The Musings of General Jimbob: June 2022

Action shot from solo game of Bolt Action

Typical, you build up a head of steam and life throws a stick in your spokes and before you know it you have a busted front wheel, a nasty graze and accompanying lump and a long walk home and thus your blogging drops away to nil...time to remedy that situation though. As I suggested life has been pretty busy and distracting over the last few months however my gaming antics haven't been completely curtailed. So, to bring you up to date with maximum effort and minimum time here's a swift, photographic overview of all the gaming and hobby related stuff that has been fitted in around my busy life..

Bolt Action: As ever Bolt Action has figured large including the culminating game in mine and Richie's A Small Town In Germany campaign the batrep of which will be on the blog shortly.

Speaking of Richie, both he and I headed north to Aberdeenshire to visit our chum, Danny for a days worth of Mediterranean themed Bolt Action.

Danny and Richie took the role of the British with their respective Commando and Airborne forces whilst I brought along my newly revamped Fallschirmjager

My rebvamped Fallschirmjager

Rich and Danny had the terrain covered with both having a heap of Charlie Foxtrot Pantile roofed buildings and some scratch built vineyards and olive groves all of which looked the part and we duked it out under the merciless Sicilian sun until the wee hours of the morning and had a blast. Both games' results were pretty close and it was different, for me at least, to run a veteran force again.

Terrain: Suitably inspired by the terrain we had played over at Danny's I dug out some foam core card when I got home and by the end of the week had fashioned this ruin. As ever I will need to do some more as all my other Med terrain is in pristine condition and more ruins will be required for our forthcoming Bolt Action campaigns.

This building is a TT Combat offering that I Mediterranean-ised as I couldn't think of what else to do with it.

Somewhere along the line I had picked up this set of 4Ground Mediterranean walls, they got built in pretty swift order too....and, naturally, we haven't gamed any Med themed stuff since 😀 but when we do I will be ready, oh yes..

That wasn't the only terrain that I managed to finish. I also got these Red Vectors timber framed ruins from Pendraken done up for the final mission in the A Small Town In Germany campaign. They will, of course, suit other games and theatres including Mordheim.

Partizan: In the guise of Colonel Bill's go'fer I had the chance to attend my first ever Partizan Wargames Show in Newark. For the Colonel it was a very busy day and I didn't really get the chance to take it all in but I did take the opportunity to take some snaps of the more impressive tables on display and there were lots of them...Highlight of the day, for me, wasn't anything inside the hall but rather the Lancaster bomber of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight passing overhead while I was outside having my lunch....awesome in the fullest sense of the word..

Stunning...

The stuff that other gamers dream of....in 40mm!!

Table belonging to the Perry Brothers

Demo game of The Baron's War by Footsore
Miniatures

What A Cowboy, the western version of What A Tanker.
Out soon as a rulebook, I believe and I will be indulging

My budget being somewhat limited my purchases were somewhat restrained

A whole heap of Belt Fed Girls from Colonel Bill's. The painted figure I picked up from the Colonel's painted figure rummage box, I think it's a Seven Years War figure by Foundry. The 20mm figure at the top of the photo came from Colonel Bill's unpainted figure rummage box. I don't know who the figure is of or who produced it but the detail is lovely so it's a small painting project for as and when I get the inclination.

Front Rank HYW knight for my WoE force

and speaking of the Colonel we had our first ever annual works outing to the Borders where we visited Flodden Battlefield, Coldstream town (where I tried manfully to get a cup of tea from an englishman; waste of time, I should have known better) where we popped into the excellent militaria shop Walk This Way before heading to Norham Castle and then Etal Castle

Don't Tell Them Pike...and Shot You know how, as a wargamer, you go through phases and some part of the hobby pushes it wee, cute nose to the top of the pile and garners your attention; affection even, for an all consuming wee while well I am going though just such a phase with Pike and Shot era gaming. On an impulse I dug out the Warhammer Fantasy Empire army that I have acquired and after laying it all out on the workbench I pondered what to do with it; what ruleset should I base the repainting and rebasing on. Obviously I can build a proper Pike and Shotte army for the Warlord Games rules of the same name (and I will) but to make this task seem less imposing I have decided to build a couple of forces for The Pikeman's Lament so units of 6 or 12 figures based on the Italian Wars. So I made a start...

....and got this chap repainted.......hahahaha....Oh well it's a start..

Whilst musing on The Pikemand's Lament I took a sideways step, so to speak, and dug out my TYW/ECW figures and rebased the dragoon figures I have and painted up some Foundry Miniatures that I had lying around whilst listening to C. V. Wedgwoods opus magnus The Thirty Years War yet again on Audible. This gave me another unit of shot for my games. And yesterday I managed to fit in a solo run through of the rules and it was corking fun; the rules are really easy to pick up which is a plus for a mental midget like yours truly 😁

Lastly for the present, my other hobby, scale modelling, has been indulged in too. I finished these two 1/72 scale Airfix kits off as well as visiting the Scottish Nationals Model Show in Perth where I also made some purchases..