January 2025 hobby update

A new year and the first monthly hobby update.  After some family dramas to start the year, thankfully things have settled down and January has proved to be a very productive month. 

Completed

I'm continuing on where I left off from last year in getting stuff done:

  • First of all I polished off a baker's dozen of 20mm Second World War Red Army infantry.  These are now sold by Battlezone Miniatures but they are Sgt. Major Miniatures sculpts.  Bread and butter work for me and a nice early success for the year. You can see more of them here

  • While I was working on the above, I was also painting my last four 28mm Victrix Vikings with heads swapped  with ones from other Victrix sets.  There's more of these here.

With some figures off the table, I went on to a bit of terrain work.  One of my aims for 2025 is to produce or improve at least one piece of terrain per month:
  • I made some multiple tree bases out of a miniature Christmas tree.  You  can see how here
  • I also made a few more fencing sections to go with those I'd bought from Hovels about 20 years ago.  I've now finally got enough to go with the cottage I'd bought at the same time.  

In progress 

On the table at the moment are:

  • A trio of Victrix Ancient Germans.  These will be used for Dark Age warriors.
  • A pair of 20mm Red Army scouts.  These were in the packs of riflemen but are dressed in baggy clothes, so I'll finish these in February when I work on the pack of similarly dressed assault engineers.
  • A 15mm Hetzer that's been sitting there for a few months now.

Gaming

I've got some gaming in:
  • The first game of the New Year was Sword Weirdos.  I dug out my small collection of small pirates for a small scale scuffle on a small board.  You can read the AAR here
  • Inspired by the time of year and my reading, I then had a couple of games of Battlegroup at the end of the month.  Both were set in Hungary in January 1945.  I'll do a write up next month but here's some photos to be going on with.  

Ramblings, Reading & Research  

I got a good bit of reading in this month:

  • Although not a military book I read "Sacrilege" the third of S.J.Parris's novels set in Elizabethan England.  They concern the adventures of fugitive ex- Catholic monk Giordano Bruno.  They're fine historical fiction in the vein of C.J. Sampson's Shardlake works (which are set a little earlier) and I enjoy them just as much. 
  • On the factual front I read volume II of "From the Realm of a Dying Sun" by Douglas E.Nash.  This volume deals with the period from December 1944 to February 1945 and the attempts to relieve the besieged city of Budapest.  I deliberately left reading this until this time as the events happened exactly 80 years ago.  A superb book as was volume I.

Incoming and Outgoings

I tried to spend as little as possible this month.  I was determined not to be swayed by sales unless it was for items that I'd previously seriously considered buying and there was nothing that met this criteria.  I did acquire some odd bits all for the princely sum of £2:49

  • Ornamental Christmas tree.  I picked this up from my local Factory Shop for £1:49.  I've mentioned what I did with it above under Completed.  
  • Craft wire.  A metre length for a quid.  I'm planning to make some armatures out of this.
  • Warbases terrain bases.  For the first time I took part in Warbases Helping Hands initiative and they kindly sent me a pack of 90x52mm sized bases which I used for the winter trees. 
  • French-Indian Wars samples.   That gentleman Leon from Pendraken sent me a few sample figures.  I need to get some paint on them to see how I get on.  It's been some time since I painted 10mm.
Right at the end of the month I felt the need for a treat and picked up a fascinating Helion book off eBay for a third of the RRP.  

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