Too Much Time on my Hands???

 Well recovery goes apace and I have been discharged from oncology and back to the loving arms of ear, nose and throat, which means I am cancer free!! Happy guy indeed, also my taste is coming back slowly and I am eating solids again although mainly savoury as sweet things still taste like sludge especially chocolate, bad news! Anyway I am still signed off work and not due to go back until June so I have a bit of time on my hands, done a few walks and a little bit of weeding in the garden as my stamina is pretty poor at the moment, tire very easily. I went to the football in Inverness to watch a Highland League match, my mate picked me up and we parked up and walked to the ground, watched a very entertaining game and walked back to the car by which I was totally washed out, time I get home and settled I crashed out and slept soundly, still will be working on strength over the next few weeks, so hope it improves.

Anyway with all this time on my hands and with a bit of money to spend due to my bonus from work I have indulged myself a little. I first took advantage of Ist Corps sale, which was a nice 20% of the original price. what did I buy? Well I always fancied doing the Seven Years War in India so bought British and French regulars, some Sepoys for both sides and some Irregulars for both sides, they arrived very quickly  and look nice figures, should paint up well even by my standards! Now 1st Corps don;t do cavalry or artillery for this but regulars of each were pretty short in numbers so will probably look at getting some native cavalry and artillery from another source.

The next purchase was still in the sub continent and got me a whole load of Empress Miniatures from their Indian Mutiny range, great figure, so full of character, the have come of ebay and were at a decent price for the quantity, I am short again of cavalry and artillery but will add to them as required.

Also got a couple of books but hopefully I will reign in my temptation to splurge on more goodies, now is the time to get back to some painting and basing as I have a tonne to do. I really fancy doing some Dominion of Frederick the Great games, very abstract set of rules but easy to set up and play and I have pretty much all I need painted and based, you don't need a lot to get into it. I thought about these rules as they are an easy set up and a quick game which suits my health at this time.

Anyway every day sees a little bit more of an improvement and looking forward to getting back to normality, here's a photo of the match from Saturday, why I haven't a job with paparattzi I will never know!! Inverness Clachnacuddin against Fraserburgh, 4-2 to the away side, good game for the last of the season.

Well that was interesting........

 As the title says it was interesting but not always in a good way!! Since early January I have been, as I said in the previous post, undergoing treatment for neck cancer. Good news is that the treatment i over and they all seem happy with the results but I will find out in a couple of weeks when I see my oncologist.

The radiotherapy went well enough and I had no real problems with it other than a plethora of side effects which are not overly pleasant!  The chemotherapy on the other hand was pretty brutal, the first blast anyway. result in my kidneys dropping to under 75% and me going into hospital for a week while they sorted me out!! I must admit I never felt so ill in my life, really bad but the hospital did a grand job on getting me back on my feet.

Side effects have been a bit brutal, doctor told me all about them before I started and I think I got every one of them!! Worst is no taste, really grim, everything tastes like mud, really disgusting and has resulted in me being on a feeding tube for all my water and nutrients, bit of a pain but it is ok. Taste is beginning to come back but very slowly, my sense of smell is fine which means I can smell everything my good lady is cooking for her dinner, pure torture, smell great but taste....... Hopefully this will end soon and I can get back to eating normally, fingers crossed. One of the other side effects is that my facial hair has died! Not too sure if it will ever come back, bar for the odd bit no shaving required!

Well as you can imagine hobby time has been zero and it is only now I am back to looking at blogs and plotting and planning, mojo is good but chance of getting thing done is low at the moment, so reading blogs and planning will have to suffice for the moment.

Anyway another week of recovery then I have a week of clinics before I see the doctor for her views on how it all went. Well I am back to a certain extent and looking forward to getting back to normality, big year for me this year as I am looking to retire at the end of it, so plenty of plans for my hobby time in this year and hopefully the future,

Next post will be more hobby centred I promise!!!

If it wasn't for bad luck.......

