November 2023 Hobby update

Quite a long update this month so buckle up and stick with it.  I felt that I spent last month going up a blind alley, but now I'm back on track.  I've finished a few things off and had a clear out which you can read about under Ramblings below.

Completed

I spent the first days of November finishing up the following:

• Wargames Atlantic First World War Germans.  

• Great War Miniatures First World War Germans

• Warlord Games Second World War Winter Germans repurposed as First World War. 

You can see more photos and read about my thoughts on the above here.

I then polished off some more Victrix figures:

• I completed five more of the Dark Age Archers that have been sitting around for awhile.  I made two as generic Dark Age warriors and one as a Gothic archer.  The other two I combined with parts from the late-Roman Archers sprue (see below) to make some staff slingers. 

• While working on the above I made up the Late Roman Archers and Slingers sprue that I had.  These are absolutely lovely figures and a joy to work on. 

• I kept one Wargames Atlantic WW2 German Sentry figure to paint as a test apparition with a ghost colour scheme.  It's come out OK but I'm not completely convinced so will have another try at this.

• I finally completed the two NorthStar Elves that have been sitting around for ages.  Once I knuckled down I got these done quite quickly and enjoyed working on them.  I'll probably add a design to the shield at a later date but for the minute they're done.

In progress

Here's what's on the table as we finish November:

• From previous months:
• Warlord Games farm animals.  I still haven't touched these since I assembled them a couple of months ago.
• Started on this month:
• I cleaned up the legs and torsos and based half a dozen Victrix Unarmoured Late-Romans. This time I'm actually going to make them as Late-Romans.

Ramblings, Reading & Research

I took stock this month and subsequently put a load of stuff on eBay.  I'd gone plastic happy in the last year buying sprues willy nilly.  I decided to only keep those which were for an active project and/or the best quality.  I managed to get the following out the door: 

• 27 Wargames Atlantic WW2 German Sentries.  I enjoyed doing a couple of sprues of these as Feldgendarmerie but I had no desire to do any more.
• 12 Perry Miniatures ACW.  I'd bought a few mixed frames of these last year intending to kitbash them with Northstar Cultists.  There's such a difference in size this wasn't possible so they were sitting there and would never get used.
• 6 Victrix Dark Age Archers.  I moved a frame of these on as I've built enough and have a few more left.
• 4 Wargames Atlantic Late Romans.  I bought these to see how they compared to the Victrix Late Romans.  They don't hold a candle to them, enough said. 
• 30 Wargames Atlantic First World War British.  I bought a box of these when I was on the AWT hype train.  I was very disappointed with them with their inaccurate '08 pattern equipment, weapons not very  reflective of late war Brits etc etc.  I'm pleased that I bought these on pre-order special as I didn't lose much and after seeing a few comments about how they're quite torturous to work on I've even more pleased I got shot. 
• All in all I moved 79 plastic figures out the door.  I lost a little bit of money on them, but not enough to worry me and more importantly I had no enthusiasm to do any that I sold.  It was more important to have the head space than the money.
• I also sold off a dozen painted and based Wargames Atlantic First World War Germans.  I've always been in two minds about these figures from when I built them a few years ago.  I kept hold of them with the thought of using them for A War Transformed.  With the disappointment of that, it was time to move them on.  I've got another dozen which I may sell. 

Onto reading.  

I read Peter Hart's The Great War.  I've read a few First World War books over the years and wanted to read a good single volume to refresh my limited knowledge.  Alex Sotheran at Storm of Steel recommended this and it's a great read.  It's exactly what I wanted, which is a great overview of all the main theatres.

I also read The Bear King,  the final part of James Wilde's Pendragon trilogy.  I didn't enjoy this as much as the other two, not really sure why.  It's been a good trilogy though and I thoroughly recommend it. 

I took a photo of some of the factual reading pile. At  my current rate there's about a years worth here. That's without the inevitable historical rabbit holes I'll be dragged down or including any fiction.  I need to give up work.  

Incoming!

This month it's mostly been all about books.  First of all I picked up these from World of Books. 

Then this Osprey, which is one of the good ones.  The colour plates are excellent and the text is pretty good too.

Finally I invested in Helion's second and third volumes about Tudor armies.  I've had the first one since it came out and these form a very nice trilogy covering one of my favourite periods of history.

I picked up a PDF of the Goblin Trailer Park rules by Mike Crutchett who wrote Verrotwood which I really like.  I'm not really sure why I bought these, I think it was the title amused me and they cost £1.60 which isn't worth worrying about is it.

As we're now in the six months limited light season in the UK I decided to use some Hobbycraft vouchers from work and a birthday voucher from Hobbycraft to get another lamp.  While I was ordering I also got a set of brushes and some Revell paints.  I liked the Revell paints I used for my French helicopters.  I probably wouldn't use them on anything finely detailed, but for vehicles, buildings and undercoating they're fine.  The lamp is £20 well spent.  It's very light weight with a small foot print and a longish tube light with four settings and is proving very useful already, extending my hobbying time and helping with photography.