Goodbye 2024
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Happy 2025
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Slow work in progress
Well AHPC15 has started but I have been very slow out of the traps.
I have made a start with some irregular miniatures that arrived very promptly in the Christmas post.
They are Neapolitan Dragoons circa 1860, but I took a punt on them for my 1848 Tuscany Dragoons.
Ok so they have some incorrect details – I can live with that.
I did manage some model prep for AHPC15 as well. Not sure when/if they will make an appearance.
For AHPC15 you need points on the board in January. The Tuscan dragoons will remain my focus.
Dave Stones “paint what you got” is all about clearing off what you have already. And that’s a rich vein for me.
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Intermission 24f
Ralph Weavers’ book on the Hungarian Army of 1848/49 was my source for this unit or rather legion. They represent the Romanian or Rumanian legion who fought for the Hungarian side in the war for independence. The Austrians crushed the rebellion as they saw it but the empire was diminished.
The Romanian troops came from ethnically Romanian areas that ultimately became Hungarian ruled in the Transylvanian region after World War One ended the Austrian Empire.
Again I have used Austrian World War One infantry turning a blind eye to ammunition pouches etc.
A trim of the peaked cap and a paint job gives me what I wanted. The fact is I bought these Austrians speculatively during lock down when I was in the hunt for capped infantry. The 1840’s is a difficult period to model as you often get the right hats with the wrong uniforms or vice versa!
World War One era figure ranges are useful if you ignore the equipment errors.
The uniform was a bluey purple so I tried contrast paints and was very happy with result.
This basically clears the decks for two painting challenges. AHPC15 started last Friday and “paint what you got” starts Boxing Day. They finish 21st March and 28th February respectively so will keep me occupied.
Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by.
It’s been quite a gap since June when I posted the last of my AHPC14 miniatures – Danish artillery 1848. And I had not clocked a pedestal moment since my French cuirassiers appeared in May.
In fact the pedestal has physically moved on to a new home but I plan to keep the post title for now.
Today on parade are some irregular miniatures I painted as part of a challenge I did with John@justneedsvarnish.
https://justneedsvarnish.wordpress.com/
The figures are actually 20mm Austrian World War One infantry.
I trimmed the peaked caps and a paint job later I got my 1st Roman Legion (who became the 10th line infantry) of the Roman Republic.
My reference is Ralph Weavers Garibaldi and the Siege of Rome published by Partizan Press. I used his text description which differs somewhat from the colour image in the book.
As I mix old 25mm, 1/72 and 20mm figures from different manufacturers basing sometimes includes height adjustments.
2mm washers help these 20mm figures blend in.
Finally the background tree was a bring and buy find while the two very nice trees to the fore are from “scenics ?”. The cottage is one of my very old airfix models given a makeover during Dave Stones season of scenery this autumn.
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Recon 2024
The last wargames show of the year for me is Recon. It takes place at Pudsey Civic Hall. It used to be run by Wakefield Wargamers but since last year The Pit Gaming Shop have taken over. While it is one of the smaller shows its still a great day out and in the case of the venue you get free parking on site, level access to a well lit two storey event space with civilised toilets (yes I have been to Partizan many times….) and a decent licensed cafe bar on site selling a good hot food range.
The show supported “models for hero’s” who were at the entrance – no queuing as the show is FREE entry. You could make a donation as I did and also Pit Gaming ran a raffle.
And if thats not enough a great range of traders and lots of participation games were to be had not to mention some life size sci-fi warriors wandering the aisles.
Hopefully The Pit Gaming Shop will host this enjoyable, relaxed and friendly wargames show again in 2025.
This year I managed to take part in two medieval games at the lance and longbow stand. They were very enjoyable with veterans and beginners playing a modified version of Lion Rampant.
The game was designed for a balanced play and it delivered with both battles being close run affairs. It is always a challenge to design a scenario that gives enough opportunity without a walkover by one side. “Show” games are peculiar with the dynamics of unfamiliar players, unfamiliar rules and the distractions of other games, demos and traders. So they need to be interesting.
