Current projects

Well, I went to the World Wargames Show at Castle Donnington on Saturday and had a great time.  Met up with quite a few friends, saw some great games, perused the traders stands and picked up some toys.

I had a plan of sorts and picked up enough 20mm Fallshirmjaeger figures from SHQ to complete my early war brigade for Rapid-Fire.  All I need now are three Zvezda PAK36 AT guns and some rudimentary conversions of my Airfix Fallshirmjaeger figures to act as crew.  I also picked up a set of Adler British infantry packs, enough to kit out another brigade for BKCII.

In an effort to assuage my guilt over playing so often with Will's ACW plastics, I also picked up a pack each of IMEX confederate cavalry and Italeri confederate infantry in 20mm.  Not a lot by his standards, but enough for me to try out painting them to see what sort of job I make of it.

On the bring and buy, I picked up sets of nicely painted 6mm Napolenic French, British and Brunswickers, enough for a couple of brigades for each country for BP using the same three stand per regiment basing as our ACW figures.  I was also fortunate enough to pick up over 2 kilos weight of Adler ACW figures, which I'm in the process of sorting out, but I reckon there are enough figures for a division of confederate infantry and double that of union, c. 20+ artillery pieces and crews and 3 or 4 cavalry regts per side, plus assorted horseholders, skirmishers/dismounted cavalry and mounted officers.  Then I struck gold dust, picking up a box of assorted mid-war German armour by GHQ, the equivalent of at least 15 full packs - a real bargain.

Timecast had some great new terrain out including new 6mm ACW and modern buildings - the 6mm Office Block is really nice but will take some thinking about in terms of how to paint it. The Baggage Train had some nice additions to their 6mm Atlantic Wall fortifications with quite a bit more in the pipeline, so looking forward to seeing them when they are ready.

I also impulse purchased a book "Intervention in Russia 1918-1920 A cautionary tale" by Miles Hudson.  Published back in 2004, I missed this volume when it came out.  So far I've read the first couple of chapters and already feel that I know a lot more about the period than I did before.  It has helped to explain a question I always meant to find out, why many of the Great War memorials in Britain's towns and cities refer to the Great War 1914-1919, when we all know the armistice was signed in 1918.  This included the Roll of \Honour on the wall in the assembly hall of my old school, where two "Old Boys" were recorded as dying in 1919.  I think there may be an element of pedantry as the Treaty of Versailles wasn't signed until 1919, but the fighting and dying by British, French, US, Australians, Canadians, Italians, Japanese, Czech, German, Austrian, Turkish, Polish and Russian soldiers didn't come to an end until 1919, for most countries although the Russian Civil War persisted until 1922.

I also had some luck on e-bay recently, picking up the best part of a CWC BTR Motor Rifle Regt in 6mm and 100+ modern 15mm infantry to go with the vehicles I've picked up from Poundstretcher as the makings of a Sci-Fi force for Tomorrow's War or FWC.  At the end of the summer I did some trading of models for the basis of a 6mm 1980's French armoured force and I've placed a big order with Heroics and Ros for vehicles to complete my Early war German armour and 21st Panzer Div battlegroups for D-day.

So, all in all a lot of unpainted lead.  However, through the winter I am to finish my 20mm Rapid-Fire Fallschirmjaeger brigade, 6mm BKCII D-day forces for Sword Beach, 6mm CWC 1980's French armoured battlegroup, 6mm CWC 1980's Soviet Motor Rifle Regiment, 15mm Sci-Fi army and 20mm ACW plastic test figures.  Whether I get them all complete remains to be seen, but I can start with the best of intentions.

I'm afraid I don't have much to show for the week just gone as, apart from spending money at shows, we've been getting the kitchen decorated so all my gear has been isolated by the clearance from the kitchen.  Getting back to normal now so hope to be back to the painting table soon.  I'm beginning to get withdrawal symptoms!!

Thanks for looking.