Next year's challenge .

So I've signed up for the forthcoming year's challenge , I've done 1,170.1 miles this year , was hoping for 1,200 - but Christmas , the weather and a bug has prevented that . It's about 50 miles more than last year (2018) so I'm happy with it . Now Christmas is out of the way I hope to get back to gaming and painting again and have been giving some thoughts on what I want to concentrate on and achieve in the coming months .

A Merry Christmas to you all !

The Seasons Greetings to all my friends in 'Blogland' .

Lookin back , moving forward .

At this time of year I look back on my blog to see what I've done , this year is dominated by the arrival of 'A Gentlemen's War' and my addiction to 'Command and Colors' . AGW has been played a lot and has seen me expand my 40mm armies to fit the organisation used in the rules and also the building of a new one - my 'Army of the Sublime Porte' , it has become my 'go too' set of rules and I like their simplicity and solo adaptability . C&C was a bit of a surprise , I don't do boardgames (especially after loosing ALL of my counters for the Confederate army whilst playing a Gettysburg boardgame against 'B' many years ago !) , but the rules system and the clever use of chunky blocks has entranced me and I love playing the Ancient version and have recently moved on to the Napoleonic one . The games are quick to set up with historical scenarios and play well , even solo. I've also started playing Featherstone's ancient rules using 'flats' , this project has somewhat been put on hold, but I will return to it next year as I do like the challenge of painting flats . My Jacobite project has been more or less finished and I must start playing some more games with them . As for next year I have several things I want to pursue and will be putting these up soon .

Jumping on the Meme bandwagon

Memes one of these "young people's things" shamelessly purloined from Facebook

Nearly done .

Well I've just finished off my last two units of the Government army for my '45' project , above is 'Hamilton's Regiment of Dragoons' (14th) . It's just about a year since I started this collection and I'm somewhat amazed that I've got it done .

Hamilton's was at Prestonpans were it fled with the other British cavalry when the Highlanders charged . It didn't perform much better at Falkirk I'm afraid either . The figures are 1/72nd scale Strelets and were originally 'Dragoons of Peter the Great' from the Great Northern War range . 

The final British Regiment of Foot is 'Thomas Murray's ' (46th) it was at Prestonpans were most of its troops were captured by the Jacobites when the British army routed . I hope to put on a Prestonpans re fight in the New Year . I'm always a bit sad when I come to the end of a project as I've enjoyed painting these up immensely , I have odds and sods to paint up such as dismounted figures for Hamilton's Dragoons and some transport waggons but will get them done in 2020 .

I do like plastic 20mm 1/72nd scale figures (a somewhat forgotten scale I think) . I must now start thinking about next years project !? .

Wargaming humour No. 23

                     Suddenly they realised they had been playing the morale rules all wrong !

Bashi Bazooks of the Sublime Porte .

This is one of the last units I will be doing (for the time being)  for my Balkans War Army of the Sublime Porte , they are the Bashi Bazooks irregular cavalry useful for scouting but perhaps not for front line battle roles - in their first battle they were ordered to charge a fleeing enemy and failed their morale roll and left the table .

Here they leave on a patrol lead by a senior officer . The figures are of course 42mm Irregular Miniatures , the mounted officer is a semi-flat figure bought off eBay , he was snapped off his base and needed pinning to a new one , I think I have managed to hide the repairs quite well and although perhaps originally a Russian figure I have painted him as an officer of the Sublime Porte.

Christmas comes early .

I've been selling things on eBay and when I saw that the  Command & Colors Napoleonic base game was being re-issued I thought I'd better spend some of the money and get a copy quickly when I saw one . The thing I have noticed since I started playing and buying C&C board games is that some of them don't seem to be on sale long and disappear till the next print run which could be in a couple of years or more . Having bought it I was going to save it for Christmas BUT being an adult (I do class myself as an adult ignoring the frequent childish lapses) I decided to open it and start stickering up the wooden blocks ready for 'A' calling round for one of our 'gentlemen that lunch' games this week .

A frosty morning walk .

Sorry for the lack of content of late , we've been on holiday to the Peak District , the weather was not bad - for November, however everything was very wet under foot  and most of our walks were through inches of mud . Back to normal now and my wife dropped me (and the dog) off this morning on her way to work and we walked home via Sizergh fell . Here is Charlie posing on a prehistoric burial mound - it was very very frosty ! .

Here we see another poor photo of the burial mound - I always wonder why my wife is less than impressed by these REALLY interesting landscape features dismissing them as "another one of your bumps in the grass" *- probably cos she's a girl !? .

Charlie pauses in his pursuit of rabbits when he realises I am stopping for breakfast.

It was a rather crushed toast and peanut butter sandwich and two broken digestive biscuits washed down by black tea - I did share with him .

The sun rises .

and a little higher .

Sizergh Castle peeps through the trees , originally a pele tower 14th century I think . 

This walk I seem to have a thing about sunrises , out of the sun it was freezing . 

