A lot has been happening since my last post, and I'm currently sat here on a Saturday evening full of man flu and sipping whiskey. Yesterday evening I was listening to the Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames podcast, episode 72 Ray and Lee of the Posties Delivery on Salute while painting and it led me into a period of reflection. I haven't listened to pod casts for a while so playing catch up, which is nice as I enjoy settling in for the duration and can get a lot of painting done once I do so. This particular episode struck a chord when wargames blogs were discussed, I won't go into details here, there will be no spoilers from me for the episode. All I can say is it was yet again another entertaining and throughly enjoyable episode. If you haven't listened yet, I can thoroughly recommend it, but a must are the episodes with Paul Thompson and his research into a German raid on the Isle of Wight in 1943, this is to quote, "delicious" historical research. I'm not a WWII gamer per se, but this is fascinating.
Anyway, onto my reflection. I started thinking about what I intended my blog to be and what it has actually become, and how the two have changed over time. I have seen my output decrease over the years and I go long periods without posting. The reason being this has been a habit of showing completed units, photographed the best I can, which means a time delay to have them painted and based and then another delay to find the time to set up and take photographs. Combined with a chronic illness and constant fatigue this means that I rarely have the energy to do what I want when I would like. As a consequence, the updates on the blog have suffered. Now, my hobby thoughts never really stop, and I'm doing far more than my blog would indicate, except gaming but we'll come onto that in another post. I do love the video content that hobbyists are putting out, but unlike Big Lee I'm too lazy and technologically inept even for 15 minutes programmes. So, it looks like I'm firmly in the blog realm of hobby output. I came to the conclusion that my blog will evolve, become more of an actual journal where I document my hobby thoughts and often mistakes or near misses. I hope that those of you who stop by continued to do so with this change. There will of course continue to be posts of completed units, it's just that they will be accompanied by the story of the journey.
This brings me to the title picture, The Last Highlander by Sarah Fraser. This is my current read, a fascinating account of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat; notorious double agent and Jacobite conspirator; and ties in nicely with my current painting project, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. I have been fascinated by the '45 Rebellion since a child, predominantly fuelled by my Scottish Dad, tales of romantic failure and lost causes which combined powerfully in pursuit of all things historical from a young age. Not only did I drag my parents around the castles of North Wales at every opportunity, I forced them to go to Culloden. It was from these early beginnings that my interest in the 18th Century emerged, a love that is still with me to this day. There have been a number of stalled attempts over the years at building armies to refight the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, these have seen 28mm Front Rank, Cran Tara figures languish and fall by the wayside, as well as an early attempt in 15mm. This summer I sat down on my birthday and decided that I was going to finally paint a couple of armies up and play some games of the '45. Rules have been purchased, albeit initially intended for the Seven Years War project; these are Warfare in the Age of Reason. Now, reflection has taught me that one of my biggest downfalls is planning out my armies. I have always had a habit of buying what I think I'll need and then the whole thing grinds to a halt as I get distracted by the next shiny thing waved in my face having bought far more than I actually need and not having a clear focus. This time I actually planned everything out. My decision to build two armies for the Jacobite Rebellion coincided with a sale by Lancashire Games, so I took the plunge and my birthday present was decided. I did have a stash of unpainted 15mm Lancashire Games Jacobites bought years go, but these figures have been resculpted and are no longer available. Once my order arrived it was immediately apparent that the new Lancashire Games Jacobites are significantly bigger than their old range, which cause me the slight dilemma of whether I can mix the two sets in the same army. I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't and placed another order to replace the older sculpts in my collection. I like both sets of highlanders, but the decided to go with the newer sculpts as I can easily expand the army if I wanted. Warfare in the Age of Reason has units of highlanders in 16s and regular foot in 12s. I decided that I will keep to this format even though I'm using 15mm figures.
This morning I varnished two completed units of the Royal Ecossais, undercoated the Irish Piquets and continued work on Baggots Hussars and the Jacobite command (pictures below). There are two Royal Ecossais and two Piquets as I have realised that I will have two Jacobite armies when finished, divided on the old and new highlander sculpts. The second army will be sold off.
That's it for tonight, more thoughts will be posted as the weeks roll by. I hope this new format is to everyones liking. Back to the Whisky...