 Well it's been a while since I posted an update on this blog and it's all down to my health and not particularly good health!  First problem, about 13 years ago I had bowel cancer which was discovered due to the bowel screening programme that is run by the NHS, without this I doubt I would still be here, anyway after an operation and the removal of the cancerous bowel I got a clean bill of health and life continued. The screening tests come out every 3 years I think it is and I do it as a matter of course and the last one has come back as positive for something dodgy, not again! Anyway went up to Raigmore hospital in Inverness and got a colonoscopy which showed a rather large polyp that the surgeon reckons could turn nasty, so a biopsy and a CT scan was done that day, good news is that it is not cancerous nor is the bowel around it, they still want to get rid of it but it is a pretty minor procedure so all good on that front.

The second health problem is not so good news though, at the end of August start of September my lymph nodes got swollen, went down, swelled up, went down and finally swelled up again and stayed that way, so of to my local GP who took blood samples and passed it onto Raigmore hospital, ENT got in touch so it was up to see a specialist. Then it was a round of tests, ultrascan, biopsy, MRI and another CT scan, all done and dusted I went up and saw my ENT specialist and was told I have a small cancerous tumour on the underside of my tongue! Good news is it is small and not growing and has not spread to my throat or my chest as they can do, and since then it has been a steady trip up to Inverness to see dentists, dietician, speech therapist, my own nurse and at the start of the year my oncologist who will tell me what is due to happen and when.

My nurse filled me in on what is going to happen and the ENT specialist also let me know the procedure, the oncologist will tell me the time scale which works out at 4 weeks Monday to Friday of Radiotherapy followed by 2 weeks Monday to Friday of chemotherapy, when that is done and dusted I should be clear and that little parasite should have gone for good. Sounds by all accounts that I have a hard slog for a couple of months at the start of the year but the prognosis is good and for that I am one happy wargamer! After this is done I go back to ENT and go to the specialists Thursday clinic for 5 years!,can't fault the after care that's for sure.

So a bit of a shock and a bit to take in but everyone has been so nice and allayed any fears that I am about to shuffle off, thing is apart from the swollen neck I feel great! good appetite, still fit and healthy, which I suppose is good for the forthcoming treatment.

All this has kind off put my hobby time to a real premium and I have done really nothing at all, my main hobby time has been following and reading all my favourite blogs and this has kept me going nicely, I will have a bit of time of work but don't really know if I will be up for doing any painting or gaming, just have to see how it goes. This is my last year at work as I am retiring at the end of the year and now I am going to miss 2-3 months of the start of the year there too, they have been great and it is a weight of the mind not having to worry about that.

Well not the last post of the year I wanted to make but it's a good prognosis and it's not going to put me under so it's just a case of onwards and upwards and see what's what at the end of it all. Good thing is I am a pretty positive person and don't get depressed easily so in a good place with good friends and family around me all should end well. I may not post too much here for a while but I will still be reading and posting on all the blogs I follow ou there, so keep me entertained folks!!

Mojo returning?

 Well it's been a wee while but I am back into some sort of groove, most of my hobby time has been basing some SYW stuff that I have got from TJ, these are non Minden figures a mixture of Black Hussar, Foundry and some Front Rank French and British, most have been based but some needed finishing off so that has taken most of what little free time I have had, but that has now changed!

I finished work on Friday for a break of nine days free from the grind and with the gardening all but done of the year I really should get some painting done and indeed I have!

I needed something to reignite my painting funk and fancied getting away from the late 17th, 18th or 19th centuries that are my usual, so what did I go for?  Well sorting out some books for putting on my wargame library shelfs I found a copy of the first DBA rule set, now I haven;t dabbled with DBA since far too many years to even try to remember so thought that this may be the little project needed to get me back into some serious hobby time.

First purchase was a gaming mat, 2 x 2 grassy fields for playing it on, decent deal of ebay, paid and duly arrived, happy with it, so that's one thing ticked off the list. Now I haven't thought about DBA or figures for playing the game so after looking about a bit online I decided I wanted an old school vibe for this project and after a bit of browsing I went for Toy Soldier's ready assembled DBA packs, these range in price from £19 to £42 depending on whatever army and how exotic it is. They are seriously old style 15mm figures, chunky and look the part for me, so I picked 4 armies to get me going, Numidian, Hoplite, Macedonian and Successor, order placed and within the week package delivered, super service from TS and really happy with the packs.

