We Need To Talk About Gerald And The Peninsular War

 As usual, I've been very busy, with the added pain in the ass of sorting out my pension with my former employers, who due to my temerity in asking them to please fucking pay what they owe, went to the trouble of playing stupid and taxing me at the emergency rate. How dare I ask them to honour their obligations...

*sigh*

 Roll on 6th April and the hope I get something back from them.

I spent this weekend replacing the flags on my 28mm Peninsular forces, upgrading them to Flags of  War prints, which are the best by far IMHO.

I have 3 regiments to base, but I won't get onto those until next weekend now. Then they too will get lovely big flags.

I was remarking to my wife the other day that I am probably at my happiest hobby-wise since I was about 16. 

I'm racking up those fantasy and historical forces at a pace and to a quality, but more importantly I'm so pleased that my friends are all similarly rediscovering a real love for their hobby, building armies at a similar pace. Several have said that my fast play fantasy rules have got them all excited again, and indeed their kids are loving being able to pick up the rules and play a game in a matter of minutes, building armies as they want them.

It's very satisfying and flattering to hear I've done something positive. It'd be great if Roger would reach out, but I guess I should count the blessings I have and enjoy myself. He must be true to himself and find his peace where he may by cleaving to his own path.

I had a couple of large boxes of buildings arrive this week from Brigade and Grand Manner, and they are out in the games room awaiting our attention.

Speaking of the games room, it's full of stuff for the house, once all the building work is done, so I can't do much gaming. My builder is waiting on the window company and the bedroom company is waiting in turn on my builder.

That doesn't mean my hobby stops, rather it means I become focussed on acquisition for a few months. I've completed the 'want' list for 2024 already and I'm now in overdrive adding a few more bits.

I have also decided that it's time to recreate the army I most loved as a kid, my Lizardman army, which was sold at a Triples in I think early 85, but which stood out as something speciel as nobody really had undead or lizardman armies back then. I had both and miss them both but moreso the Lizardmen.

The joy of that army was that there were no defined ranges of lizardmmen, so you had to go into GW and look in the cabinets beside the figure bar (a dedicated miniatures counter in early pre-Dark Empire GW stores) and pick the models you wanted. It meant that you had very few models, and little variety, but you could make lovely uniform units, by selecting from the Runequest, Fiend Factory and C series models. 

Cavalry was a real challenge as you had to be inventive. I used RQ Newtlings with early C series Cold Ones and 1/32 Giant Tortoises from William Britains zoo animal range and some I got in Christmas crackers. Pure pleasure and joy.

The result was a lovely army with 'tribes;' of different lizardmen - exactly what gaming should be about.

The other day, I was browsing eBay before heading for the coal face of gaming creativity, and I was amazed to see the Grenadier Miniatures 'Orc Juggernaught' for £15... 

Alas the seller was only selling on a 'collect' basis as it had been extensively remodelled.

A poilite email exchange followed wherein I explained that I didn't care if the junk all got knocked off as I was going to strip and repaint the original base model. It was a model I never bought as a teenager and as I have around 800 Nick Lund Orcs and Goblins I thought it was time I added one. 

In the end the seller kindly added a postage option and I got the model, saving about £40 on the current price from Mirliton in Italy.

Result!

This is Gerald, who, will get a careful disassembly and removal of the tat as described above:

 He's a big lad...

The memsahib added 11 wraith riders to her army this week, in a record breaking feat of painting. 9 are the excellent old Reider Design models (available now from Alternative Armies) and two are 3D prints. I know which I prefer, but figures are always a good thing:

 

Richard, having just finished his lates film work, is using his time to play and paint a lot. He played three games last week, with a really amazing selection of Minifigs, Citadel and my own Satanic Panic models. His Elf army is legendary...

I'm gearing up now for Hammerhead, having mutually decided that we just can't stop doing the show circuit. We are however, being selective in which we attend. If there are not several boxes ticked, we won't be wasting our time.

The memshaib is, as I type, putting the finishing touches of foliage to the road sections I painted last week, adding 20 feet of really good looking terrain to an already stupidly large collection. After that she's going to be finishing the characters for her Undead army, starting work on her French Napoleonics and wading through a stupendous pile of Grand Manner Medieval buildings and features. Yes, it's all go for 2024, creatively, despite the shocking amount of building work we are facing here.

Well I must leave you for the present as I have a few more things to get sorted before watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife tonight, so farewell and keep on gaming!

TTFN