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. 

RWF FEST - Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum Friends

A bit late with this post. On the 7th October I attended the inaugural RWF FEST at the Hightown Barracks in Wrexham. The event was run by the RWF Museum Friends, to raise money for the running of the museum. There were talks, medals, uniforms and artefacts to see up close. Museum staff were on hand and happily answered many queries (more of that in another post). I had a thoroughly enjoyable day, there will be another RWF FEST next year and the Friends are promising lots more events throughout the year. I've included information on the Friends after the photos and if anyone is interested in signing up to be a RWF Museum Friend please follow the link https://www.rwfmuseum.org.uk/friends-of-the-museum.html

One talk was on the newly published book Percy a Story of 1918 by Professor Peter Boyle, a real story of local interest. Recommended for those interested in the social context of the First World War and how it touched young lives. The uniforms were all made by the gentleman in the pictures, ashamedly I can't remember his name; but the items on display were quite spectacular. Also present was Michael Crumplin retired Consultant and General Surgeon who has authored two books wargamers might be familiar with; Waterloo after the Glory, Hospital Sketches and Reports on the Wounded after the Battle; and Guthrie's War, A Surgeon of the Peninsula War and Waterloo. 

Percy a Story of 1918 by Professor Peter Boyle is available from the RWF Museum Shop: https://museumshops.uk/product/percy-a-story-of-1918/

Photos are not mine but are from the Royal Welch Fusiliers Facebook page. I hope they give a flavour of the day and entice others to join the Friends and maybe attend future events.

ABOUT THE FRIENDS

Friends of the RWF Museum support the Museum through volunteering, planning fundraising events, assisting with education and outreach initiatives, and working closely with Staff and Trustees to build a more resilient Museum. This is a newly founded group made up of generous, active, and forward-thinking individuals who will work in tandem with the Staff and Trustees to fulfill our goal of resiliency.

BENEFITS OF JOINING FRIENDS OF THE RWF MUSEUM ARE:

• Exclusive Friends of the RWF Digital Newsletter three times a year

• Discounts on RWF Merchandise

• Invitations to special events, exhibitions, and programs

• Recognition on the RWF Museum website

• Free, discounted, or Friend only educational events (online and in-person)

• Access to the Friends Only portal on the website with archive information, online access to collections database, regimental
  journals, videos, podcasts, and more.

FRIENDS OF THE RWF MUSEUM MEMBERSHIP:

• Individual: £20 per year

• Armed Forces Veteran or Active Service Member: £15 per year

• Lifetime: £300

The Friends of the RWF Museum are instrumental to the vision of the Museum and to the success of our Resiliency Project. The Friends of the RWF Museum meet virtually and in-person. New Friends are always welcome!

Martinstaat 1744 - Henry Hyde

Conscious that I haven't posted anything for a while, I thought a little update on my wargaming life is overdue. The house move is complete, focus now turns towards the first wave of renovations (as long as the money lasts) and beginning to reintegrate wargaming into my life. I've had a butterfly moment, ordered some 10mm ACW as a manageable project to keep me going while I unpack and sort out the other projects. I have a few weeks of upheaval ahead, involving some asbestos removal, new front door, a ceiling to take down and a kitchen to put into working order...yep the ovens packed up, shower just stopped working and that's without the garden! On the bright side I'm fortunate to have couple of weeks off work. Still first unit of 10mm ACW have been painted and I'm happy with the results, so will post in the near future once based.

In the meantime I've acquired a copy of Martinstaat 1744 - a detailed wargame campaign set in a fictitious world by Henry Hyde. Below is a review I've posted on Amazon (I don't normally do this but I feel Henry's work warranted a review). 

I have never been disappointed by previous publications by Henry Hyde and this insight into his ImagiNation campaign does nothing to buck the trend. First off, I like the hardback A4 format as it reminds me of the Christmas annuals, and this seems a very appropriate choice as you can feel the nostalgia and enthusiasm conjured up by the author as you progress through this book. There are detailed maps of the campaign and colour plates depicting the combatants, and more recent photographs of old school style games to add flavour to the story being told. I found the insights shared inspiring, if a little daunting to myself who lacks the discipline to pursue such a detailed undertaking. However, it has led me to think about a smaller version contained within these pages, to permit myself to be immersed a little deeper in my gaming experience...so you never know! All in all this book is an indulgence, one which has given this wargamer immense pleasure. Highly Recommended.

