August 2024 hobby update

I'd decided at the end of July that as soon as I'd completed those in progress, that I'd be having a break from painting figures.  I've kept to that. 

I'm not a summer person and I’ve struggled for motivation this month.  It’s not helped by my hobby table being in a South facing room so my hobby time is limited to evenings, by which time my eyes are frazzled from work.  I'm hoping to get my mojo back and accomplish more next month.  However, I did update my Ovelists (gaming and doing) inspired by the Hobby Support Group, and that made me feel a bit better seeing the items being checked off. 

Completed

I've not managed to fully complete much this month.  These were almost done at the end of last month:

• 28mm Warlord Games WW2 Germans Grenadiers.  The main colours were done and it was a case of doing the camo on the Zeltbahns and the details.  I made one as an SS NCO using arms from the Early War Germans and a head from the DAK set.  The two partisans use personal equipment and weapons from the Red Army set.  The bearded head is from the Victrix Armoured Late-Romans.  I'd deliberately put that aside as I felt it would be perfect for a grizzled partisan leader.  The pointing figure has arms from the Red Army infantry set and a head from one of the other Warlord sets, I forget which.  They're the last of the two free Warlord frames I picked up at Salute 2023, from which I've got a full 10 man squad of Germans and a couple more partisans.  

And these were the only thing that I've started and finished during August:

• Swampy pools.  I'd made a load of these last year but they were all quite small as I was using up odd bits of plastic card and old credit cards.  Now I had some bigger bits of plastic card I could make some bigger ones.  I followed the same steps set out here.  That's the beauty of taking the time to document what you do, it saves a lot of thinking time.  The close up photo really shows how they reflect the light.  

In progress

• Cromarty Forge 15mm Ancient German archers.  The main colours were finished in July so I just had the details to do which didn't take too long.  Lovely little figures they've been varnished and are in the drawer with all the others awaiting basing.

• 15mm stone walls.  I bought these in June.  Nice little pieces they're all painted up, I just need to decide what to do re. basing (there's a theme here isn't there).  They do resemble crispy cakes a bit though and I need a whole load more so may look at making my own, walls not crispy cakes although I do like these.  

• Early War Miniatures 20mm Pz IV Hs.  All of the painting is done bar final weathering.  Bought at Salute, I'd started them but had to wait for a correct turret to be sent through for one.  They are classic old school wargaming pieces with cast resin hull and metal turrets.  They have a definite charm, but some of the details aren't very crisp and they needed a fair bit of cleaning up all over with some horrible mould lines on the turrets right across the Zimmerit.  They're very different from the clinically precise 3D printed models that you get nowadays.  Talking of which...

• Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Pz IVHs.  These have become a bit of a saga.  After the exploding Elefant that was ruined, I tried to salvage the Pz IV by cutting open the bottom and draining and cleaning out all the uncured resin.  It had buckled a bit but I decided to paint it up.  The replacement Pz IV and Elefant came through later in the month, but the Pz IV had the wrong turret without the schutzen.  PSC sent me through a replacement a week later but in 20mm!  So I'm waiting on the correct one to come through, third time lucky and all that.  What is it with me and Pz IVs and PSC for that matter?  I'll probably do a post on my experiences with them just to get if off my chest when I see how the last outstanding orders that I have with them play out.     
• Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Hetzer.  This was a freebie as an apology for the exploding Elefant.  I drilled some holes in the bottom but nothing has exuded out yet so I think it's safe.  Nice little model on the whole although it does have noticeable print lines at the rear.  
• Anschluss Wargames 15mm Marder II.  This was given to me by the nice people from Anschluss at Salute.  They’re known for their excellent 12mm ranges and they had a few sample 15mm they were giving away.  It’s a very nice model, no explosion problems here as Anschluss have been at this 3D printing lark a good time.  I’m monitoring what they do with 15mm and also their 12mm early war ranges.  