First day of my break so out with my painting table and out with the DBA packs, now I haven't painted anything in 15mm in donkeys years and was a bit worried after years of dedicated 28mm figures but these little guys are quite chunky and actually rather easier to paint than I had thought, first on the table were the Numidians, I thought these might be the easiest, tunics, basic equipment and right enough they were a good choice, so for a couple of hours I managed to paint the first elements of this army, a couple of light infantry stands of 4 figures each, light armed figures with javelins and small shield, very little flash and once primed they painted up very easily and are pretty much done other than some highlighting, vanishing and basing, tomorrows job!

To finish off, this has been something different for me and has recharged the creative batteries, hopefully pictures to follow once they are done. On anther ancient topic, reading the excellent Palouse Wargaming Journal blog, I really enjoyed seeing Jon's biblical projects, some great work, it made me go and purchase a Hittite and an Egyptian army packs from Newline Designs for a future retirement project, thanks for the inspiration Jon, I think!!!

Well until next time folks....

Long time.....

 Well it's been a few weeks since I posted on here, real life taken priority, work, gardening and putting up a new shed all ate into hobby time big style. The shed is kind of hobby related as it will house my boxes of figures, good solid 8 x 6 pent roof security shed, should fill it up nicely!

Not all been work and no play as I have some Carlist volunteers on the painting table, they have been undercoated and first skin tones added, not too sure if I will get a chance this weekend to add to them though, we shall see.

I got another box of goodies from Spain from TJ who has sold his 28mm Minden collection to me as he downsizes to 15/18mm, the ones arriving now are unpainted castings, French, Prussian and Austrians, all to be added to the dreaded lead pile! Also in the box were a couple of painted command stands for the Prussians, Von Seydlitz and a vignette with Frederick and a couple of staff, all painted to the highest standard by TJ, very talented he is too the swine! I've been lucky to have had the chance to acquire his collection it's been a major boost for my SYW collections.

A bonus in July's pay packet has given me some splurging money and I am looking at the American/Mexican war, small battles and some nice uniforms, regulars and volunteers, ticks a good few boxes for me. I have ordered a couple of books, uniform guides and rule book and I think the brigade deals from 1st Corps looks a good bet for me. I will go with the US army to start with and six infantry units, two cavalry and three guns and it should be good to go. A wee bit of planning to do but I am looking forward to getting dug into this project, something a little bit different for me and has enthused me I must admit. Here's a picture from Ist Corps site, to give you an idea of what they offer.

Well finally getting back in the groove after a couple of months of little activity on the wargame hobby front at least!

A wee update

 Well the unseasonably good weather continues up here in the far north but due to end this weekend.  Any free time I have has been spent in the garden and I am very nearly finished doing what is needed. More shrubs have been added and more grass taken away, less cutting Huzzah!!

My Canadian Lilac in full bloom, absolutely alive with bees and a really beautiful shrub when in bloom, I did have another one but it has died due to my ivy taking over. The next phase is putting up a 8x6 shed which will be a useful storage for a lot of my plastic tubs of completed and still to do miniatures.

On the wargames front, not much has happened painting wise but I have received lots of goodies from across the pond, loads of Minden and AWI figure from Fife & Drum, super service as always from Jim and ultra quick delivery at a real decent price, can't beat that!

The figures in the stock pile are some Highlanders,artillery and cavalry for my British army, not far off having most of what I need for this project. French artillery and officers, also got a pile coming form TJ, most of these will be used for the FIW as I have probably enough for the SYW. I also got some Austrian infantry and hussars and these are actually going to be used as a Bavarian army as they used uniforms of a similar cut, so a paint job should make them work.

Well that's about it at the moment, I have three units of British cavalry just arrived from TJ in Spain so they will needed based and hopefully this Sunday will see that happen. Until next time folks.......

In the doldrums!!

 I have had the past week off work and found myself busy in the garden, an odd day out and some really good relaxation time, great stuff but a whole week off and a paint brush not lifted once!! I pored over blogs, read a couple of articles, skimmed through some books for some ideas for games etc but not one figure painted or even primed, just no enthusiasm and it really seems like a missed chance to get something done and off the table, very disappointing.  I very rarely go through periods like this but can find no enthusiasm to pick up a brush and dab some paint on but hopefully this will pass and I can get on and get something completed.

Yesterday I got some miniatures on the table to see where I am at with a couple of different things.

Some Minden British infantry that were actually done a while ago, they will eventually be part of a 16 man unit but I have found out that I have the other figures but no standard bearers! Really annoying to say the least!

