Bloody Blogger

Seems we have a new issue with blogger, this time with comments. I can read a blog post but when I leave a comment it just remains 'publishing'. So apologies I'm not ignoring peoples post. I've seen some comments on facebook where others can't reply to comments on their own blog. Haven't been able to test that one out,

Output down, Mojo gone

So after a very productive 2025 on the painting front, it was bound to happen. My mojo has just got up and left the building. So far 2026 has been a bit of a shocker, on a personal level we unexpectedly lost our beloved family dog. To say we are not happy with the vets or the insurance company is an understatement. I've lost track of the number of phone calls, appointments and bills all to no avail. As a family we are slowly trying to move on.

To compound things I've come down with a rather severe case of flu which has floored me this week. I've literally no energy for anything, even had my first day off work today for the first time in over 10 years. So after 438 days in January it can well and truly f#*k off.

I did manage to finish 2 pieces for the upcoming Barons War display game. They had been painted earlier in the week, just needed basing, which I forced myself to do today. They are the 'Tax collectors' cart from warbases and a resin camp fire from Debris of war.

The horse on the cart was already painted, just needed adding to the base before basing. I did try to pick up a paint brush earlier on a couple of Welsh Spearmen, that lasted about 10 minutes. Hopefully things will begin to pick up.

Overview of 2025

It’s that time of year again to look back on the output in 2025. So what were the plans for this year? I just had the two, Republican Romans and Franco Prussian War, both in 15mm.

For the Franco Prussian War, I definitely smashed this one out of the park. With 3 large linked games at the beginning of the year I found myself highly motivated to get the collection expanded. For the Prussians I added the Baden Division, a Hessian Division, Prussian Cavalry Division. This brought the army up to three full Infantry Corps and 2 Cavalry Divisions. I only need a few artillery pieces and a couple of infantry regiments to complete a 4th Corps. For the French I did a little re-organising before adding 2 more infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions. I could do with adding at least 1 more infantry division to the 4th Corps.

The 3 linked games were well received by the club members, so much so that Thom ended up adding the French I Corps which helped balance the numbers. On the horizon Neil B is planning another campaign so the collection should see some action in 2026.

For the Republican Romans, I didn’t really get started until around May and have been slowly building up the collection to include Carthaginians, Gauls and Italians. I even picked up the Midgard rules and after a couple of games I really like them, so definitely expect more of these next year.

Painting Totals for 2025, just under 1400 figures, this is well down on the last 2 years, but I feel those 2 years were inflated with the epic scale ECW infantry in strips.

• 10mm Scenic/building - 4

• 15mm Artillery - 14

• 15mm Foot figures - 730

• 15mm Mounted figures - 141

• 15mm Scenic/building - 13

• 15mm Vehicles - 13

• 28mm Artillery - 3

• 28mm Foot figures - 306

• 28mm Monster - 8

• 28mm Mounted figures - 19

• 28mm Scenic/building - 111

• 28mm Vehicles - 17

Overall a productive year, though I could do with actually playing a few more games myself instead of being the one running the majority of the games. For those that follow the blog and/or leave comments it is much appreciated. I hope you all have a Happy New Year and your dice roll well. Hopefully see you back in 2026

Merry Christmas one and all

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Also to thank you for following this blog and/or commenting. It's much appreciated. Now as the year slowly comes to an end I'm trying to clear the painting decks in readiness for 2026.

This small offering is some Numidian cavalry for my Punic Wars project. They are 3d prints that I picked up off EBay, mainly because I already had 6 figures painted and needed another 6 and most manufacturers sell them in packs of 4. These actually came as a pack of 7 so one was quickly identified as a Commander.

The figures themselves didn't have loads of details which made them both quick to paint but not very interesting which reflected in the paintwork, not my best but they are done. 

Heroes for Heroquest and forming some ideas

First up with a trip to Normandy in less than 2 weeks, I had promised to bring the Heroquest board game to help while away the hours at night. I also committed to painting the figures, so time to get a move on. These are the 4 heroes of the game, Dwarf, Barbarian, Elf and Wizard. Despite the details they were surprisingly easy to paint up.

This just leaves 2 of  the Chaos warriors and 6 goblins to do, already made a start on the goblins. I doubt I'll be able to make a start on any of the furniture/scenery.

Now to ideas and deliberations. At the club we had a good discussion on our game for the Border Reiver show. We had finally agreed on Quar, but not a scenario, 1 or 2 games. Also the rules are split across 3 different booklets as we await the new version, this makes it a bit of a pain when trying to look up rules in the middle of a game. I also felt we were not really organised and leaving it too late, also my OCD was kicking in and causing some unwanted stress. Last year with the Marston Moor game, I had led on the project, I had a plan and spent the whole year preparing for it. Thankfully Sean had decided to run a Chain of Command game, he already has everything he needs including a scenario and will run a practice game next week.

So with that stress relieved my thoughts turned to 2026 and Punic Wars. This had been one of the suggestions for 2025. This time I've committed to it. So I first need to decide if I do one of the more familiar battles or something lesser known which gives me some freedom on what troops to paint up. In the meantime I took advantage of the Forged in Battle 20% sale and ordered the Carthaginian starter army. That will provide 4 bases of Punic cavalry, 8 bases of African infantry, 4 bases each of javelinmen and balearic slingers. I've also put in an order to Cromarty forge to make a start on some Spanish troops to support the Carthaginians. While I await the deliveries I have begun prepping some Numidian cavalry and 2 bases of armoured Punic infantry from Cromarty forge.

