Well this year has seen the warmest summer on record and for that matter an unprecedented period of dry weather.
Sunsets though have been a bit of a miss as have cloudscapes – all that blue sky means you can’t have everything.
The world’s first public railway ran on 27th September 1825. The route from the coalfields around Bishop Auckland ran through Shildon and Darlington to reach Stockton on the river Tees.
Today you can still travel the route.
And at Shildon (north west of Darlington) the Locomotion Museum may not carry the international reputation of the Railway Museum in York but it’s still worth a visit. Its facilities are all modern.
You can arrive via the original railway line or if coming by car there is a large free car park.
Frankly this is a case of less is more – museums wise!
If you just want to get your head round “railways” then Locomotion does it better and quicker.
This is one of the great things about small museums – they often “punch above their weight”: The Wallace collection in the London springs to mind.
Locomotion concentrates on both the beginning of the railways and the modern experiments with speed such as examples of APT and HST.
It is the presentation of these modern trains alongside the diminutive Locomotion and other early steam engines that looks so good.
There is a good selection of other engines and coaches showing developments over time as well as technologies.
Memorabilia and the inevitable shop and cafe round off an excellent site.
September is a busy month for battle anniversaries in Yorkshire not least in 1066.
On the 20th the Vikings of King Harald defeated the Saxons of Earls Edwin and Morcar at Germany Beck in what is now Fulford. There are not many references to this battle – given that two climatic battles followed, its understandable.
Crucially the defeated Saxons made good their escape as a rising tide flooded the beck. This meant they could fight another day.
There is a tapestry of the Fulford battle displayed at various locations over the years since it was made in 2012 after ten years effort!
On the 25th September the Saxons under King Harold of England defeated Harald and the Viking host at Stamford Bridge.
It was the end of the Scandinavian Viking threat after hundreds of years of invasion.
A tapestry of the Stamford Bridge battle can be seen in the old railway station at Stamford Bridge.
It was another Viking Scion – the Norsemen who took land in the Carolingian Empire and called it Normandy – who a few generations later then defeated the English in turn at Hastings.
It can be argued that without Fulford and Stamford Bridge there would have been no Hastings and maybe a different war between Harold and William might have played out.
So maybe instead of waiting for yet another Norman invasion (the bayeaux tapestry is en route to the UK) you could visit these other tapestries when they are on show instead or as well as.
People remember William for what followed yet Harold had marched 500 miles with his household troops and won a great victory putting together two separate regional armies before arriving at Hastings: William fought an outstanding adversary.
Back in 2020 I put together some shield wall armies and had some fun trying out various rules.
https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2020/09/06/prelude-to-wargames-rules-tested/
A long while ago I had the desire to make some adobe buildings for cowboy skirmishes. However despite having the figures (admittedly only primed) and then my “what a tanker” playing partner getting “what a cowboy”, it still did not look good. Fortunately the challenge rolled up and provided the impetus I needed to get this project over the line – along with some more conventional items. Amazing where “cardboard packaging” can take you!
So that’s it, 8 weeks of one hot dry summer and I have massively exceeded my expectations. I completed a lot of items and even though I started even more they are at least started and now have real homes rather than their sales boxes (thanks John the Varnish!)
For the analysts….. completions were
First module of my port,
two adobe buildings,
six earthen defences,
one artillery position
one aircraft base
flexible roads recoloured
two hills now also become a green defensible position
repaired damaged cardboard church
new self coloured HO Germanic church
two warbases Wild West buildings
two very old bellona low relief terraced houses
Two straight drainage ditch pieces
Finishing off stuff and even repairs/reworkings proved very satisfying.
The “starters” all happened to be kits and kicked off my challenge.
Blotz models Bronze Age fortress
Italeri French railway station building
Italeri north Italian church
warbases north German church
At least I have the measure of these pieces not least where and how to store them.
I probably have too many churches now……..
Funny that I did not finish the kits that I started the challenge with – given they were my absolute main targets – instead I started raking out cardboard and home building………
wargaming really is hilarious…..
Thanks Dave.
Last year I started painting my Low relief housing. I bought two of these terraces back in the 1970’s and somehow these bellona pieces have not fractured into pieces. They are injection moulded and were the “resin prints” of their time.
So I gave them a go and I must say the sculpture is brilliant. They were fun to paint. You can still buy injection moulded models – amera sell them via eBay in the uk. Alas I haven’t seen any terraced buildings.