A nine man squadron of French Hussars but destined to be something different. I have three different French Hussars so don't really need another one so these ones will be repurposed to another nation, not quite sure what one yet, possibly Prussian but may go with an Austrian Grenzer Hussar regiment, something a wee bit different, they won't be quite accurate but will do what I want them for and on the table should pass well enough.

A six man British Horse Grenadier squadron and some British Horse in the background, I also have some Dragoons to do as well, these cavalry figures will do for both my WAS and SYW projects.

A couple of Saxon Cuirassier squadrons and you can just see some Saxon infantry, there is three sixteen man ones to do. When done this will give me eight sixteen man regiments which will be enough. I need some more cavalry some Dragoons and maybe a squadron of Uhlans, then it will be som command stands to finish off.

So there you have it tonnes to do and plenty of figures to paint up all I need now is the enthusiasm to get myself into gear and crack on, back to work this week so maybe this weekend will be the time to reignite these projects, here's hoping!!

Spain, why Spain???

 Although I have travelled a fair bit over Europe and Canada I have never been to Spain, no real interest in the beaches etc, so it was never on my list and now I find myself in my mid 60's it is never going to happen, Spain and me will never meet!  So why do I find myself wargaming in Spain so much?

I have a Peninsular project with Brits, French and Portuguese who will be fighting in Spain, I have a First Carlist War project with the Carlists just about done and the Isabelinos on the go and now I find myself going into the Spanish Civil War!!

Now I don't do modern wargaming the nearest I get to is the Quar and it's sort of fantasy WW1 setting, so how did I go down the SCW route?  Ebay had an interesting starter set on sale, the guy had painted up two 20 a side units plus some buildings, very nicely done to, very impressed with the standard of painting and modeling, he did a really good job, I looked at it a couple of times and then put it on my watch list, the guy contacted me and offered me the set with 10% off, so I bought it!

There are 20 International brigade and 20  Carlists plus the buildings you can see in the background, the figure are very nicely painted and based and the buildings look great and two of them were scratch built and the ruined one is a Warlord kit that fits in well. Enough to get me started and gaming right away you would think, but no there is more to come!

The obligatory Ospreys were purchased and then it was off perusing the Empress Miniatures catalogue and off course a Republican army pack was purchased and a Nationalist army pack was purchased! The packs come with 60 odd figures a side a couple of tanks and machine guns and crews, so I now have a very decent size project, another on the go, when will the madness end!!

I don't really need to add any more to this project although maybe a couple of the strange little armoured cars that featured during the conflict might be the final purchase just to finish it off.  The only thing now is to find a decent rule set that will do, not being a modern gamer a fair bit of reading of reviews and other blogs will hopefully point me in the right direction.

Anyway my fascination with Spain continues, on the wargames table at least, I have enough to get a game in as I build up the rest of the forces so it is a nice place to be in with this project.

Hopefully this will be the last time I go to Spain but who knows as the whole El Cid thing interests me a fair bit as well!

Hobby time at last!.....

 Finally got some time to do some wargaming stuff, work has been busy and last weekend it was off to Stirling for a record fair so no wargaming hobby time until Sunday.

Some Minden Russians finally get some love! I have had a three of small orders from Minden recently for some SYW Russians but they have been sitting in their boxes since they arrived. With a bit of time to myself on Sunday morning I thought this would be the time to start them off, 2 times 16 men musketeer units and 3 times 6 men cavalry squadrons consisting of cuirassiers, dragoons and horse grenadiers, this is the size of unit I will be using for this army, probably a dozen infantry,six cavalry and a couple of 3 gun batteries of artillery plus officers etc.

Ordering from Minden is a treat, they get delivered in quick time and Jim throws in some freebies that are always appreciated, top notch service. Prepping the figures takes next to no time as there is practically no flash on these figures, the are more or less ready to go straight from the box.  I glued them to their bases and got the horses primed so happy enough to get these started. No real time next weekend as it is another record fair next Sunday, down to Dundee for one of the best  fairs in Scotland.

I should be able to crack on with these in a fortnight or so and prime the infantry and start to put some pain on them. I have a couple of more infantry regiment still in the box plus a couple of mounted officers and an artillery crew and gun, so plenty to get this army up and running, just need a bit of time to get it really rolling, 

I will probably get another order into Jim for the next batch of Russians but I am swithering as I need some French artillery crew and guns so need to think about this before ordering, we shall see.

