Yeah it went quick alright. Quicker than a thousand greased gazelles to be honest. One minute it’s April and I’m signing off for a bit of a break and the next thing you ruddy know it’s almost September!
As it happens I swore off the bloggersphere almost entirely, so apologies to anyone whose blogs have been sans moi this past few months. Like I told the wife recently. « It’s not you it’s me, love. »
Starting on a grim note (always play to your strengths) I’ve been investigating the VERY local activities of this particular son of a bitch.
You can expect more on this twat and his merry men when the mood takes me. It’s always good to have something to look forward to I find, n’est ce pas?
Thankfully, light relief has been provided by the wonderful zoom games I’ve been allowed to take part in, which are very well documented over at Palouse Wargaming Journal and Prometheus in Aspic. Other than that I’ve been tinkering in my geek cave of mystery with the following:
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| Galleys and Galleons - always good for a bit of fun solo gaming. This piccy is from « Revenge of the Megalodon » I think…(given there’s a ruddy great shark fin in the middle of the photo). I enjoyed myself so much with these 1:450 PP models that I broke out a few more from the pile of shame and have now painted them up. |
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| 6mm Baccus WOTR troops. 15 stands of men from the Earl of Dudley’s (made up) retinue were completed. |
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| And here are a similar number of chaps who are followers of the Yorkist Duke of Tipton (also made up). Each force represents one wing of a larger Yorkist / Lancastrian army and they were created along with some home brew rules to introduce a French friend to wargaming. I’m pretty chuffed with the rules so these will be getting a good old work out I suspect. |
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| 2mm Martian madness. These tripods were cobbled together out of fishing weights and bent coat hanger wire. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention it seems. The steam tank / land ship came from Brigade if I recall. This project is now mothballed for the foreseeable. |
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Bit of a tangent…but I’ll leave you with some pictures of the wonderful world of French crisps. No cheese and onion unfortunately but we do have these delightful flavours by way of compensation:
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| Two of my five a day. I need these, my therapist says, because I am weak. |
Not sure which genius came up with the mushroom flavour but I’ve written to Macron suggesting they get the medal of honour.
Toodleooh.
Love the look of your WotR armies. You ought to get them out in battle soon. As for chip (crisp) flavors, they might be a hard sell in my parts although curry might be a little like BBQ flavor.
ReplyDeleteVery good to see you back on the blog.
Cheers Jon, and thanks for all the mid term entertainment. I’d say it kept me sane, but that’s well beyond the capabilities of anyone I know. Should be a WOTR battle report up next I think.
DeleteNice to see hou hack on the blogosphere, JBM, your pithy postings and comments have been missed in your absence. Mushroom flavored crisps/chips..... 😋
ReplyDeleteThanks Keith, I’ve got a fair bit of catching up to do over at your blog by the looks of things! The mushroom crisps need a bit of getting used to, but they’re worth the effort. lol.
DeleteGood to see you back Mon Brave! You certainly have a lot of projects on the go/back-burner.
ReplyDeleteCep crisps......mmmm! I think. I remember having to read a magazine article about cep hunting when I had French lessons 30-odd years ago. Is it still a big thing?
And I can't not ask this. In the French version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, do the Martians go "ooh la-laa!"?
Hey Chris, in our department mushroom hunting is very much « a thing ». Almost every type of shop sells little knives for removing them in the approved manner (diagonal cut 50% of the way up the stem) and if you carried your haul off in anything other than a wicker basket (so the spores can escape and you can propagate the mushrooms as you leave the area) you’d be stoned to death by an angry mob. Incidentally any pharmacy will check for free that they are safe to eat. As for War of the worlds, you’ve got me worried so I’ll have to check. Could it be the so called Martians were actually from the Auvergne?
DeleteAs always, loved your wit and... what a marvellous mix of games and eras. Perhaps you can suggest a pot-pourri flavour to Brets?
ReplyDeleteI particularly admired your 6 mm figures. They look superb. Wonderful painting.
Regards, James
James thanks for leaving a comment and apologies for this VERY delayed response. Somehow it dropped into spam. I’ll keep a closer eye on that in the future!
