It's been 8 days already!

Time flies when your having fun.  The last few days have flown by to be fair, but fun?  Not so sure.

First things first, I have backed my first ever kickstarter!  Anarchy Models have a kickstarter for some stencils for painting camoflage, which looks pretty useful on their videos.  I wasn't sold until 2 things happened.  They said they would do 15mm scaled stencils, which is ideal as I am sold on 15mm WW2 as the best scale for my space, budget and concentration.  Then my tanks on ebay took off and are going to finish today at a total of over £60, which means I can get away with spending a few quid on things I can use.  The stencils should, if they work, speed up spray painting of vehicle camo schemes which means, in theory, that I can paint more in the limited time that I can paint.

15mm Panther painted using stencils

Anyway, that's the theory.

Not much gaming this week.  Monday night saw a multiplayer Chain of Command game, with Panjo, Zob and Colin taking the British while Nathan and I had the Germans.  I had German infantry, giving Nathan command of the Panzergrenadiers.  The Brits came on and Panjo gathered his forces, while Colin snuck into a wood with a single section.  This proved to be a mistake as the British came within sight of 3 deployed squads of Panzergrenadiers, who promptly opened fire with their MG42s.  After the gunfire died down, Colins British were down to 2 men and running for the boat home.  Six MG42s churn out a lot of bullets (or dice in a wargame).  On the other flank, Panjo advanced a squad with another in support.  His Bren team tried to take on an MG42 team 1 on 1, but also came up short due to weight of fire (9 dice vs 6), although he did manage to kill one of the MG42 team before his team broke and ran.  At the moment things are looking ok for the Germans, with the British waiting for their support and Panjo is attempting to sneak around the flank.  The one Sherman that came on managed to bog itself down in a bocage hedge and is now stuck.  It is still turn 1, although their have been many many phases.

We are carrying it on tomorrow night, with more British due to arrive and the German commanders expecting things to get a lot harder.  Hopefully this time I will remember the camera.

Painting has been slow again, although I have finished basing the US HMG teams in the snow and a V1 rocket and launcher rail.

V1 rocket from Open Fire box

US HMGs in the snow

I have also been busy fixing computers this week, with Gus' PC, Panjo's sisters laptop and a laptop from a woman Tina cleans for all getting fixed and or upgraded.  All in all, not a totally wasted week. I am not a certified PC engineer in any way, but have learnt many things from watching others and then doing it myself, so much so that I built my current PC from parts I bought online, and then rebuilt No2 son's girlfriends PC from two PC towers that were not working for different reasons.

We have also had a new bathroom fitted, which meant no toilet access between 8am and 5pm for 3 days.  This is not a good thing with my stomach being the way it is, but Sainsburys came to the rescue with a couple of trips each day.  Its all done and Tina is happy with it, so things are good here on that front.  Happy wife equals a happy life.  :-)

Anyway, off now to do something productive.  Not sure what, but something.

Keep rolling those dice.

Highlanders and Shermans, what a mix.....

So it's been another week, or so anyway.  Still no news on No2 son and his knee.  We spent nearly 3 hours in Exeter hospital to be told "We are not sure what he has done so we will put him on the fast track for treatment.  Come back in 4 weeks for a scan".  Not overly impressed with not even knowing what he had done, we rang his insurance company to see if he is covered for scans, Aviva said yes so he is know in on the 30th for his scan and to see the consultant. Money talks I guess.

Painting wise, here are some pictures of the Highlanders and Shermans.  The infantry are off to Cornwall soon while the tanks will be on eBay tomorrow.

42nd "Royal Highland" aka The Black Watch.

 The first of three units of Highlanders, these are AB figures I believe.  Painting tartan is still quite interesting, but the other units have more colours in them than this, so may push it into annoying instead of interesting.

A Sqd, 1st Coldstream Guards

 First unit of Shermans, painted and decaled to represent A Squadron, 1st Coldstream Guards, part of 5th Guards Armoured Brigade in the Guards Armoured Division, circa Normandy 1944.

