Wednesday, 17 January 2024

French Archaeologists and other Civilians : Revisiting and old Project

The sands of the Algerian desert part to reveal a group of French civilians examining old bits of pot, drinking wine, and listening to a scratchy gramophone. All very civilized in the middle of nowhere…until the locals decide to attack of course! Then they will need the protection of a detachment of Legionnaires. Meanwhile, a handful of indigenous labourers and their overseer are working in the background thinking how strange these overdressed foreigners are. 



I’m briefly revisiting my Foreign Legion/French Colonial project from 2022 and completing a group of civilian models that were on my to-do list at the time but have sat neglected in my Pile-o-Shame ever since. I had got as far as priming and mounting them on sticks…and that has been where they have stayed for the last couple of years. This year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge gives me a chance to get these done and to clear my conscience of a side project not completed. 


I have also painted a couple of half-sized ‘irregular’ units consisting of civilian adventurers and explorers who have taken up arms to protect themselves. 


Just a handful of models but they are done now and start to feature in some of my games. 

Tuesday, 16 January 2024

Wars of the Roses Camps and Medieval Building

Another entry to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and once again I am revisiting an old project to complete a few bits and bobs. This week I went all Medieval revisiting my Wars of the Roses project from last year. This Merchants House is a relatively new acquisition and was sent to me by 6MilPhil and was part of his recent Medieval Village Kickstarter. He sent me a whole set for review last year and I have painted most of the buildings now, apart from this one. So I decided it was time to pull my finger out and get it done. 



I have also been trying to clear up a few more little bits from my Wars of the Roses project and these items have been sitting around neglected for far too long. The Tents are from Leven Miniatures and as I have come to expect from this company are reasonably priced and the resin is nice to work with. I had painted a much more colourful set last year but I really didn’t like them so I bought two more sets and went instead with this much simpler colour scheme of off-white canvas with coloured trim.


Sunday, 14 January 2024

Mapping the Battle: Successful Wargames Cartography

Fitting a historical battle onto a standard 6x4 games table may mean squeezing or morphing reality to make the terrain fit. But how far can you change things before it stops being historical and becomes a work of fantasy?

Sunday, 7 January 2024

What is a Wargamer? And is it different for everyone?

What is YOUR hobby? The answer will be different for every Wargamer. This week I discuss MY hobby and why it's OK to be different. 

I'll also give an update on my hobby activities, what has been on my workbench, and a review of the movie Godzilla Minus One (Hint, it is MUCH better than the last film I went to the cinema to see!)