Friday 30 October 2009

Birthday Boy

I really do feel sorry for my family when it comes to my Birthday and Christmas.
I know what presents I want in the way of boxes of soldiers or books but if I can not find them in model shops and book shops, then what chance have they.
Still I have done very well this year as I took my partner to SELWG just gone and told her what I wanted.
So as you can see I was given this fantastic book called “NAPOLEON” by Matthew Fletcher.
It has a complete set of rules and army list with painting guides for your Napoleonic armies. A wonderful book full of coloured pictures all the way through. A must for Napoleonic fans.
Another book I was given was TOUCHING HISTORY by Paul Darnell. This is Issue 1-terrain and modelling for “the Napoleonic Spanish Peninsular War”. So it’s all about making terrain for your tabletop and boy I can not wait to start on my terrain projects.
Also I was given a nice little one arch resign bridge already painted by Battlezone. I also received some HMV Vouchers and a West ham piggy bank. Thanks to my family.


Wednesday 28 October 2009

News from the Front

At last there is good news this week from HAT and that is they are bring out a new Prussian Landwehr and line infantry plus a command set which are all under development.
Although I think that the Airfix 1979 Waterloo Prussian Landwehr set is great, as it was their only real quality figure set. It is a nice change to have a different set on the field after all these years. The masters for the HAT figures look good.
But what has happened to 8174 Brunswick Cavalry since was saw the line drawings in March 2008 and 8197 Prussian Hussars since May 2008? I hope we will see these next year although I still have plenty to paint.


Friday 23 October 2009

SELWG 09 Report


SELWG is back at Crystal Palace in London and with the entry fee still at £5 it seemed that they had not been away.
Although when I arrived the hall did seem a little empty since the last time I was there in 2007. All of the trade stands were very busy. With my shopping list in my hand I had a quick look around the floors first, but I was unable to pick up any of the Hat
Sets that I wanted. This is now a real problem as I might now have to wait for Salute next year.
The only thing off my shopping list that I brought was the Waterloo 1815 set of Line infantry Officers. For 10 figures the price did seem to be a bit steep at £7 .50 pence but it’s a very nice and crisp set of figures.

On the gaming front there was a great choice of periods but most of these seem to of come from this year’s Salute show? And a lot of WWII stuff.
The best Terrain award, if I could give one, would of gone to the Shepway Gamers for their WWII 20mm game of “The Hockwald Gap” 1945. The battle was against the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and the German 116th Panzer Division. The table layout looked fantastic and all hand made and the figures and tanks looked good. It’s a shame that my picture does not do it justice.

There were two Napoleonic games being played. One was from Too Fat Lardies with the Battle of Aspern-Essling 1809 in 15 mm scale. The other game, which was at Salute this year was also from the Battle of Aspern-Essling. Thunder on the Danube 1809 was from the Maudstone Wargaming Society but in 6 mm scale.

It was nice to be back at SELWG although the crowds were small this year it was great to get to the trade stands and have a decent look at their products. The only place that you could not get to is that famous Bring and Buy stand.






Thursday 15 October 2009

SELWG 09

This Sunday (18th Oct) I will be off to SELWG at Crystal Palace in London and I just can not wait. It has been three years since they last had a show there as it was closed to do improvements to the swimming pools for the 2012 Olympics.

Although I do not have a very big shopping list, I am hopping to pick up the HAT French Pontoon set and the French Light Ambulance set as I have not seen them yet at Modelzone in London. I will give a full report here next week and I will take my camera although getting pictures up on this site at the moment is impossible.

Monday 5 October 2009

Update on my hobby costs

As you can see from the picture above that I have brought some strange stuff for my wargaming table over the last couple of months.
Firstly I have spent some cash on two doormats. One is a front doormat which will be turned into a wheat field and the second a ribbed mat, which will be turned into a ploughed field or two.
The pastry brush I can use as rushes for my rivers and ponds or for tall grass.
These did not cost much but my spending has slowed down. This is a list of all the things I have brought this year for a grand total of £120.60 pence.

  • 7 PAINT TINS £7.92p
  • 1 SUPER GLUE £1.00
  • 9 FIGURE BOXES £45.63p
  • 1 SHOW (Entry Fee) £11.00
  • 4 BOOKS/MAGAZINES £42.48p
  • 2 CONTAINERS £3.98p
  • 2 DOORMATS £7.32p
  • 1 COTTON PLEAT 99p
  • 1 PASTRY BRUSH 28p