I realised that I haven't posted anything on here for nearly 5 years! That means a lot has happened in my life that has impacted on my hobby, both for the better and the worse.

I have moved to Kent, got divorced and am about to get married again, so that can give you some insight into why I might not have been as diligent in blogging as I could have been. The hobby stuff spent a lot of time in storage, and there was a period were I was doing a lot of buying but not much painting or playing.

Over the period I've been off air I've come to realise that I'm never going to achieve some things so holding onto those projects 'just in case' was pointless, and a lot has gone on eBay. I can seen that I was already getting frustrated by the shows back in 2019, and this has continued. I have been back to Salute and others since, but the old excitement has gone, and I now find myself not that bothered if I don't get to a show from one year to the next. Similarly my taste in gaming has changed. Whilst I still love Ken Reilly's podcast and aspirations of BIG games, I am becoming more attracted to the smaller scales. I think this is due to the ease I am having painting the epic Napoleonics from Warlord, and I am slowly moving across to 15mm or less for everything except Imaginations and ACW. where I'll stay true to 20mm plastics and 30mm Spencer Smiths respectively.

My new gaming set up will be a 12x6 set of tables in a shed, so will have storage underneath and around. By going to 10-15mm for most things it will allow me to use the same terrain. 

At least that's the plan....

Contrast paints

So I was interested in seeing what the new contrast paints are like. I have so far used them on 15mm FPW minifigs with good effect. They also look good for using instead of agrax earthshade on colours you want the wash effect but not to make too muddy.
The next test will be some 28mm Romans and some 10mm Austrians SYW.

Reflections on Salute

Enough time has passed now I think for me to able to post my honest opinion of Salute.
I drove up from Wales with Huw (12) having told him it was the biggest wargaming show you'd find in the UK. He was looking forward to trying out some demos of new games and perhaps some participation ones.
We didn't get there till 1200, and the crowds had thinned a bit, but they were 3 deep in places. We did our usual wander all around and then go back to look at stuff. Well, that was the plan anyway.
It quickly became clear that the majority of demos were of niche warband things in their own universe. We had no interest in these so seeing 5 versions of the Fallout game didn't help.
We did get a demo of the new cold war rules from Great Escape Games. That seemed logical and fitted well the 15mm figures being used. Although it looked like Team Yankee, it played very differently. So might be worth further play.
Interestingly the Battfront stall was just over and had no European Moderns by the time we got there, but lots of Middle Eastern figures for their new expansion.
We also took part in a few turns of the Peterborough Wargames group Bloody Omaha. This was using IABSM.
It looked lovely and if you knew the rules would probably zip along at a club night. They didn't really suit a show where people want to drop in and out, but still get an idea of the game.
Huw played for 30 minutes and activated once. He is a fan of Lardies' games but this really didn't float his boat.
We tried to get a go at the Malaya CoC run by the Lardies themslves, only for a fully grown man to barge Huw out of the way. CoC player in all sense of the word.

I did do some shopping but nothing that I couldn't have done online and actually I didn't spend more than 40% of my budget.
Will I go again, probably not. Huw almost certainly won't.
I think the next show will be Warfare in November, and see how that goes. It could be I'm showed out, and that doesn't bode well for my 50th trip to Historicon.

Featherstone weekend

A little late but time to post my thoughts on this years Featherstone Weekend. It was a Sudan game using figures, terrain and rules all supplied by Mr Steve Thompson. Apart from the fact that everything had been built and painted since this time last year, the majority of the sculpts were custom castings!

The scenario was a British column marching out to relieve a town and pick up the Colonel's wife from a vilage on the way. As well as British infantry and Cavalry, the column contained Egyptian and Indian troops, and a full baggage train. Not only did the column need to reach the city, but also defend the camp and the baggage train.

To help there were 3 gunboats on the Nile with a mix of Canon and Machine guns.
I commanded the Bengal Lancers, and maintained my form of being useless! I was awarded 3 white feathers for my troops behaviour, which meant me ending up as the lowest scoring command with -58! David Hill ( a damn colonial no less) managed 90! He was awarded a VC and Bar.

Despite my troops running away on Sunday Morning, I had great fun and am looling forward to the Zulu war next year.

It's no good for your elf

The elf army now stands at 30 units! It is amazing how cheaply you can pick up units on ebay, especially since there aren't Elves as such in AOS. Just a few more units to do and then it will be done.
To me most of the Old warhammer high elves look Norman more than anything else so I have a mainly foot army with a few elite units of horse to represent the nobles.
As it is an undivided Elf army, I amd happy to have Dark Elf and Wood Elf units as well. To me they represent differing Thanedoms, in the same way a Wessex army would have been a bit different to a Mercian or Welsh army.
Next onto the painting table are their opponents, lots of goblins.
For rules I am thinking of using Hail Caeser! But might try the new Warlords of Erewhon as I've just picked up the rules.

National Elf service

I mentioned that I had bought several units of elves, well that became several more. At the last count I have painted over 120 castings, mainly in 24 or 20 man units.
I bought resin movement trays at Warfare, and love them. I think I might need to get some more, either at Crusade or on-line.

This year I intended to be lead/plastic neutral, but have failed already. I will try to start no new periods untill I can see a dent in the mountain.

Magpies strike again

I went to Hay on Wye the other day. For those who don't know this is a town on the Welsh Borders which is famous for it's second hand and classical bookshops. While I was there I had an impulse buy of a book called Battles of Tolkein. This was a collection of all the big battles from all of his works. It is nicely illustrated and full of ideas for scenarios.
Before I realised I had bought several units of classic GW elves. Now I already have a few units, but this will pad out my forces. I may be able to do some of the big elves vs Orcs battles using the 3rd edition WHFB rules.
This has mucked up my painting plans so I might not get as much done before the Fat man comes as I had hoped.