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WWII miniatures work in progress

2011-11-20T10:22:00.000Z

Germans - just awaiting basing and matt varnish. Esci, Italeri and unidentified metal figures. Italeri MG34 Metal MG team and riflemen Esci NCO and riflemen Esci MP40 and Officer The majority of the figures are from the old Esci German Infantry set which is now produced by Italeri, with the Italeri MG34 from the Anti-Tank set. The metal figures I picked up on e-bay and I'm unsure of the make

Organising my WWII troops

2011-11-06T21:18:00.000Z

For my 20mm WWII project I've decided that the main set of rules that I'll use is Troops, Weapons & Tactics from Too Fat Lardies, though I will also look at trying out some other sets of rules such as Flying Lead from Ganesha Games. One of the main reasons for my choice is that I prefer to do platoon level actions in this scale and feel that a lot of rulesets can break down a bit for this level

WWII in 20mm Plastic

2011-11-05T17:52:00.000Z

One of my main wargames projects now is to do some WWII games with 20mm plastic figures as the majority of my forces. I'm supplementing them with some metal figures to fill in gaps that exist in the coverage of the different forces weapons and equipment. What started me off on this was finding some old Esci WWII British and German infantry sets that were complete and gave me a decent basis for

Book Review: Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose

2011-09-28T17:14:00.001+01:00

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose is a history of E Company, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airborne Division in World War II. This covers the entire period from the formation and training through to the end of the war in Europe. Ambrose has now acquired a controversial reputation as an historian but his writing is clear and engaging so this succeeds as a readable account for general

Current Wargaming Projects

2011-09-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

My current wargaming projects are really based round recent sales and purchases I've made on ebay, where I'm clearing out unwanted odds and ends from the minis collection and buying things that will enable me to get games running soon. I've bought some 15mm ACW to add to my existing collection and get me closer to being able to play some battles with Fire & Fury and They Couldn't Hit an

My Favourite Albums: 1 Husker Du Zen Arcade

2011-09-03T20:33:00.000+01:00

This will be the first of my irregular posts about my favourite albums, which in a way shows my age as it means I grew up in an era where music was sold either on singles with only usually a couple of tracks or albums with probably about 10 or a dozen tracks rather than being bought and sold individually like downloads are. I know that downloads of albums still exist but they are more to

The Gary Gygax quiz

2011-07-28T16:20:00.000+01:00

Dave H took the Hardest Gary Gygax Quiz in the World and got 90%! You are a Gary Gygax Lord. Wow, you know a lot about Gary Gygax! My guess is that you are one of those Old School Renaissance guys, or else your last name is Gygax. Seriously, I didn't think anyone would do this well on this quiz. Though I did look up a couple of answers I did know quite a lot off the top of my head.

RuneQuest6

2011-07-19T16:41:00.000+01:00

So now we have an announcement that there will be a new version of RuneQuest from The Design Mechanism which on the whole is pleasing to me even though I still love my old RQ2 from the late '70s it will be nice to have a version that a new player can easily buy. From what I've seen of Mongoose RQ2 there were some good ideas being incorporated so I'm glad to see that there will be a RQ6 sometime.

Why do I wargame

2011-06-29T11:40:00.000+01:00

A recent post on Bob Cordery's Wargaming Miscellany has made me think about what it is that I enjoy about wargaming and on a related subject roleplaying as the two do overlap significantly in my opinion. To me I think the elements of playing games with miniature figures is a mixture of the physical aspects of painting figures, creating terrain and then using them on the board as well as the

First Hobbit film stills released

2011-06-24T15:54:00.000+01:00

Hobbit Stills - so we get to see Sir Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf and Martin Freeman as the young Bilbo Baggins.

A mutant future NPC

2011-06-14T08:54:00.000+01:00

Another character in my series of creating characters for every RPG I have. A Mutant future character - this will be a mutated human as one of the real defaults for the setting. So rolling 3d6 in order for the characters attributes I get 12, 13, 14, 10, 8, 8 - so good physical attributes but weak mentally. Starting funds: 3d8x10 = 16 x10 = 160gp, which is pretty good. Mutations: 2 physical, 1

Excellent RPG Blog

2011-06-04T09:36:00.000+01:00

And I'm not talking about my own as I know that it needs work. Dyson Logos' blog has lots of useful maps that you can try and interesting NPCs. I recommend a visit if you are a player of RPG, particularly from an old school background. I've got a few of the maps which are going to be used for some Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord sample encounters by me, which I'll publish here when I'm ready.

Book Review - I May be Some Time. Francis Spufford.