On another note, my Google account appears to be playing up, so I can't seem to comment on blogs that I follow. I will hopefully rectify this sooner than later. It is frustrating.

Tabletop Battle Tactics

Just a quick post to remind everyone that I'm still here, and projects are still in progress! Currently on annual leave, which has been sabotaged by covid once again...so I was cheered this morning when my copy of Tabletop Battle Tactics by Henry Hyde arrived. This is a lovely hardback full colour edition reminiscent of Christmas annuals of yesteryear. What I've read so far is excellent, as is the overall quality of the book. With this beside me all my foes will tremble...unless they too have a copy of course! 

Hobby Week

Hobby progress has slowed, waiting for an X-ray on my left hand and hoping it's not arthritis. New addition to my rules collection has been Xenos Rampant. I'm not a big Sci-fi gamer but now and then fancy an easy pick up game to use models that I've gathered over the years, mostly because I like them and fancied painting them. I plan to use figures from Gates of Antares, Bad Squidoo Games along with some All Quiet on the Martian Front drones, which will play the part of mechanical space aliens. It will also give me a chance to use the Tenfold Dungeon Facility that I got as part of the Kickstarter. The Facility is a really nice set, I'll take some pictures for a separate post. Gale Force 9 now market the Tenfold Dungeon sets, though as far as I'm aware the Facility hasn't been released. Sets are available from North Star Military Figures.

I've managed to paint up some 15mm Frankish warriors from Gladiator Games, not basing them yet as I want to paint up more from another manufacturer and mix them in. I've also started a 15mm English Hundred Years War army, and made a start on the 28mm New Kingdom Egyptians. Given the difficulty I'm having with my hands at the moment I'm focussing on painting rather than basing at the moment, albeit slower than I'd like. 

Huns

Firstly, I'm having problems with the blog, in that it wouldn't let me reply to comments or make comments on other blogs that I follow (which has been very frustrating!). Also it appears that comments made on blog posts haven't been showing up until several days from posting have passed. I've managed to change my settings to permit me to respond to comments made on my blog, so apologies to Aly and Jonathan for not accepting or replying sooner. But I still can't comment on other blogs. I haven't got the spare time to figure out what has happened and how to fix it this week, but I'm on annual leave next week so hopefully will be able to return to normality. The whole thing seems to have happened randomly, I'm quite perplexed to say the least.

On the wargaming front my reading list is getting ever longer and time more limited, but I've picked up the Osprey Combat series on Hunnic Warrior versus Late Roman Cavalryman. This will be my easy reading tomorrow, going from reviews and a quick flick through this looks a decent offering from Osprey. I've also got my hands on a copy of Wargaming Campaigns by Henry Hyde which I've has just arrived as I write this post. I'm really looking forward to  reading this latest offering as I thoroughly enjoyed The Wargaming Compendium, so much so that I have it on Kindle as well as hardback! 

Returning to the Huns, I bought this book as I'm working on a 15mm Hun army. Currently on the painting table are some 15mm Huns and Frankish foot and some 28mm Kushite/Nubian archers for the New Kingdom Egyptians. I need to get my basing table sorted out, so I can finish off flocking and tufting the Mycenaean Spearmen, and get them photographed and on the blog. I also plan to sort out my 28mm Wars of the Roses army and see what my options are for splitting and rebasing to get two small armies out, maybe for Lion Rampant. So break time in work this weekend will be mostly planning what to do hobby wise next week when I'm off.

Kingmaker on Kickstarter

Kingmaker has come to Kickstarter! I have to confess that I have a soft spot for this game, it was one of a set that included Escape from Colditz, Diplomacy, and Samurai Blades that my gaming group played regularly when I was  teenager....a long time ago! So for me to see this veritable classic remade and with four options of play ranging from Kingmaker 2, Classic Kingmaker, Kingmaker Extended Classic with an optional battle system, and SOLO, it was something that I had no hesitation backing. I never owned a personal copy of this game, and it was my favourite out of the suite of games we regularly played; I cannot wait to get my hands on this upgraded version....the added bonus of Solo rules makes for one happy gamer. Just has to get funded now!

Link to Kickstarter below if you are feeling nostalgic.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingmaker-rerelease/the-royal-rerelease-of-kingmaker?ref=discovery&term=kingmaker

Hobby News

I'm often late to the party and this can be illustrated by my finally getting my hands on a copy of Commands and Colours as a present for my Birthday. I've always wanted to play this system, so it was a very welcome present. I'm contemplating adding 6mm figures instead of the blocks. 