Gaming

I played three games this month: 

• Verrotwood.  I played the third game of my Awakening Campaign using one of the supplements that Mike Crutchett, the creator of Verrotwood had written called The Riddles.  The AAR is here.  This was such a fun game of which I enjoyed every moment.  It worked brilliantly for solo play.  

• Bolt Action.   I played a game of Bolt Action Firefight, the free squad level version.  There's little difference, just each dice activates a single figure rather than a squad.  It gave a decent enough game and allowed me to give a first run out to the Germans I'd built earlier in the year and the partisans from last December.  I also used it to gain ideas for my own rules that have been fermenting in my brain for a couple of years now.  

• Black Powder.  I finally had a game using figures from my  First Anglo-Sikh Wars collection.  It was also my first game of Black Powder.  I'd put off having a game as I'd wanted to use a rule set written specifically for the war, but not having found one I decided to go with Black Powder.  I played with just two infantry battalions each side to begin learning the basics of the system.  It gave a quick game which resulted in the Anglo-Indians winning as in subsequent turns the two Sikh battalions failed their morale tests and routed.  I've got many more units in the collection and will look to have some larger games later on in the year.  

Ramblings, Reading & Research  

I've read a couple of titles this month:

• First of all I read "Sovereign" by C.J.Samson.  This is the third in his Shardlake series and like the others is a superb book.  Whilst not a wargames book (there's no combat) it's a vivid look at Tudor life, albeit set in Henry VIII's reign so earlier than the period I collect which is Elizabethan.  Whenever I read one of these I have to steel myself to not start collecting for the earlier period.

• "Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War" by Jonathan Dimbleby.  A really fantastic book.  As might be expected it's written in the same style as "Endgame 1944" which I read last month.  This title covers the political, strategic, tactical and operational aspects of the critical six months from June to December 1941.  Dimbleby sets the scene superbly with how the two pariah states of Europe (Germany and the Soviet Union) come together and then the duplicitous politics between the two states until Hitler finally turns on the USSR.  He also covers the human aspects and how utterly horrific it all was.  While not easy reading I'm so pleased that more "mainstream" authors are now destroying  the "good old Wehrmacht it was only the nasty SS nonsense" that still permeates.  It's been shown time and again that the whole of Hitler's armed forces were culpable and instrumental in pursuing ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust.  It was one of the key war aims for goodness sake!  It bothers me that people either don't get or choose to ignore this  Highly recommended read. 

I last attended the Essex Echoes of History show in in 2022 which was a great day out, so I decided to go to this year's event.  Alas, there wasn't the quantity or quality of displays and stalls and I left at lunchtime.  If people are concerned that wargaming is a "greying hobby", then take a look at re-enactment and you'll feel much more positive about the future of wargaming.  Judging by the displays, the increase in age is only been matched by the increasing girth of many of the re-enactors on display with few younger people to carry it into the future which is a real shame.

Incoming and Outgoings

After a frugal couple of months I've spent a bit this month and all on reading material:

• First off an email from Helion offered a £5 discount off The Iran-Iraq War compilation, which I've long coveted.  This prompted me to have a root about online and I found a brand new copy on World of Books at a significantly better discount. 
• Still with the same conflict I picked up a second hand Osprey Elite title for half the RRP from an eBay seller.  This is a very nice companion to the exhaustive Helion title.  The pair set me up well for research on a conflict I've been interested in since seeing it on the news in the '70s and '80s.

• I then picked up a copy of "Nine Lives: Ethnic Conflict in the Polish-Ukrainian Borderlands".  I'd first become aware of this when I read Jonathan Dimbleby's excellent "Endgame:1944".  When World of Books offered it at a reduced price I clicked buy straightaway.  Books on this aspect of the Second World War are not commonplace so I was chuffed to get it.

• My final purchase came about in a similar way to the first.  An email from Helion offered a discount on a book I'd long been interested in.  This time it was "Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin".  A look on eBay found a copy at a far better discount than Helion offered so I bought it.  It's a BIG book with a separate map book which I love.  The bookshelves have long been full and the boxes are now overflowing.  Books are my one weakness.....