Swindon Sojourn (3)

And so the week draws to a close and I must bid a not so fond farewell to my beige featureless hotel room.

However I do so with a happy heart because I have managed to get some hobby done.

Ten Africans with bows and ten with spears, together with a couple of chiefs and five Askaris have been successfully glued to the face of her maj and equipped with weapons.

Meanwhile I have managed to apply all the base colours to a dozen US infantry models, meaning I should get them dipped next week with a bit of luck and a following wind,

Here they are - poor quality iPhone picture again.

In other news I am being leaned on to play In Her Majesty's Name.

Generally my views on VSF and Steampunk are best summarised by this article.
There's just something about it that seems, well a bit silly really so I can't get too excited*

On the other hand the rules have been well received and are only £6 on the Kindle and I've probably got models that'd be suitable up in the loft somewhere....

*And yes I know I happily play WFB and other equally silly things but this just crosses some sort of line I didn't even know existed

Swindon Sojourn (2)

A bit more progress was made on Tuesday night, but yesterdays sad news delayed this post.

Anyway some more Africans were glued to bases and given nice sharp Northstar spears. Ouch

I think these are Foundry Darkest Africa Tribal Warriors

Then I added some khaki clothing to the US infantry

I also glued these Askaris to pennies on Monday but forgot to post them in that post

Last night I ate and drank and did no hobby.
Tonight I'm back to webbing for the US infantry.
Living. The.Dream.

Donald Featherstone RIP

Very sad to hear the news today of Donald Featherstone’s passing.

Just like Fleetfoot Mike I read (and re-read) many of Don’s books at a formative age borrowed from my village library (possibly this is because Mike and I shared the same village library – albeit unknowingly).

At the time I think I struggled to completely grasp the rules and I know my chums and I only ever tried a couple of times to actually play the games he described, but there is no doubt his words and books were influential on me and the excitement they inspired eventually led me on to D&D, Citadel miniatures, Warhammer and the rest of my misspent youth and adulthood.

I was particularly pleased to discover a few years ago that John Curry History of Wargaming were reprinting many of his books after some years of watching originals go for silly money on e-bay. I was delighted to re-acquaint myself with some old favourites and find myself once more enthused by his passion and ideas.

The rules still confused me, and I've still not actually played any of them, but I think I can safely say without Donald Featherstone’s skill at passing on his love for this crazy hobby of ours I certainly wouldn't be the toy soldier enthusiast I am today.

Thanks for all the years of pleasure you've given me and many others Mr Featherstone.

Swindon Sojourn

I am in sunny (no really) Swindon all week with work.
Unfortunately no-one I work with actually lives in Swindon, so my evenings are spent in solitude in my hotel.
There was a time in my youth when I found this impossibly glamorous.
Now I just find it a drag.
Anyway to stave off boredom I remembered to bring some soldiers with me to help pass the time.
So last night was spent cleaning, glueing and painting to the sounds of 6 music

Here's what my desk looked like when I started. Glue, pennies and Foundry Africans

After an hour or so I had this to show

Ten archers all glued to Brenda's face.
They're these models I think Stealthy Tribal Archers

After that, with the superglue fumes inflaming my brain I started in on painting the Americans I picked up last week

Just base coats on the trousers, faces and helmets so far. I'm doing them the same way I did the last lot - simple base coats and then I'll dip them when I get home.
Apologies for the quality of the pictures - it's just on my i-phone with a hotel light bulb.

Tonight more basecoating and some spearmen I hope.

Arab Spring

Scrivs and I finally managed to get our calendars to coincide for a game of soldiers.
Given that he's running a WAB El Cid event that I've signed up to and the last time that I played WAB was at the Peterborough event last year we decided to dig out the splendid El Cid supplement.
I was expecting to play the Infidels of the redoubtable Christian general El Scrivs, but it turned out I was to have a civil war on my hands as Al-Scrivensar and his Almoravids had turned up to the battle.
So the scene was set for some hardcore Almoravid on Almoravid action.
As Al-Scrivsenar was a venerable Emir and I a mere Emir we decided that Ibn Coldir was clearly the charismatic young leader trying to overthrow the wily elder statesman.
Our lists were quite different I was character heavy with two large units of spearmen and bows with some Christian allies ready to ride down the Islamic hordes. While Al-Scrivsenar had placed all his faith in lots and lots and lots of spearmen.