In front of them are some early war miniatures road sections (flexible latex) last year I painted them but didn’t like the finish so they were back in the mix for a dry brush.
Finally there is the ditch. Basically more packaging fell into my eye line and I immediately thought – that’s useful. This is new packaging (not from the mountain!) and made the back end of the challenge displacing some other contenders.
They required no preparation.
I gave the packaging a coat of burnt umber then one of yellow ochre and then brandy cream! dry brush before an autumn variety of Javis static grass. The ditch water was done with Paynes grey tube acrylic and then a shade of paynes grey with some ivory white added as a top coat.
Final shot which shows the early morning in colour somewhere in Rugia plus Mr Varnishes armour! (you know who you are 😊)
Last entry for the scenery challenge is next up
First up is an Aircraft movement base. It was an unfinished piece from last year I think. Anyway it’s now got some scatter and is ready for some land planes – only trouble is I gave away my reconnaissance spitfire I did in AHPC14 https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/and now have just my “scrap heap” rescued spotter float biplane.
I need to get some aeroplane production going……
Next up is a complimentary piece for my recent fortifications. It’s an Artillery position fashioned from some corrugated card and unlike my recent port module this one went bananas. But I persevered and it’s finished with some dried tea – the brown granules and greenery.
I guess I have a post in mind about how books influence my wargaming. In fact some books have been highly influential. “Charge or how to play wargames” is positively antiquated yet it was the played out scenario of Sittangbad at the end of the book that first gave me thoughts and ideas about temporary fortifications and a pontoon bridge for that matter.
Last year I did the pontoon thing.
https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2024/08/23/across-the-weser-in-67/
This year I have finally created some defensive walls. They perfectly fit my need for a modular approach.
They had been part of my truly massive cardboard mountain. I say that because the mountain was actually distributed (lots of small unnoticed storage hills!!) until the other week when I gathered every bit I could find together: queue Mont Blanc before my eyes.
End result was a giant throw away session unless items could promise me some tangible scenery and sooner rather than later. These odd packing shapes of course were designed as fortifications made of earth.
I am happy to report that these six cardboard packing pieces have now produced six earthen defensive walls suitably crenellated.
I decided they may have been initially temporary at some time in the past but now are showing some age with greenery.
And of course there are always two sides to every wall from a weather point of view. I only grassed one side.
So one side is wet and greenery has grown well while the other side remains barren and dry.
That’s it for now.
Another much delayed posting, this time it’s San Diego – the most south west city in the USA and perhaps not on everyone’s trip list. Actually it was the first US city I ever visited back in 2019.
USS Midway (CV-41) was commissioned in September 1945 and was the lead ship for the “Midway” carrier class. It was the world’s largest aircraft carrier until 1955. It was also the first naval class unable to transit the Panama Canal.
It was decommissioned in 1992.
In a previous post
https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/08/19/rocket-armed-biplanes-even-in-1945/
I wrote about the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm museum and mentioned HMS Battler – a US built escort carrier.
I have just discovered that Ron Kay of Irregular Miniatures has died at the age of 98. He was full time on the team until 93, casting figures for all us hobbyists. He carried on as a part time member of the team still handling the big and complex castings. “Hats off” as they say.
I did not know Ron personally but seem to remember him at the Irregular stand at wargames shows.
I can do best by sharing some of my Irregular Miniatures collection and sending my condolences to Ian Kay and the Irregular family.
Irregular have provided me with some great 20mm figures that helped me build my 1848 forces.
It took me a long time to get to this museum in fact decades. I always meant to go – just my trips south never quite worked for a visit. Then in 2023 it happened. The visit is well worth it.
And then it’s taken 2 years to get round to this post. And that has only happened because Jeff – one inch high guy –
https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com
Posted about an out of print book and mentioned rockets and biplanes. I promised to dig out the info he wanted. Well I did have the photo but not the info boards.
Wikipedia has a site on Le Prieur rockets though
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Prieur_rocket
The swordfish had such a stable and durable airframe compared to later monoplanes that it was rocket armed in the Indian Ocean battles with the Japanese plus a fighter escort of seafires. The Swordfish was the only biplane to be in action in 1939 and also still in frontline action in 1945!
https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ESCORT/BATTLER.htm
Well it seems I did not record many info boards so have fun naming the blanks or correcting my entries.
Next up California dreaming….
The Wargaming Erratic 