And now for something completely different.....

 Well a total change of tack here at McG Towers, while idly perusing ebay I stumbled across some Toy Soldiers and immediately got lost down a rabbit hole spending a good few hours on the subject!!

As a youngster the family always went down to Edinburgh on our holidays to go round all the relatives, always a good time for me as I always went to Woolworths to get some more cowboys, indians or knights to add to my collection, Woolworths always had a big selection of plastic toys on offer, great for a small boy like myself and I always had a great time picking and choosing my purchases. I t was on one of these holidays that I saw a display of shiny toy soldiers of various regiments,  I think it might have been Jenners that had the display but it was a lifetime ago so who knows!, anyway they were quite superb and such a treat for a wee boy like me but way beyond the humble means of my folks so it was look but back to Woolies for some plastic!

Anyway to take it up to the present, toy soldier were a thing I looked at but never had any intention to purchase, until now!

These are the first purchases, total including postage was just under £65 for them both, which I thought was pretty decent, they are not from the heyday of Britains but were from the 1990's and  badged as Britains, decent enough for me and wont break the bank either, so the collection will grow that's for sure, I don't intend to get too bogged down with this collection I will just pick and choose what I like and can see the collection not getting more than 20-30 sets.  

There are some lovely sets like the two I purchased from the British Army in India and I will add to this range, the other ones I will probably buy are British regiments from the late 1890's and Yeomanry cavalry, sets come in 6 for infantry and 4 for cavalry all in these lovely boxes that hark back to the glory days of Britains.

Well another rabbit hole I find myself going down, but a fun one all the same!!

Doldrums and a bit of thought!

 Well the past couple of weeks have seen no real hobby time other than online perusing, can't get the mojo started to do any painting but hopefully that will happen this weekend.  The TYW project is still in the planning stages, so no further forward with that, just finding it a bit hard to focus on anything at the moment, but that will change for sure!!

With the passing of Graham it has made me take stock of the range of figures I purchased from him and where to go with this. Theya re lovely figures and will match Crann Tara and Minden very nicely and at the moment the range consists of Prussian Musketeers and Grenadiers, Austrian Musketeers and Grenadiers, Hungarian Musketeers and Grenadiers, Grenzers and artillery crew.  These figures come with command and by a paint job and some hat swaps the two main protagonists are pretty much covered, Prussian fusilers still to get done plus cavalry and also maybe light and freikorp in the future. My main aim was to do this as a retirement hobby but I think I will start it earlier than that as I still have just under three years to go before that kicks in.

These photos will give an idea of the figures in the range so far, I am still unsure whether to just use them for my own entertainment or market them and sell them to the public, jury still out on this one, I like the idea of getting them out there but still not a hundred percent on this, if I do I will need to get a couple of production moulds made and then get fusilier and cavalry figures sculpted, plenty to think about over the coming days.

A change of plan........

 A couple of posts ago I said I was going to try and not start anymore new projects until I get through some of the lead mountain, well suffice to say that my good intentions have flown out the window! A new project is on the cards but rather differently for me I am actually planning it out!!!  I usually batter on with no real plan, adding units here and there and then lose interest and put it aside for something new, no plans and all over the place, but this one I have actually put some thought into it, good fro me!!!

I am starting out on a Thirty Years War project, have always fancied doing this but went down the ECW route instead, but now I am ready to give it a go, I am going to use The Assault Group figures as they have a good range of Germans, Swedes, Danish and Scots from the ECW range and they are lovely figures.

My aim is to do it in chunks, first phase 3 x 24 men infantry, 2 x 9 men cavalry and 1 gun and crew, when phase 1 is done, rinse and repeat a second then a third time, this will allow me to firstly get some units on the table to try out some different rule systems, then be able to game bigger battles then finally to game even bigger battles. As I will be doing both side it is a long term project with plenty to do and plenty to focus on.

Feeling very enthused by this project, plans are in place, first order will be in very soon and we can get this whole thing off the ground.  Focus will be my usual problem but I really aim to give this a good go, fingers crossed!!!

Sad Times

 Just heard this morning that Graham Cummings has passed away, I knew he was in hospital from a blog post he did a few day ago but this is a real shock.  Graham wa a real gentleman and alway had time for me when I was asking advice etc. from him. He helped me out out on uniform details for the WAS project I was doing and that was a real boon for me.

A couple of years ago I invested in a project he started after he had sold Crann Tara, for a range of SYW Prussians and Austrians, he did all the donkey work all I did wa bung some money into the pot, a nice range was sculpted and cast and the figures are lovely, in the CT Minden style. He decided that he wa going to change his hobby direction so sold me the rights, masters etc for this range at a very good price and was a real help in the many, many questions I had for him! Nothing seemed to be a problem and he alway got back with an answer and some good ideas that I will be taking forward in the future.

Rest easy Graham you will be missed by your friends and my condolences and thought to his family at this hard, sad time.