Irons is an easy one, my family originally hail from Romford and Chadwell Heath area and -as I found out only a few years ago- most of them were/are West Ham followers anyway. (Apart from one cousin who is a Spurs fan, but no one's perfect).
Now this is where it gets a tad confusing. I have what is now called an Estuary Accent (but a bit upmarket; what with me pronouncing 'th' as 'th' instead of 'ff' and missing the 'k' from the end of words such as something (sumfink) or nothing (nuffink). EO (Eldest Offspring) has a reasonable Brum accent but takes after his old man and is a Hammer. MO , like father, has an Estuary Accent but even more upmarket than mine coz he is an actor an all, who has had electrocution lessons, don't you know -he is an ardent Bluenose (Birmingham City Supporter to the non-locals).  See what I mean? Confusion abounds. Oh, and by the way, YO and OH have no football interest whatsoever.
Keep it wet,
Mick

And after...Life must go on

Well, after nearly a month of waiting for the wheels of officialdom to get up to speed, the funeral for my mother-in-law is next Tuesday. Sad days, I'm sure everyone who knew her will miss her. Goodbye Maureen.

Something New

Above from top to bottom: The Ribat (or religious fort) at Sousse, ruins of Roman Carthage x 2, El Djem x 2. The last two taken in 2008
A new enterprise idea reared its head while I was kicking my heels in Tunisia...a book. Not just any book but an historical one. 'Sit down that heckler at the back shouting, What a novel idea!' Something Mongol, I thought, falling back to my favouritest military period of all time to date. Then I had more thoughts about what's already been done and what was still available. So I made a few notes and came up with -what I think is a workable idea- about one of the most brilliant but as yet largely unwritten about strategic campaigns in history. So there it is. Using my own not too small collection of Mongol material plus the huge resources of Britains Library system I should be able to put something together.
  Still painting. So far the unit of Chin heavy cavalry is painted and stuck down awaiting base colours and the last of my Chin infantry -a unit of crossbow men- is alongside the camels mentioned earlier, both awaiting undercoating. After that who knows, maybe some 10mm Ancient Gauls. This is for two reasons, a) While in Tunisia I visited Carthage and was impressed immensely, even though most of the stuff was Roman, so a Carthaginian Army is on the cards; and b) I already have a number of Roman cohorts painted to receive them. (I also have 3 x  500ml plastic water bottles with authentic Arabic writing on them filled with Tunisian sand ready for the bases. Anorak or what! Or could it be the purist in me? You decide.)
Another wargaming project for the future is a Khwarizmian Army in 10mm, (actually a generic Middle Eastern Army that will go from the Saracens to the Mamluks and possibly beyond a bit), again inspired by the visit to Tunisia. Hence the pictures of the Ribat at Sousse.
Who said wargamers have butterfly interests? Whoever it was got it bang on, especially if one is painting for oneself. Anyway, any unfinished projects will always get picked up again further on down the timeline of my wargaming life. I mean I have figures that havent seen the light of day in decades, then all of a sudden I get an urge -if you know what I mean- and off I go again at another tangent. Then again, I also have historical books that I have never read in periods that I don't know much about or I'm not interested in...yet, the day will come I assure you. Out of 900+ military books I've probably read somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of them, the rest gather dust until they become required reading.
On another completely different note I now have three parts of the beginning of a collection. When MO went to Rome he managed to smuggle back a small piece of the Colluseum. When in Tunisia last year I 'borrowed' a small piece of the El Djem Amphitheatre and this year I found a small piece of Carthaginian rubble in my bag when I got home. I would like to stress that as a dedicated afficianado of history, these pieces were not removed from any structure but were found lying on the ground.

An army nearly done?

Cast your mind back several months to a rant about camera's and sunny days and how I only managed to get a few piccys. Well, after an intervening period of about an eon, MO has finally sent them to me via electronic means. One is quite good, another is reasonable, the rest are blurred and frankyl c**p. I have posted the two good ones.  The top one is of some Lybian Spearmen as per WRG Mack and Pube 1st ed. that Mini Figs based their range on back when both Noah and I were both young. The second has my version of Greek mercs on the left with Carthaginian citizen spears on the right, both Lamming. In front of them are some archers from an unknown manufacturer. (Bear in mind these figs have been in the high tower for millenia so memory is a bit iffy). Head, shield, and boby swaps abound. All terrain pieces made by Yours Truly. Carpet tile courtesy of an old, condemned building.
The title is somewhat misleading...a wargamer never really finishes an army, he just finishes painting what he has at that time. I mean so far I have 12 units of 10mm Sung/Xin/Hsi Hsia Chinese. that may not sound like a lot but remember there are a minimum of 50 figs in an HI unit (3 of); 27 figs in a MI unit (6 of); 12 LC (2 of); 21 HC (1 of) and a rocket unit. That totals over 300 inf and 45 cav...so far. On top of that there are 11 units of Mongol cavalry -1x24 EHC, 2x24 HC and 8x12 LC. Enough for a small game pitting one aganst the other or a large game taking on someone else. So now I may have to move onto the 10mm Celts...until I get some more Asiatics that is.
    Anyway, just come back from an unusually hot Bank Holiday weekend in north Wales, between Conway and Rhyl to be a bit more precise. Weather as I said was good as was the company -wife, friends from over the road and their daughter. Caught the sun quite nicely thank you (dig at pundits et al spouting on about ET waves). Now, overcast and windy. As  Billy Conolly says, if you don't like the weather, wait around for fifteen minutes, it'll change.
At least the Irons finished a highly creditable 9th considering the almost season long injury problems with First Team players. Nice to see Kieron Dyer back and well done to Scott Parker for being voted Hammer of the Year. To use a much over-rated but somehow pertinent Americanism, Zola Rocks!.
Keep your bristles straight,
Mick

