If Battlegames and Henry Hyde introduced me to wargames blogs then I guess my next Blog Influence was that blog that most reflected my interests at the time.
And at the time I had decided for budget reasons to switch to 1/72 plastics for new projects. We were still struggling out of the recession.
Into the bargain I was using an idea from Lance and Longbow SocietyHobilar magazine to reduce DBA standard figure numbers on each element/base – the article was about cutting the cost of your hobby yet keeping the pleasure.
At the same time I had encountered Peter Pigs Bloody Barons (15mm focused) which joined up to Society of Ancients article by Mike Tittensor “Do Ancients stop at Quadesh?”.
Peter Pig makes figures and writes rules – many use grid based gaming
The upshot was I found plenty of 1/72 ancient chariot sets for sale and plunged in.
The Chariots never got painted although the infantry did. However I have since then indulged myself across multiple periods painting 1/72 figures.
Behind all this was a particular blog, Wargaming for Grown Ups. Trebian provided lots of inspiration not least that 1/72 was a good table top scale to game with. His large table games had masses of space yet that meant something smaller would still look good and play well.
So Blog influences No2 is Wargaming for Grown Ups. Trebian offered me a window into table top wargaming in 1/72 plastics and even 15mm metals. His blog offered a range of posts – games, figures and of course a bit of real life. And there were the “opinion” pieces in amongst a nice mix of text and images.
I can pretty much say that Wargaming for Grown Ups has been my longest running go to Blog and given me plenty of ideas and enjoyment. Thanks Trebian.
Minus their chariots my 1/72 ancient lybians square up to some Sea People invaders – Hat and Ceasar figures on show on 80mm x 60mm bases “flocked” using a games workshop idea involving bird gritIronically I have used War and Conquest to play my 1/72 bronze age games.
I thought about posting on the most influential blogs I have encountered in my gaming. It sort of sounded pompous. And when I thought about it the number is simply incredible anyway.
So I have settled for “Blog Influences”. In a time when “Influencers” are continuously big news it is quite strange to think that a few decades ago we had as much influencing going on but more through dominant communication organisations – the most obvious being newspapers and tv channels not to mention the ever present advertisers of the pre internet age. In a way we have always had influencers, they have simply changed shape, of course methods and their sheer numbers are now off the page.
My first influence then, which to choose? When I thought about it the big influence has been the one which set me off on my own blogging journey.
Blog Influence No1 is ironically the Battlegames Printed Magazine published by Henry Hyde and specifically an article by Greg Horne concerning a beginners guide to blogging (published around 2006) and referencing his “Duchy of Alzheim” blog. At the time I read the article and looked at the blog and thought ok – interesting, very interesting, but right now I just want to paint and game……..this blogging lark would be a distraction and consume precious hobby time.
Battlegames was eventually subsumed into Miniature Wargames Magazine and ultimately Henry went on to running his own successful Digital Platform.
Battlegames Magazine itself took me back into wargames fully by 2009, after over a decade tinkering with solo 15mm DBA campaigns. Not long after taking Battlegames regularly – around 2011 – I descended back into the land of 1/72 plastics which of course is another story. Low cost wargaming seemed appropriate at that time. Although you could say I was expanding from 600mm square 15mm figures at 12 elements a side gaming, towards bigger tables and potentially bigger armies! It is true I had acquired more space for my gaming.
I also remember back then encountering a wargamer at a show saying they were ditching 15mm for larger scales because of their failing eyesight. Maybe that thought stuck? Anyway I think 15mm always felt too much like a compromise. And I have not been drawn into 28mm which would be logical if eyesight were my sole issue concerning size/scale.
It took me another 13 years to actually blog myself but “hey-ho” better late than never. In the meantime blogging bit me as a consumer and my gaming has never been the same since. And it has been more fulfilling as a result.
So there you go – No1 of possibly a new post series.
This is the tip I found by chance on the “The Waving Flag” blog of Martin who runs Vexillia. I found Vexillia during my interest in impetus rules and italian figure makers.
