The Occasional Regular Hobby Round Up Post Thing

     

      So it is time once again for one of my occasional regular round ups......probably. But whether or not it is time for once of my occasional, regular round ups here it is.....definately.

     Well what have I been up to, hobby-wise? Well quite a bit as you might imagine, predominantly painting, starting with, in no particular order, Gangs Of Rome. 

     I invested in the Bread and Circuses set a wee while back and I finally got my figures out and started painting some of them, primarily the gang figures as Danny already has about 10,000 mob figures for Gangs of Rome; well maybe not 10,000 but certainly enough to not need mine to add to the game. As I had mentioned in a previous post I had put together the bakery and started painting it but I haven't got much further with that beyond a coat of Bitter Chocolate masonry paint on the base and roof tiles.

Ye olde bakery before the bitter chocolate paint

     I have managed to get the gang figures done, pretty much in a sitting. They are nice figures, especially the main character figures, in this case the three at the rear of this group. The other figures faces are a bit, shall we say lacking in character. However, they are done now. I'll get around to the civilians as and when but they are waaaaay down the non-existent painting list at the moment.

WIP photo of the Gangs of Rome figures

Danny's interpretation of Rome or at least a part of it; the Keenanus
District where not a lot of actual, useful labour occurs and the locals
look and smell a bit strange to say the least...

Some of my gang in action; a couple of turns before they
mostly got slotted

      Skipping forward a millenium and a big bit, the Sharp Practice campaign continues with another excting epsisode taking place last Monday (more of which shortly). For that episode the scenario cried out for an encampment which I was happy to furnish. I bought one of those really useful Renedra plastic sprues from Perry Miniatures, and some glue spattering, filler and glue splodging and paint slopping sessions later (with the requisite drying times allowed in between) and I had these ready to plop down on the table. Very happy with how they turned out. Another wee project done and dusted in a couple of evenings.

     As this game was based around the rescue of my Dragoon lieutenant from the clutches of the perfidious Spanish I dug out my Dragoon captain, Capitaine Henri de Cuisses Fermes, or at least his dismounted version and replaced the broken sword arm with a new one (surprise, surprise; couldn't replace it with another broken one, could I). I wasn't sure if I would need him dismounted for the game but better safe than sorry, I thought.

Capitaine Henri de Cuisses Ferme of the Dragoons

     Also completed, pretty much, were these mounted Border Reivers figures for Colonel Bills. Fortunately for such an anguished, tortured and spirited artiste like what I am, Stu from Colonel Bill's is a very patient type and is happy to wait while I fart about doing other stuff before doibg his figures for him. As you can see they need some flock and that's going to be done soon....promise

     Other wee terrain projects have been added to the terrain collection. I wanted some old fashioned lamp posts for Bolt Action/Chain of Command/ In Her Majesty's Name so after a brief search of the internet, I purchased these model railway lamp posts, stuck them onto coins and added a miliput base carved to resemble(?) cobblestones. The lamp posts have a plastic sheen, unsurprising really as they are made from plastic, and I plan to spray them with some matt varnish at some point in the future but in the interim, they have received a quick dry brush and are ready to be used......well, whenever.

Shine a bleedin' light. HO/OO lamp posts for the tabletop.
There are actually 12 but one has gone AWOL in the
McCubbyhole. Doubtless it will turn up during the next big
clean up

On the tabletop. The lamp posts look pretty good, don't they?

     My Soviets haven't been neglected either. Rich and I, keen to do more winter themed, Eastern Front gaming, decided to run one of the scenarios from the Fortress Budapest book which calls for an armoured platoon. I dug out the T34/85 that comes with the Soviet started set, chucked it together and painted it up. Two evenings worth of effort and it was pretty much done bar the weathering. It's a really straight forward kit which helped me in getting it done PDQ.

And then there were three. The last of my T34/85s, the one in the
centre, ready for the table top. Single paint scheme vehicles are
a doddle to paint...thank goodness 

     After putting together my army list, on which I had 2350 points to lavish (Richie has finished painting his winterized German armoured force and was keen as mustard to get them all on the table) I found I needed more troops, especially anti tank rifles and chaps carrying panzerfausts, so, digging out the sprues once more from the starter set, I put these fellows together as well as the flamethrower chaps and bashed through them in an evening at work, finishing them about 3.30 A of the M. Not my best but they certainly filled out my forces and gave it a bit more potential. I must say I really like the versatility of the Warlord Games plastic kits as well as the character you get with a lot of the more recent sets. Their earlier German and British sets are a bit meh, but I think, from the Blitzkrieg German set onwards they have done a great job with their WW2 sets.

Soviet reinforcements

Armoured might for our next Bolt Action game. Really pleased
with how quickly this lot have come together

    Lastly, I have been to a couple of shows, SKELP up in Forfar, run by the Angus Wargames Club, in my capacity as go-for and hindrance to Stu at Colonel Bill's, and the Glasgow IPMS show run by the guys at the Glasgow branch of the International Plastic Model Society.

     SKELP 2019 was really, really good, and not just because as a trader you get a fee bacon roll and a cuppa. It's a pretty small affair as you might imagine, being as it held up in Forfar, in the north east of Scotland, but it's also a very friendly show and comparatively busy considering it's size.

     One of the games that was being run there (there were nine in all, I think, and all were very well organised and looked really good) that really caught my eye was BIG Lion Rampant game being run by that annoyingly talented figure painter, Dave Imrie. And by big, I mean that he was using the Big adaptation for Lion Rampant that sees larger units than normal being used and more formations being employed. It looked quite impressive and Danny and I have tried out similar rules in the past to those Dave was using. I'll post about them soon but in the meantime here are some rather naff photos of Dave's impressive looking game

Look at the size of that castle's tower!!

Larger units than the norm for Lon Rampant

     The Glasgow IPMS show was an altogether larger and very different affair and was equally well attended. Sadly I didn't get any photos as time was pressing and there were way too many things to photograph. I did pick up a few books and some paints though, keen as I am to get some of that pile of 54mm, 70mm and 120mm figures I have painted

Treasure from the Glasgow IPMS. The Mr Black books are
stunning

     So that's it for this occasional, regular round up. Batreps and dispatches from the front up next.

Pip pip,

GJ