Recapturing my lost youth.

 

When I was a young man (a long time ago) there was a bookshop in my hometown of Kendal called Henry Roberts,  a very old fashioned and a bit foreboding overseen by the proprietor (who wasn't Mr Roberts) who looked over his horn rimmed glasses as you made your purchases and rather judged you . It was a very good bookshop and had a history section which I visited at ever opportunity.  Books were rather expensive in those days (early 70s) and for someone whose take home pay was about £5 took some serious consideration before a purchase.  I looked longingly at the above book over several weeks,  it cost 50 shillings net and I hesitated over this cost. On one visit I found it had been sold and was unhappy I hadn't took the plunge and bought it, I suppose I could have ordered a copy but it was a complicated and lengthy process so I lamented it loss and moved on - but I remember the title and to my joy I came across a copy in a charity shop last week which I seized upon immediately.  It's rather good in an old fashioned way and after all these years I pleased to have it finally. 

Genesis Chapter 1 Verse 1

 I am told by list of postings I have reached the number of 999 posts (this being my 1000th) , I'm a bit shocked by this ! , I originally started blogging in 2011 , unfortunately I rather lost my original blog due to"improvements" with Blogger (!?) but its still out there in the either Tin Soldiering On: February 2011 , so I have copied my first stumbling efforts in the wonderful world of blogging below . I must say I have found great pleasure in recording my hobby and coming into contact with a great bunch of like minded people who have kindly comment and encouraged me over the years - so here's to the next 12 years ! , Thank you one and all.

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Posting Photos

MUST  remember to shrink photos before trying to post them ! , otherwise it takes forever

This Blogging melarkey !

Well after one or two false starts (and accompying bad language ) I now have a heading picture to my blog !.

Tin Soldiering On

Well in a idle moment I have decided to start a Blog !.  It will record , I hope my thoughts and progress in my hobby (obsesion ?) of painting and playing with small tin soldiers .

2D basing for the ECW .

Been finishing off my my basing of the Wofun ECW figures, I use terracotta coloured Milliput to fill the gaps in the bases .

I'd like to branch out into Montrose's Highland campaign in the future and I got a few Scottish figures . Here we have Alasdair Mac Colla , Montrose's second in command with his piper and bodyguard.

And here is James Graham 1st Marquess of Montrose withe the Royal Standard. The edges of these figures need inking in with GW ink to cut down the white glare on the edges and some bits of flock etc onto the bases to finish them off.

 

Another year, another project.

I have recently sold off one of my lesser used collections of figures and having cash burning a hole in my pocket I caste my eyes around for something to spend it on. I've had this book for quite a while and it includes a very playable set of rules in it.  I've never amassed any ECW armies in 28mm having been put off by the thought of painting up two armies - enter the 2D Wofun plexiglass figures !.

I ordered their starter set in 28mm - here is a Royalist Regiment of Foote, 48 figures on 6 bases. I have filled the gaps in the bases with brown 'milliput' and painted the edges of the figures with brown ink to cut down the shine.

King Charles I , the chap that caused all the trouble.

A Troope of Horse .

A gunne and crew. The gun is mdf and a bit fiddly to put together .

The down side of 2D figures , but the plus side is that I had them unboxed based up and on the tabletop the following day .- instant wargaming ! . 

A rather nice command group, I've added tufts of foliage to the various bases . I realise that these flat figures are not every bodies cup of tea, but the idea of getting figures onto the tabletop and start playing games is a great selling point for me.

 

A bit of self indulgence

 

I don't normally display my figures about the house and usually think it wiser to confine them to my wargaming room to benefit marital bliss. However just before Christmas I came across this set of figures depicting road workers and having spent 40 odd years on the roads I thought I must have it. When I started on the 'Roads and Bridges' dept of Westmoreland County Council in 1970 I found myself amongst a group of men who were all characters (are characters a think of the past ?) and a good percentage of them being foreign,  Polish,  Ukrainian,  German and Italian,  either misplaced persons or ex prisoners of war who had settled here after the war ended. All sadly gone now , a bye product of my association with them is a smattering of graphic foreign swear words! . I'm pleased to say my small vignette has found a place of honour on the shelves in the conservatory-so technically not in the house.

New Year update.

 

I've been busy painting other peoples figures over Christmas but I've got these six figures cleaned up (the paint refuses to be cleaned off- God knows what it's made of !) . I'm going to behead them add 'pickelhaube and turn them into Teutonic Dragoons for 'Blue Army' . 

I'm also starting this years 1000 miles challenge , think this is my 6th year and It'll be interesting to see how successful I'll be - a lot depends on the weather - both me and the dog are not keen of walking in the rain and neither of us are getting any younger , however we'll give it a go ! . No big predictions on what I'm going to try and accomplish this year , I have one or to things that need finishing off and I don't have plans to buy lots of unpainted lead/plastic (Ha ha heard that before!) and in fact will probably selling some unused collection off I think , we will see what happens ......

A family that casts together stays together.

I found this on the Vintage Metal Molds Facebook group , it shows the inventor of the Schneider mold system in the process of casting, his wife assisting and their two boys playing a game using the castings. It's obviously an advertising photo for their catalogue. The boys seem to be using cannon with an air-bulb attachment to propel the shot - there's a pretty good chance of putting someone's eye at that range ! (click on the photo to enlarge) The Facebook group is a treasure trove - Vintage Metal Molds For Lead & Tin Toy Figures | Groups | Facebook