Also arrived yesterday hot off the press is Lion Rampant version 2, I'm also looking forward to giving this a got one of my friends is a keen fan of these rules. Arriving at the same time was a set of wargaming rules for knights at tournament, Steel and Steed, which I picked up for the princely sum of £1 from the Northstar bargain basement. I'm planning on doing this in 15mm as I have some figures in the lead pile I can use, it also fits into my club portable game remit and should fit on a 2ft x 2ft board; ideal for those winter nights when I don't want to carry much. 

I've also included a shot of painted figures being based, these include the Mycenaean spearmen and archers, some 15mm Italian Wars and some skeletons for Mortal Gods Mythic.

Painting Station

The writing bureau painting station unveiled. I used to have one many years ago, but it somehow became discarded, how that happened my memory fails me, but I now have another paint station. The tattered old leather surface was removed and replaced with a self-healing cutting mat, only £5 from The Works. I still need to stain the exposed wood either side of the new mat to tidy up the surface (I'm just keen to show my new hobby addition). There is a neat little drawer in the centre that I'm using to store tools. There are two deep drawers that I've used to house my Foundry paints, this gets them out of box files and keeps them all in one location, no more searching for a restock pot I thought I'd bought! I've still to work on identification of colours in the drawers, I might end up reordering them into groups of similar colours, all browns together, all blues etc...

 

Sneak peak work in progress... the figures on the station are Foundry Mycenaeans that have just been varnished, two Gorgons from Footsore Miniatures and Gripping Beast Republican Roman Command that need repainting to complete my SAGA force. 

 

All in all, this desk allows me to keep working on my painting projects and provides a tidy solution that doesn't look out of place when closed.

Late Roman Church

28mm Late Roman Church for SAGA, Dux Brittaniarum and Dux Bellorum.

The model is from Warbases, and is a lovely little kit. I've used it as a base to build the Late Roman Church I had in mind that would fit into the world of post Roman Britain.

Pictures include the base model and work inprogress of the build as I've promised those on a Facebook page.

The Build

I really wanted to get the curved look to the chancel area of the church, and used several layers of Ranger Smooth texture paste to build up layers until I was happy with the look. I wasn't concerned about coming level with the existing roof as the thatch would overhang.

Then Ranger smooth texture paste was added to the walls of the church until I got the effect I was after. Once dried I used fine sand Marabu structure paste to add broken areas to the walls that were later picked out with Foundry Moss triad (29), I did use a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink over the base coat of Foundry Moss, then highlighted up using the triad once dry.

I had to modify the supports to the flat roof sections to make it easier to remove and replace once the texture had been applied to the walls (picture attached).

The tiled roof sections were added, I used hot glue to attach (no room for error!). These come in vac formed A4 sheets from Empires at War and cut easily with scissors.

Bamboo BBQ skewers were used to create the ridge for the tiled sections, 2 at the bottom one piece on top. Some trimming was required of the side roof to allow the main roof section to sit properly (picture attached).

Smooth texture paste was used to fill in gaps of the tiled section, and the ridge pieces. These were later painted with Foundry Terracota (37B).

Pan scourers were cut and added (once again with hot glue) to the chancel and roof sections I wanted to cover with thatch. It best to fold and crease the ridge section of the thatch in half length ways as it makes adding easy. The roof was then given a heavy brushing with cheap artists acrylic Burnt Umber, I wasn't bothered about getting a uniform coverage as I was happy with some of the original green showing underneath. The thatch area was then brushed with Vallejo Green Brown (879) and Vallejo Green Ochre (914).

The walls were painted with Vallejo Beige (917), then over brushed with Vallejo Ivory (918) then Vallejo Off-white (820).

Wooden areas were painted with Citadel Colour Wyldwood. The door was then highlighted with Foundry Bay Brown (42)

Finally the Chi-Ro was added using Foundry Madder Red (60)

The texture pastes and pan scourers were found on Amazon. I also used a cheap set of artists spatulas for adding the texture pastes, also off Amazon.


FRESH 365 10 Pack Of Heavy Duty Green Catering Kitchen Sponge Scourer Pads

Marabu Structure Paste, White

Ranger Paste-Texture, Acrylic, Multicolour, 6.22x6.22x6.35 cm

5-Piece Painting Knife Set, GoFriend Stainless Steel Spatula Palette Knife Painting Mixing Scraper Oil Painting Accessories Color Mixing

Click on pictures to enlarge