B Sqd, 1st Coldstream Guards

The second unit is marked up as B Squadron, the only digfferences are the turret markings and the number of commanders.  The vehicles are all Battlefront from the Open Fire box set, which are pretty good models and match their metal models nicely.

Gaming has been a bit hit and miss, but an improvement on the previous couple of weeks.  Monday night we played a Cheapass Game, which involved time machines.  It's not my favourite game of theirs, but it was a reasonable way to spend the evening.  I have also had a couple of races of Formula De with No2 son, 'cos he's bored being stuck at home.  Little git kicked the crap out of me in the first race, hitting every corner just right and getting a 1-2 result.  Race two went a bit better, with me getting 1st and 3rd.  Round 3 will come up soon, unless X-Wing rears it's ugly head as my loving wife bought me a Tie Interceptor and B-Wing last week, which was nice. 

Monday night will see us having a multi-player game of Chain of Command, being set up by Nathan.  We will have to play in the wrong scale (25mm) as the more aged members of our group can no longer see anything smaller (no comments please).

Anyway, its late and I have stuff to do before bed, so keep rolling those dice and I will catch you later.

More random musings and thought-type things.

Yet again it's been longer than I had planned since I have posted here, but I am back....again.

First things first, I have managed to get a little bit of painting done, so things are not all bad.  More Napoleonics have been done, with the third unit of French Old Guard Grenadiers getting covered in paint, as well as a unit of Battlefront US HMGs.  Currently on the sticks are 15mm Highlanders, being painted up as the 42nd "Royal Highland" Regiment of Foot, aka The Blackwatch.  Yes, I am painting tartan on 15mm figures and yes, it is a pain.  However, it has been quite nice to be fair, as I have experimented and played about until I have a method that works for me and seems to give a fair representation of a kilt, at least to my eye.  Once I have finished the unit I will take some piccies and bung them up here.

Of course, there is no guarantee that my enjoyment of painting Napoleonic 15's will continue, as I have another 2 units of Highlanders to do after this one. The 79th(Cameron Highland) and 92nd(Gordon Highland) may well push me from enjoyment to chore, but at the moment things are going well.

Wargames wise, it has been a washout.  Zob spent a few days redecorating the room we use at his house, so we had a break of 2 weeks in gaming.  Gus' hasn't been feeling too well, so no gaming there and Nathan found another job after being made redundant earlier this year, so he is now busy through the week.  And I missed the Devon Wargames meet as I had to take No2 to Devonport so he could injure himself playing rugby.

After feeling reasonable last week, things went downhill on Friday and didn't really pick up until yesterday.  I don't know what I ate that upset me on Friday but having a kebab on Saturday didn't help.  Sunday was supposed to be a day of rugby, but No2 son managed to injure his knee again playing on Saturday, so we spent Sunday morning in A&E.  Back there today to find out how bad it is, but it's not looking good.  As he has had ACL reconstruction already on his knee, if he's done it again then his rugby career is over at 19.  Not good, but he is doing his best to stay positive.  Tina has also injured herself, tearing a muscle in her shoulder, which makes it hard for her to do lots of things that she still tries to do.  All in all its been a good few days in this family.

I am gradually getting my Longstreet armies up to strength.  Many, many years ago, when Peter Pig first brought out a 15mm ACW range, myself and a couple of friends (from the long defunct Torbay Wargames Group) decided to get some armies.  I have since had a small force of painted, but not based, Union troops sat in a box.  They are now on bases ready to get sand put on them.  Unfortunately there are not quite enough to do a full force as I have about 25 bases of infantry and 6 of cavalry, so an order will be going off to Peter Pig as soon as I get some spare cash.  My only concern is that the entire range has been redone and I don't know how they match up with the older figures.  I also have the start of a Confederate force, as I bumped into one of the old club members two years ago and he sold me his force as he doesn't game anymore.  Again, not enough for a complete force, but its a start.

Anyway, thats my ramblings done for now as I need to get sorted to take No2 up to RD&E in Exeter for the good/bad news about his knee.  Fingers crossed.  Catch you all later.