April 2026 hobby update

Well darn it, we're a third of the way through 2026 already.  April has been a bit less stressful month than March real world wise, just steadily working through my stuff.

April always means Salute for me and you can read my thoughts on the show here.  The end of April is also where I take stock of my progress in the year to date.  You can see how I've been doing with my projects here and with gaming here.

Completed

Here's what I completed during the month:

• 20mm Platoon 20 French Indo-China War Vietnamese.  I completed four pairs of porters, a mule team and the artillery crew this month.  Porters and mules were a vital part of the Vietnamese war effort.  They add something a little different to the table and they've come out rather well.  I based the recoilless rifle and all the crew on small magnetised bases then made a base out of magnetic receptive sheet as I'd done for my Ancient Germans and Imperial Romans.  This gives me the flexibility of moving the crew to different weapons and I can also use the recoilless rifle with a French crew.  That's all of the Vietnamese finished now, with just a French mortar and crew to do.

• 15mm 16th Century pikemen rebasing.  In a complete turnaround from last month I decided to rebase all the pikemen.  I admit the influence of Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly here.  Pikemen need to be in close order.  In the great George Gush's Renaissance rules, troops were classified and based according to how they historically fought.  I suppose it's the Warhammer influence that has  dumb downed such conventions and has seen everything based the same.  Anyway I ordered up a load of bases from Warbases which I collected at Salute (more below) and I'm very pleased with how they now look.  They're based in a mix of pairs and singles and all magnetised, giving me complete flexibility of how I form the units.  While I was at it I based up some sword and buckler men.  With the exception of some command figures, the 16th Century revamp is now complete.  The project is far from complete though as working on this project has reminded me how much I love the period and I bought some more figures and want to expand my forces further.  

• 6mm Baccus Seven Years Wars Austrian Grenzers.  I finally made a decision and based the Grenzers that I'd painted back in February.  I'd put this off as I've been toying with the idea of rebasing the entire Seven Years War collection into three ranks.  However, that would require buying and painting a whole load more figures and thankfully common sense prevailed.  Serendipitously I found just enough 20mm square bases to use.  I'd made these out of plastic card (before MDF was the thing), for an ECW collection that I sold off at least 25 years ago using an ad in Wargames Illustrated before eBay became the way!  I've based the figures in a mix of twos and threes, with a few singles on 20x10mm MDF bases that I had left from the 10mm Punic Wars project.  They've come out rather nicely.

• I’d used an AK Paint Marker for all the the Grenzers' base edges, and because I’m the sort of person who likes consistency, I went back and redid the entire Seven Years War collections' base edges.  This took no time at all using the marker and gave a really neat edge.  I used Mitsubishi Interior Green which gave a natural green, much better than the colour I’d used previously and not dissimilar to the paint I’d mixed for all the tree base edges I've been doing recently (see below).  Another improvement made. 

• The terrain task this month was more tree work.  While I had the conifers down from the loft for the What a Cowboy game I played at the end of last month, I repainted all the conifer base edges in a much more natural colour.  Having done the deciduous trees in March that's all the trees done now.

In progress

There's only one thing on the table as the month ends:

• 1/72nd Airfix Bristol Blenheim.  With nothing else in progress, I spent any hobby time I had at the end of the month on the Blenheim.  I’ve made some real progress now and I’m getting towards the final stages, the beginning of the end.  However, applying decals has to be akin to repeatedly slamming your nether regions in a door in terms of self-torture.  

Gaming

I played only the one game this month which was: 

• The Pikeman's Lament.  With the collection now in usable condition, I got some of the 16th Century troops on the table.  It was my first game using this rule set, but I knew the general gist having played a couple of games of The Men Who Would Be Kings.  It was a good enough game, but I think I need to do some tweaking to better reflect 16th Century warfare. 

Ramblings, Reading & Research 

I read a couple of historical fiction novels this month.  Both were excellent and really enjoyable but they were completely different types of books.

• I started off with "The Lion House" by Christopher de Bellaigue.  This is set in Suleyman the Magnificent's early reign in the 1500's.  It's brilliantly written and deals with the intrigues at the Sultan's court and beyond during the campaigns in Persia and Eastern Europe.  It's written in the present tense in a quite understated way and I found it to be utterly enthralling.

