What a great week!

Well if this is retirement roll on, whilst I appreciate I may be in a bit of a honeymoon period it has been a very enjoyable week.

Tuesday and Thursday night saw me start a Punic Wars campaign with two of my colleagues at our two local wargames club, Im using an old SPI game to run the campaign and generate the battles, interestingly already it hasnt gone as I expected. The Carthaginian player - aggressive on the table top has been somewhat reserved and in his first two battles has been bettered by his Roman counterpart. The result is at the end of the first year Hannibal is still in Gaul!.

Friday afternoon saw another of my colleagues bring his much underplayed Marlburian collection, we had a great game in the cabin following a Charles Grant Scenario of Seizing a bridge. We used th Beneath the Lilley Banner rules, good fun apart from the fact I regularly failed to move any of my men due to bad command rolls! As the French player I lost. However I did learn a salutory lesson always read the scenario guide thoroughly, the river I classed as unfordable except at the bridge, not so its fordable at both extremes!! Would it have made a difference? I doubt it. Any way pics show various stages of the game. Below is the French main force advancing on the bridge and the Inn!

Allied army deploys and advances to the river

Below is a shot of the allied right flank and centre at the topis the battered French Infantry retiring.

Below is the French flanking force to Regiments of Irish and one of Swiss, together with some Dragoons. They made good progress until I failed to activate them which gave the allies time to reorganise and unleash his heavy cavalry, nuff said!

In addition to all this a quick tally shows I've almost painted 100 28mm figures this month and my Royal Albion foot continue to make progress, below a couple of better pics of some of the lads outside the entrance to the Coaching Inn, The Black Horse and the Cherry Tree! not very original I know but I love the song.

The second company is almost done and I can hopefully complete the third including doing all the bases before month end.

Royal Albion Light Infantry

Dont know where this week went, lots to do around the house and some consultation work but progress on the paint table is still taking place. I have undercoated all of the Royal Albion Lights but was determined to try and get at least one figure in what I decided would be their uniform colours.

In the background are the drummers I'm finishing for the line battalions, he is flanked by a first corps phalanx Ive almost finished.
I suppose in terms of colours its quite 18th Century Russian but hey its an Imagination and I think the whole battalion will look spot on. See if I can get them done this week.

Whilst sorting through saved images etc. I did find a couple of one of my favourite command bases, it was my Spartan King for the first battle of Mantinae display game. Still got the Greeks and brings back fond memories

Anyway back to the merlot and the paintbrush with another update next weekend!

Plans for 2012

I trust everyone had an enjoyable New Year and I have seen a significant number of colleagues outline their plans and projects for the coming year.

Like many I don't see 2012 being any easier than last but to me that gives the opportunity to focus on what I have and make some progress, whilst I dont intend to start anything new I know its foolish to say I wont, Sails of Glory and Mongoose Publications promise of resin WW1 ships already get the gaming juices flowing, what I have promised is that it will be a cost neutral year I can only spend what I earn from the hobby so that's the incentive.

My next Regiment of my Imagination is almost complete the 25th Albion Foot just awaits its 3 drummers, I am quite pleased with the progress 16 hat men and the command, standards etc all done over the festive period.

Next up will be the Royal Albion Light infantry under its Commander Rupert Gibb, the figures are assembled waiting their undercoat.

I do feel that now there is the potential for more spare time some sort of structure could now be applied to my painting programme, I always need three or four different units on the table at any one time therefore over the year I have determined that my Imagination and Magnesia project will always be present and being painted.

In addition I've roughed out a time table as follows;
January is clear to be spent clearing whats on the table.
February - Zulu Colonial
March - finish off my 28mm EIR Romans
April - 6mm month (could be finishing off FPW or doing some Napoleonics)
May - 15mm WWII desert
June - Update 28mm AWI. I have figures that need rebasing, touching up and quite a few still need painting.
July - free month!
August - finish basing my 10mm Market Garden armies in the hope of starting a mini campaign in September
September -15mm Ancients.

