It's been a quiet day on the painting front.
Other than undercoating some PSC Americans, I have been mainly reorganising my storage and trying to rationalise the figures I have and intend to use. In typical wargamer fashion I have four projects on the go, and none of them are really in a state to play the game that was intended when the project began. True I probably could play CoC with the WWII stuff, except the US don't have any heavy weapons - something that should be rectified shortly as my birthday is approaching.
In other gaming related news, I have been trying to find a venue for the club, and continuing in my advertising efforts. And, in doing so I have rediscovered the joys of Twitter. I haven't used it since the Arab Spring business, when I found it an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with what was really going on, as opposed to what the media reported. Which I realise makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when the news is reporting what a reporter can see at the end of the runway in Italy, and via twitter and various websites, you can track the refuelling planes aiding a stealth bomber raid coming from the US to bomb Libya, it's sort of difficult to believe the news when they tell you it has been a quiet day in the air campaign.
Whether it's the brevity of the medium, or the demographics of the user, twitter has proven a useful way of getting in contact with people to gauge their opinion of the idea of having a gaming club in Ilkley. And what's more a number of women have expressed interest.... OMG.... women at a gamer's club!!! Whatever next?
Meh, what can you do?
Right I have a figure for the painting competition tomorrow, and it's off to Lumb Lane - wish me luck - having lived in that part of Bradford for five years - including the era of the crossbow killer, prostitute murders and a couple of shootings - I am hoping for less than eventful journey, with a convivial evening sandwiched in between.
peace;)
Showing posts with label comment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comment. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Blame Britain
The last of the Mahdist infantry is done....
So that's 180 Mahdist infantry complete. Which means I have painted over 300 figures in the past two weeks, which is fairly good going.
Next up is the British... though I may take a detour into painting some other stuff for a change - I've got some 28mm Napoleonics knocking about somewhere - and there is some 15mm WWII that either need painting or selling.
I'm tempted to sell them, and get some 10mm WWII stuff instead as I am really liking the scale - and if I got a Western Desert force then the terrain I have in mind for the Sudan can double up.
Which has got me thinking about maybe doing a Lawrence of Arabia thing, and maybe the Crusades to scratch that Ancients itch. Though I am loath to completely abandon the WWI Western Front project, especially as I have put in a fair amount of work on it.
Anywho...
I watched Khartoum yesterday on utube. It's a while since I saw it, and was rather pleasantly surprised at the intellectual depth of the script - not something one normally associates with a 'war film' - Ralph Richardson's portrayal of Gladstone was particularly pleasing.
It is perhaps surprising, given the numerous modern parallels, that the Sudan conflict has such little supporting material on the interwebz, in the way of documentaries. Therefore as I drained the last of the Malbec I ended up watching this documentary made by Al Jazeera. Whilst it was not terrible, I did find myself wondering why the situation in South Sudan is the fault fo the British, as the film maker claims.
To paraphrase - in @1830 the Egyptians managed to find a way through the marshes which led to an escalation in the slave trade. In the 1870's the Mahdi led a revolt against Egyptian rule, Gordon was killed at Khartoum. Missionaries went to the south. After independence a civilian government was formed of mainly northern muslims, coup, civilian administration, coup, civilian administration, coup, coup, civilian administration, sharia law, civil war, civilian administration, coup, coup, etc... the time line might be a nit off in my description but you get the idea.
Quite what any of this has anything to do with Britain was rather baffling.
Unless the logic is that had Britain not been involved the people of the south would have eventually become muslim by a mixture of slavery and conquest, and that they would have known their place within Sudan - namely that they are slaves and should do what the people in the north tell them.
Which is all rather Utopian stuff, and probably to be expected given the links between anti-colonialism and radical islam that developed in the 1960's and 70's.
peace:)
Next up is the British... though I may take a detour into painting some other stuff for a change - I've got some 28mm Napoleonics knocking about somewhere - and there is some 15mm WWII that either need painting or selling.
I'm tempted to sell them, and get some 10mm WWII stuff instead as I am really liking the scale - and if I got a Western Desert force then the terrain I have in mind for the Sudan can double up.