• Just as enthralling but in a very different way was "The Twelve Children of Paris" by Tim Willocks.  This is the sequel to "The Religion" which I read last month, continuing the story of Mattias Tannhauser and Carla.  As visceral and bloody as "The Religion" was, the author has really cranked things up.  At times it reminded me of the early series of "The Walking Dead" as the hero carves an extremely bloody path across Paris as he attempts to rescue his wife, while picking up all sorts of waifs and strays along the way.  Set on the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre during the French Wars of Religion it's not for the faint hearted.  The quality of the writing and the characters makes sure that it doesn't descend into just a gore fest.   

Incoming

April is always a time for spending what with it being Salute.  Before the show I'd bought:

• Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 from eBay.  I'd been after this for some time so when I saw it for a very good price I didn't hesitate.  It's a book on the processes behind how the Ottomans went to war rather than the actual battles and fighting, but it's no less interesting for that.

At Salute I bought quite a bit:

• Essex Miniatures 15mm late 15th Century miniatures.  I bought both Spanish and Muslim forces to finally start the Fall of Granada project I've had in mind for goodness knows how long.  I also bought a couple of packs for the late 16th Century collection.

• Heroics and Ros 6mm 1980's figures and afvs.  This was more for the Iran-Iraq War project and also some Afghans for the Soviet-Afghanistan War project that spawned from the IIW project.  I also bought a few afvs from the First Gulf War, you know just to try them.  Well I have all the Iraqi stuff already don't I.

• Celtos 28mm fantasy from Brigade Models.  I like to buy a few 28mm just to keep my hand in so I picked up a couple of packs of Formorians and Gaels to add to my forces.  

• 20mm Second World War Germans from Battlezone/Early War Miniatures.  I always seem to be able to find something on the Battlezone stand.  These are more Germans in winter clothing. 

• A load of bases and more Really Useful Box inserts from Warbases.  I pre-ordered all this.  The RUB inserts are custom jobs, designed to fit three to 1/2 a 5 Litre box.  All the bases have holes for magnets and I'll be using these for a variety of projects.  I probably over ordered but it's better than running out mid project.

• Chronicles of Midgard from Too Fat Lardies.  This was another  pre-order.  Also pictured is an Eastern Front scenario book picked up for a quid from the Institute of Cancer research stand.

• And finally more paint brushes from ABC Brushes.  I have a tin full of brushes, so I was more selective this year, sticking to specific sizes and types that I was running short of.  I really, really don't need anymore!

• At Salute I'd looked at the 2nd Edition Lion Rampant and liked what I saw.  That evening I found a copy online £5 less than the RRP with free delivery and that was ordered on the Saturday and delivered on the Tuesday.  

Outgoings

I'm still pruning my collection down to the stuff I really like.  This month I cleared a few rule books:

• Warmaster Ancients rule book - I played a few games of Warmaster Revolution and it didn't do that much for me if I am honest, much preferring Midgard, so I got shot of WMA for a tidy sum.  
• Secrets of the Third Reich rule book and supplement - I've had this since it was released.  I let these go for a nominal amount just to get shot of them.  They didn't enthuse me as I didn't like the figures or the whole design come to that and I bought the AE:WW2 books which I much preferred. I was really taken with the whole Weird War and diesel punk aesthetic many years ago when it was fresh, but it's all a bit samey now.  The current ones that tag a bit of weirdness on to the World Wars don't interest me at all.  If I was ever to get back into the diesel punk thing, I'd probably go the whole hog and play something that has nothing to do with history like Trench Crusade.
• WarCry rule book and Catacombs supplement - I won these some years ago when I was a subscriber to Wargames Illustrated.  I have no interest in the game, so I gave them to the Institute of Cancer stand at Salute to sell along with some sprues and other bits.

Next in line to go are the collections that'll never get used, like my Warmaster Chaos Dwarfs and Ogre Kingdom armies.  However, selling painted figures is a far harder process.  I've had really mixed results in the past.  Some that I didn't think were that great have raised really good prices and some that I thought were great didn't!  I think you just have to accept that most likely you won't get back the effort that you put in and accept that.