As you can see that I received two wargaming related Christmas prezzies this year from my girls. They are from Waterloo 1815 box number AP009 the Dutch/Belgian Artillery for Waterloo. I have been trying to find these at the wargaming shows that I have been to this year but been unable to find them. The paper back book is Waterloo The French Perspective by Andrew W. Field. More reading material that will be added to my long list now of books to read.
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Well as we near another end of year, once again my output for painting figures is a big fat ZERO. That is now three years without producing any painted figures. I thought that going back to wargaming shows would jump me back into the hobby this year, but no.
Although I have odds and ends that just need that little push to finish them I have seemed to have lost interest in them. Even with the news that HaT could be back up and running next year, sort of got me a bit excited, but It could be another year before there are any new Napoleonic figures are out to get me jumping for joy once again.
But I shall sort myself out next year and try to get these figures done that have been sitting around for years now. Still have loads of things to put on this blog but once again they need just finishing off a final read over. So I hope that things will improve at my end, so that for the people that have taken a look at my blog. Want to thank my fan club in Singapore that shot my view figures through the roof. Last year I had just under 92,000 views this year we are up to 108,000+. I would also like to thank my few followers for sticking with me.
So where ever you are in the world I would like to say, I hope that you have a very
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Some good news to end the year on and that is that HaT (PCC) are back in business. After two years of silence they are now producing some Austrian infantry in 1/32 scale either in one or three different boxes, as there are three styles of hats being Bearskins, Shakos and Helmets. This was put on their Webb site late October.
Now this month they have show us some pictures of their 1/72 scale Hungarian infantry and I must say that they do look really good.
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| Picture from the Hat website |
This looks very promising that they are back producing figures for us, so I am hoping that next month we might see the progress of their Prussian wagons and limbers or even something new to view. Fingers crossed.
Well another birthday has been and gone and what a lucky man I am as I had these great presents from the family. As you can see I received two books, one from Osprey 496 “The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine 1815” to help me with my Prussian Waterloo army. The Haynes book which usually do maintenance for cars, they have been doing many new topics including space and second WWII tanks and many more war related books. This one is “Napoleon’s Military Machine” which is about the daily life of The Grande Armie. Looking forward to reading this one. I also had two packets of ACB brushes for fine detail work. I used to get these fine detailed brushes from the Works, but they no longer do them. I also have a mini glue gun with more glue sticks for my buildings that I hope to start making soon. Also in the picture is some AllGame Terrain bushes winter mix. Non related items was a DVD box set and some chocolate.
This is the first year that I have been to three different Wargame Shows. I was toying about going to North London to see SELWG 23 as the last time that I went to one of theirs was in 2019 the very last one at Crystal Palace Sports Centre. As there were a few good reports from last years event, I finally thought why not and go and see if it’s as good as 2019.
I decided to travel there by car and got stuck in a few traffic jams, one of them was being the Blackwall Tunnel. But a slow progress up the A12 and a couple of rounder-bouts later, I arrived just after noon at the Lee Valley Athletic Centre in brilliant sunshine. I was hoping to get there before 11.30am. No parking problems at all which was great.
Once I had paid my entry fee, I entered the Sports Hall. The first thing that caught my eye was the Bring and Buy stand and that was jammed packed. Trying to have a look at things was a bit impossible. So onto the Athletic track to see the rest of the show.
It was easy to go around the trade stands and look at their wears, but about half way round I thought that I am a dying 20mm plastic gamer as not one trader had any 20mm companies. It was great if you are into 15mm and 28mm no problem for you, plenty to see. All the usual stuff with figures, terrain, books and games. But I did manage to buy some MDF stands (3pkts) for myself from “Products for Wargamers”.
On the gaming side there seemed to be a lot of fantasy games which included demo games where you could join in. Everyone seemed to be having a good time on the gaming tables, which is good for the hobby for the people just enjoying the day. I did not take many pictures but here are a couple of pictures from the games I liked.
| Shepway wargamers Club "Dorrier Down" |
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| Streatham and Tooting "Spanish Ulcers" |
The show did not seem very busy when I was there and some of the traders started to pack up at 3pm. I left the show about 3.30pm after another walk around the hall again and joined the many queues of cars going home.
The show was not as good as the old ones, so I feel that unless it starts to pick up, I’ll leave the show off my list for now. I understand that HaT are not making any new figures and that the Ukraine and Russia war is still on going, so I am very limited to what is available right now. I have enough terrain at the moment, although you can never have enough of that.
