Look what I found....

Well its good to be back now the damnable flu is almost gone and I don't have to stop to cough up a lung every half hour I can turn my attention to this blog again. As it happens I was sorting out some old gear the other day and came across these

I bought these about 20 years ago from Minifigs USA when I was over at Historicon they are to say the least a little odd. The first pic shows the King ,Queen.,Prince and sundry palace guards showing their contempt for the opposition ("Your father was a Hmaster and your mother smells of Elderberries!! ) and the second pic shows the revolting peasanty . I have never yet found a use for them myself- they were bought purely for amusment value and they may go in the "For Sale" boxalong with some other ex- display units which don't have armies. The next pic is something a little different

He's a Bluemoon British Napoleonic painted by Jez Griffin of Shakespear Studios- and yes he's 15mm or 18mm if you prefer. Now I knew Bluemoon were tasty but this shows just how tasty - close up - aided massivly by the fact that Jez can paint a bit. Next photo session I'll do some shots of my slowly growing 15mm Malburians. Gawd me doing 15mm Who'd a thought it.

Boxes and Boxes.

Phew! Finished unpacking a shipment from the USA at about 8.00 pm last night. This morning my wife and I started shipping out the back orders to those chps waiting for stuff. In addition to that there are a good few new packs to be added to the 15mm Bluemoon listings- ACW waggons and a good few new Napoleonic packs. These should go up on the site in the next few days. On a slightly more personal note I recieved from Osprey a copy of their new Napoleonic ruules. This is a nice hardback book and looks great. No opinion on the ruules themselves yet as I havn't read them properly but first impressions are that they'd look better in the smaller scales- say 20mm and down- simply because of the basing system. It may have escaped the notice of some but this year is the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands War. Doesn't seem that long ago. As a young soldier my late stepson Sgt Nick Chambers- Grenadier Guards was with 3 Para in the trip down south. My wife still has his South Atlantic medal. This merely goes to show why I am re-reading my collection of Falklands booksand have added to it. Hugh Bicheno's Razors Edge is a very good history of the War indeed. The spineless running for cover of the Britsh Civil and Diplomatic service of the 1970s is well documentedas is the Argentine Junta's posturing and tantrums and oppression of its own citizens. I'll probably say this only the once but thank Gawd for Maggie for without her the Island would have been signed over to a blood soaked Fascist Junta with barely a nod. Nevertheless 30 years is a timely gap to allow a re-ascessment of the War. As I re-read the books you'll doubtless hear more on this.

More Marlburian stuff

Considering that the War of Spanish Succession is a period I havn't fought for years and don't have much of a collection of it takes up sa fair bit of time and space here. Perhaps thats simply because I like the uniforms and at least some of the available figures. In 15/18mm I now have about half a dozen units- mostly Bavarian and in 28mm some Saxon artlillery- seen on an ealier post- and some poorly finished Saxon infantry as yet unbased (after all I've only had them 6 or 7 years....) However I also have a very few Les Higgins Jason 30mm of which this mounted figure is one of the only 2 cavalry I have- both the same figure. I already painted one as Marlborough so I thought I'd do this fella as King William III who was in military terms his predecessor as he died in 1702 . This little chap - as a figure is atleast 35 years old as its been out of production since the mid 70s. Wears well doesn't he ?

Where the period really engages my attention is in 40mm thanks to those superb offerings from Drabant . A bit of fiddling about has enables me to add a French gun and 2 crew to the collection- another crewman is on his way-

Given the current rate of progress I should have enough for a game by the time I snuff it....

More majical muskovites...

Well Marlburians to be precise but they are from Nick at Drabant. I thought I'd post these pics first with little or no comment so that you can see the quality for yourselves.

Same old Same old... or not?

So there I was this morning ponderiing the infinite rich tapestry of life... and I wondered why? Ithought to myself has wargaming become so samey?.By chance I was looking at a Warames Illustrated- no 101 to be precise of the 1990sand aside from the major point that the articles were not written by or for dyslexic 14year olds much of the rest was the same as now- only perhaps not quite so "in yer face mate" as some of the more strident twaddle that is now about us. What struck me were the similarities rather than the differences. Figues still Fat- or even fatter as there are more of them still the same often clumsy overly painted toys little or no delicay or finesse in the modelling process- that hasn't chaned indeed its now worse in the mainstream we now have the Figure Fascists - not to be honest that I care about 'em. If they want fat clumsy armies the same as everyone elses let 'em. I'll stick to stuff I like. I don't buy much new stuff these days- if I want something special I'm in the happy position of being able to get it made. Only with 40mm do I occaisionally fall and that usually with Drabant. As for getting stuff made one of my pattern makers has just sent me a box of assorted 15mm Modern weaponry- mostly rocket launchers and such for the backs of our pick up truck . See the recent contretemps in Lybiaand sundry african wars. Pick up trucks loaded down with various rocket rails and RCL guns AA cuns and other wossnames. All very fearsome- possibly even to the enemy. Now all I have to do is sort out how to package them- as this will tell me how the moulds are to be organised. However modern duded look out for a bundle of assorted additions to the Modern ranges in 15mm finsally a good selection of "technicals" are in the wind.

Phew... got it dome....

Just a very quick note to let chaps know that I managed to unpack my boxes and now have a good re-supply of stuff. Those chaps awaiting back order should get them sometime next week. or at least most of you will . Those whose back orders are a bit more recent will perhaps have to wait a bit as that lot will be in next months orderas it was stuff I ran out of AFTER I'd ordered the batch I recieved today. Also in the goodes boxes was a shedload of new Bluemoon 15mm- well 18mm really. Acw Cavalry and dismounts, Horse holders Limbers and teams amd Generals. A smaller bunch of Napoleonics- some very tasty Highlanders and a couple of new command packs for Prussians and Russians as well as aditions to the Austrian range. Just to show you how tasty this Bluemoon stuff is here is a pic of some AWI Hessians painted by John Reidy. I deliberately went in pretty close. I've seen 25mm that aren't this good.

Russian Arrivals.

I've just- ie in the last hour or so recieved a shipment from Drabant including stocks of the newst figures. I now have that superb 40mm Marlborough figure which was highlighted in and earlier post and he looks every bit as good in the matal. Furthermore Nick at Drabant has sent me a pic of the up and coming Command group for the British Footguards which is very tasty.

Now I've uploaded this directly as it was sent to me so no fiddling about. I like theseand will be adding some to my personal collections .