A new beginning...possibly

Well, you will be pleased to know that I have recovered my strength following the last post and am 'well up for it'... whatever it is! Ideas and projects spin through my mind like bodies orbiting a star, sometimes they will collide and gel to form a new idea and other times they just go round and round in circles, missing each other almost as if they are waiting for a time when I have one of those famed Eureka! moments and go off at a physical tangent. This is the main problem with painting figures and having no wargaming outlet. Feedback is a crucial element in our hobby for inspiring people to either just carrying on with a project or moving on to greater things. I have not had a wargame for at least three years but the entusiasm is still shining away rythmically like a lighthouse beacon. I like painting figures and over the years have amassed quite a large number of them in a variety of scales and periods. A few years ago I worked out that I had the equivalent of at least thirty-five 6mm armies; and I'm not talking about a block ( I use predominately Irregular Miniatures apart from WW II) to a unit either. My Mongol Army is 89 blocks in size, Turkish Reniassance numbers 54 infantry, 30 cavalry and 4 artillery pieces: ACW Confederate is 132 infantry, 24 cavalry, 5 guns and limbers, 10 wounded, 4 wagons, 4 horse holders and 1 command base with an Union force not much smaller. The WWII Das Reich SS Division is at 1:5 strength with 15 Panthers and 30 Pz IV's plus all the offensive support material. My 10mm 'stuff' is still ongoing, as is 15mm and 25mm. I can always find something to paint or make. For not only do I paint figures but I will make all the terrain pieces as well. The north tower could quite easily get overgrown with forestation in a number of scales if I wanted it to!
Looking back over this post I trust the reader will forgive the mental meanderings of a wargamers mind, but will understand my motives for carrying on. It's a labour of love, an addiction, call it what you will. I'm just so glad that I suffer from it.
Keep 'em straight.
Mick
P.S. Just as another aside, as proof of my scary fixation with the Mongols, I have four armies of the little blighters -6mm, 10mm, 15mm and 25/28mm. Worrying, isn't it?

Possibly the Worst Film of all time!!!!!

I apologise in advance for the next  sentence. I have never seen the Hollywood 'epic' Genghis Khan and as it was on Channel 5 (one of our terrestrial channels for the foreign readers), I thought here's my chance.
Boy, what a mistake that was! I really, really wish I hadn't bothered.
Now I didn't know any of this and I don't think any of the historians who have meticulously researched the man over the centuries knew the following facts either. According to the film:
1. Jamuka (Stephen Boyd in sneering-face mode) killed Temujin's (Omar Sharif) father Yesugai.
2. Jamuka was considerably older than Temujin and they started out as sworn enemies not friends.
3. Subedai (a very young Kenneth Cope), Jelmei (or Jebei, the names were said far too quickly),  and Khasar were all the brothers of Borte (some French sounding blond??? actress I'd never heard of).
4. It was the Chinese Emperor (played admirably by Robert Morley), who named Temujin Genghis Khan, not the Mongols.
5. The Khwarazmian-shah (a suitably attired Eli Wallach) along with Jamuka, attacked GK. In the battle, GK used cannon to great effect causing the Khwarazmian-shah to panic and order a retreat whereupon Jamuka stabs and kills him.
6. Subedai is killed at the battle. At least I'm pretty sure it was Subedai because the fleeting picture looked like Kenneth Cope wearing a helmet and with a daft moustache glued on.
6. Soon afterwards, Jamuka is captured and he and GK have a 'Mongol Duel?' The fight can only end one way and Jamuka is finally killed but mortally wounds GK in the process. The final scene is that of GK saying goodbye to his missus who is holding a babe in her arms -must be Ogadai because I saw another, older rug rat and a child, presumably Jochi and Jagatai- one of whom was being held aloft by a warrior. He decrees with his dying breath that, until his children reach their majority, the land should be ruled by Borte and her two remaining brothers.
And these were just the big ones that I noticed and remembered. Give me a pen, a pad and a pause button and I have no doubt that I could find many, many more.
The burning question is, how is it that so so may illustrious luminaries have got it so utterly and completely wrong? The answer is of course they didn't.
Now the rant.
The cinema and its smaller brother television entertain us in a variety of ways and at a number of different levels. History is fact. It is chronicled, sometimes by people who were there, and sometimes by people who were contemporaries of people who were there and then later by historians. My point is this, how it is so easy for the writers of a piece of cinema, and by association, television, to ride roughshod over history as if it were mere guidelines rather than -literally in some cases- set in stone.
Poetic licence, some cry! Entertainment value, shout others! Utter B*&&*+ks I shout back! Get it as right as you can. 
Another and more dangerous adjunct to this random slashing through the pages of history is that some people actually believe and are influenced by what they are seeing. Get it wrong and a whole generation grow up being convinced that it either didn't happen or at the very least, didn't happen in that way.
As an aside to this I have spoken to Polish people who would swear that the Mongols either never invaded their country or, if you can get them to admit the truth, they will say that we beat them and they went away. Huh! I have also spoken to people in the know who have said that there are over 400 historical inaccuracies in the film Cromwell...this is after the publicity said that it had been researched 'for over ten years!' 
This is how history gets perverted by the minor deity Entertainment. The Romans had a saying, Bread and Circuses. In other words, if you keep the masses entertained, they will not think or ask questions. That is what Entertainment has become, because the great deity, Hollywood, has decreed 'This is our version of how it is/was. Do not question it.'
Utter Rubbish! Question everything you see that is historical. If you like what you see then go down to your nearest booksellars/library and find out the truth. Then make up your mind. Don't just rely on cinema or television.
In the case of GK, from what I have read -which incidentally is quite a fair amount- the mans life was interesting enough and definitely cinema-worthy on any number of levels without having to embellish it by glaring errors.
God, I'm knackered after all that ranting, takes it out of you, you know.
Keep your paint 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.