Which has got me thinking about maybe doing a Lawrence of Arabia thing, and maybe the Crusades to scratch that Ancients itch. Though I am loath to completely abandon the WWI Western Front project, especially as I have put in a fair amount of work on it.
Anywho...
I watched Khartoum yesterday on utube. It's a while since I saw it, and was rather pleasantly surprised at the intellectual depth of the script - not something one normally associates with a 'war film' - Ralph Richardson's portrayal of Gladstone was particularly pleasing.
It is perhaps surprising, given the numerous modern parallels, that the Sudan conflict has such little supporting material on the interwebz, in the way of documentaries. Therefore as I drained the last of the Malbec I ended up watching this documentary made by Al Jazeera. Whilst it was not terrible, I did find myself wondering why the situation in South Sudan is the fault fo the British, as the film maker claims.
To paraphrase - in @1830 the Egyptians managed to find a way through the marshes which led to an escalation in the slave trade. In the 1870's the Mahdi led a revolt against Egyptian rule, Gordon was killed at Khartoum. Missionaries went to the south. After independence a civilian government was formed of mainly northern muslims, coup, civilian administration, coup, civilian administration, coup, coup, civilian administration, sharia law, civil war, civilian administration, coup, coup, etc... the time line might be a nit off in my description but you get the idea.
Quite what any of this has anything to do with Britain was rather baffling.
Unless the logic is that had Britain not been involved the people of the south would have eventually become muslim by a mixture of slavery and conquest, and that they would have known their place within Sudan - namely that they are slaves and should do what the people in the north tell them.
Which is all rather Utopian stuff, and probably to be expected given the links between anti-colonialism and radical islam that developed in the 1960's and 70's.
peace:)
Friday, 7 February 2014
Private - Keep Out
More Mahdists....
I picked up the latest issue of Miniature Wargames the other day.
It was issue 20 of MW that got me interested in wargaming... or perhaps more accurately opened my eyes to playing toy soldiers in more ways that using Charles Grants Charge rules to fight out battles with Airfix soldiers, using the relative colour of the figures to define sides; the blue/grey side, WWI and II Germans, Romans, Confederates, Napoleonic Prussians, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, vs the green/yellow side, WWI and II British, Doughboys, US Marines, Napoleonic French and British, RAF and USAF Personnel and Robin Hood.... and like many long running institutions the magazine has had it's ups and downs over the years.
I rather like it's current iteration, not least because of the seam of nostalgia running through it.
This month's trip down memory lane was an interview with Charles Wesencraft.
I can't say that Wesencraft fits into the pantheon of writers that I spent reading in the library on Saturday mornings - flitting between section @350 and @650 - military history and sports and games - those names include Featherstone, Funcken, Grant and the other one whose name I can never remember and whose rules were unplayable (I shall remember the name at 3am tomorrow morning) but I was aware of his book on Practical Wargaming. It might have been the title that put me off. Growing up reading General Jumbo, I was more drawn to titles such as Advanced Wargames....
Anywho....
The interview with Wesencraft was really interesting because of his involvement with Battleground.
I recall that it was shown on a Sunday morning, and I watched at least three of the programs when they were first broadcast.... you'll forgive me if I eat another of these Madeleines.... and was so excited that I forced my father to watch one of them with me - he had been a national service man and had read more military history than anyone I have ever known (he read at least three books a week - ok a lot of them were novels of the Sven Hassel type, but mainly they were campaign histories of the second world war). He was perhaps less impressed by the program than I was - or maybe it was the through of another Sunday of mowing the lawn, roast beef dinner, Upstairs Downstairs, and eeking out the milk as there would be none until Monday.
I often wonder how influential that series of programs was?
Certainly if you look around at the number of people involved in 'the industry' today who would have been in and around puberty at the time it surely must have had an influence. If for no other reason than here was a secret pleasure akin to Stamp Collecting, Trainspotting and drawing up lists from a seed catalogue (I realise it is fashionable to talk of getting women involved in 'the hobby' but let's face it is a very male pastime, and the women who get involved are probably boycotting vodka because of the Russian law that doesn't ban anything) - on television.