So until next time when hopefully I will have some progress to show......

The muster continues!......

 I got a box of goodies from Alternative Armies at the back end of last week, the first three unit of infantry for my SYW Dog wars.

Grenadier with dark blue facings.

Line regiment with yellow facings,

Line regiment with green facings.

All are 20 figure units and really nicely painted, very happy with them, great service from AA, really nice people to deal with, communication was good and the time to place the order, get painted, based and delivered was very decent indeed. 

The planning for the next order is underway, another three red uniformed line, just got to work out the facings for this lot. After that it's jaegers and artillery before the cavalry get their turn, this should cover most of this year and then it's on to the opposition forces. 

This project is on the move in the right direction and I am very happy with the progress, it's all going according to plan, which for me is very unusual indeed!

First Recruits!....

 Here is the first recruits to my War in Canis project, finished ones that is!

Not quite finished as I am going for a gloss varnish finish with this project so they have to get a coat of that to fully finish them. 

 This unamed, as yet, hussars were painted by Alternative Armies and really well done they are too, very happy with them.  I have three 20 dog units with AA at the moment getting painted, red coats and different facings, one yellow, one green and a grenadier unit with dark blue facings, once I get them I will post them up here.

So this project is on the go, not too sure when I will call it finished, plenty to do and get done yet, so it is a good qay into the future for calling it done that;s for sure.

Quar back on the menu....

 Well I haven't done much with my Quar collection for a number of months, I have a load of Crusaders ready for basing but they still sit in their box waiting patiently, this should all change thanks to some new releases from Zombiesmith/Wargames Atlantic.

The Fidwog have arrived!! I have small number of metal infantry that are still to be painted, too few to do much with but when I saw that these were available to buy now I got a box at a good deal from Sarissa, delivered in two days as well, great service!  You get 12 rhyflers and two small tractors, the figures are fine and didn't take too long to put together and the tractors are lovely quirky, little models, looking forward to painting these up, all glued together today and hopefully primed tomorrow.

I also got two packs to got with this set, a pack of 3 miners and a pack of 2 officers.

The figures in the two packs are very nice and come in resin, not my favourite I must admit, I find them very fragile although these figures don;t seem too bad.  The miners only need stuck to their bases and are complete other than that, the officers need their heads, arms and back packs glued on.  All this is done and they too should see some primer on them tomorrow.

I also have some metal Coftyrans on the table but they need a bit of work before they see any paint, necks to be drilled out,a rms and weapons attached, also winging their way from Sarrisa are some more Coftyran infantry plus some add on packs, officers, snipers etc.

Must admit I fair enjoyed getting back into the Quar after such a long break, they are such quirky figures and a joy to put together and paint, never fail to bring a smile to my face.  

I need some  more Crusaders and some more vehicles and I should have enough for a very decent sized game, my main hope is they do some cavalry as the metal ones are really great figures but not available at the moment.  Anyway that's it for now, o until next time.......

All but done!........

 Well I made some progress this weekend and can call the two uniformed Continentals and the small militia unit done, just a couple of flags to add and these have been ordered so just waiting on them but that's a small job in the grand scheme of things.  I had both Saturday and Sunday off from work, the first proper weekend off in some time, due to staff shortages it's fallen on me to cover every Saturday but this has now changed as we are now up to full numbers.

I managed to varnish the three units and also get them based up and I am quite happy with them, they look fine and should look decent on the table. The unit of Swedes for the GNW are finished in the painting sense but need varnished and the bases done for them to be called done, I have a flag for them so next weekend should see the end of them.

Anyway here's the completed units in all their glory!!

 

On a roll with the AWI project and have a small unit to finish plush some Continental dragoons then I think it will be time to crack on with the British and Hessians, I have a few ready to go but will need to buy some more British infantry and cavalry plus artillery and command figures, Plenty to do that's for sure!  Apologies for the photos, not my strong point!!

War in Canis, Plans are afoot.....

 Well I emailed Alternative Armies with the first three units I want painted up by them, 2 line and 1 grenadier units, the two line will be red faced green and red face yellow while the grenadiers will be red faced dark blue, this will give me a good start to the red army.

