Crusade Penarth

Every year I look forward to Penarth's own  wargaming show and every year I'm disappointed. This year was no exception despite the new venue. The show has moved from the leisure centre which although cramped did mean eveything was in one place. Moving to the nearby Secondary School has offered them more space but I'm not sure they made the best use of it.
The main hall had a good mix of traders with Magister Miĺlitum at one end and Warlord Games at the other. Local traders Great Escape Games and Bad Squiddo Games had decent sized stalls on one wall near the door so had a lot of passing trade I think.
The rest of the traders were scattered into adjacent classrooms, some very small so getting in and out was a challenge. I feel sorry for the traders who had stalls in what was obviously a small atrium between classrooms. It did feel that they were being punished, perhaps for not being willing to buy a primium spot in the hall. For most traders I would think, there is a balancing act between buying the best spot you can and ensuring that you don't make a loss on the day.
Sadly the participation and demonstration games was the usual "row of backs to the punters so we can play a big club game". Notable exceptions were the Too Fat Lardies, who were both in attendance together with local 'wargaming celebrity' Mike Hobbs, and their game of "what a tanker" which looked simple and great fun. There were peals of laughter coming from that room all the time I was at the show.
The other exception was a beautiful roman gang game using a "Songs of Blades and Heroes" suppliment. I'm really sorry but I can't remember who was staging it. Each side had 6 gang members and a secret objective. Some of the Gang were good in close combat but others were good at long range with their slingshots. My 10 year old son, Huw,  and I had a great half hour. I managed to set his gang's HQ on fire and if he hadn't of slain my Boss with a lucky slingshot, I'd have won the next time I activated. As it was he won as his objective was to kill my leader.
On the purchases front there weren't many. Huw picked up some not-Lego of WW2 vehicles, and a tank for his  BEF forces in 20mm. I was very restrained. A couple of 10mm  Crimean battalions for this years only new project; some armoured cars to add to my VBCW units, as well as  the new big battalion Napoleonic rules "Grand Battles Napoleon" which I hope will do exactly what it says. The final purchase was Commands & Colours: Napoleonics which I have been after for a while and has only just come back into print.
So, would I go again next year? Again I'm not sure. I was hoping to visit Dave Thomas' stand but it appeared he had not come despite being on the website advert. I think I might save my brownie points up and go either to Salute or Warfare, probably the latter as it's easier to get to.
So good marks for the new venue being light and airy and easy to park. Bad marks for traders and the layout. Overall 6/10, could do much better.

2016 stats

Sorry for neglecting the blog but there's been a lot of real life going on recently so I haven't really been doing much hobbywise recently.
I did get some 28mm Napoleonic Austrians from the fat man so I think I'll do post 1809 in 28mm and pre in 10mm. As I also got the Grandest manner rules this will allow me to use both varients.
So onto the statistics. I thought I'd present them in a slightly different manner :

28mm 333 painted and 841 bought =+508

15mm 284 painted and 940 bought= +656

10mm 674 painted and 300 bought= -374

6mm 67 bases painted and 40 bases bought = -27

Spencer Smiths
      790 painted and 730 bought = -60

AFV 15 painted and 10 bought =-10

20mm 248 painted and 730 bought = +482.

I think that shows my focus this year has been on the smaller scales, yet I' ve still managed to get through a fair amount of painting.

The plan for 2017 is to attempt to make a dent in the lead/plastic mountain. I may have a small splurge at Crusade next weekend but after that I think I'll try not to buy anything till Warfare in November. As things stand now I don't have any academic calls upon my non work time ao hopefully I can just get on with stuff. I'm also aiming to have at least one miniatures game a month, even if it is only X-wing against my Son.

The New MW magazine

The first issue of this magazine has arrived. Whilst changes are to be expected with the new editor and board, I was disappointed to see the return of the white text on black background. It is so difficult to read that I must confess I skipped all those pages. I hope that this  will not keep happening, but look forward to the next issue.

Autumn thoughts 3

I'm having a little think about what I really want to do in the hobby. There's stuff going on in the real world that's making me re-evaluate an awful lot of things. At the moment I'm going towards 10mm for a lot of periods. Again I realise that this is a process I've gone through several times in the lifespan of this blog, but the new Pendraken sculpts are lovely. I might stay with 28mm for the Hundred Days and do 10mm for everything else.
With regards to the 10mm I've started with some Austrians, going 8 on a 40x20 base. This would mean that French would be on a 30x20 base, needing me to buy more bases in a different size. I already have 30x30 base so might just see how 6 French castings look on this base.

I was sent some 2mm ACW, and have to say that they look ok. Each 30x30 base represents a regiment or brigade so could allow for some big battles. Having painted up some of the terrain that came with them, I've got the bug so they've jumped up the queue.

The most current things on the painting table are some 10mm CSA and 10mm Austrians. I'll post some photos when they're done.

Autumn plans 2

Colours was a relative disappointment. I managed to pick up some packs of casualty and horse-holders for the ACW project, as well as some 10mm Danish for 1864. Seeing as I 've decided to do 1866 in 6mm and 1870 in 10mm, I might as well allow expansion to other eras. The Pendraken sculpts are tiny masterpieces and I'm looking forward to getting some paint on them.
One minor irritation was not being ablento get the bases I needed. The trader explained that imperial measurement bases are produced to order and if I'd pre-ordered I could have collected them. I think that if items are only done to order then it should be displayed promenently on the website. Who know's it might increase sales?

Plans for the Autumn

Taking photos of the shed for the proposed magazine article has prompted me to rethink win what order I'm going to tackle the lead mountain.
I think that the first thing that needs to be done are the 10mm Prussians and ACW figures. These will be based for RF&F so should get me usuable units fairly quickly.
At the same time I'll try to drop a few units of 15mm Persians in as there are quite few of them to do. Especially as I've got the War and Empire 2 figures coming at some point.
I'd like to go to Colours as I need little things like flags, casualty markers and bases. Going ti a show will allow me to save on the p&p, as well as perhaps allowing for a bit of Father/Son bonding if either of the boys come with me.

I hate technology

I have been asked if want to contribute to one of the wargaming magazines. The words were easy-ish but I've had no end of problems trying to get good enough photos to go with the article. Finally I resorted to taking my phone out of its case and using every setting on the camera to take the same shot. Hopefully the editor can make some kind of silk purse out of this cow's ear.