I haven't gone beyond that as I reckon the above may not go according to plan but its a start.
Gaming wise had my first last night at the local club - Big Battle DBA trying out the new version 3 which I have to say I quite enjoyed even though my poor Roomans received a good drubbing at the hands of the Carthaginians.

Any way until next time.
Pip Pip

Merry Christmas and Plans for 2012

First and foremost can I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may 2012 bring you all that you hope for.

The pics of the painting table show my almost completed company of Albion foot, may still complete before Sunday and then the command next week.

In the background is my plastic Saxon contingent for Saga which is also making good progress.

I have also been dabbling with 'flats' and was thinking of making up some bases for use with my Command and Colours board game, the first few Greeks are shown below

Will be looking at placing 10-12 infantry on a base! Quite enjoyed the painting a different style to painting rounds but the ranges and poses available are fantastic.

As to 2012 well the framework Im thinking of adopting is that my Imagination will remain as a constant on the table as will my Magnesia Ancient project.
January will be the free month to clear the table of outstanding work then each month I will focus on one particular project, my list! is being finalised.

As with all plans it most probably wont survive contact with the first wargames show!. But we will try.

Finally following some good sales at the local shows and my Sarmations fetching a handsome price on ebay I bought myself my Christmas Box

Why? Like many Zulu was in my blod since childhood and how could I resist this! Its just great.
My colleague Alan has written a set of rules for his 10mm collection for this battle and they work very well so why not in 28mm. Lets see.

Take Care everyone and All the best.

A week later!

Thanks to those people who have made comment. The last week has seen me sort out the painting table and starting to finish off all the bits that were started before I moved.
A couple of pics of the study

I need three or four different projects on the go at once, Ive started another 16 Scotia Albion infantry, based 40 Phalangites, started some palstic saxons for saga and finished some Sarmation Cataphracts to go on ebay

I thought since I mentioned it I show a few pics of my cabin

The cabins double walled and double glased for year round use, the table is a 6'x5' with a 2' drop leaf and whilst like most gamers I would have liked more! to be honest most of the games I play will fit on this with ease. Still sorting out but we are getting there.

Finally pics of the garage which identifies the ocd and the reason I need to start selling, my first 37 items are on ebay my 28mm WWII painted figs! What next who knows

The small plastic boxes all contain painted figures, large crates on the floor are figures I may consider to sell and there's also my work bench with just a few crates under the bench. Do I have a problem, not me!

I hope to have the Scotia Albion infantry finished this week and then start on their command.

A long time absent

Well a year between posts and what a year! Rather than retiring I let the company talk me in to helping them outand found myself travelling all over the country. In September having driven almost 45000 miles and being away from home 4 days a week enough was enough and I called time and this time have really retired.

In April we also moved home which saw my somewhat overlarge collection packed away, since then we have renovated the house from top to bottom and the carpet fitters are here today to draw a close on the work!
 The positive is the garden is large enough to accommodate a log cabin which Ive also built for the wargames room! Built but only one game played so far!
The move made me realise that I have way too much stuff and a major clear out is under way and Ive been selling at shows and ebay these last couple of months and more will follow.
The net result was that painting and hobby effectively ground to a halt!
But I'm back, my enthusiasm for this project has been dented but not diminished and I'm dipping the toe back in the water. The proof will be in the postings, but no promises just hopefully results.

Winter nights.

Well like many the snow put paid to my business trips this last week so I set to and painted some more figures.
I've started on my next Albion Regiment and have 22 line now finished and example of which is below;

In addition I also finished a few characters who now await their bases to be finished.
The first is the man himself Charles de Comyn

Then we have Rupert Gibb, the CO of the Albion Light Infantry

Finally Mdme de Bournville, a lady companion to Charles!

Apologies re the pics, better ones will follow at some point.