Who’s a lucky lad?

Well I am, as it happens.

As a miserable grumpy old cynic I have constantly been amazed by the support, wit, and camaraderie of our gaming / hobby community. 

One particularly good egg, who is far to modest to want a specific mention, but whose name happens to rhyme with Aly Morrison, recently and completely unbidden, sent me this bunch of lads by way of encouragement for my Indian Mutiny project. 

How bloody wonderful was that?! 

Obviously I don’t want to name the cove in question - but thanks mate they’re hugely appreciated. 

Merry Christmas to one and all

Merry Christmas from Maison Broom to one and all.

The Current Mrs Broom loves Christmas and insists I take part in it even though I’ve got miniatures to paint!

May all the battles you face in 2025 be little wargaming ones.

Unexpected progress

Okay, so the Indian Mutiny project is going well at the moment and I’ve been “knocking out” a whole 2 figures a day. 

Yeah I know. Faster than a thousand greased gazelles.

Also I took the decision to start on the none standard uniformed figures with the largest unit figure count (16 - for The Men Who Would Be Kings). Get the hard stuff out of the way first, eh!

These chaps are the sweepings of the bazaar. Demobilised soldiers, religious fanatics, cutpurses, cutthroats and badmashes - stirred into a hate filled frenzy by that ex havildar still wearing his red uniform. They’re armed with an assortment of swords, spears and a fair few Brown Bess muskets, though they’re going to be outranged by my regulars and their Indian pattern Enfield rifles. No doubt they’ll be swarming over the lads of the 64th foot (next in the painting queue) pretty soon.

The sweepings of the bazaar.

The sculpts are wonderful but I am always struggling against my limited painting skills and the realisation that first and foremost they’re for gaming with. As an example, and despite all the YouTube tutorials I’ve watched, I avoid doing “eyes” not only because they’re fiddly but because they inevitably end up looking like this.

 

The late (great?) Marty Feldman

I suppose on a play balance level it does disadvantage the British who can no longer “fire when they see the whites of their eyes”. lol. 

Anywhoo apologies for the slightly pointless show and tell post, that I promised myself I’d never do, but it’s either write this post or cut up a load of logs - so no contest really.

Once again have a great Xmas!

[insert blog post title here]

Yeah I couldn’t decide on a title for this post since it’ll be covering a lot of bases (wargaming joke?). My first instinct, given the season was to go with…

Ho Ho Ho

But then this is a family friendly blog so mention of three American prostitutes is probably not appropriate.

Lead Tsunami

Would be a good reference to the enormous pile of Empress figures that arrived in the post as part of my Christmas prezzie from the wife… but it does sound a bit like a 1980’s metal band so I’ll leave that be. Note - Lead Tsunami would make a great support act for my equally imaginary 70’s prog rock group Pyroclastic Flow. 

Be careful what you wish for

Was exactly how I felt when I realised how much painting and basing now lies ahead of me.

And that’s before the cavalry, civilians, elephants, and more artillery arrive. 

Glug glug

In reference to my French / Austro Hungarian naval campaign which came crashing to an early and as yet undocumented end after a major convoy was intercepted and the pride of the Austro Hungarian navy was sent to rest on the sea bed.

The protected cruiser Friant was the only French casualty. I’d show you the Austro Hungarian ships but they’re all at the bottom of my plastic hexagonal sea.

Spruegoo 

It’s not often that I’m confronted with something new in the hobby, but too much free internet time led me to something that the cool kids are currently messing around with and which after 50 years of dicking around with models I’d never come across before.

Just take all your old ready to discard plastic sprue drop it in a jar of acetone and leave it overnight. The next day you’ll have a putty like substance that can be molded at will and which will return to spruce plastic hardness in 24hrs. 

While gooey it struggles a bit to retain its shape so I suspect I will be pressing it into molds to produce walls, window frames etc for my Indian mutiny terrain. 

My coffee jar Spruegoo experiment. The fluid on top of the goo is acetone…not a urine sample. The base for the tree (just visible) is as hard as a rock and can be carved / painted etc now that it’s set. 

Next year will see more in the way of painting progress reports than gaming so apologies in advance. Here’s four of my bazar rabble (sans proper basing) to kick things off.

Good job I’ve enjoyed painting these cos there’s another 150 to go! lol. 

Here’s hoping you all have a great Kwanza, Festivus, Christmas, Yule, whatever… and as Dave Allen used to say… May your [insert deity(s) of choice] go with you.