2011-06-03T15:13:00.000+01:00

Captain Oates' famous words provide an apt title for this cultural history. Certainly for Britons of my generation and earlier, where the story of the doomed Scott expedition was frequently repeated. Personally I think that it was probably from either primary school or Blue Peter on TV that I first heard it and that would be a similar experience for many others. Strangely Shackleton's expedition,

Library of Congress maps online

2011-05-18T10:04:00.000+01:00

This blog that I was pointed to, gives some insight into the US Library of Congress exercise in mapping their historic map collection. I love historic maps as my past posts about the British Library's exhibitions has shown and this has been really interesting for me to look at. For the wargamer playing games set in the AWI or US Civil War there is plenty of helpful information at the Library of

Roleplaying in the historical past.

2011-05-11T10:37:00.000+01:00

One thing that I have enjoyed is playing RPG set in historical settings, whether a strictly historical game like Beat to Quarters or games with fantastic or supernatural elements like Call of Cthulhu. For Call of Cthulhu in many ways my favourite period is the Victorian or Gaslight setting, this may be because as a Briton it represents a high point of my nations power and status, but also

Labyrinth Lord Character

2011-05-04T19:02:00.000+01:00

Back to the series of creating a character for every RPG I own, I'm starting with Labyrinth Lord which is my old school RPG of choice. I've used the basic method of generating the stats using 3d6 in order. The rolls I got were 3, 11, 8, 12, 15 and 5 giving me a character that will be best as a cleric as the best attributes are Intelligence and Wisdom. As a Cleric he'll get +5% to experience as

25 years since Chernobyl

2011-04-26T11:47:00.000+01:00

Twenty five years have now gone by since the major accident at the Cheronbyl nuclear power station. The thing that I have found most striking is the scenes in the evacuated zones around the power plant where nature has been able to start reclaiming the built up areas. Pictures from the BBC and the Kid of speed website really show how striking an empty city can look. The area has now been opened

Fifty Years in Space!

2011-04-12T12:07:00.000+01:00

Fifty years since Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight, though manned spaceflight has stagnated a bit since the 1970s and the end of the Apollo programme in my opinion though the ISS is being used for plenty of scientific programmes. It is always a question of whether manned missions are the most appropriate given the cost and difficulty of supporting life in such a hostile enviroment, particularly

Miniatures Review 7: - 10mm Pendraken Zulu War

2011-03-09T18:34:00.000Z

I've recently bought some of the Pendraken Zulu War range for a project this year and am going to post a review before I get into painting them. I bought the Zulu War army pack which contains 1 pack each of ZC1 British Infantry, ZC2 Natal/Durban Cavalry, ZC4 Royal Artillery 9lb RML guns and for the Zulus a mixture of figures from the ZC5 Zulus without headdress and ZC8 Zulu command packs. In

Wargamers ADD - it can be conquered!

2011-03-08T15:25:00.000Z

Like many miniatures wargamers I have a tendency to a form of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) when it comes to new periods and scales, maybe something that should be called PFD - Project Finishing Disorder, but I have found this can be conquered. My method is simply to refuse to purchase new miniatures until I have completed a specified number of the existing lead pile, the only exception being

Britain passes the Turing test!

2011-02-25T11:38:00.001Z

Excellent news at The Register that Alan Turing's papers have been saved for the nation, thanks to the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Google and the public who contributed. Glad to see these will be in the UK at Bletchley Park, but hopefully they'll be digitised and made available on the web.

Interesting site for SF and Fantasy miniatures collectors

2011-02-13T21:22:00.000Z

I had this site The Stuff of Legends pointed out to me and it has been really useful in finding out what the old Miniature Figurines (Minifigs) and Citadel miniatures SF figures that I own are. At some point I'll be posting pictures, but currently I'm removing paint from them with the intention of selling off some and painting up the others.

150th Anniversary of the American Civil War

2011-02-10T14:34:00.000Z

This year will see the 150th Anniversary of the outbreak of the American Civil War and many US media sites are producing articles about this, I've found this series of NY Times articles to be interesting in setting the scene. This is a subject that I will be returning to over this year, particularly for the anniversaries of the Battle of Fort Sumter and First Battle of Bull Run in July.

Burns Night

2011-01-25T09:29:00.001Z

A quick post to celebrate Robert Burns' birthday (and me drinking a few drams this evening). And A Man's A man For A' That Is there for honest Poverty That hings his head, an' a' that; The coward slave—we pass him by, We dare be poor for a' that! For a' that, an' a' that. Our toils obscure an' a' that, The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The Man's the gowd for a' that. What though on hamely

Conan the Barbarian - the Musical

2011-01-18T20:12:00.000Z

How could I not share this?