That allows me to start on some of the unpainted figures I have and I think a squadron of 10 curassiers, just needing to work out the uniform for them. Will get a photo of the Hussars that I got before Christmas from AA, they are really very nice and a good start to this project.

The next thing is to try and work out a back story to the whole thing, countries, maps, campaigns and what rules to us, exciting times!!

Work in progress.......

 Well 2025 is just about on us, another year passes and a new one almost upon us.  This is not really a review of the year but more of what I was up to on the holidays and what is on the cards for next year.

On show here are 2 Continental infantry units of 16 men each, one blue faced red and one brown faced red, need some washes on them and based and varnished on the left is a small 10 man militia unit nearing completion on the painting front, at the back is a 20 man Swedish white faced regiment for my GNW project.

This is a small 10 man unit of Continental infantry still in the early stage of painting. They will be the last of the American infantry, I will have ten 16 men units, three 12 men units and two 10 men units, then I can concentrate on the British and Hessian side of the project.

In the middle you can just about see 2 mounted commanders, one will be a militia dragoon commander the other is for a command stand, this will give me 6 command stands, which will be enough. I also have 2 guns and crews which will be enough artillery. This will leave me 2 squadrons of Dragoons still to do, one will be the 1st Continental the other will be a blue face white militia one, the other cavalry unit is done and a mounted militia one. This will complete the Continental army and will give a decent force for both small and larger actions, enough for me anyway! Then the focus will be the British side!!

On other news I have taken advantage of ebay and got some more Isabelinos infantry plus some British infantry and cavalry for the First Carlist War project, once the Continentals are of the table some of this project should take their place, we shall see!.

I took advantage of a very decent 20 % off sale from Fife & Drum Miniatures and purchased the start of my Russian SYW army, a couple of 16 men musketeer units and one 16 man grenadier unit plus a 6 man Horse grenadier and a 6 man Dragoon unit and a mounted colonel to keep them in check! Not too bothered about getting them onto the painting table as this is a slow burner and will be added to as the year progresses, planning 10 infantry, 6 cavalry and 3 gun battery all in full uniform, a retirement project!

I have had to turn on the approve comments on the blog as I had a bit of spamming recently and can't be bothered deleting all the time so a bit of moderation was required!

Anyway enjoy your New Year when it comes, my mate is coming down to mine for a dram or two and some banter and plenty of music, looking forward to it but the resulting hangover not so much!  See you all in 2025 and we shall see what that brings!! Happy New Year!!

Busy Doing Nothing: War in Canis

Busy Doing Nothing: War in Canis:  This page will be my documentation of my world of Dogs and the war that is raging across their world.  

How smug can I be??

 Well the answer to the title of this blog post is way too smug!!!!  Back in June I posted about where certain projects were and my Continental army for my AWI project was done all bar a squadron of dragoons, I even boasted the same on another blog, very smug with myself....... 

 Moving on to a couple of weeks ago found me looking for some British dragoons for my 1745 project, I knew they were lying in a box so it was time to wade through the lead mountain to find them.  After a good root about I found the box I thought had them in, opened it up and found that they were not in that box but what was in it was a squadron of twelve 1st Continental dragoons, hurrah I don't have to buy them I already have them.  So far so good, also in the box though were three primed and started sixteen man units consisting of one blue face red unit, one brown faced red unt and one mix of uniform and hunting shirt unit, also two more mounted officers that will make up another command base.

So basically my finished, or near finished, Continental army is far from done and will have another three units to complete plus the command base plus the dragoons!

Excuse the poor picture, still getting used to my new phone, it shows the blue faced red unit on the painting table, in the background are some Hanoverian artillery crews, some Hanoverian jaegers and a unit of GNW Swedes.

So that was a good lesson for me, is a project truly ever done, possibly but reminder to myself not to crow about it if it is!!

Hanoverians Sir, thousands of them....

 Well not quite thousands but a fair few for all that!  I have now got all TJ's Minden miniatures Hanoverian army and so with the figures I already have this is the state of play, with a week off work this is what is consuming my hobby time.

COMPLETED.

1.  13 units of infantry, 16 figures per unit, painted, based, completed.

2. 8 units  of Horse, 6 figures per unit, painted, based, completed.

3. 3 units of Dragoons, 6 figures per unit, painted, based, completed.