DeleteSome good hobby time spent since you have been away, the 6mm WOTR armies look great and look forward to seeing them do battle on the table. Curry crisps I would take but not too sure on the mushroom ones!
ReplyDeleteHello Donnie, I think the WOTR armies are the only thing I really applied myself to over the hols, everything else was pretty much tinkering and messing about. The mushroom crisps seem to be getting all the interest but I have to say the curry flavour ones are my secret shame. I’m developing a problem with them I think. It’s a 40 min journey to the nearest shop that sells them and I live in fear of them selling out. lol. Havent got the shakes yet for want of a packet but its probably not far off.
DeleteGood to have you back on the blogosphere old chap…
ReplyDeleteThe Wars of the Roses stuff looks the business…
But it’s good to see that Galleys and Galleons is still getting some love.
War of the Worlds…. Get that one off the shelf 😁
Mushroom crisps sound interesting…
I remember a few years ago someone selling Truffle crisps… I was hoping for them to add Quails Egg and Pheasant to the range but sadly it was not to be…
Yon Nazi certainly looks the full Ubertwatfurer I do hope it ended badly for him…
All the best. Aly
Hello Aly, lovely to hear from you. Truffle crisps eh. My God sir you have very refined tastes! Quails egg and pheasant would be very interesting - it could be added to the pate de foie gras and lobster thermidor range. lol.
DeleteHope you enjoyed your vacation. I find them quite liberating.
ReplyDeleteThough, if you were reading my blog in secret: I wouldn’t blame ya. 😀
I don’t recognize the man in the photo?
Howdy Stew. Yeah it was nice to have a bit of time off, but yes I did read your blog in secret, which is how come I downloaded the Quar rules you recommended. They would work fine for any WW2 skirmish game and have some interesting mechanisms in them, specifically the one where it’s beneficial to go and treat wounded squad members. The guy in the photo is General Kurt Von Jesser - commander of a very adhoc formation (including Crimean Tartars) called Brigade Jesser. He was tasked with the « pacification » of the area I live in around mid 1944.
DeleteGood to have you back JBM.
ReplyDeleteThe projects all look like lots of fun and good to have a decent go of them before deciding to fully commit or not. I do like the martians and the submarines.
WOTR (I always read this as War Of The Rings - blame Mr. Tolkien. 😂) figures are wonderful.
Ooh thanks Ben. Spot on about the testing things before committing. It hasn’t happened often but there have been a few hobby disasters by deciding to go all in from the start. Expensive mistakes I can do without! If it’s any consolation I always read the DR Congo (democratic republic of Congo) as doctor Congo. lol.
DeleteGreat to have you back Mark! A good mix of stuff on show there for sure. The WotR armies look great, but I do love the scratch built subs and Martians, especially the latter, which I may have a go at. As for crisps, classic Ready Salted or Cheese & Onion are my faves:).
ReplyDeleteHey Steve, I really enjoy dicking around with odd little side projects that I’m secretly aware will never come to anything…as you can tell. lol. The WoTR armies were a quick and cheap way to engage my friend Jeromie in gaming since he foolishly declared an interest in medieval arms and armour. Given the French love of onions and fromage I can’t understand why cheese and onion crisps are not a thing over here. Baffling.
DeleteGlad to see you back , love the Martians and subs, good to see your still partial to a nautical game, lovely WOTR retinues and I admit to trying and enjoying the crisps on show, luckily I'm currently in Cardiff and not able to buy any more!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain caveadsum1471
Hey ho Iain, cheers for dropping by and leaving a comment! Might be a good idea if I could put some distance between me and those ruddy crisps as well - before they’re listed as my cause of death. I have no will power when it comes to crisps. Sigh.
DeleteGreat to see you back in blogging mode Mark. Glad to hear the time out has recharged the batteries.
ReplyDeleteElenderil
I think it did to be honest old fruit. I wasn’t able to commit to anything to intensive but as you can see I did manage to dick about with some bits and pieces in the odd free hour.
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