May 2026 hobby update

May was a relatively productive month on the hobby front until the final week.  We had some really hot weather over the Whitsun Bank Holiday which put paid to any painting as my hobby table is in a South facing room.  As well as being unpleasantly hot the paint dries instantaneously!  I like the Summer for the extra light, but you can keep the stupid heat we now get thank you!  Prior to that point I'd worked on several different projects which helps to keep motivated and keeps them all ticking along.  

Completed

I got a few more disparate bits completed and off the table:

• The first item finished was the Airfix 1/72nd Bristol Blenheim.  Yes finally.  I started this back in October 2025 doing a bit each month.  At the end of last month I focused any hobby time I had to get it finished, which I did over the May Bank Holiday weekend.  It’s come out ok, but it’s very much a wargamers' model and I don't think any self respecting aero modeller wouldn’t be impressed.  I'm happy enough with it though and it's a nice addition to my small collection of aircraft which is focused on early war British fighters.

• With the Blenheim finally completed, I then got stuck into the Heroics and Ros 6mm Afghans (Taliban), I picked up last month at Salute.  Very nice little figures, they'll do for many a conflict.  I don't agonise over these Modern 6mm, they get primed in enamel, base coated, washed and then I pick out some of the details.  They're based for flexibility in the same way I did the Iran-Iraq forces: a mix of singles, pairs and threes for the riflemen; pairs for LMG /RPG teams; and the HMGs with four crew.  I based the leaders either singly or on pairs, with one base with four figures of four senior leaders having an ops meeting.

• It was then onto a trio of Celtos Gael warriors, also bought at Salute.  The last Celtos miniature I painted was in 2009, but my heyday painting these was between 2003-2007.  My painting has changed since then and I was wondering whether to try and paint them as I paint now, or to try and make them fit in with all the others.  I went for the former option.  Apart from the shields (where I kept changing my mind and repainting them), I really enjoyed painting these and I'm glad I've got a few more packs to do.

• My terrain job for the month was some repair work on some of my terrain boards.  They're now 20+ years old, made of chip board covered with 2 layers of polystyrene ceiling tiles.  I used to just stick trees straight into the tiles, which of course left loads of ugly holes in the boards.  Having moved on from these barbaric ways, I filled all the holes in the boards that I'd got out to use for my Verrotwood and Force on Force games (see below).   I then repainted them, dulling down the green I'd used originally.  I've got a load more to do and I'll get round to them when I've got a bit of spare time.  

In progress

The following is on the table being worked on as May ends:

• 15mm Essex Miniatures late 15th C Moors.  Yet another Salute purchase, these are the first figures of my new project to build small Lion Rampant size forces to game actions during the campaign to take Granada during 1480-1492.  I've cleaned, based and primed them and will start on the painting next month.

Gaming

I put a bit of hobby time aside to play a couple of games:

• First off was an absolutely fantastic game of Verrotwood.  This was game 11 of the campaign and was characteristically brutal and full of twists, with the game being decided on the final move of the final turn.  You can read all the action here.

• At the end of the month I played a game of Force on Force using some of my 6mm 1980s collection.  Although I used figures and vehicles originally bought for The Iran-Iraq War project, they are actually West Germans and Soviets, so I set the game in a "Cold War Gone Hot" scenario set in West Germany in the 1980s.  I hadn't played FoF for a couple of years and I'd forgotten so much and had to look so much up, that I abandoned the game part way through.  Methinks I need to spend some time reading before trying again.  It just goes to show the old one about failing to prepare is always true.

Incoming

After my Salute spend up I was determined to be good this month.  As it was I picked up a few things, but didn't spend that much in doing it.

• My first purchases of the month were from a trip to B&Q.  My previous pots had dried up, so I had a couple of pots of emulsion made up colour matched to two of my standard basing/terrain colours of Citadel Khemri Brown and Vallejo Leather Brown.  I also picked up a bloody great bag of sharp sand for £3 which will probably see me out 😃 

• A couple of days after that the eight sided dice I ordered from an eBay seller arrived.  I've made do with a motley selection of different coloured D8 for years and decided to make life easier for  myself when I play games like Force on Force and Donnybrook.  I purposely got oranges and blues to differentiate the D8s from the red and black D10s I've got.

• Two Warlord Games Soviet Infantry sprues.  I'd meant to get one of these when they were the Wargames Illustrated give away during the Winter, but WI was never in stock at any newsagents I checked.  One of my things this year is reviewing all my collections and adding any missing bits and these will enable me to round out my early war Red Army platoon.  Any extras will be used for another project that I'm keeping close to my chest at the moment.

• "Bloodlands" by Timothy Snider.  I've mentioned this on this blog a number of times in the past and have always intended to pick up my own copy when I found one at a good price.  And find one I did for only £4.  It seems perverse to say a book as dark as this is one of my favourite books on the Second World War but there you go.  

Ramblings, Reading & Research 

I got a fair bit of reading in this month:  

• I started May reading "To the Last Round" by Andrew Salmon.  This is his first book on the Korean War, the second "Scorched Earth, Black Snow" at the start of the year.  Whereas that covered the 27th Infantry Brigade and Commandos who were the first British/Commonwealth troops to deploy, "To the Last Round" is all about the stand of the 29th Infantry Brigade against the Chinese offensive on the Imjin River in April 1951.  Like the other volume it's an excellent book.  My only criticism is that both books give a very similar summary of the early stages of the war.  There's nothing wrong with this and it's essential for context, it's me as I read them close together it seemed like it was all repetition!  

• "Conspiracy" by S.J.Parris.  After a large dose of historical fact I went on to a fine piece of historical fiction.  This is the fifth of the Giordano Bruno series of novels by  S.J.Parris set in the later part of the 16th Century, which is the bit I like best.  This time our hero, the heretic/ philosopher/spy is in Paris trying to uncover a conspiracy that threatens to set off another round of The French Wars of Religion.  It's a great read with many a twist and turn until we get to the truth.

• "War Against the Taliban" by Sandy Gall.  This was published in 2012 so doesn't cover the last years, so it reads like a prophecy in many ways.  It's an interesting book, but I found it hard going for a number of reasons. Firstly, it seemed very disjointed to me, feeling like each chapter was a separate essay rather than a cohesive piece of work.  The timeline was all over the place and there's a lot of repetition of information.  It didn't make for an enjoyable experience.  Secondly, the subject matter.  What an absolute shit show the Afghanistan campaign was.  You can't help but be angry as you read about the waste of life, complete waste of astronomical amounts of money, endemic corruption, mismanagement by the international community, intransigence and duplicity of the Afghan people, arrogance of the West (especially the Americans), the British Government's policies which meant the UK forces weren't properly equipped, the senseless decision to go into Iraq which doomed the Afghan campaign to failure, the duplicity of the Pakistanis who amongst a litany of double dealing were taking Western money to use to arm the Taliban to kill Western troops etc etc.  And what was it all for?  As we now know the Taliban have been firmly back in control in Afghanistan for the last five years and the Afghan people are in a terrible state.  An absolute shameful episode in history.