10mm Expansionism and other stuff

Well, since Derby the painting brushes at chez ger have been hard at work and the following are now completed; For the Chinese, the two rocket launchers done in a rather nice red colour; a second unit of archers; the little diorama base of galloping horses with two Mongol 'minders', a little clump of trees in one corner and a rock from a beach on Mallorca in another. Yes, yes I know its not strictly accurate geographically speaking, but it looks half decent. Also, half done is a second Chinese crossbow unit.
When -or maybe I should say if- I ever do a Spanish army from any period or a Peninsular army of any nationality, the figure bases will be covered in small rocks and other detritus all collected from the same beach. Next year it will be sand from Tunisia for any north African army from any period. How much of an anorak is that! No, don't reply, it was a rhetorical question.
Tried something else in the way of tree manufacture the other day. In the local H'base they have green dyed sisal string in clumps to be used as hanging basket filler instead of poor old Pete. Wasn't an instant hit it must be said but maybe I will try again another day. If anyone can make it work let me know.
In between all of this, the keyboard has been taking a bit of a bladdering coz I mentioned to a certain magazine publisher at Derby that if he wanted I could do some articles on the Mongols. The so-and-so only went and said yes. So, there we are, steam rising from the pc, running out of candles and fingers worn down to the second knuckle, and don't even get me started on camera's. I offered to take some piccy's but apparently my 4 megalomanic-pixie camera can't paint the images well enough, you need six of the little buggers beavering away in the box. (Homage to Pratchett). Luckily YO had the required item -now all I need is a nice day. Ha! England in October, you must be having a Turkish mate. Never mind, the Met Office website will get bombarded with hits in the immediate future. Just in case.
Talking about England, the squad did well in the last two matches. Bit of a first half hiccup that could have gone pear-shaped against better opposition than the Khazaks but they came good in the end. Disgusted with the so-called 'fans' who booed Ashley Cole. The bloke made a mistake which led to a goal. You can't tell me that nobody has ever done anything like that before. Also, looking at the replay, Ferdinand the Elder is indicating for a back pass to James and behind him, the Khazak striker has already started a no more than hopeful run. Who was tracking him? The Invisible Man, that's who. Nobody moved or picked him up until the ball was in the air and then it was too late, the bloke had a half decent head start on everybody. Talk about rabbit's in headlights. Cole is probably pee'd off enough at himself without a few gumby's having a go as well. And that young kid saying that he needed to be taught a lesson. He's the one who could do with a lesson -one in respect. Ashley Cole deserved his place in that line-up and had a decent match before and after the incident. Then for the Belarus match Cole is 'injured'.  Whether his confidence is shot or what I don't know; I sincerely hope not and hope that he can get over it and play again. And of course that the gumby element in the crowd learn from their mistake. Booing anybody during a match for a mistake is not exactly confidence boosting is it? Rant over.
Found out what was wrong with the puter. Nothing to do with the machine itself but the mouse had got something stuck in the screen-rolling part of its components. A couple of swift taps with a size 3 rubber hammer  fixed it a treat. Working well enough now.

Amazing Thing Weather

Nothing whatsoever to do with wargames but I woke up this morning (blues riff if you please), looked out of the window and IT WASN'T RAINING! Now I know this won't mean much to anyone who was born 'offshore' but, believe it or not, even us Brits get mightily narked off with an almost constant vertical river. So it was an extremely welcome change to get up to sunshine. A bit of sunshine makes one want to do all sorts of crazy things, like go out. Mind you, brought back to earth with a bump when Middle Offspring (MO) phoned and informed me that he and his girlfriend had arrived in Tunisia where apparently it's silly hot. He's havng a well earned break from the West End, I've seen the show five times (The Buddy Holly Story, brilliant. Go see it. That's it, plug over.)
I know all about silly hot  coz me an' missus were there in June in the middle of a heatwave -a Mediterranean country with a heatwave, sounds wierd- but believe me it was a nice and warm 44 C (that's 111 F in old money, I know, I checked). Suddenly the whole world -well the bit where we were- was populated by two legged lobsters, amazing sight, I didn't know people really could go that colour! Whereas at this moment England it's currently a nice and sultry...19C.
Not difficult to see why people go abroad is it?

Fun Time Over

For the past few days the good lady and myself have been on a pilgrimage further ooop north from our country pile on the outskirts of Brummagem to the wilds of South Yorkshyre where the the youngest offspring (YO) is at Uni studying something medical. Too intelligent by half for the likes of yours truly. Only took an hour and a half by horseless carriage, bargain. Mind you,the boyfriend of YO is a safe but fast driver if you know what I mean. 
Whilst there took in some of the not-so-local sights, in fact we ended up at the Heights of Abraham in Matlock in deepest Derbycestershire (to quote another blogger). Came out of the caverns just in time to get wetter than soaked by a vertical river of a downpour. All good fun...once we'd all dried out.
   Consequently nothing much of note has happened in the way of rule writing. Apologies for the quality of the photo at the very head of the blog, I took about eight and that was the best one. To save you, the good reader from going boss-eyed trying to work out what it is...it's a base of some 10mm Mongol Supporting Cavalry. The photos will get better once I have a dry enough day to take some outside in the grounds.  I have added some photos of a Mongol v Poles/Russians game from a show a couple of years ago for your perusal.
All my own work including the non-pine trees and buidings et al.