I can't say there is a direct link between getting a first box of 1/32nd Desert Rats at the age of four, through getting boxes and boxes of random 1/72nd soldiers, to the revelation of Battleground, to the discovery of the books in the library, to trying to bring some sort of purpose and order to the ice cream containers of soldiers beneath my bed, to buying Miniature Wargames and casting aside my foolish childish pleasures in favour of attempted lead poisoning and aerosol/super glue/paint thinners lung. But then there is rarely a direct link to anything... sorry Sigmund....
What I really liked about the Wesencraft interview was his good natured modesty. As when he claimed to have known he had written a best seller because he found the book on the shelves of Newcastle library.
It's curious to think of 'that generation' of wargame pioneers in perhaps the way the media portrays WWI veterans, as a dying breed. And the interview was littered with names that instantly evoke a Proust-like reaction in me, Terry Wise and Paddy Griffiths, or indeed elsewhere in the magazine John Treadaway and Arthur Harman... oh nostalgia ain't what it used to be....
Speaking of which, I haven't looked at a copy of White Dwarf in over a year. But today I happened to be in Boyes buying my lad a model aeroplane and I happened to pick up a copy of the new White Dwarf weekly, I was shocked... it actually contained writing... it actually appeared to be trying to convey something of meaning and interest to the reader.... I was so stunned that I actually looked at the cover price and considered buying it... I still very may shall..... Dwarves were an army I owned a very long time ago, and indeed may actually still own when my mother comes out of her neurotic episode and admits what she has done with them - obviously I wont own them if she has burned them like she claims....
Oh and while I am waxing lyrical about the dim and distant past I wonder how many people found the Germans in the WWI Airfix box, who were surrendering with their hands up, very useful spectators for Subutteo. A thin strip of paper, felt tipped with the appropriate colours, threaded between their hands and they were good to go. The MP's in the USAF box were ideal police, as were many of the ground crew - if you bit the spanners out of their hand and wrapped a paper scarf around their wrist. I doubt people knot scarves around their wrists at football matches these days - or indeed wear rosettes.
Still it's nice to see Miniature Wargames back on track after the wilderness years under that Andrew chap. I am sure he was a very nice man, but... oh I don't know...
Let me eat my cakes....
peace:)
It was issue 20 of MW that got me interested in wargaming... or perhaps more accurately opened my eyes to playing toy soldiers in more ways that using Charles Grants Charge rules to fight out battles with Airfix soldiers, using the relative colour of the figures to define sides; the blue/grey side, WWI and II Germans, Romans, Confederates, Napoleonic Prussians, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, vs the green/yellow side, WWI and II British, Doughboys, US Marines, Napoleonic French and British, RAF and USAF Personnel and Robin Hood.... and like many long running institutions the magazine has had it's ups and downs over the years.
I rather like it's current iteration, not least because of the seam of nostalgia running through it.
This month's trip down memory lane was an interview with Charles Wesencraft.
I can't say that Wesencraft fits into the pantheon of writers that I spent reading in the library on Saturday mornings - flitting between section @350 and @650 - military history and sports and games - those names include Featherstone, Funcken, Grant and the other one whose name I can never remember and whose rules were unplayable (I shall remember the name at 3am tomorrow morning) but I was aware of his book on Practical Wargaming. It might have been the title that put me off. Growing up reading General Jumbo, I was more drawn to titles such as Advanced Wargames....
Anywho....
The interview with Wesencraft was really interesting because of his involvement with Battleground.
I recall that it was shown on a Sunday morning, and I watched at least three of the programs when they were first broadcast.... you'll forgive me if I eat another of these Madeleines.... and was so excited that I forced my father to watch one of them with me - he had been a national service man and had read more military history than anyone I have ever known (he read at least three books a week - ok a lot of them were novels of the Sven Hassel type, but mainly they were campaign histories of the second world war). He was perhaps less impressed by the program than I was - or maybe it was the through of another Sunday of mowing the lawn, roast beef dinner, Upstairs Downstairs, and eeking out the milk as there would be none until Monday.
I often wonder how influential that series of programs was?
Certainly if you look around at the number of people involved in 'the industry' today who would have been in and around puberty at the time it surely must have had an influence. If for no other reason than here was a secret pleasure akin to Stamp Collecting, Trainspotting and drawing up lists from a seed catalogue (I realise it is fashionable to talk of getting women involved in 'the hobby' but let's face it is a very male pastime, and the women who get involved are probably boycotting vodka because of the Russian law that doesn't ban anything) - on television.