Life kicks you in the nads every so often.

Well, had a good first week in Tunisia then it all went pear shaped. My mother-in-law fell badly and ended up in the local hospital for the second week. My wife and I had to come home on time but my father-in-law stayed out there. Then I got a call from the Foreign Office saying that that sadly, my mother-in-law had passed away on the 23rd. 

  So, there you are. one day you are as happy as Larry, having a great time and then Life turns it all around as if to say, 'Enough, you're having too much fun. This has to stop.'

Makes you stop and think, doesn't it. 

Typical English Weather??!!!

Well, here I am sittijng at the computamabob in a pair of shorts and nought else because in the summer the far north tower is like an incinerator. I have a thermometer going up to 27 and its way beyond that. Still, can't wait for Sunday when the missus and I are jetting off to the sunny climate of North Africa for a well deserved fortnight break. Of course, being of the male persuasion I haven't even thought about packing anything yet...probably do it in ten minutes on Saturday evening. 

Painting wise I am currently making a few adjustments to some Magister Militum baggage camels bought at Derby last year. So far added some javelins to one, glued on a tied up blanket onto another and bent a few necks for pose variety. There will be 4 or 5 of them on a base, so should look quite nice. 

Latest thoughts are gearing towards a Chin castle. Seen some pics on the web of some place stuck at the end of Great Wall which has possibilities or I may even go for a generic type; undecided as yet. (The Russian castle is on temporary hold coz it's so bl***y labour intensive!) Also I have found a use for all those long wooden stirrers that I helped myself to in various outlets of a certain meat-in-a-bun chain of 'food' stores knowing that they would be useful one day. Well that day has arrived -no fanfare required- they are going to be used in the construction of my siege towers to use against said castle.  

See you all in three weeks.

Keep your bristles straight,

Mick

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

Long Time Passing

Well, its now the middle of May and all sorts of thinigs have happened. Gainfully employed again albeit for only 18 hours a week. Started writing a fantasy novel just to see what happens. Painted Jack all coz its too cold in the upper north wing. Broke two computers, had to wipe this one today to ensure fastest possible time repsonse interfacing wotnot?!! I don't know, the last real computers I worked on were about the size of a house, the largest at the time used little gold rings to represent binary code and had a huge capacity of 1KB. Yeah, pick the bones out of that one you modernists! Back in the day we had real computers, not the plastic ones you get nowadays.
Looking wistfully at the pile of 10mm Celts on my table and hoping every time that they will paint themselves but so far...nothing. Probably as much chance of winnning the lottery, looks like I'll have to do the job myself - when I can work up the enthusiasm.
West Ham are doing okay, currently lying seventh in the table but they've got Liverpool on Saturday then Everton the week after and then finally Middlesborough. What an end to the season. If they can stay seventh it'll be brilliant but I can't see it, not with that opposition.

