At Last! A new Post!!

Hi all,

I was contemplating whether to just say that I've been away from the hobby for four months due to personal reasons (which is certainly true!). Read on if you want to hear the 'blues jam'- if not just scroll down to the pics below;

Basically I've been away from wargaming and painting for about four months due to a relationship breakdown with the love of my life. I was with her for fourteen years when one day she asked me to leave, which is what I did. This was obviously devastating news as although we weren't married the relationship, which was very loving, was the basis of my life and it has taken me four months to come to terms with it being over! I doubt that I'll ever be really 'over it' but at least i now feel strong enough to start blogging, painting and being creative again. I guess that the fact that we had not had any children in this case is a blessing as they would have almost certainly have suffered psychological trauma through the breakdown of what was once a very strong relationship. My partner was always supportive of the hobby and was often to be seen at shows with me around the country. I don't bear her any animosity and in fact I am very thankful for our time together.

So, I hear you say, what have you in the pipeline?

Currently I'm working, or rather about to embark upon a couple of projects. The first being two demo games that will be at Salute in 2016 and Vapnartak in the same year; the games being The Battle of Hastings and Battle of Fulford Gate.

The second project is going to be another demo game, possibly at Partizan next year that will feature the Second Afghan War and Mike Owen's brilliant range of North West Frontier mini's combined with Studio Miniatures North West Frontier range and of course, it would be almost sacrilegious not to include some of the Perry Miniatures sculpts that they did for Wargames Foundry back in the day as well as some of their suitable Indian Mutiny/Indian Rebellion of 1857 mini's.

That's all for now really except to say that bearing my obsession with Late 14th Century Warfare I have of course asked Santa to "please bring me three boxes of the new Perry Miniatures HYW English!

Pics below, I'm sure that you've all seen them before but what would a post on a wargaming blog be without any pics, eh?

Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience for my lack of posts.

Darrell.

Perry plastic Men at Arms, Proper Pics Like.... :>)

Slightly late but as promised and here are some decent pics of the new Perry Miniatures , Plastic Men at Arms. First though, a few notes.....

These sculpts of of extremely high quality and I would be bold enough to say that they out rank that of the Perry metal Wars of the Roses/European Armies ranges! That is really saying something. As seen in my last post I had a bit of a tinker around sticking them together, mainly following the picture that outlines some examples on plastic Men at Arms box inlay sheet. The sheet by the way contains many standards, banners and coats of arms so that it should be an easy task, given all the information contained in all the other Perry Medieval boxes to start to put together any army you choose (including the War of the Kalmar Union Michael ;>]  ).

There were a few gaps in the spaces between one or two joints but these are easily cemented together with plastic polystyrene cement as it actually cements the parts in place and is not just a bonding agent.

The torso's in the box would easily go with any of the plastic sets thus far, the front ranks of a Swiss phalanx, extra poses for the Mounted Men at Arms etc etc. In conclusion, I have to say that thus far they were joy to play about with and with three boxes to play with I will never run out of dismounted Men at Arms in any of my armies!

Here's the pics (I'll endeavour to get a few painted up very soon):

Cheers,

Darrell.

They Arrived!! And I Couldn't help Myself So I......

Made some of them up at 5am this morning!! :>)

They are fab, very little by way of flash if any, small amount of filing to be done and you're ready to undercoat!

What's more, I bought three boxes which combined with the Perry plastic boxes and metals that I already own will last me a very long time and spread all across my Wars of the Roses, Burgundian, Italian League of Venice and (Early) Italian Wars French!! Can't lose really.

The free vignette is a fantastic rendition of a knight arming and reminds me very much of the vignette they did for Foundry many moons ago.

I took some very quick and very bad snaps below but will be taking some good ones with my camera later which I'll post here and on my Gewalthaufen Late 15thC Medieval Blog too.

Cheers,

Darrell.

Victorian Steel Colonial Rules

Hi

I've just received my copy of the Grimsby Wargames Society's Victorian Steel Rules for the Colonial period.

I haven't yet had a chance to read right through them, too busy painting today, but as soon as I do I will do a full review and post it here.

What I can say is that the rules are nicely laid out and from the three pages i read are very clear and concise. They are designed for quick play, which is a bonus IMHO as I hate getting stuck in the minutia of some rules systems.

The Grimsby Chaps also run a great forum HERE! It is designed to support the rules and supplements that they have planned and indeed I have heard straight from the horses mouth that some are in the process of being written as I type so you need not worry about the rules not being supported.

Here's a couple of pics:

And a few from an Indian Mutiny Game they were running at the Durham Show in June:

Cheers,

Darrell. 

Clubbing III!

Just a quikie, a few shots of what was going on at the club Thursday gone:

Dux Britanniarum Game Big Style!

Some Ship's Ahoy Nonesense :>)

They Died For Glory

Bob and Jim's fertile and imaginative go at converting TDFG for the opening moves of WWI

Cheers,

Darrell.