Hobby Update 04 Aug 26

Progress has been a little slower over the last week or so, but prior to that I had made a couple more dints into the lead mountain First, I completed a few Vietnam War-era figures from The Assault Group: there are some VC with a mixture of weapons, some ANZACs and some US Special Forces: 

Then I did a small batch of 95th Rifles from Perry Miniatures. 

The current strategy is to get the uniformed and historical 28mm figures from the lead pile done first, and then will move onto the miscellaneous and fantasy stuff and dig out the partially painted figures to get some quick wins. Then I will switch back to 15mm and 6mm uniformed and historical stuff, and then go back to the 28mm odds-and-ends to finish off. That effectively means prioritizing the remaining 28mm Napoleonics mainly. Wish me luck!

I have also found time to get one game in - of which more anon - and have also done some more messing around with scenario designs to try and get some more easy games onto the table.
 

Hobby Update - 30 Jun 26

 I have made a little bit more progress on the painting (and repair) pile over the last week or so. I am still prioritizing stuff for the little one, either stuff that is his or stuff that is going to him. That means a lot of 28mm stuff, which although it isn't expanding my collection too much, it is at least saving some space as they leave my pile and enter his room!

 

First up is a bunch of Soviets: some Bad Squiddo Soviets (Platoon command, plus a sniper pair) and a Warlord Games sprue, kindly donated by a member of TWW! Also, the Russian from Hour of Glory and a few repaired Romans.

 

 

Some repaired Zulus, Mahdists and a 24th Foot Ensign.

Some repaired and some fresh-built British Paras, including a couple of women to use as SOE operatives and suchlike!

A couple of free gift sprues of Germans: one sprue of Panzer Lehr and another of winter German paratroopers. Anyway, they are really nice figures, both types. I will keep these ones I think, no doubt I will find a use for them at some point!

Okay, back to stuff for the bairn: US infantry and paratroopers spares and repairs:

And a USMC platoon command pack for the Pacific:

 So definitely maintaining a bit of forward momentum now. I am looking for some proverbial easy wins next, so will prioritize stuff going to the bairn (plus he has NO issues getting stuff to the table. and under the bed. and on the stairs. etc...)

 

Hobby Update - 13 Jun 26

 Not much time for games or hobbies recently, but not quite no time. Gaming is still pretty much stalled: no space, no time, not in the best of spirits and difficulty in translation of 'general desire to play games' (which remains as strong as ever) into actual games on the table. But I have made a bit of progress on the painting front. For some of it, you will have to take my word for it: my phone died and with it a few progress pictures. But the following should give a sense of what I have been up to!

Some Japanese infantry for my littlest to use against his US Marines. They are nice figures, but painting them really brought out that there is a more-or-less generic WW2 infantry look: the Soviets, the Poles, the French, the Eastern European states and the Japanese do look quite similar, really! Sure, there are differences and noticeable ones too, but at a sufficient level of abstraction, they are quite close. 

I have also been doing a lot of fixing and restoring from the pile of 'casualties' - figures that have been broken over the years, or the odd figure that got left or forgotten or whatever. For example, this next batch is the WW2 British Airborne that have been in the pile for a while:

Additionally, I fixed a bunch of Perry Agincourt-era Men-at-Arms, some Zulu warriors and some Mahdists, some British opponents for them both, a few Romans, some WW2 German grenadiers, a few Space Marines, etc.

 

Of much more recent vintage (from the recent Partizan) are some British Colonial artillery. For some reason the clash of Redcoat, Zulu, Dervish and Pathan really inspires my little one (of course, there is a very obvious reason: he has watched Zulu (and Zulu Dawn, and The Four Feathers, and Khartoum, just like a lot of the more veteran wargamers!). He bought some painted British infantry for the Sudan, and then got this Perry set as well.

 The little one's collection has come on quite a lot over the years!

I have managed to get a few of my own figures done too, in the margin! These are the first batch of Duchy of Warsaw infantry. There are another 4 infantry units in the pile to complete, plus some extra skirmishers, then I will move onto the cavalry and artillery.

(also another British Para from the bits box has been restored in the background). 

 Coming up, I am trying to finish a bunch of 28mm WW2 extras for the the little one, and then a few more of the 6mm Polish for me. The main effort is on really getting down the lead mountain which has grown much more than I comfortable with over the last couple of years. Making progress on the 28s is key I think, since they are the ones that take the storage space, plus I can get through the 6mm stuff quite quickly when I put my mind to it.

I suspect the game drought may last a little longer, until I can sort out time, space and mental energy, and, in the end, fix on what I actually fancy doing. Possibly the fundamental tension is that OTOH playing some simple games is the best way back in, but my mind is being drawn to more complex affairs. I might have a go at some of the simpler scenarios in SPI's ETO, inspired by Martin Rapier's recent re-fights of some of the early WW2 campaigns.

Hobby Update - 10 Nov 25

Work and home are still very busy, and I haven't always been feeling great recently, but I have, in fits and starts, managed to get paint on at least a few figures.

 

First up, some more Baccus 6mm WSS figures. I just really love painting up these little gentlemen! 

Firstly we have six bases of Bavarian Infantry. Very pretty, nice colours (although since I tend to use natural rathern than exaggerated colours, they tend to blend rather than pop in photos). The only thing somewhat disappointing about the Bavarian Army of the WSS is that it seems to have mainly consisted of actual Bavarians! This compares unfavourably to the rest of my Franco-Spanish, whose words of command could be just as well in English, Italian or German as French or Spanish...