Then I dropped out of that and very recently came to Martins blog by way of one of his recent posts and then having wandered around his blog site again I found the tips section. And wet pallettes update from 2016!
OK so I am slow on the uptake but I do remember a lot of discussion about wet pallettes a while ago (was it in 2016 though?) and it passsed me by. It so happened this time round I was in the middle of a lot of painting and well the article or should I say tip caught my eye.
And yes I followed Martins advice and it works and works really well.
I had some ochre base paint in the wet pallette box for the best part of 3 weeks – no mould in sight and the paint remained perfectly workable.
So thank you Martin.
This is also my 50th post so I can say that starting this blog and achieving this very small milestone in the blogging world is in lots of ways due to the work of others. All those other blogs I have followed over the last 10 years for example.
Here are some that have inspired my gaming, painting and an appreciation of what blogging has contributed to the wargames hobby.
Thank you to one and all. And for those omitted from the list, thank you as well – it is the variety that matters – the different tastes and interests mean there is always something for everyone to enjoy or discover.
And my whole DBA 15mm world received a massive jolt one day in 2007. I picked up a magazine in WH Smiths at a railway station. Nothing untoward you say, except it was a copy of Battlegames published by Henry Hyde.
Subsequently in one of his magazines I read about the beginners guide to blogging by Greg Horne and his Duchy of Alzheim blog. At the time with zero wargames playing going on blogging looked like a waste of good gaming or even painting time.
Much later, much much later in the atlantic publishers era I read in Battlegames Henry’s guide to starting your own blog. Still not for me. And the site link above is Henry’s consolidated site now – the guide I followed in the magazine has been removed. But his main site mentions it.
Another site Henry introduced me to was meeples & miniatures blog and Neil Shuck, and that led me to podcasts – but thats another story.
Some of my favorite blogs have been the following…………
Pauls Bods – absolutely excellent painting of 1/72 plastics and most recently metals by tumbling dice
Wargaming for Grown Ups – great all round musings and plenty of 1/72 ancients plastics that got me out of a 15mm DBx rut and into simpler gaming with plastics and even modifying them
History in 1/72 – great for ideas about what you can do in 1/72
Parade Ground – got me back into 20mm metals with the likes of tumbling dice/newline/SHQ alongside plastics – motivated my purchase of Late Romans by Miniart. excellent 1/72 ideas, painting and figures
The Eastern Garrison – pics of the much missed figures of greenwood and ball – the garrison metals I always wanted were the Carthaginians. Great archive.
Harness and Array – excellent medieval material, motivated me to do or rather start my stoke field project. Sadly it is my one 28mm enterprise and remains unfinished despite the fantastic figures.
Dark Age Wargames – although it only ran from 2006 to 2016 I found this site very useful for my interests in the Dark Ages
The Wars of Wine and Cheese – another imagination thought stream that got me revisiting horse and muskest warfare – but always with a “fantastic” leaning
Vintage Wargaming – so enjoyed the old metal ranges being replayed I rebased mine and used them again
John’s Wargames page – another blog that got me convinced to go down the soft plastics 1/72 route
Heres no great matter – sustained my interest in 15mm, showed me the drawbacks but pleasure of ancient and medieval warfare (AMW) and lots of small but great ideas like dice army pics to show each turn development when reporting a game
Carpat’Land – simply amazing figures to enjoy especially in medieval period and L’art de la guerre ruleset appeared to me here
Steves Random Musings on Wargaming – consistently offers a variety on interesting ideas for me – books and war of the spanish succession to name but two
20mm figures and modelling – wargaming info provided lots of useful links plus news, rulesets views and some interesting carolingian material
the duchy of tradgardland – another imaginations find in my ealry days of reading other peoples blogs
As I say these are just some of the wargame blogs I have enjoyed – some are no longer updated but I think all I have listed can still be visited.
Thanks to every author who has committed time to share their ideas on this fascinating hobby.
The Wargaming Erratic 