An interesting problem.....

 Perusing ebay for figures is always interesting when I have a bit of down time and I came across some figures that interested me.  I am always on the look out for older SYW figures that I can use for my Imagi-nations project, I have Hinchliffe, Minifig and Garrison sitting in boxes waiting for me to do something with them, probably a retirement project to be honest.  Anyway I found these ones when looking at Hinds shop on ebay, I messaged Ian to ask if he knew anything about them and he came back that he thought they may be either Garrison or Greenwood and Ball, I have a load of Garrison and the poses don't look like them and after a fruitless search online I could find very little on G & B, here are a couple of pictures just in case someone out there knows what they might be.

They are certainly old school with very little definition a bit like Spencer Smiths in that department, you have to paint on straps etc. as the detail isn't there, they look pretty decent though and with a bit of care and attention and a new paint job and gloss varnish they should look pretty decent on the table.  I am waiting for them to arrive, knowing Ian it shouldn't take too long as he has a very quick turnaround, then I can see them in the flesh so to speak and work out a plan for them.  So basically if anyone knows anything about these figures I would be very interested indeed, if they remain a mystery then so be it as they should fit in well enough with all my other old school figures.  So until next time.....

The buying frenzy continues....

 Well the work continues on the ECW project although nothing done this weekend, busy with other things.  I did purchase another Summerfield tome, this one on Austrian infantry, and it is another cracking book, nothing more from him on the horizon but who knows!

While perusing ebay I cam across some painted Crann Tara figures for sale, I recognised them and then realised they were from the late Stuart Insch and were being sold by his good friend Graham, there was a Neapolitan army and a Spanish one from the siege of Havana. The Neapolitans were a must buy as we had chatted about them some time ago, Stuart had provided me with a lot of uniform information for Genoa, Piedmont and Naples for a project I was working on, no brainer there, then seeing the Spanish I just had to have them as well, so paid for them too.

This is the Neapolitan collection painted by Stuart Foley I believe, they are quite superb and will do me very nicely indeed.

And this is the Spanish troops, and again I think Stuart Foley painted some of them but Stuart Inch did some of them too. Really happy to have purchased these for my collection as they are really top notch and great additions to my collection and very nice to have something from Suarts collection, they will fight another day.

More purchases to come from the collection of Tony Joseph on the horizon as well, he has more Hanoverians plus some British and some French, so it's in for a penny and in for a pound!  So plenty added to my collection and nothing at all painted but I do have some plans in the pipeline for some work I will do myself, we will see when that will come to fruition!  So until next time,,,,,,

Busy but no painting!!!

 Well as the title says, I have been busy when real life doesn't intrude with hobby time!  The varnish and rebasing continues on the "old school" ECW project and I am over half way through and will get a few more bits and pieces done this weekend, I managed to get some units done every day this week due to being on holiday although the decoration of the kitchen has taken precedence! I have enjoyed this project and it is well ahead of schedule and will be finished well before the year end.

My purchases of Stephen Summerfield books continues and I have added the Prussian Frei Infantry one, which is a good one, and then I got this beauty,

If you have any interest in the Hanoverian army of the SYW then this book is a must, not the cheapest but well worth the money, it's a seriously good book. This leads me on nicely to what else I have been up to.

I have purchased several units of infantry, horse and dragoons from Tony Joseph, who is an expat living in Spain, he is downsizing his collection and selling up all his Minden figures and going down the 15/18mm route, this has allowed me to buy 8 infantry, 4 horse and 2 dragoon units from him, all lovely painted and based and ready to do battle.

This gives you an idea of the standard of the units I have purchased, really happy with them and they will go well with the units I already have finished, gives me a decent Hanoverian army and added to the British I have finished or on the go should look great on the table. I have a fair Saxon army finished and more still to do, I am adding some French to them and at the end will have two well matched armies for some Western actions of the SYW.

Well the holidays have come to an end and I have to be in today for the morning, ease me back gently and will get my desk ready for Monday morning, bit more varnishing on the cards for tomorrow, so until the next time.......

Late August...

 Well hobby time has been at a premium this month, work and gardening have taken priority but still some things have been progressing.  My ECW "old school" project has been sorted out into their units and the glossy varnish is being applied, not really done glossy before but on those old Minifigs and Hinchliffe it really works well, the first two Parliamentarian and the first two Royalist cavalry have been glossed and based in the way I want them to be.  I was half planning rebasing them but they look fine in the way they have been originally done, so I am going with that, all I am doing in adding them to bigger bases and labelling them up, not a specific regiments but as Royalist horse, Royalist foot etc. This is a fairly large project so the varnishing and basing is probably going to take up most of my time for the next foreseeable future. The good part of this is that by the end of the year I will have two armies ready for the table, which is a win in my book!

On other hobby things I purchased this book of ebay

It was at a good price so really a no brainer and looking forward to reading it, should be a good addition to the library.

That's about it in this update, next post will have some nice pictures of some lovely units I have bought from a fellow wargamer, more to follow.....

