Victim of the cashless society .

I always use pennies to base my individual figures and when I came to base up my latest batch of figures to my horror I found I had run out ! - searched all over the house in all the nooks and crannies where I tend to store these and found only about six ! . The problem is I rarely use cash nowadays and I used to pop into the bank and get a pounds worth (100) - but my local bank has closed ! . I have had to resort to buying some 20mm MDF circles to finish the job off .  

 

More shiny figures.

 

Had these finished for a while but never got around to photographing them , They are of course Prussian Jaegers . I've only got half the unit so far but will be ordering the other half soon.

They are  Irregular Miniatures 28mm .

 

Have figures will travel.

 

My old wargaming colleague 'B' has been up visiting his relatives and brought with him his collection of 28mm German East Africa figures for a game set in 1916 (?) , we were joined by 'A' as well for a Sunday morning game .

'B' umpired as he knew the rules and I took the Germans and 'A' the British , the rules use a deck of cards which activate units and unfortunately 'A' had a run of cards which meant he could get his troops up and shooting before I could react !.

Of course par for the course I forgot to take photos as the action grew hot ! , these two units where shot to pieces  shortly after this photo and as 'A' had got his units into position my force was whittled down one unit at a time and so he won the game . Once we had got our heads around the rules the game progressed quite quickly and it was nice to be gaming with these two old friend , sadly a rare occasion nowadays. 

 

Somebody is watching us !?

 

A small combined patrol of Prussians Uhlans and Jaegers move through the countryside searching for signs of the enemy.

Although the find nothing they have the feeling they where being watched !

And they are ! .... the dreaded Franc tireurs !!!!! . Got some more figures painted and will be putting up more photos later in the week .

 

The Reluctant Gardener and a modeling project.

 

My wife was having a clean up of the outhouse and I was hovering around monitoring what she might throw away . She said "what are these bamboo skewers for?" - Oh for a modeling project ! I quickly retorted ! , having saved their life I thought I had better do something with them ! . A series of barricades I thought would do the trick , here we have the tools and the makings deployed in the hade - the dog has chosen the hottest bit of the garden to sit panting in !

The finish barriers , two large two small , of course I didn't use any measurements and with some trepidation I wondered if they would be in scale ! ? ...........

The finished products , the smaller two 

I gave them a wash of PVA glue then a couple of coats of paint and tarted the base up and they seem to match the 28mm Wofun quite well.

Getting a bit more work done on the garden , put a path in to the hen run and got my Victorian cast iron fencing erected which my wife has painted .

My neighbour who is our font of all gardening knowledge gave me a packet of 'Meadow Wildflowers' and suggested I mixed them into some dry sand and brush them into the brickwork - the results have been surprising ! , now to find out which are weeds and which 'Meadow Wildflowers' (there might be a crossover point between the two ?)

My wife wanted another post for a clothes line and so after about 50 years I finally got this cast iron sign post erected and painted in it's authentic colours . My father got it from somewhere (?) and it has had people tripping over it for years , it is very heavy and I needed to help put it up , it was cast in a local foundry which operated in Victorian times , so it must be about 100 years or more old . My other neighbour who has a extremally boring and correct garden I believe is aghast at it ! I think it is an interesting 'talking point' !

 

  

Next up the Artillery !

 

It has been busy few days and I've got the French artillery done , again Irregular Miniatures 28mm .

And the Prussian artillery as well .

I'm not totally sold on the idea of basing the guns , but without it the figures rather tower over them , so we will see how they look during gameplay . I've got the cavalry for both sides to do next which I fear will take a bit longer .....

Read the book - play the game!

 

 

Started reading Goldsworthy's "The Fall of Carthage " and thought I should play through the the battles using C&C Ancients , I have played most of the scenarios before but it will be interesting reading along . The first is The Battle of Akragas - 406 BC between the Carthagians under Himlico and the Syracusians commanded by the Tyrant Daphaeus , historically the Carthagians lost badly. I will be using the clever solo adaptation by "Stuka Jo" .