Duelling Cavaliers and Merry Men

Finished these repair jobs this afternoon-

 

Here is the end result except for a coat or two of pva to seal them-

Mainly outdoors

 The weather was spectacular here and almost all of the day was spent in the garden. I worked on the small halt and primed the cottage. Again some area of the garden was cleared of ornamental grass to see if it could be the terminus for the garden railway. I weeded a great deal, tried to work out why the rhubarb is not giving anything like its usual crop ,tried to halt the invasion of suckers from the raspberry canes and a vigorous rambling (?) rose who is trying to take over the garden underground.

The Laburnum is beautiful at this time of year ,quite spectacular. I managed to tack some figures onto stirrers with pva ready for painting and tried to move on the 10mm figures ( Masai warriors and porters);I had popped on a base prior to painting, not the best decision with hindsight. 

Gardening can be totally absorbing or a chance to mull over hobby plans,yesterday it served both functions at various times during the day. The outdoor day ended with Belgian beer and eating together, a good day indeed,

An antidote to extreme flitting

Last week saw me begin a number of figures for painting , for example the 54mm Ruslanders and then the 40mm semi flat sailors and Askari. Great enthusiasm turned to I couldn’t bear to continue. My tendency to butterfly flitting from project to project to the nth degree. I think on reflection it is a product of lockdown which seems to do odd things to folk and effect them differently. A general unsettled feeling and this has gone into my painting and to a lesser extent my solo gaming.

So a fight back began yesterday in the form of that cliche tiny tickable targets. This week I am only going a few figures that can be used for skirmish gaming or the Portable Wargame. It also means that I hopefully won’t get jaded so quickly. I began yesterday with some Vendel orcs/goblins and Olog Hai  trolls, enough for a few Portable Wargame units or for skirmishes.

The plan is to paint a few, game a little and so on. No great hobby adventures but tiny tickable targets. This way I hope to beat the listlessness and move forward. The second hobby target is to tweak the Portable Wargame fantasy rules a little. For example reflect the accuracy of hobbits when throwing stones or firing bows and their ability to move quietly and hide. 

Finally a shot of the current game set up as the action comes to a crucial point.

More painting etc

Firstly a photo of the top of one of the bookcases-

These are Elastolin Swiss, made of composition material bought in Switzerland on a family holiday in the early seventies. They were bought from a small newsagent/tobacconist near where we were staying. The set dressing beer mug is from a local charity shop. These figures are old friends.

Yesterday saw rain here and a cold day so I moved forward the next stalled project, 16th century Irish

I looked out this Osprey classic bought in 1993 and the rules I intend to use. This project is a small game for my regular opponents and I to play on the kitchen table here as opposed to big games in his wargames room. I had edition one of the rules and bought the next when it came out.

http://irregularwars.blogspot.com/p/irregular-wars-conflict-at-worlds-end.html

The figures are 28mm and were bought from Hoka Hey Wargames. I like the way the sculptor has based some figures on 16th century illustrations. Follow the links to find out a little more of the rules and see some games the author played using them.

http://irregularwars.blogspot.com/search/label/Irregular%20Wars

What I painted yesterday.

The first University of Edinburgh art history course I took when I retired was on Medieval Manuscripts. It was fascinating with an excellent lecturer’s input and good discussion from fellow students. One area I found particularly fascinating was that concerned with those bizarre small drawings in manuscripts, what are known as marginalia.
Strange pictures of snails fighting men, weird beasts and of course rabbits! Rabbits with bows,swords and much,much more. Here are a couple of examples

Then came the Kickstarter and how could I resist? The world of marginalia made into lead wargames figures. The sculptor did great research and made rabbits based on manuscript illustrations. For example the rabbit on a lion,the rabbit on a greyhound holding a snail as if hawking and a rabbit attacking a monk. I backed the Kickstarter and in time beautiful figures arrived. They had been put on the back burner until yesterday. So I decided to spend the afternoon enjoyably painting and ended up with a 24 point army for Dragon Rampant not to mention some scary rabbits! Here they are-