I can't say there is a direct link between getting a first box of 1/32nd Desert Rats at the age of four, through getting boxes and boxes of random 1/72nd soldiers, to the revelation of Battleground, to the discovery of the books in the library, to trying to bring some sort of purpose and order to the ice cream containers of soldiers beneath my bed, to buying Miniature Wargames and casting aside my foolish childish pleasures in favour of attempted lead poisoning and aerosol/super glue/paint thinners lung. But then there is rarely a direct link to anything... sorry Sigmund....
What I really liked about the Wesencraft interview was his good natured modesty. As when he claimed to have known he had written a best seller because he found the book on the shelves of Newcastle library.
It's curious to think of 'that generation' of wargame pioneers in perhaps the way the media portrays WWI veterans, as a dying breed. And the interview was littered with names that instantly evoke a Proust-like reaction in me, Terry Wise and Paddy Griffiths, or indeed elsewhere in the magazine John Treadaway and Arthur Harman... oh nostalgia ain't what it used to be....
Speaking of which, I haven't looked at a copy of White Dwarf in over a year. But today I happened to be in Boyes buying my lad a model aeroplane and I happened to pick up a copy of the new White Dwarf weekly, I was shocked... it actually contained writing... it actually appeared to be trying to convey something of meaning and interest to the reader.... I was so stunned that I actually looked at the cover price and considered buying it... I still very may shall..... Dwarves were an army I owned a very long time ago, and indeed may actually still own when my mother comes out of her neurotic episode and admits what she has done with them - obviously I wont own them if she has burned them like she claims....
Oh and while I am waxing lyrical about the dim and distant past I wonder how many people found the Germans in the WWI Airfix box, who were surrendering with their hands up, very useful spectators for Subutteo. A thin strip of paper, felt tipped with the appropriate colours, threaded between their hands and they were good to go. The MP's in the USAF box were ideal police, as were many of the ground crew - if you bit the spanners out of their hand and wrapped a paper scarf around their wrist. I doubt people knot scarves around their wrists at football matches these days - or indeed wear rosettes.
Still it's nice to see Miniature Wargames back on track after the wilderness years under that Andrew chap. I am sure he was a very nice man, but... oh I don't know...
Let me eat my cakes....
peace:)
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Showing Off
Some more Fuzzy Wuzzies...
On Sunday I took my oldest lad to Varnap... Vaptar... the wargames show in York.
I bought a few odds and ends... some WWI casualties from Kallistra, some Magister Militum mounted command figures for the Sudan, some Pendraken bases.... I didn't find Wings of Glory at a decent price, and I almost got X Wing for £22, which might have been a bargain of sorts, but the last one had been sold just before I returned after much prevarication (as in truth I don't really like the game, so perhaps it was a blessing).
It was a good show, the venue is nice, there was plenty to see, and I think the lad enjoyed himself too. With thanks to the History Alive people who allowed him to paint a Roman soldier, which pleased him... even if the people on the Warlord stand were rather charmless when he went to thank them for providing the History Alive people with the figures to paint.
Which brings me to my point.
The lad likes to play games, he is a lethal capitalist at Monopoly, his dungeon crawling skills are a joy to behold, and I have been slowly introducing him to wargaming.
The show had a number of participation games, and the deal was that after we had a look round the lad could pick which game he would like to play (rather like my rules when we go to the fair). From my point of view the ideal candidate would have been the jousting game, as if he had liked it, I would have been happy enough to buy the rules, get some suitable figures, and spent Sunday evenings bashing each others brains out. But for whatever reason the people running the game seemed uninterested in engaging us, and the lad had pretty much made his mind up that he wanted to play the Tomahawks and Muskets game - ironically being pit on by the local 'club' the Ilkley lads.
So we made our way to the table, I asked if the lad could play, they said he could and he found himself in commanding a force of rebels. The others playing the game appeared to be two friends who apparently played Muskets and Tomahawks on a regular basis.