Next year I hope to go to Salute 51 and Broadside again. Might even look at finding new shows to go too.
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| Some of my fans |
I see today that I have reached over 1000,000 hits, which was fantastic news for me but when I looked at my stats, I see that I suddenly had a very big fan base in Singapore, so a very big thank you to them.
I am now thinking of sending out signed copies of my picture to celebrate my new fan base. So if you would like a copy send me £5 and I’ll send you it first class. T-shirts and mugs to follow might even think about a OnlyFans page.
It was the hottest day of the year, well it was in London, when I made the half hour trip down the A2 to Gillingham, Kent for the Broadside Games Show run by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club. Yes my second show of the year, but I thought that I should try other shows and see what they can offer. When I reached the Medway Park Sports Centre the car park was full as there was an college Sports day on as well, but I managed to find a parking spot and it was free.
The venue was right at the back of the sports centre and it was easy to find your way there. Paid my £4 entry fee, which I must say is a really good deal, I entered the hall. This was around 11.30am and it seemed busy.
As it was a lovely day, I went outside to have my lunch. Now the thing here is that there are no facilities for you to sit down and eat/drink which on such a large building seemed funny. But I went outside and watched the athletics while having lunch. Once finished I went back into the hall and boy was it hot in there, but I started to look at the tables layout. There were a hand full of demonstration games and a nice area where people were selling their second hand goods. There were 12 wargaming tables, some really small and some very large. This is where I meet the Posties, Ray and Big Lee. Lovely to see and talk to them again.
They had a game on called a “Skirmish at St Frances Cove 1784” The game went well for the smugglers I believe. Here are a couple of pictures.
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| Retired Wargamers Reloaded "Eagle & Lions at Carenten" |
Last Saturday (22 April) . I have not been to a wargaming show since October 2019 at SELWG (Crystal palace) So I thought that it was about time to go to my first one since then, after all celebrating 50 years of wargaming is such an achievement. Well done Warlords.
Left my house at about 10.00 am on a chilly Spring day. Started the journey first by bus and then onto the Queen Elizabeth line. I arrived at Excel London and joined a long queue which went down very fast and was inside the hall by about 10.40.
Having not been to a show as large as this for some while, it was so nice to see how busy the show was. It did have a short shopping list that I took with me but soon found out that I was not going to get what I needed. So visiting the trade stands first which there was not many, as I always do, it became clear that the main supply of figures were in fact 28 mm. I could not find any traders with HaT or Selects 20 mm figures. Oh well maybe at SELWG later this year. Going around the wargaming tables, there was a lot of very good layouts and I must say that there were loads of demonstration games going on which were always seem to be busy.
At 1 o’clock I met up with the Bloggers meet and it was nice to see the faces of some that I followed.
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| Picture from Bob Cordery |
I was slightly disappointed that I could not spend my cash but I am so glad that I went and had a good day there. Here are some of the fantastic layouts that were there
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| "Cold Doings in London" London Wargame Guild |
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| "Never Mind the Billhooks" Wargames Illustrated |
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| WWII "Chain of Command" The two Fat Lardies |
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| "Zulus Ntombi River" Hornchurch Wargaming Club |
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| Loughton Strike Force |
A Very “Happy New Year” to
you all and let’s hope that this year will be even better for us all. Well 2022
became another tough year with the Coronavirus still
hanging around as with the war in the Ukraine and don’t forget about the cost
of living is still rising.
Wargame shows are mainly coming back to normal, so fingers crossed for this year that I can get to see one of them. The output of plastic figures have all but dried up for my period but once again hope, that there will be a few new Napoleonic sets for me this year fingers crossed.
On the painting front, I have
failed to complete any units again last year. It seemed that I did not have any
hobby time, so I must change that for this year. On the 17th August
2020 I stated painting the 2nd Dragoon (Scots Greys) but they
have been on the back burner ever since. But once the New Year is over, it’s my
intentions this year is to finish off the 2nd Dragoon (Scots
Greys) and complete some odds and ends that have been stored away for many
years. I will also like to start painting some more regiments but we will see
what happens.
So no New Year Resolutions from me again this year. If you look at my performance last year it was slightly better on my blog for postings. So thank you so much for looking at my blog over last year but hope that this year there will be more posts for you to read.