All reasonably quiet on the West Midlands Front

Well, it's late November and not much has been going on at the Last Homely House in Brum, although saying that, the 10mm Mongols and Chin are coming along apace. I've also decided that if the rules I'm writing don't work out, I can always use Warmaster...with a bit of good old, home grown tweaking of course; after all, everything is organised on 3 same sized, base units. I have found some conversion tables on the inet so will have to check it out.

Other important stuff.

MO has told us- if anyone is planning to go and see Buddy Holly down the smoke, get in quick coz it's closing in February after an eighteen month run.

YO at Uni is on a placement and has her own patients, not bad for a second year student. All the family are well chuffed.

EO has a job, a missus -his words- and things are looking rosy there as well.

And then there is West Ham. Sliding periously down the table, only one point from the last... quite a few matches. I like Zola, he's youngish, obviously passionate and he is definately trying. I hope he can get a better chance than others before the suits start interfering. Three points against Sunderland today would be nice.

Remaining stuff to paint and THE GAME

I did have this list below as part of the layout but I looked at it a couple of times and got understandedly depressed because I knew that wasn't even near half of the lead mountain. I took it off and put it in a post where hopefully I can come back every so often and check progress.

6mm (all Irregular)

Loads of the litle blighters including-in no particular period order:

Egyptians, Hittites, Franco-Prussian (both Franco and Prussian), Late WW I French plus others I can't remember unless I go looking. In total, about a size 8 shoe box full.

10mm

Gauls (0), Remaining -all of em

Romans (28), Remaining -none

Chinese (52) Remaining (66i, 18c)

Mongols (about 20c), Remaining -none

15mm

Polish Renaissance (0), Remaining -all of em

Cossack Renaissance (0), Remaining -all of em

Marlburian British (216i) Remaining lots!

Marlburian Prussian (0), Remaining -all of em

WWII Germans (0), Remaining -all of em

25/28mm

Carthaginians (150i, 4c), Remaining -(40+i, 8c)

It's the Game this afternoon, Irons v Gunners. According to Zola, take the game to them and they don't like it, stop them playing their neat passing game (Wenger is to be commended for this, nice football, pleasure to watch. Grieves me to say it but it's true.), and they are beatable. Lets hope so.

Keeping with the non-Mongol posts...

        Above: Polish Winged Hussars and the general, Grand Hetman Chodkiewitz. (Hinchcliffe                            and OG).
    Above:  Russian Foot Cossacks supported by Drab infantry. (Mix of Hinchcliffe, Essex and                           OG).
      Below: Polish commander chats to an officer. (Essex mounted figure converted from some                          Renaissance  figure or another with wing attached and scratch-built mace. Foot figure                    of unknown provenance).                                          

               Below:  The pride of the Polish army, the Winged Hussars (Hinchcliffe figures).


            Above: Big bugger of a cannon. (Crew -unknown. The cannon is a kids toy that fires                                  matchsticks -  the trigger can be seen below the barrel- but was too nice to pass up.)
Not much more to say after the abortive attempts to take piccys of Mongols and Poles/Russians the other day. YO is wending her way back from Uni next week and she has the bits to plug her camera card straight into her fliptop machine, hopefully I should get a look-see at my attempts.
While you are are holding your breath, here is my version of the old in-between-progarammes Test Card, (I'm afraid you'll have to play your own background music). its some piccys of my Polish Renaissance Army taken a few years ago. Compare them with the Mongols who were painted later -especially the skins, now I use a darker base colour and it seems to work. In fact the Polish was the first 25mm army I had painted in about 15 years so I was a bit rusty. But you wait until the Carthaginian pics come out (hopefully, because they were also on the camera when it went on strike). Conversions everywhere, bright colours abound, lots of the old MiniFigs from the WRG Macedonian and Punic Wars First Edition. (Remember that? If not ask your dad), Yes, I still have a copy as well as the original Armies and Enemies. I also have a copy of 3rd Ed. WRG Ancient rules; plus, if you really want to get old and rare, a copy of Rene North's Military Uniforms still sits on my bookshelf; Funcken's in French...the sad list goes on and so could I, but luckily for you I won't. There are also a shedload of old Lamming Greeks that I had lying about painted as Carthaginian veterans.  
As it is said locally, I am 'chuffed to little meatballs' with them...no, I haven't got a clue what it means either -it must be a Midlands thing.

