Another birthday looms....

 Well in a couple of days time it will be my 63rd birthday, and my better half is buying me this for it-

I have been looking forward to this coming out since I first saw the initial work in progress pictures. I love the whole back story and mythos of the Quar and have a good few of the metal miniature and these plastic ones will be a great addition. I have around about 24 Crusader, 7 Toulmore, 9 Gwynt plus 3 cavalry and 6 Fidwog plus a LMG, all are currently works in progress but the Crusader figures are nearly finished, so will get some photos up when I am done with them.  Looking forward to seeing how the plastics work with the old metal range, they seem a bit chunkier on the videos, adverts etc. but they should match in well enough.

The box set allows for a skirmish style game but with the figures I already have plus maybe a couple of sprues I should be able to do the bigger battles as I have the rules for that, Crusaders plus Toulmore against the rest. I may need to purchase some Crusader cavalry and some heavy guns to flesh it out and will probably get a couple of  Ironclad Miniatures steam tanks as they have the right vibe for this setting and should fit in nicely.

It's an interesting project and one I dip in and out of as the mood takes me, the figures are an easy paint and you can as the detail on them is very good and lends themselves very well, even for a dauber like me!!

Anyway I am really looking forward to this present arriving, not too sure about being 63  though!!!!

An unexpected turn......?

Well this is a change of plan! When raking through the pile of shame I came across a box full of what was Emperor Toads French Revolutionary figures, now being sold by Skytrex.  Now I had bought a good few of these when Michael had a decent price on them, I had bought some Levee en masse, some Vendeans with farm implements.fouling pieces etc, some National Guard and some grenadiers plus some Heavy cavalry and a couple of mounted officers, a nice wee haul.

They were duly dumped in the pile of shame and forgotten about, now after finding them I realise I am not going to do a Revolutionary Wars project so I am left with what to do with them, I could flog them on but I don't really want to as they are lovely figures, I like them a lot, so I have decided to do a  imaginations project with them, one army in bicornes and one army in helmets, five or six 16 man regiments a couple of cavalry squadrons and a couple of gun per side should be enough for a decent game and some table top teasers. I already have a good lot of the infantry so not to many additions on that front, a bit of cavalry and the guns and crews and that will be enough to do.

I haven't ironed out the whose who and why yet but it's going to be based on a civil war with the government army in helmets and the rebels in bicornes plus the civilians, uniforms will be what ever pleases me, the rebel army especially will not all be in the same uniform, the government will be a bit more regimented.

I have made a start with some of the civilians undercoated and flesh added and hope to get some more work done tomorrow. I still have my SYW Austrian on the table so they have not been forgotten and will dip in and out of both projects to keep my interest and butterfly happy!

They are nice figures and really too good to sell on, now to plan out some back story for the conflicts that lie ahead!  Anyway until the next time.......

A change of plan...... Again!!

 Not too much happening on the hobby front, a few more additions to the Britains toy soldier collection and a change of tack on the wargaming front!

The TYW project is being put on the back burner for the time being, I have so many half started projects on the go that it would be stupid of me to start yet another one at this time.  So with that in mind I am going to crack on with the various 18th century projects that are part completed, not yet started and nearly done. These include, Jacobite Rebellion, Savoi and Modena project and the massive SYW project which is the one I will concentrate on, that's the main problem with me!, I have a Saxon army well down the road to be completed, still a good bit to do though, a Hanoverian army at pretty much the same stage and an Austrian one just started and a Prussian one with nothing done to it yet.

Plenty to do and focussing on this will be the hard part for me and the butterfly is a strong part of my life so who knows if I will have the discipline to keep at it but I will give it my best shot and see where I go with it.

To help keep me on the straight and narrow I am thinking of buying a couple of pre-painted 6mm armies that will enable to let me game without the problem of painting them.  There is a painting service that gets the army packs from Baccus and paints them up, each army pack has between 8 and 12 infantry about 9 cavalry and a couple of guns, so enough to get a decent game on the table, cost will be around £350 for them both and I have a bit of money to burn so this may be the way to go.  Next problem is what to get!! I am thinking of doing something I don't yet have in my lead pile, so maybe Franco-Prussian War or maybe Marlburian, that still has to be decided.

Busy time at work so not much time on wargaming stuff but I do have next weekend of so hopefully get into some SYW Austrians, I have one musketeer unit primed and also a Hungarian one primed, so enough to keep me going.

Well plenty to ponder, so until next time.....

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.