Merry Christmas

It has been another disappointing year with my hobby as for two years now I have failed to paint any completed units or figures.
I am still without a job and the job hunt is not going well at all. Still I can relax for a while until the New Year when my job hunting will restart. 
So with this festive period I hope to pick up the brush and finish off the figures that are almost done.

Hopefully I will complete the task in hand and put some photos up to show you how I am getting on.

I would like to thank my eight followers and for all of you around the world who takes a look now and then. I know that I have not posted much over the year but hope that next year to correct this.

So until then may I wish you all and your families a very

Happy Christmas

Napoleons Hat

Picture from the BBC website

At the weekend, just gone, over 1,000 of the Emperor Napoleons personal items were sold in an auction in Paris. I found this out in one of today’s newspapers.

The items where from a collection belonging to the royal family of Monaco and were sold to raise funds for restoration work for their palace.

One of the items was Napoleons hat, given to his veterinarian by Napoleon after the battle of Marengo in Italy 1800. The hat has not been worn since it was given to him as a gift. It is said that he had worn 120 similar hats during his career but only 19 of the two-pointed hats have survived. He wore his hats sideways to stand out from the other officers in his army.

Wellington said at Waterloo that “Napoleons hat is worth 40, 000 men” but it was actually worth 1.5 million and brought by a South Korean.

It was the first Napoleon hat to be auctioned since 1968.

Birthday and over 11000 hits!

It was my Birthday last weekend and next year will be a big one. So although I have not done much over the last two years in the way for wargaming, I did manage to go to SELWG this year as you can see from my last post.

Luckily I took my partner as she likes to buy my Birthday and sometimes Christmas presents as well, so as there was not much in the way of buying things at SELWG,  I knew what my partner had brought me as these were the only items I liked.

They both came from S&A Scenics trade stand and they were the Town Templates (TT1000) and Wide Road (RD3000).

The town templates are 2” wide cobble roads really on MDF 2mm bases. There are nine pieces in a pack and they do look really good.

The wide road of which you get 60 inches of road, I was a bit of a disappointed when I opened the packet up and it reviled that the roads were made out of felt backing with flexible brown paint and grit paint on top. (A picture from their website)

 

I can see myself changing these as they look too plain. It needs some weeds down the outside edges and middle of the road, with a few wheel racks thrown in. I did take a look at their website but they do not make much at the moment. Still in a way I am happy with my presents but they need a bit of work doing to them. 

I see today that I have had over 11000 hits on this blog that has been as slow as a snail over the last couple of years in producing new postings. So I would like to thank you all for looking now and then and to my eight followers that I have. I do have quite a bit to add to this blog so do keep looking. I shall now go a celebrate with a nice cup of tea.

SELWG 14 Report

Well the day had started very dull with a little chill in the air as I slowly walked down to the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre to the SELWG Wargaming Show. It was that time of year again for my only wargaming show that I go too.

Arriving at the doors at about 11 am the price of entry fee remained at £6 but I also had with me my partner and one of my granddaughters. So I purchased a family ticket for £10 which saved me a bit of cash. Once getting my ticket and the bag with the show guide in side, which did not have many pages in just the floor plan in now, I moved on.

Being that I did not have much money on me due to my situation and that I had a very sort shopping list, I was really looking forward to this as it gave me a break from job hunting.

The top hall seemed a little empty which started alarm bells ring and when we got round to the Bring & Buy stand it was rammed packed. So I came back to this later.

First on my visit around the trade stands I went to Harfields as they do a lot of second hand plastic figures, it’s were I brought a bag of Airfix British Infantry last year. To my surprise there was a lot of Napoleonic Airfix figures not only in bags but in unopened boxes and not at a bad price either. But I have all that I want at the moment until I start painting at least.

So after a quick look around the top hall, it was down the stairs to the main hall. This was well empty and in the middle of the hall was a big empty space for either wargaming clubs or traders that had not turned up.

 

So going around the trade stands I noticed that some of the big companies were not present. 4 Ground laser buildings did not attend which was a great shame but there were plenty of traders selling their kits. The Waterloo farm of La Haye Sainte in 28mm looked fantastic but at £275 it was out of my reach. I hope that this will be done in 20mm. Warbase again did not attend so as I wanted some more bases I went to Colonel Bills and found some of theirs.

With the clubs, it seems that there was not much to look at although a few caught my eye. Newbury & Reading Wargaming Society called “The Defence of France” was just one of two Napoleonic games to see.

 

The best wargame this year for me was from the Deal Wargames Society with their 15mm “Vietnam” game. Not much was moving but the display was great. 

 

The one participation game that caught my eye was from the Crawley Wargames Club with their “Chariot Race” which those who took part in had great fun.

 

 

In all the show was a great disappointment to me with empty spaces and with the attendance down, plenty of room to move around in. I left the show at 1 pm. With the anniversary of Waterloo next year, will people’s interest come back? I hope so.

Waterloo's Bicentenary has already started

While I was away last weekend I found a Waterstone Book shop and decided to venture in just to take a look to see if any new Napoleonic books had been printed. To my surprise there were two books on offer.
First there was a book from the bestselling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell  titled Waterloo, Four Days, Three armies. This is the first non-fiction work that I know of, that Bernard has written as he is well know for his Sharpe novels. The book takes us through the leading days up to 18th June where we then have a hour by hour account of that fateful day.
The second book was called 24 Hours at Waterloo by Robert Kershaw. This book just deals with one 24 hour period of the 18th June.
Both books are full of pictures and maps with letters from both soldiers and officers at Waterloo.
Go and check these out, they could be a great addition to your book case.