No sooner did we get underway than the guy in charge of the British started displaying many of the unpleasant aspects of wargaming, re-rolling 'cocked' dice when not in his favour, but not re-rolling them when they were, trying to rush the turn on when we were moving figures, but taking his time in his own turn.... etc... there were other things that were just flat out cheating... but hey! it was a game at a wargame show so rather than get involved in a discussion about his antics, I asked the lad if he was enjoying himself (he got to roll some dice, but not move the figures) - he said he wasn't - so we made our excuses - though not to the arsehat, as he was too busy trying to get the umpire to rule in his favour over his latest bit of cheating - and went and bought a huge, and very nice, yorkshire pudding with minced beef and chhips for our dinner.
A couple of months ago, there was a piece in WSS about why young people don't get involved in wargaming. In truth I didn't read the whole article, but skimmed it in WH Smiths, as I rarely find WSS has enough content to justify the over price, and the content it does have is not to my taste.
Talking to the History Alive people, who run wargaming, painting and modelling sessions in schools, and link it to history, there is certainly no lack of interest in the hobby from young people. And judging by the boys fighting Rorkes Drift with a mixture of part painted miniatures and cardboard Zulus they are certainly enjoying it.
I suspect the reason is that during these History Alive sessions the kids are allowed to play.
Which let's face it in the hobby more generally is not something that happens too often.
peace:)
I bought a few odds and ends... some WWI casualties from Kallistra, some Magister Militum mounted command figures for the Sudan, some Pendraken bases.... I didn't find Wings of Glory at a decent price, and I almost got X Wing for £22, which might have been a bargain of sorts, but the last one had been sold just before I returned after much prevarication (as in truth I don't really like the game, so perhaps it was a blessing).
It was a good show, the venue is nice, there was plenty to see, and I think the lad enjoyed himself too. With thanks to the History Alive people who allowed him to paint a Roman soldier, which pleased him... even if the people on the Warlord stand were rather charmless when he went to thank them for providing the History Alive people with the figures to paint.
Which brings me to my point.
The lad likes to play games, he is a lethal capitalist at Monopoly, his dungeon crawling skills are a joy to behold, and I have been slowly introducing him to wargaming.
The show had a number of participation games, and the deal was that after we had a look round the lad could pick which game he would like to play (rather like my rules when we go to the fair). From my point of view the ideal candidate would have been the jousting game, as if he had liked it, I would have been happy enough to buy the rules, get some suitable figures, and spent Sunday evenings bashing each others brains out. But for whatever reason the people running the game seemed uninterested in engaging us, and the lad had pretty much made his mind up that he wanted to play the Tomahawks and Muskets game - ironically being pit on by the local 'club' the Ilkley lads.
So we made our way to the table, I asked if the lad could play, they said he could and he found himself in commanding a force of rebels. The others playing the game appeared to be two friends who apparently played Muskets and Tomahawks on a regular basis.
No sooner did we get underway than the guy in charge of the British started displaying many of the unpleasant aspects of wargaming, re-rolling 'cocked' dice when not in his favour, but not re-rolling them when they were, trying to rush the turn on when we were moving figures, but taking his time in his own turn.... etc... there were other things that were just flat out cheating... but hey! it was a game at a wargame show so rather than get involved in a discussion about his antics, I asked the lad if he was enjoying himself (he got to roll some dice, but not move the figures) - he said he wasn't - so we made our excuses - though not to the arsehat, as he was too busy trying to get the umpire to rule in his favour over his latest bit of cheating - and went and bought a huge, and very nice, yorkshire pudding with minced beef and chhips for our dinner.
A couple of months ago, there was a piece in WSS about why young people don't get involved in wargaming. In truth I didn't read the whole article, but skimmed it in WH Smiths, as I rarely find WSS has enough content to justify the over price, and the content it does have is not to my taste.
Talking to the History Alive people, who run wargaming, painting and modelling sessions in schools, and link it to history, there is certainly no lack of interest in the hobby from young people. And judging by the boys fighting Rorkes Drift with a mixture of part painted miniatures and cardboard Zulus they are certainly enjoying it.
I suspect the reason is that during these History Alive sessions the kids are allowed to play.
Which let's face it in the hobby more generally is not something that happens too often.
peace:)
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