Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Introduction Late 15th Century Spain.  As the Christians continue to push into their lands, the Moorish forces of the Kingdom of Granada try to defend their homes.  A Moorish cavalry unit led by Yusuf Naybet come across a small Castilian patrol led by Pedro Soldado.  Enraged by the incursion, he leads his force to attack. Granadan Forces Yusuf Naybet = Leader@ 1 pt with Braveheart Skill ;1 unit of Heavy Cavalry @ 4 pts; 2 units of Light Cavalry with javelins only @ 3 pts each; 1 unit of Light Cavalry with crossbows @ 4 pts.  TOTAL 15  pts. Castilian Forces Pedro Soldado = Leader@ 1 pt with Aggressive Skill; 1 unit of Fearsome Elite Cavalry @ 8 pts; 2 units of Light Cavalry with javelins only @ 3 pts each. TOTAL 15 pts. I'm using 2/3rd sized units of 4 rather than 6 miniatures per unit, and as these are 15mm miniatures I'm using centimetres instead of inches.  The gaming mat is 3ft square. Turn Ones to Four The first four turns see the two enemies advance on...

Hobby time was a bit limited in September.  At the beginning of the month, I was really busy with work and then we went away for a week. On my return, work was just as bad and home wise wasn't much better!  I’ve also spent a fair bit of time on retirement planning as thankfully it's not that far off now.   Completed I finished off the following: Essex Miniatures 15mm Castilian hand gunners.  These were very simple figures which didn't take too long to do. Essex Miniatures 15mm Castilian Gendarmes.  Horses aside, these were even simpler, being clad head to toe in armour!  I can't recall ever painting fully armoured figures and they're so easy.  The thought of adding more fully armoured troops to my Castilian forces just for ease of painting is very appealing! Essex Miniatures 15mm Granadan Noble Cavalry.  These took a bit more time to do.  I used a similar palette to the rest of my Moor force, but with deeper colours to try and reflect their s...

Here's the second third update of 2026, a summary of my gaming up until the end of August  The projects update can be found here . This was the gaming board at the start of the year (detail here ): And here's how it looked at the first update at the end of April (detail here ): And here's the current position: I'd played ten games up until the end of April.  That's now seventeen.  Although I've dropped off a bit, my target for an average of two a month is still on track.  I had the real arseache with everything after Salute (lots of real world goings on), and by June had had enough.  I'm pleased to say that I'm back to "normal" now and enjoying things. Verrotwood - This is the game I've enjoyed the most.  I've kept up with my campaign and played another two games.  In April I wrote "I'm getting into the last throes", well I'm not sure that's the case as things have turned round and the two cults are neck and neck ...

It's the end of August and time for my second update of the year.  The gaming update for May to August is  here .   At the start of the year this is what the projects board looked like (detail here ): The updated list at the end of April looked like this (detail here ): And here we are at the end of August: The ticks show how many months I've worked on something for that project.  There's been no new projects added since the April update.  At the end of April the balance was: 28mm - 17 figures (5 Verrotwood, 12 Celtos) 20mm - 14 figures (4 French Indo-China War, 10 WW2); 1 gun, 1 aircraft (all French Indo-China War) 15mm - 92 figures (76 late 15th Century, 16 late 16th Century); 1 WW2 afv  6mm - 362 figures (134 1980's Iran-Iraq/Soviet-Afghanistan Wars, 192 Seven Years War, 36 19th C Colonial); 22 afvs/aircraft (all Iran-Iraq/Soviet-Afghanistan Wars) The current balance is: 28mm - 52 figures (4 Verrotwood, 9 Celtos, 39 WW2) 20mm - 14 figures (4 French ...