Glad it was frosty at least it froze the mud . 

Your correspondent with seasonal embellishment (I need longer arms for a convincing 'selfie' ) . Busy cleaning up lots of figures ready for painting , more about this next post.

*I should post some of my very interesting photos of these - that would be fun wouldn't it ?

40mm Courtisan .

I have created a Mistress for my General of the Sublime Porte , dressed in a suitable Eastern garb (or rather not ) . The figure is a Irregular Miniature 42mm nude figures with trousers and yashmak added with 'green stuff' . 

Here she joins the entourage of Omar Saharif Pasha - I do hope the weather remains clement as she doesn't seem dressed for a cold snap. 

A problem solved .

I've been puzzling how to depict this chance card when it is drawn and allocated to a unit in 'A Gentleman's War' . I didn't want to have to provide a representative figure for each army , then I thought - boxing gloves ! . I modelled some from 'green stuff' mounted them on a base and painted and varnished it . Now when this card is drawn the base is put by the unit and they get the resultant advantages.

Wargaming from the Silver Screen .

Shamelessly appropriated off Facebook (thanks Shrewsbury Wargaming Club) , I did go and see the film in 1974  but can't remember much about it other than the Gettysburg wargame .

Last of the bunch .

Finally finished off my 'Unlikely Allies' box , here is the Devote Monk .

The Watchman with his lantern 

And last but not least the Tea House Hostess , she was a challenge to paint, I've always found it difficult to paint female figures convincingly and rather delicate Japanese ones especially so . Her face took a couple of goes to get right .

The whole box set finished , it has taken me a week , but I have enjoyed the experience immensely - so different from painting uniformed units of all the same figures and uniform . 

Four more 'Unlikely Allies'

Been painting more figures from my new 'Test Of Honour' box , here we have a Ashigaru deserter looking rather dishevelled and a Blacksmith .

A Wise old man (or is he a Ninja ?) and a Ronin marksman . These are rather nice models full of character and I'm enjoying painting them and when they are done I hope to incorporate them in a scenario for 'Test of Honour'.

Well I did it !

Well this morning I completed my 1000 mile challenge on a rather damp and dismal day , luckily this year I had my wife to take the obligatory photograph of myself and Charlie who has walked most of them with me . Will carry on counting - can I do 1200 miles this year ?  we will see. 

A work in progress and a change in painting style .

After painting lots of O.S. 42mm and plastic Jacobite figures I felt like a change so I decided on some Samurai personality figures . There is a newish box of figures for 'Test of Honour' call 'Unlikely Allies' and this figure is the Clan Envoy , I have shamelessly pinched the colour scheme from the box art as I can never think of convincing coloured clothing for Japanese figures . I used my wet palette and Liquitex artist acrylics to paint him . I going to paint the others up in the next week or so and I am liking the change of painting style and pace . 

Goverment Grenadier Companies .

I've painted up the Grenadier figures for my British Government Regiments of Foot . The figures are plastic 1/72nd 'Red Box' figures , my project is the Battle of Prestonpans but I'm also going to do some "what if " scenarios and there is evidence that later on in the campaign the Duke of Cumberland combined the Grenadiers together as was the practise on the Continent which these figures represent . 

They are from the regiments of (L to R) Lascelle's , Thos. Murray's , Lee's and Guise's . I have only one battalion to paint now to complete the Foot for my British army. 

Buddhist building work.

I've had this 'Sarissa' mdf temple gateway building for over a year and have been putting off building it as it looks very complicated , however having a bit of 'Test of Honour' renaissance I though I'd give it a go . The above model took an entire day of labour and enough bad language to last an careful man a year . I thought I'd be clever and spray some of the wood work before punching them out for building . 

The interior walls are grey card and were awkward to add and fitting the upper storey was the devil .

The roof structure was easier to assemble .

The roof is made from grey card which has to be bent to fit the rafters .

This proved easier than I thought , I use superglue to glue things together , I make sure I dry run things before gluing them .

The finished roof , there are some minor tweaks to do but I want to leave it overnight to set properly .

One thing I discovered is if you get superglue on your finger your mobile phone finger reorganisation won't recognise it ! .

The finished structure - very impressive . The red paint needs touching up and the base and roof tiles want a coat of paint but that's about all.

A close up of the gate entrance with a couple of monks for scale . I'm pleased to have got it done but wouldn't want to repeat it in a hurry .

Dag Tufekcileri .

I've been painting some more figures for my 40mm (Turkish) Sublime Porte to combat my other Balkans war Imaginations . These are the dreaded Dag Tufekcileri , rile armed irregulars which will count as Light Infantry sharpshooters using 'A Gentleman's War' . They are of course Irregular 42mm and I think they are listed as Janissary in campaign uniform (?) . They are in action in a game taking place even as we speak (as it were) and not shinning with martial prowess - newly painted figure syndrome . 

Wargaming humour No.28 .

The author muses if he needs more figures ? (of course he does !) (not sure if I could carry a sailor suit off ?)