Technology is vastly over rated!

When everything is going smoothly technology is a wonderful aid to modern living, but of course, when everthing is going smoothly you wonder why and more importantly, how long for. Take today for example. Got up -nothing new there- sun was shining -novelty value, off the scale for October in Birmingham. After breccy I said to the other half (OH), 'Suns out, so I'm going to take some piccys for the articles I'm writing'.
'Okay, but don't be too long coz I need to hang the washing out and you'll be in the way.'
'Shouldn't take long.' I said sprightly. (You can almost hear the patter of gremlin feet as they begin to queue just off camera, can't you.)
Struggled manfully with large cardboard storage crates -one of figures the other with terrrain- down from the loft; got the camera, tripod, spare batteries, carpet tiles for base and so on and managed to get it all into the garden. Knackered out so had a cup of tea, (supplied by considerate OH).
Laid out tiles, placed lines of trees in the background to obscure the garden fence and trellis, put a couple of other terrain bits across joins in tiles and put the figures on the table. Set up the tripod, locked down camera, took picture. Obligatory click from camera; one in the bag. Took another couple from other angles just cos I could. Things are going swimmingly. Moved figures out of shot, (see, I can be technical if I want), carefully organised next layout. Pressed button. Silence. the back of the camera was  dark. Now the lens was still open, the camera was pointed the right way, no thumb in shot etc., nothing but still dark. Not a sausage, bugger all. Technical hitch, thinks I. Unlocks camera, changes batteries so that the six megalomanical pixies are fed, tries again. Same response. Cussed a bit, fiddled a lot and tried again. Success...for another two pictures, then darkness once more. This went on for about an hour; a couple of piccys than lockout. Came to the logical conclusion that the camera, being of oriental manufacture, was not built for use in the English sunshine; obviously, the pixies are squinting too much to paint accurately.
OH came back from visit to neighbours and had a quick gripe about the mechanics of washing; hours of sunshine left to dry said washing equals more expense of using tumble dryer and the fact I said I wouldn't be that long etc. Had a quick strop myself before stuttering into silence under one of her best withering glares.
So now I have approx ten pictures that may be okay, I don't know coz I still cant' get into the ruddy camera to check.

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.

Derby Show

I like the Derby show, it takes me back to when I were a young lad in sunny Southend back in the early 70's and we used to go to nice sized shows, chat to a lot of people; get a chance to wander about a lot without having to fight your way past a testudo of backpacks to have a look at some manufatcurer or another's latest offerings and generally take in the atmosphere. Derby is all this and more. The split between traders and games is about right even though Dunc the Mac told me that there were over 70 traders there, not bad at all. Mind you, when you can go to a show and get everything you want and a bit more besides it must be good. (Thinking back, the choice of manufacturers back in the day was severely limited...Minfigs, Hinton Hunt and Hinchcliffe were the main stalwarts, although others were starting up -Warrior, Dixon, Lamming etc. But we were happy.) 

Some nice games on show, unfortunately my camera batteries died before I could get piccy's of all of them. It's strange sometimes you can't get a new slant on things for ages and then two come along along at once. Instead of the usual Wars of the Roses Medieval there was a nice Poles against Ottomans by the Derby Wargames Society and Stonewall put on a huge 25mm Medieval recreation of the Battle of Vaslui in 1475 -no, I'd never heard of it either, but it was nice all the same. Shedloads of 25mm figures on a humungously large 'L' shaped table. Apparently it was between Ottomans and loads of eastern European types.  Another game that immediately caught the eye was J A Designs and friends with their 10mm W W II. Very nicely painted. Check out his website at http://www.quarks-bar.co.uk/ The stuff you see there is the stuff they were using. 