By my reckoning this will go a long way to filling out the Carthaginian army. Obviously I will need at least a couple of Elephants, additional Numidian and Spanish cavalry. Thankfully the Romans are almost done with 3 of the 4 legions completed. I may add a few allies to them if needed.

2024 a Year in Review

Thought I'd do this a little bit early. I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope 2025 is a belter for you all. So what did I paint up in 2024, quite a bit by the looks of it, 2995, just 5 short of reaching the 3k mark.

6mm foot - 72

6mm vehicles - 80

10mm scenic/building - 6

15mm artillery - 32

15mm foot - 2434

15mm vehicles - 56

15mm mounted - 91

15mm scenic/building - 26

28mm artillery - 2

28mm foot - 137

28mm monster - 6

28mm scenic/building - 44

28mm vehicles - 9

So what did I paint this year? It started off with the ECW project for Marston Moor. In the main the Scots Covenanter contingent. I also completed another 10 sprues of infantry for Simon. It was quite an undertaking and I am pleased with the final results and the game seemed to be well received at the Border Reiver show. We even managed a few games at the club while we fine tuned the rules for the game.

The next major project was the Afrika Korps for Rapid fire. Now WW2 is not normally my thing, but I really enjoyed painting these up. Need to get them on the table more as they only saw 2 games this year. So need to speak to Mitch about getting his allies on the table for a game.

After these 2 major projects I then went off on a tangent, picking up a couple of projects just because they are different, namely the Quar and Battletech. Really enjoyed painting these up and even got a couple of games in as well. These will definitely see more action in 2025.

The year ended with another diverse project, namely Burrows and Badgers. These were a joy to paint up and I have plenty of ideas for scenery as well as scenarios. Got my first game this week to test out the rules.

In gaming terms an old collection got a run out, namely my ACW as Neil B put on th battle of 1st Bull run. I found this inspired me to get another collection out of storage, the Franco Prussian War and start planning a learge club game for mid January, It even got me painting up a few unfinished figures for the collection. I can see this collection getting expanded in 2025 as my French need a few more troops to balance out the numbers. I also fancy completing the Badener's to complete XX Corps for the Prussians.

The only other planned project for 2025 is my Republican Romans, just need to think of a suitable opponent, the choice is between Carthaginians, Spanish or Gauls. Gives me something to ponder over the coming weeks. I'll also be looking to move on a couple of armies in the New Year, my WW2 Russians and Germans for Chain of Command. They take up space and never get used. I also need to get the Infamy collection on the table. All painted up during Covid lock-down and never been used, something to look forward to in 2025.

Have a good one folks

Not totally idle

I hadn't realised it has been more than 2 weeks since I posted anything. I must admit wargaming has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment. I think I just needed a bit of a break, so giving the club a miss to try and re-charge. Since I started a new job in December I often found myself rushing to try and get to the club, not good after a 12 hour day. I also found I was the one organising the games and then taking on the role of the umpire. So apart from some mass participation games such as Gladiators and What a Tanker, I'd only actually played 5 games in 6 months run by others. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy running games, but it would be nice if I could actually use my own figures in a game or play a game where someone else has organised a scenario, the forces and set the table up.

Back to the hobby in general, I did manage a little painting. The first being another 3 casualty markers for the Marston Moor game.

The figures are from Peter Pig and the dice frames from Pendraken. The other painting I did was another regiment of ECW for Simon. He had sent a box of 10 regiments for me to paint. A bit of a surprise as I wasn't expecting any.

I chose red coats as they are quite common for the period. Like the last batch, Simon is adding the flags and bases.

Trip to Normandy - part 2

As promised another photo dump from my Normandy trip. First up is the Commonwealth War graves. I have to admit I was in awe of this memorial. All those columns with lists of men who lost their lives in the Normandy command. Makes you realise how grateful we are to their sacrifice. I did manage to get a photo of the silhouettes they are putting in place for the 80th anniversary.

After our visit here we then made our way to the Overlord museum which is not far from the Omaha beach. Wish we had had the time to make it across. This museum had loads on show, but it was very dark making taking decent photos difficult.

On our last day we had a slight change from D-Day battles and made our way over to the town of Dieppe. This was the location of the failed landings by predominantly Canadian troops in 1942. You can see by the pebble beach that both tanks and infantry would struggle to get across. The promenade has a number of commemorative plaques to the different units that landed there. 

After our tour of the town we stopped off for some refreshments in the Le Cambridge pub. Quite a nice pint after a long day. My brother is now planning a trio for next year back in Normandy, hopefully a little closer to the beaches this time.

Trip to Normandy - part 1

Just got back from a week in Normandy. The 14 hours travelling is rather exhausting. While there I took the opportunity to visit a number of the D-Day sites. Something I've always wanted to do. We'll probably be back next year to cover the American sector as they were just a bit far to travel to each day. So in no particular order a bit of a photo dump.

Pegasus bridge, including the first house liberated in France, Cafe Gondree by elements of 6th Airborne division.

Next was the Merville battery, captured by 9th Parachute battalion under Colonel Otway.

Next is the Longues sur mer battery, situated between Omaha and Gold beaches was eventually captured by the Devonshires after it had been heavily bombarded by the Navy and Airforce. This was a great place to visit and free. 

Superb view to Gold beach

I'll try and get the rest of the photos added tomorrow of the Overlord museum, Commonwealth war graves monument and then to Dieppe.