2024 what's been happening

This year has been very busy on the home front,  resulting in not much hobby time. Book purchases have played a large part, but I have managed to paint a couple of 15mm DBA armies and have finished the 15mm 100 Years War English pacto box from PSC. I hope to get some photos taken and post these on the blog soon. I've settled my mind on some projects that are hopefully manageable this year. 15mm Fall of the Roman Empire, a start has already been made on a Frankish contingent, Huns and some Gothic warriors. The second will be 10mm ACW, hence the photo at the top (a quick and dirty photo of what's to come). All these figures have been sitting patiently in the lead pile for many years and I feel it's now time to liberate them from their cardboard boxes and little plastic bags. 

Regarding the 10mm ACW project the rules of choice will be Fire and Fury second edition. I've previously dabbled in 10mm unsuccessfully, this can be attributed to lacking a firm plan about what I wanted to achieve, an all to familiar theme with my impulse purchases. After much thought and research I came across Jemima Fawr blog and their 10mm ACW project for Fire and Fury. I was suitably impressed and found their logic ticking all the same boxes I've been thinking about. So, I will be unashamedly pinching their ideas. This means base sizes  will be 20mm x 15mm stands for infantry.

Jemima Fawr blog, start of the ACW project can be found here: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2020/02/01/playing-brigade-fire-fury-2nd-edition-in-10mm-i-did-it-my-way/

The unsuccessful 10mm project was Seven Years War, and I have a couple of unpainted armies sitting around. Thoughts have also turned to these little soldiers and these 10mm armies might just be the ideal thing to get me into gaming the Seven Years War while I'm painting up the large pile of 18mm figures I have stockpiled. The rules will be Warfare in the Age of Reason and for these 10mm armies I think the bases will be 20mm x 20mm. 

Now for something a little different - 10mm Huns and a 28mm Viking Longboat

While wandering through the trade stands at Derby Wargames Show (fighting temptation), I saw The Baggage Train stand. Now I have to declare a personal interest here as the owner Stephen Oates is a member of my local wargames club Deeside Defenders, so I popped along to say hello and generally chew the fat.

Stephen has a boundless enthusiasm for the smaller scales, and sells a wonderful range of 10mm figures which should see some further additions this year.

I've always admired the skill of anyone who can sculpt wargames figures (all are very fine chaps in my humble opinion), and having watched Stephen sculpt a 10mm figure many years ago at the local wargames show Gauntlet, I was suitably impressed.

So conversation came found to some lovely new additions to his 10mm ranges, and Stephen very kindly gave me a bag of 10mm Heavy Hunnic Cavalry to have a go painting (photos below). I will post more as I attempt to do them justice. I must confess to being a little apprehensive about tackling 10mm, but we will see how I get on. The jury is out...

I also noticed that Stephen has released a very nice Viking Longboat in 28mm scale which would grace any SAGA table and is certainly worth checking out. I will be getting one myself (and am regularly kicking myself for not picking one up at Derby). I will post some pictures of the unpainted and painted version in the blog.

So I can recommend if you see The Baggage Train stand at a show it is well worth spending a few moments of your time to see what's on offer, passers-by may run the risk missing a genuine bargain...