In this case the heavy mounted knights (attackers) looked like they would steam roller the bow and bill (defenders) albeit behind stakes. However in the first game just as the defenders looked to collapse the knights leader fell to his death and the attackers lost their will to press home the attack.
In the second battle the defenders were again overrun but no lucky leader death seemed forthcoming when the battle ended – so a sort of draw maybe:Exciting to the end though.
At the end of the day I had plenty of enjoyment from these games.
In fact I neglected to take many photos around the show.
There were plenty of traders but at the moment I am on a clear the iron mountain and plastic pit push. Of course impulse buys override such plans and I indulged at blotz.
To be fair I had previously gazed at their Bronze Age fortress yet held off. Now though I have some converged plans which mean the fortress bit the dust or rather my wallet did!
Recon 2025 is in my diary already.
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Intermission 24e
Early winter has been quite dry in fact very dry with the first real rain in weeks falling as snow which again is rather early for this time of year.
The sunsets have continued to be stunning
Typically the west side of England is wetter than the east side – the lakes in the Lake District never dry out in theory as Atlantic westerlies dump their rain before climbing over the Pennines. And November can be very wet, cold and windy. But then again it can be a very dry month! So when a fine day comes along…….
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Intermission 24d
Autumn is well on with some excellent skies
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USA book tour
I had the chance to take a much delayed trip to the states this spring and hit the “front range” first, landing in Denver Colorado.
I took a clockwise trip round the southern rockies where the Colorado (Grand Canyon bound) and Rio Grande (New Mexico and Texas bound) rivers both rise.
The trip took in Colorado Springs, Raton, Santa Fe, Moab and ended in Boulder just north of Denver.
On my trip I bought a few books but I am getting ahead of myself. Trips like this invariably start with trains and planes. For which a book is useful.
My first book therefore was Eckart Frahm’s recent “Assyria” the rise and fall of the worlds first empire.
This got some airtime both ways when I was not watching both parts 1 and 2 of Dune. Dune I enjoyed and seemed a lot better than the one Sting was in – that’s showing my age….
The book also got some train time too. However it’s got a long way still to go and is still promising to be a great read in the future now I have moved on to other things!
My first USA purchase was completely unexpected. While waiting in a Walmart till exit queue near Fort Collins I was confronted not with Hershey bars but a pile of national geographic civil war atlases. I succumbed.
Moving south I landed up in Raton – the Raton pass is the mountainess northern route of the Santa Fe trail running from Kansas in the east.
Then it was onto Santa Fe where I got two books.
The first book so to speak in Santa Fe itself, I picked up at a niche bookseller. We had a good chat about the book world and I then asked him if he had something on the military history of the region – civil war or earlier.
I picked up this Mexican War book secondhand on the owners recommendation seeing as I would never have spotted it either and it turned out to be a top buy. It proved an excellent read for someone who knew nothing about the conflict.
I also did a check on the various titles for civil war histories in the region of Colorado/New Mexico and was happy with the book I had brought with me from the UK.
I had also read it before travelling as the battlefield is not straightforward. Essentially a main road runs smack through the extended site with all the development/disruption that results.
And when I made a trip to the nature park near the battlefield there was a fantastic choice of military history books on offer. Again the reserve is another story but I only bought this one book – about the civil war in Texas.
I found that mid west bookshops generally covered the Indian wars post civil war better than the civil war itself. Understandable given the distance and geography involved and the fact that the civil war was much more an east coast affair.
Durango and Moab were great places to stay but no compelling books to be had.
So it was left maybe to Boulder to finish on a high. Boulder was renowned for its bookstores in the past and I found two excellent ones still going and very well patronised when I visited.
At Trident booksellers and cafe I bought iron empires…..and the union pacific hits the rockies nearby……….
At Boulder bookstore I bought of dice and men….
Both stores were on Pearl Street which is the main shopping and retail street in Boulder.
Well that wraps up the book tour which was a success giving me plenty to consume during the rest of 2024 and well into 2025.
So those pesky brushes are back which means I can do some miniatures painting again!
And just maybe a few more posts will follow on what I saw on my travels…….
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Remembrance Sunday
The Wargaming Erratic 