April 2025 hobby update

April has been and gone and a third of 2025 with it.  It's been quite a busy hobby month with Salute in the middle, which I've always seen as the start of my hobby year  As much as possible I’ve tried to clear any bits and pieces that have been hanging about for awhile.

Completed

I finished off the figures I'd started on before going away at the end of March:

  • Six 28mm Victrix Armoured Rus warriors.  That's the last of the Dark Age figures for now and you can see more here.
  • 28mm Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows & Badgers Kingfisher Warrior and Badger Mage.  The last of my Oathsworn, you can see more here.

  • I also started on the revamp of the 16th C collection.  I rebased some of the figures and added magnets to these and a few others that were already on round 15mm bases.  I've got a fair number to do so I'll just do a few as and when between other jobs over the next couple of months. 

On the terrain front I finished:

  • Two 6mm wooded areas.  I used a couple of the bases I'd bought at Salute and more or less followed the exact steps set out here.  The only changes I made was to use more layers of scourer to build up different heights and more PVA rather than just superglue to fix the clump foliage.  
  • 15mm Tudor house.  I intended to tart up a Warbases MDF building I bought last October, and ended up completely redoing it.  I'll do a write up next month.
  • 10mm Tudor House.  When I'd finished the 15mm house, I had a spare piece of painted scourer, so using the same method I quickly knocked up a roof which enabled me to finish this building.  It had sat around for awhile as I'd never contacted Warbases for the replacement roof that was missing when they sent it.  I was pleased to get this and the 15mm building done and dusted.

In progress

On the table as we end March are:

  • Cold War era Soviets and Brits.  These will be used as Iraqis and Iranians for The Iran-Iraq War which I've now settled on for my Cold War "nostalgia" project.  The painting is pretty much done I just need to decide on basing.
  • A selection of Cold War afvs.  Same as above, they're painted and I'm just waiting on the bases to come in and then I can finish them off.
  • And yet again the 15mm Hetzer is still sitting there although I have now done the tracks, so that's something. 

Gaming

I'm pleased to say after last month's drought, I managed to get a game in.
  • I played Midgard for only the second time and had a fine time.  You can read the AAR here.

Ramblings, Reading & Research  

I read three historically based titles during April, two novels and a memor:

  • "Treachery" by S.J. Parris.  Another of the Giordano Bruno novels this one has Sir Francis Drake as a central character.  A really exciting story with some great Elizabethan background, I like these novels a lot.
  • "The Hemlock Cure" by Joanne Burn.  Set in early Restoration England, 1665/66, I found this to be a really absorbing read.  As the plague takes grip on a village the differences that have simmered within a village come to the fore.  It's really atmospheric and could be used for a basis for scenarios for late 16th right through the 17th Centuries.  
  • "Adolf Hitler, My Part in his Downfall" by Spike Milligan.  The first in his wartime memoirs, this is a classic.  I imagine it must have been exhausting to have been Spike and also to have known him! 

Salute 2025 was an enjoyable day.  It was the busiest one to date, but once you got in it wasn't too bad.  I have little interest in the  big traders wares, so I didn't have to contend with the scrums around their stands.  The only minor disappointment was that Oathsworn's stand was so busy I couldn't get to buy anything.  This turned out to be a positive as I spent the money on some lovely Gringos40s figures instead.  Good as they are I'm probably sated with B&B, having been painting them on and off since 2016

At 1300 we had the traditional bloggers meet up and along with catching up with other gaming friends during the day, this was my highlight.  My standout games were: Iran-Iraq War by The Friends of General Haig; The Crossing of the Duna 1701 by Per Broden; Warsaw Uprising by The Loughton Strike Force; and Berlin 1945 by Retired Wargamers Reloaded.  There was a lot of good looking games, I think the standards overall have improved.  

I started to watch the last panel of the day to see Alex Sotheran (Storm of Steel).  However, a combination of barely being able to hear him and the behaviour of some of the other panellists put me right off so I didn't hang about.  Alex seemed very much the odd one out.  I'll have to "steel" myself  to watch the recording.  I'll keep hitting mute though to save my ears at strategic times.

Incoming and Outgoings

Not surprisingly Salute meant there would be some purchases.  I'd been deliberately restrained during the first part of the year in anticipation of the big day so I bought a few bits:

  • From left to right top to bottom we have:
    • Apaches and Commanches from Gringos40s.  These were my 28mm treat to myself.
    • Couple of paints I picked up cheap from Warlord Games.
    • A load of 6mm infantry, support weapons, afvs, aircraft and helicopters from Heroics & Ros that I'd preorded.
    • Three large precut MDF bases for terrain.
    • A selection of brushes from ABC Brushes.  This was filling in the gaps in the brush stash.  I really don't need anymore now.  Really.
    • Five Vallejo Model Colour paints from Pendraken.
    • An Osprey modelling guide to the Stug III, my bargain from the show at only £3.
    • Some 20mm Battlezone Red Army and EWM Germans to fill out my late Second World War Eastern Front collection.
    • A selection of small precut MDF bases for terrain.
  • My only other purchase during April was a restock of superglue as I'd up my supplies making the wooded areas.  I bulk bought nine tubes from a seller on eBay which saved a fair bit and should keep me going for a while.  The box slogan made me laugh, are Loctite going into politics? 

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