Salute 50

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.

 

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

"Cold Doings in London" London Wargame Guild

"Never Mind the Billhooks" Wargames Illustrated

WWII "Chain of Command" The two Fat Lardies

"Zulus Ntombi River" Hornchurch Wargaming Club

Loughton Strike Force

Happy New Year from the General

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 17^th August 2020 I stated painting the 2^nd 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 2^nd 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. 

Presents to Self

 

I might not be doing much in my wargaming hobby, but I have brought a couple of Christmas presents for myself from ebay. They are the "Conflix Models" by Bachmann and they are added additions to my village collection. They are both in 28mm scale which I do not mind with my 20mm figures. I have brought another Merchants House (above), which now gives me two of these and the other one is of a Ruined House as below.

  

Merry Christmas From the General

 

This year it has been yet another very difficult one for me, as I once again have lost my painting mojo.

With the war still going on in the Ukraine and now it seems that HaT in America have given up producing any new figures, my armies and my hobby seems to be dead at this point, as there is nothing to look forward too. I should consider on go to a wargame show next year as I have not been to one since 2019. I would love to start doing a campaign at home, but my house is too small to do so. 

After doing so well in 2020 with my painting it all came to a halt in August of that year. I did start painting my British 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys) and I am near finishing nine horses with twelve troopers. But they have remained on my painting table for such a long time now I wonder if I will ever finish them. I have also failed to do anything on my blog this year but hope to do somethings for next year once again. So many thanks for those who take a look at my blog now and again. I have had a total of 91842 page views to date which is fantastic, well for me anyway. 

I would like to thank you all for looking at the Generals blog and so I do hope that you all have a lovely time over the Christmas period and I would like to wish you and your family 

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

The Battle of Waterloo 2015 Commemorative Stamps

At last I have brought my set of The Battle of Waterloo 2015 commemorative set of stamps via ebay which only took two days to deliver them to me. The British Post Office made a set of stamps to mark the 200^th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I had completely forgotten about these at the time. But now they are in my stamp collection.

The landscape stamps are: 

The defence of Hougoumont

The Scots Greys during the charge of the Union Brigade

The French cavalry’s assault on allied defensive squares

The defence of La Haye Sainte by the King’s German Legion

The capture of Plancenoit by the Prussians

The French Imperial Guard’s final assault

The horizontal stamps are: 

92^nd Gordon Highlanders

Light Infantry King’s German Legion

Prussian Infantryman

French Imperial Guard Grenadier 

These stamps look great but I wonder how many people collect stamps these days?