 

Update for July

 Well that's July gone and it finished with very little hobby time, the last
week or so has seen next to no painting done as work and real life took over, my cousin passed away a week or so ago and it was a hard one to take as we were pretty close and he was only a year older than me so thoughts of mortality kicked in, we had loads of good times so many happy memories. 

 The weekend just past our cat, a companion for 18 years passed over, she has been poorly for the last week and collapsed on Saturday so it was off to the vets and she reckoned her kidneys had failed so it was goodbye to wee Kitty, we both miss her as does the dog but hey ho life goes on.

Anyway back to hobby time, next to nothing done but then at the back end of the month a big move on that front!  First I have had a resurgence in my love affair with the 18th century and bought 5 titles from the Helion collection of SYW and WAS, plenty of reading material and plenty of inspiration that's for sure. Then when perusing the Lead Adventure Forum I saw this post on the "For Sale" section....

This was for a collection of 25mm Minifigs and Hinchliffe ECW figures, around  400 infantry, over 100 cavalry and ten guns and crew plus command figures, contacted the seller, Mark Hides, well known wargamer and professional painter and author of a cracking blog, got the deal done and on Monday a box that nearly gave me hernia arrived at my house! All that is required is a bit of touch up on some figures a bit of basing work and a coat of gloss varnish and this whole lot is ready for the table, absolutely chuffed to bits with this as I had fancied doing and old school collection for the ECW but it would have taken me years to get a collection of this size together and on the table now it is a matter of days/weeks and they will be on the table.

With the figures being old style 25mm I am going to go down the 15mm buildings/scenery route as I think it will work better than new style 28mm scenery. A church some farm building and a few houses will suffice, I will buy these ready painted to save time on this front, also I am going to get a couple of wagons, limbers etc from Hinds, also ready painted, for some table fluff.

After a hard month in both real life and hobby time, there is light at the end of the tunnel and I will be sorting out some old school loveliness this weekend and really looking forward to it as well!!

Summertime.....

 ....And the hobby is a hard go!!  Due to work being very busy and gardening to the fore hobby time has been a bit of a slog with little time for it and when I have had the time the mojo wasn't there. barely started British Napoleonics sit beside nearly finished and half finished GNW Swedes.  I have dabbed a bit of colour on them but not for any length of time, to try and get me out of this funk I have purchased the figures needed to close out the Carlist army of my First Carlist War project, an order to the Perry brothers on Monday morning saw them arrive at the house on Friday, super service from them.  The package had a couple of 6 men lancer squadrons and what will be a 16 man non uniformed unit, I also got a cannon and crew off ebay and that will be that for that side of the project.  Hopefully I will make a start tomorrow on cleaning them up and priming some of the figures, this has always been a project that I have fallen back on when the mojo goes, so here's hoping!

On a similar front, I ordered this book from Helion, just waiting for it to arrive.

I was meaning to get this since it came out but had ordered various other books and forgot to get this one but that has been sorted now. If you have any interest in the Carlist War you really should trawl through the following blogs as the inspiration and knowledge you can take from them is massive, Ga Pa Great Northern War Gaming and Other Projects, 1866 and all that, full of wonderful eye candy I found them both really inspirational and have taken a lot out of both of them, well recommended.

Well that's it for this week and hopefully tomorrow will see me get some good hobby time and get my mojo back, I think it will as I do feel a good bit more energised.

An update, plenty going on!

 Well I have had a busy enough time recently and my week off work was fairly productive, more so in the garden though!  In a change from doing Napoleonics I decided to finish off a couple of my GNW Swedish infantry, one is done, one needs their base work finished and one is ready to base, so a fair bit done.  This is a smallish project I want six units of infantry, two of dragoons and one of horse plus a couple of guns and powder wagon, so I have pretty much three infantry done and another on the table and one gun and crew done, still the rest to purchase, progress has been made!!

In other gaming news it has been books that have been winging their way to my house, this two are particularly good.

Both books are seriously good, full of facts and details and the wargaming potential is pretty decent, smallish armies, and various uniforms, should add to the spectacle and plenty of "what ifs"  One for the future as I have a fair few castings that will do the job in the lead pile!

I also ordered a slew of English Civil War books, all Helion ones and they were all on my to get list since a while, my ECW library is getting larger all the time!  I have a fair pile of completed and castings in 28mm for my ECW project but I think I will sell them on, I really fancy doing it in 40mm with the figures from Old Glory UK, Sash & Saber and Romanof figures, something to ponder!!

I also purchased the Black Powder supplement for the AWI, not that I am going to use BP for when I finally get my armies on the table but more for the scenarios which cover small engagements up to large battles, a decent book and worth getting.  This project is getting on, I have all the Continentals and militia and artillery and command stands I need, probably a couple of Continental dragoons and they will be done, in total it will be about 12 units of infantry, three of cavalry and a couple of guns plus command figures, leaves the Brits to do!

Well plenty to keep me going and my Peninsular project still going on in the background, just need to get a couple of more days added to the calendar, a nine day week would be great if you could be guaranteed only to use them for hobby time!!!  Until next time......