4. 1 unit of Horse Grenadiers, 6 figures per unit, painted, based completed.

ONGOING.

5. 4 units of infantry, 16 figures per unit, painted, basing to do.

6. 3 gun battery of 6lb artillery, 3 guns and 12 crew, painted, basing to do.

7. 1 unit of Jaegers, 12 figures, painted, basing to do.

8. 1 unit of Sceithers grenadiers, 12 figures plus mounted colonel, painted, basing to do.

NOT YET STARTED.

9. 1 unit of Jaegers, 11 figures, primed only.

10. 2 gun battery of 6lb artillery, 2 guns and 8 crew, primed only.

STILL TO GET.

11. 1 unit of Luckners Hussars, 6 figures, still to get.

12. 1 unit of Caribiniers/mounted Jaegers, 4 figures, still to get.

13. 4 units of command figures, 8 figures of mounted colonels and mounted ADC, still to get.

Fair bit completed, wee bit getting done and a little bit to get, all in all very happy that I purchased TJ's figures plus all that I already had it has makings of a really good army and should look brilliant on the table. With having a bit of time off work I should get most of the basing done and then I can get a bit of painting in, then it will be pulling the trigger on the final purchases. Once it's all done and dusted I can do a review and get some photos posted up.

Finally......

 Yesterday I finally finished the rebasing, gloss varnishing of the 25mm ECW project, it was a long haul, took a bit longer than I thought it would but I finally finished it.  The whole lot will give me about 10 infantry regiments per side pretty much the same in cavalry plus dragoons and artillery and command figures, all done and boxed in plastic boxes ready for their debut.  Haven't a clue when I will set up a game for them as I am still undecided on a rule set plus time is a premium at the moment.  Anyway just glad to have them done so I can move on with something else as everything has been piling up behind this project.

On the table are a half completed Swedish regiment for the GNW and I think I will try and get them done before I tackle anything else, when done they will give me four foot regiments and one gun and crew, hoping to add another regiment of foot, another gun and crew plus ammo cart also some command figures and finally get some cavalry organised, I was thinking three squadrons of them, all this should give me a decent army and then it will be on to the opponents!  All figures for this project will be Warfare miniatures from the League of Augsburg, lovely figures and look great painted up.

This week will see limited hobby time due to work and a trip to Glasgow on Saturday for a record fair, but I hope to get some free time on Sunday to indulge myself a little, fingers crossed!!  Hopefully I can get some of the Swedish troops photographed and uploaded onto my blog in the near future, we shall see!

Anyway that's it for now, feeling pretty happy with myself about the ECW project so I will sign off on that rather smug note!!

Nothing to see here.......

 It has been very slow on the hobby front, not too much being done but I thought that I would put up a blog anyway as there has been some progress!!

The "old school" ECW project is just about there, I will be happy when it's done as it has taken precedence to the detriment of other projects.  Anyway the figures are just about all based up, some dragoons to do and a couple of foot regiments and that should be that, all done and dusted this weekend or possibly next.

Real life and work has taken over most of my free time so any I have had has been used to get the ECW one done but it's not all been bad, I have bought a couple of things for future projects, the main one being a Crimean War one, I have the castings for two divisions for the British army, 3 line infantry battalions and 3 for the Guards, two of these are ready painted bought from Colonel Bills, they were on sale and too good to miss, this is a future project so is on the back burner but if I have enough castings ready I can batter on when the time comes. Not too sure how big this project will go, we shall see.

Another project for the future is an Anglo Dutch naval one, I have never done naval wargaming before but always had a hankering to try it out and it seems a few folk out there are embarking on naval games. I know that my dabbing skills would not allow for bigger scale ships, and the thought of rigging would give me nightmares! So with that in mind I went for Tumbling Dice 1/4800 range of ships, lovely little models and should paint up well enough even with my limited skill set, the whole thing should play out on a 6"x4" board as well which was another win for me, hopefully this will start next year, rule sets are what I am concentrating on now, bought the PDF of Rolling Thunder from the League of Augsburg website and may go with them, we shall see!

The last purchase was a fun one and who knows where this will take me!!

Cracking little Seven Years War style Dog Hussars, lovely little castings and something for a bit of fun, there is infantry and artillery as well, so who knows!

Anyway that's it for now, so until next time.....