 

Although having said that, this base of Horse consists of actual Spaniards - Queen's Regiment.

I have been doing rather more painting for the bairn than myself - a big batch of Romans.

First contingent is a bunch of Caesar's Legionaries - from Warlord.

 

Followed by a contingent of Early Imperials, accompanied by a Scorpion (right)

Happily, that finishes the backlog of 28mm Romans for the bairn!

 

So, still in the backlog for him are some English infantry for Agincourt (Perry), some Gallic Warriors (Warlord) and some WW2 US Marines (Warlord). I have made a start on the Gauls already, they are coming along really nicely. I have never even attempted plaid patterns in 28mm before, so that at least is a new challenge! Luckily the remainder of the models are quite simple, so I don't mind spending a little extra time on the trews...

 

For myself, my backlog has continued its inexorable growth, following the pattern of the last couple of years 😔.  Anyhow, the plan is to try and get the bairn's stuff cracked by the end of the month, and then have three months really concentrating on my own collection. One thing I aim to do is to try and focus on the little outstanding batches to round out existing armies, rather than tackle whole unpainted armies - not that I have many of them, but they can go to the back of the queue at present.

 

On the plus side, I have managed to get back into actually playing a few games, so hopefully a few more battle reports coming soon. 

 

 

Five Leagues From the Borderlands - Bank Holiday Campaign

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, I felt like something a bit lighter game-wise, so I got out some 28mm fantasy figures and started a new Five Leagues From The Borderlands campaign. As well as playing the game for its own sake - and it needs no further justification - I was looking at what the minimum figure and terrain requirements might be, so in current domestic circumstances I can create a small 'game in the box' which covers most of the necessary options. 

 

 

 

I am four campaign turns in so far. I will do a quick summary as I go of each campaign turn. I started off with a 'standard' party of 4 Heroes and 4 Followers. Just for visual identification, the heroes are the Knight with a two-handed sword, the Knight in red surcoat with sword and dagger (the avatar), the blonde archer in green, and the Norse Shieldmaiden with sword and shield.

 

Turn One: 

A good non-combat encounter finds me a new comrade-in-arms: some kind of runaway scholar! Oh well, he can figure out how to use his bill as he goes...

Then an encounter with some Northern raiders...

The merry band...

The fight was quite hard - raiders are reasonably tough - but in the end it was a convincing victory, and no serious injuries amongst the party.  The loot was okay, but much better, one of the followers ended up becoming a hero.

 

Turn Two: 

The next turn only had a combat encounter; this was against some bewitched local cultists, who ended up acting as dumb fodder for some evil sorcerer...this band was led by a mercenary warrior out of the Far North, however...

Okay, the action begins with the party spotting the cultists, and the arrows begin flying.

The archers do their work well - that warrior is still untouched, mind

The melee becomes general - plus one of the heroes and his follower have got around the back - no escape for any of this lot

The mercenary warrior is the last to fall, surrounded by the party and hacked down - he was a very tough customer, and a couple of the party are a little worse for it

 

Turn Three: 

The party track down a band of bandits to their lair - a ruin hidden in a deep vale. On the way however, they encounter another bit of good fortune...another character who wishes to join the party...a soldier...who also turns out to be a hero! He is one of the characters with a Bill, for identification.

The party has surprised the bandits in their lair.

The archers have good position

The enemy leader - some kind of charismaic demagogue, using the bandits for his own nefarious ends

Some neat archery brings down a couple of the bandits - the bandits are possibly the weakest enemies in the game.

And another one - the archers are outdoing themselves in this battle!

The remainder of the bandits are despatched, although a couple do manage to make their escape

 

Turn Four: 

Some more bandits are encountered, this time whilst the party is travelling

Another charismatic leader goes down, along with a henchman - one of the heroes has gone a bit far though, and is ambushed by two bandits

The remainder of the bandits have been overwhelmed in the meantime, however

None of the bandits escaped this one

 

Game Notes: 

Really good fun, and a nice little change of pace for me. Things are actually going very well for my party - having the extra heroes does make the fights noticeably easier!! Still, they will leave soon enough (IIRC the party will reset to normal numbers at the end of a campaign segment...need to check that). I do have the latest edition of Five Leagues...but I haven't got around to properly examining that system yet...and in any case, it isn't like I am not enjoying the first edition! I think it bears repeating that I really wish I had had this game when I was about 10-12 (that and Nuts! or Five Men at Kursk) - I would have played these things so, so much! Great solo-friendly gaming on a small board, with a low figure count. What I have been working on is getting a minimal 'set' together, having all the terrain and models I need to play the game as written, but contained in a very small overall space. I use the same hills as I am using for my 6mm Horse & Musket 'game-in-a-box', but the trees for this game need another box, with a few other bits of terrain, like the ruins and the barrows in some of the pictures above, to give it some flavour.  But it is working well so far - a few Dark Age warriors (Gripping Beast), fantasy Norsemen (Westwind Nordvolk) and some Cultists (Frostgrave) are supplying most of the adversaries, the heroes and heroines are mainly Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses figures and conversions, and some Bad Squiddo & Gripping Beast shieldmaidens.