Christmas Greetings and all that malarky.

Sorry about the complete lack of updates, I have been a bit crook for the last few weeks and it doesn't seem to be improving.  Not much painting has happened and even less gaming, so it's a pretty crap update really.

I did manage to make it to the Devon Wargames Christmas Big Bash, which was fun.  Arranged and managed by Nick I think he did a marvellous job of using a 2 player game system to cater for 16 players!  Fun was had by all I believe and the valiant Brits saw off the Saxon invaders.  I didn't play but helped Nick a bit with running it, mainly by sitting in and guiding the table of 4 new(ish) players.  See the DWG blog for a good report with some decent pictures.

Too Fat Lardies have brought out a campaign supplement for Sharp Practice 2, and very good it is too.    It reads well and will make for some interesting games in the future.  I may have to bump my 28mm ACW forces up the painting list.....maybe.

It has some nice ideas for different types of mini-campaigns and adds some "oddities" to the game as well. 




Right, as it's nearly the end of the year I am going to sit down and work out exactly what I want to get painted and based to use for next year.   I am a quintissential wargames butterfly with the attention span of a gold fish, so I am intending to concentrate on a few things next year and mainly focus any expenditure on terrain and the like.  So the aims are

1. Finish off the Dark Ages figures I have and make up enough forces for larger games.  I do need to get a bit more cavalry for this...and maybe some Picts......maybe.
2. Paint up the 15mm Cold War British, Russian and German forces I have bought already.  I need a few support bits to finish these off but the majority is bought
3. Finish up basing the 15mm buildings I have here already.  I still have several houses, a church and a factory that need basing up.
4. Do my Perrys 28mm ACW forces for SP2, as mentioned above

 I have several other projects that are being put into storage now, 28mm Crusades, 28mm NWF, 28mm Dragon Rampant, 15mm ACW, all the various 6mm stuff......the list goes on and on.  So that is the plan, I want to get the Dark Ages finished sooner rather than later as I enjoy the games we play and really like the figures so they are first on the list.  However, that may well be scuppered by Christmas and Birthday presents as I know that my mum has ordered me some Congo figures from North Star and I believe No2 son has also ordered me something similar.  Time will tell, but they are small forces and won't take long to paint.  I also have received a secret santa, which will be opened on Sunday too.

See how long that plan lasted!!!!  It's pathetic really isn't it? :(

Anyway, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I'll catch up next week hopefully with an update of what I got and how it has totally scewed my plans up.  Oh, and I will be a year older on Sunday too, the scarey thing is I will be 48 and am still the youngest of the Chuckadice group!

Normal service has not been resumed.....oh, and Secret Santa 2016!

But an update is probably past due.  Things are not moving on with the planned operation and I am now totally f****d off with hospitals, tablets and nasal gastric tubes.  It's my four and a half year anniversary tomorrow from when I first ended up in hospital.  I wonder if the op will happen before I die of old age?  I have had the tube fitted more times than anyone else in Torbay hospitals records.  In fact I am such an expert on the bloody things that I now do it myself at home. It saves going to the hospital every 2 weeks I suppose.

I am feeling so crap, both physically and mentally, that gaming and painting have taken a real dive.  Hardly anything has been played, although I did get taken out to Panjo's new house for a game of Black Plague last week.  Apart from that sod all in the way of wargaming and very little painting has happened.

Reaper Bones Ebonwrath Dragon

One of the few things that has been finished(finally) is a Reaper Bones dragon for future games of Dragon Rampant and Kings of War.  The Lurtz figure is just there to show its size.

I also did 6 Falschirmjager for Nathan, he does the basing himself  and they have been painted to match some he picked up on eBay.

28mm Falschirmjagers

Stadden 90mm Marines

Closeup of the drum

Finally there is a change from the normal service, with a trio of Stadden 90mm figures. They belong to a lovely lady that my wife knows who served as a WREN with the Royal Marines, married a Marine and both her sons became Marines.  One of them is currently a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London.  Anyway, her husband bought these figures many years ago and I was asked to repair and repaint them.  So, from left to right we have a 1980's Royal Marine in DPM, a RM Bandsman in dress uniform and an officer of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot from the 1660's.  It made a change to paint something that large and the figures themselves are beautiful.  The level of detail is amazing, even down to the coat of arms on the drum.  She loved them, so it was worth the week of stripping and cleaning them, followed by several weeks of painting.

However, I have not picked up a brush since finishing them, so when Chris Stoesen of Wargamer's Odds and Ends contacted me about this years Secret Santa, I jumped in with both feet in the hope that it will revitalise things and shake me out of the doldrums I seem to be stuck in.  I can thoroughly recommend this scheme, I have partaken for the last 2 years and it's been great.

So, that's it.  It's now 0130 and I suppose I should go to try and get some sleep.  Seeing as I average less than 3 hours per night there is no real rush though, so perhaps I'll wait a bit.  Catch you later