Portrait of the artist as a young man.

Came across these photos of myself whilst cleaning up the files on my computer - my beard was darker then and it's in my old wargaming room (before I got married) so it must be about 25 years ago ? . Obviously my opponent must have taken this photo of me , I think it might be a 15mm Napoleonic game maybe ? 

This one I think is a little older and it's of myself and 'S' with his stall at the now defunct Northern Militaire show I think - both are beards are definitely not that colour now ! , I must ask 'S' if he has any idea of the date.

 

A quick update with the work in progress.

 

Just a quick update, have got the 'Blue Army' Dragoons painted and varnished and was going to take them outdoors for a photoshoot but the weather has turned rather dull and damp so that will have to wait. Seen behind them is a unit of 2D flats being prepared for the Hypoborea project - more of them when they are completed.

A sign of Spring.

A sign of Spring,  this Red Admiral butterfly (?) has been hibernating in our kitchen since last year and today in response to the warmer weather has awoken,  it has been released into the wild. 

 

 

'Off with their heads' !

Several weeks ago I mentioned I was going to convert some hollow cast cavalry figures (.: New Year update. (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) ), I have been busy painting figures for other people and have just got around to beheading them . They are too be Teutonic Dragoons for my 'Blue Army' which is lacking heavy cavalry . The replacement heads are from Irregular Miniatures, I hope to get them painted next week .

 

Carpet Wargaming at it's best

Pinched from 'Military Toys from our childhood' Facebook group entitled "The Great Offensive 1916" by Samuel B!gg from the Illustrated London News , Don't know what rules they are using (H G Wells?) but the force on the other side of the carpet are taking heavy casualties ! (click on photo to enlarge)

 

A miniature work of art.

I am slowly amassing the required forces to refight The Battle of the River Trimsos as in Donald Featherstones first book on wargaming using 2D flats . In fact the only thing I was really missing was one chariot for the Hyrkainian army , I had a look on the Berlin Zinnfiguren webshop and found the above model in their second hand section reasonably priced . It arrived today and upon examination I was struck how finely it was painted - usually painted flats are a "factory finish"  paint job and need a bit of work doing to them - this one is excellently painted - a work of art and far better than I could accomplish ! (click on the photo to enlarge) . It will need a gloss varnish and basing to ready it for the tabletop.

The only problem with ordering from Berlin Zinnfiguren is that there is a minimum order of 25 Euros so to top my order up I got the above set , it's titled "Vercingetorix" and I will use them for various character figures for Hyboria , painting them is going to be a challenge for the future. (click on the photo to enlarge)

 

An aside to the previous post.

In my previous post I mention a local bookshop I used to frequent as a young man , I have tried to track down a photo of the shop , but to no avail . So I asked on a local Facebook group which has photos of old Kendal and somebody posted this one of Henry Roberts bookshop where I spent a good bit of my early wages .