September 2024 hobby update

After a less than productive August, I went away for a week at the start of September.  I'd started to get my hobby mojo back before I went, but being away really sharpened my enthusiasm for cracking on when I returned.  Sod's law though since being back real life has been so busy that I've only managed to get in odd snatches of hobby time, with no games at all.

Completed

I've only completed three things this month:
  • Early War Miniatures 20mm Pz IV H's. I'd finished the majority of the painting on these last month, and just had the crew, some extra details and the weathering to do early in September.   Now they're all done I'm very happy with them and I’ve had some good feedback.  I hadn’t painted a tank larger than 6mm for a good few years and it took me a while to get into it.  It’s made me think about revisiting the tanks I made over 20 years ago and bringing them up to this standard.  You can see more of the Pz IVs here. 
  • Anschluss Wargames 15mm Marder II.  This was another that was about 90% done last month.  I painted the details and added some weathering.  I enjoyed doing this, as it was so crisply printed and also because it was easy being one colour.  It'll join my 15mm Second World War Mediterranean collection.  

In progress

  • Cromarty Forge 15mm Imperial Roman Legionaries.  There's 44 of these, the  majority are in similar standing poses, and being Romans they are as uniform as Ancients get, which meant I could crack on batch painting them.  I do like the sense of progress this gives.  The only downside is that you can miss a figure or two if you get distracted.  I try to turn them all one way as I work through to show which ones still need doing.  All the rank and file are fully painted I just have the command and the shields to finish, and then as with all the figures for this project, I need to base them.  The shields seem to have taken more time than painting the figures.  While I was doing them I also painted the Roman Auxiliary shields.  As I’ve noted many times before Cromarty Forge miniatures are lovely.
  • Victrix 28mm Ancient Germans.  I bought a sprue of these about this time last year to use for A War Transformed.  After reading the rules and scraping that project ('nuff said), I used two of them as Late Romans.  At the start of this month I cleaned up and based the remaining six legs and torsos and now need to decide how best to use them.

Ramblings, Reading & Research  

I've read a couple of titles both of which have got me thinking this month:

  • On my week away I read "Cimarron Rose" by James Lee Burke.  This is the first of the Billy Bob Holland series.  Holland is a defence lawyer and an ex-Texas Ranger and this is the bit I found most interesting.  The flash backs to his time as a Ranger fighting drug dealers in Mexico and on the border have got the old creative juices going.  I'll say no more at the moment.  
  • The above book got me thinking about Old West gaming in general and directly led to my next read which was "Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars".  This is a graphic novel written  by Ethan Hawke and illustrated by Greg Ruth.  It's really beautifully illustrated in black and white, and the story pulls no punches, telling it as it was.  Once again the brain box has been well stimulated to the wargames potential here.

Incoming and Outgoings

My actual spending has been quite minimal this month.  However, a few things that have been outstanding have finally arrived:

  • First to arrive was my copy of Battlegroup Northag from Plastic Soldier Company.  I'd ordered this in July, but between PSC and me it had gone AWOL so PSC sent me another.  It's a good set, a bit different to WW2  Battlegroup but shares most of the same mechanics.  Reading through has been the catalyst for me finally starting a project I've wanted to do for ages, which you can read about here.
  • Next to Northag in the photo is Battlegroup Bagration.  Yes it actually exists and has arrived.  I got my copy right at the end of the month.  You could have conceived, gestated and birthed a child in the time that this has taken from pre-order to final delivery.  What a saga it has been for everyone involved.  It's a fine looking book and glad that I've finally got my copy.  
  • To complete the hat trick and also clear up all my outstanding orders/issues with PSC, the correct turret for the 15mm Pz IV H finally arrived.  This had been part of an order from March I think.  The original hadn't been printed correctly and had exploded/warped.  The first replacement came without the schurtzen.  The second replacement was 20mm.  And on the third try they got it right!  I'm told patience is a virtue.  

  • The final incoming items were some Heroics & Ros 1/300th/6mm micro armour and figures which I ordered just before going away.  I bought one of each of the main types that feature in Northag, so that I could compare them against the Scotia Grendel ones that I'd got last year for the South African Border Wars project.  I also ordered some 1980s and Second World War infantry to see what they were like.  I've been interested in their "new" style infantry for a couple of years, but at shows you can never get near the H&R stand to see them.  I'm very pleased with all the items and I can now get on and work out my forces for my 1980s project that I mentioned above.

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