Border Reivers and their 25mm Great Northern War Battle of Streszow put some very nicely painted figures on the table and I found out something really useful. For ages Mr Hilton and the others at LoA had been using cloth as the base for their standards, so have Border Reivers, (and Stonewall for that matter but they print theirs on). You know what they use? Old shirts! For crying out loud! It's so bloody obvious it's too obvious if you know what I mean. I've got about 10 old white shirts with logo's on that I will never wear again so my next 25mm army is going to have cloth standards...and probably every army I will ever paint after that. I was told if you superglue it to the pole then wrap around once and superglue again then paint the base colour on while its flat, that stiffens it up nicely. Another neat trick I found out from a gentleman at Stonewall. If you use a pice of brass tube and wrap the standard around that, the whole thing then slides over the pole. Glaringly obvious advantage -ECW, 30YW and probably others. One set of figures, two sets of standards. easy innit?

All good stuff.

Irregular were there with their 10mm range so another Mongol light cav unit (12 cav) plus a plethora of Chinese -1 x 24 archers, 2 x 24 crossbows, 1 x 42 halbardiers and 1 x 24 heavy cavalry, two wagons and two rocket launchers were duly purchased. Checked out the usefulness of other figures to use as Russians/Polish and was pleasantly surprised -most of the other TC range looks pretty handy.

Magister Militum supplied some free roaming horses and a bag of baggage camels for some little cameo bases of -funnily enough- wild horses and baggage camels.

Pendraken Normans can be used for Russian/Polish militia types.

Kallistra are nice but incompatible with the three above -they are too big, more like 12mm. However, saying that, I bought a bag of the Mongol Command. The reasoning behind this is that all the figures will be on the same base and away from everyone else so hopefully the difference will not be too noticable.

Didn't go a bundle on Old Glory. Looked at the siege range and thought I can do the same in card so I didn't bother.

All in all a good Saturday well spent.

I am getting really racked off with this bloody computer. The missus forgot to feed the hamster and he is not spinning the wheel or the elastic band is on its way out or whatever the problem is, it keeps losing my page or changing things and not telling me. I reckon it's going to be an 'up against the nearest wall job' pretty damn soon if it doesn't start behaving. 

Look out, another month has just shot past!

Above is a picture (also on the 10mm wargaming yahoo group website (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/10mm-Miniatures/ ) of the first of my Roman cohorts.  Please ignore the table top, the garden hose, the fence and the wall in the background. Also before I get inundated with comments about the broken standared on the centre base...I know its broken, it happened after the bloke was glued down so there was nothing I could do. Mind you, it can only be seen if you enlarge the photo.
Well, October certainly crept up on me. All of a sudden it's the Derby show this weekend; probably going up on the Saturday. The older you get, the faster the time passes. (Whoever said that first should have immediately slapped a copyright on it -he'd be rolling in it by now.)
Mongol's and the rest have gone off the boil a bit, mainly because I don't have any more to paint...but I do have 10mm Romans and Gauls. Now, as of the time of this post the Romans have 3 cohorts of regulars plus two of supporting infantry and both units of cavalry for the legion.
While out on a walk the other day I worked out that an eight cohort strength legion, (yes, I know they were ten but in the field and all that), means that at a minimum of 42 figures per cohort I only need to paint another 210 of the little buggers, not including another two cohorts of supports, plus the legionary artillery and all the other attached impedimenta...Phew, no problem there then.
Don't get me started on the unpainted mini-mountain of Gauls!
Irons are still on a roll -apart for a glitch against Watford- but how long it will last is anybody's guess. Typical of WH, going out to lower league opposition, still, at the moment, a quick look at the table shows that they are in contention for Europe next year, although now that Ashton's out for x amount of months options up front are extremely limited, saying that, young Freddie Sears whacked four past West Brom reserves not too long ago. Definately good for the future that lad...although the future could be nearer than you think.