The ensuing battle was a titanic struggle that started cagily with neither side willing to charge.
Eventually I broke the deadlock and was rewarded for my impatience by seeing half my army turn tail and flee. It looked all over, but some fortunate rallying and a terrific pursuit of some over enthusiastic spearmen hauled me right back into it.
Sadly the wily Al-Scrivsenar was able to turn the screw once more and finally the forces of Ibn Coldir were surrounded and cut down.
Apologies for the picture quality my camera battery died faster than even my Christian knights and so I was forced to use the i-phone camera

 Skirmishers forge ahead

 Ready your bows my brothers

 Turncoats crest the hill

 Ibn Coldir's cavalry ride to meet them

 You cowardly infidels! No pay for you!

 Stab, grind, stab!

 Right, lets take a breather

 Again...?

 Aha, our foes are vanquished. Apart from the ones behind us.

We go to Allah!

Al-Scrivsenar's biased portrayal of the "facts" can be found here.

A splendid game that lasted well over the allotted six turns but we were having fun, so who's counting. Great to see and play Scrivs again and the new venue they've secured for the club is fantastic. Really looking forward to the event there now.

In fact the only downside of the evening was that top chum James turned up and left me with a whole pile of free lead (and the start of a new project). Thanks James.

Old Faithful

I'm going to this tomorrow.

I am quite excited but also a bit fearful.

I go every year, and the day usually passes in a haze of poor London beer, static-electricity generating replica kit and amusing shouting in Northern accents.

However this year the mighty Hull are in the final.

And we (in)famously never win at Wembley.

The Cardiff 2005 final, where we did win, was a horrendous rollercoaster that left me emotionally drained.

And of course this year is a replay of the greatest Challenge Cup final ever (tm) (which we lost).

So all things considered I'm not looking forward to it as much as you might expect...

But, you never know....

 COME ON YOU HULL!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you wondering about the title of this post. The song the Black and White Faithful sing is the following Gene Autry classic. Though we'll be belting it out a good bit louder and more upbeat around 3 o'clock (and hopefully around five o'clock too)

Booty!

I have returned from meolidiz as we say in Hull.
Had a splendid time in Northumbria and then in East Yorkshire and managed to get a small amount of broadly toy soldier stuff squeezed in which will ideally feature here in the next week or so. I also managed to get sunburned while surfing on Tynemouth beach - in your face Bondi!
I returned to some good news about work with my contract being extended for another year, and so decided to treat myself.

Goodies

I picked this little lot up from the ever helpful Nick at Northstar while on my way to collect the offspring from holiday club.
It's a copy of the new Ronin rules which I've been after for a while (I did call on Nick just before departing on holiday in the hope of it being holiday reading but he was still awaiting delivery). Together with a few Crusader and Artizan blisters.

I've been looking for an excuse to buy some of the Perry Korean range since they first came out and Ronin features a list for Koreans. Add to that the fact that one of my regular opponents has a pile of Samurai he's been looking for an excuse to paint and it was a bit of a no-brainer. And cheap too at £11.99 - buy it at that price from Nick, don't support tax dodging onliners for the sake of a few quid.
A quick look through and it seems to be just what I'm after. I'll only need 10 or so models to get started (ideal, should be ready by Easter*) and the rules seem pretty straightforward and clear- certainly compared with Dux Britaniarum that I've really struggled to get my head around.
Nice pictures of models too (mostly of the new ones from Northstar to support the game but also some of the poor WF plastics - albeit with very good Kev Dallimore paintjobs) and some colour plates from the Ospreys as you might expect.
I even realised last night that my LotR Khand and Easterlings could make some stand in models to practice with - though I'm hoping to pick up the Koreans at Partizan next week!

The blisters were an assortment of US Infantry models to expand my Bolt Action force to three squads. Two of riflemen (one Crusader and one Artizan) and a pack of bazookas (my opponent has acquired a Stug) and a mortar (both Crusader). I really enjoyed quickly dipping some of these earlier in the year and think three squads makes for a decent enough game of BA. I've based and undercoated them already and with the kids away next week hope to make speedy progress.
I've also got a plastic Hobby Boss Sherman that I picked up at Salute awaiting assembly, but as I took it on holiday with me and never even got it out of the box I'm beginning to think it was a false economy and I should just have bought a resin model that I don't have to assemble.

*You'll notice I didn't say Easter of which year