Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

England 1586.  Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's spy master, has learnt that a Spanish Catholic Priest is preaching "Popish heresy" and inciting treason against good Queen Elizabeth.  He has tracked the man, Father Sebastiano, down to the remote house of Sir Roderick Greenplume, a suspected Catholic sympathiser and has sent men under Sir Sidney Hyde to apprehend the Catholics and bring them to the Tower for "hard questioning". Introduction This is a 100 point game of Sword Weirdos.  Sir Sidney's Priest Hunters use the Witch Hunters Warband trait, the Catholics are Fanatics.   Details can be found here .   Sir Sidney's mission is to capture Fr. Sebastiano and Sir Roderick.  He must avoid killing them if at all possible, although this is preferable to their escape.  If the rest of the Catholics fall in the struggle so be it.   If Fr. Sebastiano can reach the tree line at the edge of the board he is deemed to have escaped. ...

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 find I work better if I have a couple of projects on the go.  Of my 2021 projects The First-Anglo Sikh Wars is one I'm still very enthused with and I'll be adding units into 2022. The 28mm WW1 project has been on the backburner waiting for the Wargames Atlantic French set to be released.  Alas, I have lost interest in this and may even sell the Germans I've done.  I fear this will end up as another Bolt Action style game which is kind of pointless and goes against the ethos I'm trying to stick to (outlined here and here ).  I'm thinking of doing a WW1 project in a smaller scale but with a bigger scope but that's for the future.  I've got some old stuff sorted this year and the lead hillock is still very small, so I've got capacity to start something new for Autumn and Winter. I wrote at the half year point that I wanted to do a pre-gunpowder project.  I've been working through my book collection and trawling the Web and had a couple of ideas but no...

The scenario The Essex countryside 1588.  Captain Gonzalo Hernández leads his detachment of Flanders veterans in a search for provisions. An  English force, (part regulars and part local militia) has been alerted and moves to intercept.  The forces Spanish - Captain Gonzalo Hernández - 1 hero (D12), Antonio de Vera -  character musician, 1pt unit of 3 Light Horse (Elite D10), Hector Bellendin - character sergeant, 1pt unit of 8 musketeers (all regulars D8). English - Captain Rowland Howard - 1 hero (D12), Matthew Baynton - character sergeant, 1 unit of 8 Pikemen (regular D8) Josiah Grundeye - poacher character, 1pt unit of 12 Militia calivermen (recruit D6). Victory conditions At the end of the turn (Turn Over card is drawn) check the status of the forces. When a force has been reduced to 50% of its starting strength, including characters, throw one Ability die equal to the highest surviving member of the force, If the result is 7+ the force may continue to fight....

Another project I've been meaning to do for a long time was to rebase my 15mm FPW collection. I'm very fond of these.  They were first figures I bought when I started wargaming again in 1997/98. They're all Essex Miniatures (who appear to be a bit of a "Marmite" manufacturer for a lot of people), but I think that Essex have a fantastic offering and their FPW range is one of their best. However, when I looked at mine compared to what I can do now, they don't look great. The painting isn't too bad but the bases were my own cut out of plastic card and covered in flock and very basic! Original basing - French and Prussian The figures were based for the rules "They Died for Glory" by Dave Waxtel. They use single rank 4 or 5 figure basing which I always through was a little odd. Originally I had to adjust the bases as I couldn't fit most of the poses into the specified sizes and I did similar this time. Infantry got a 12.5mm x 12.5 mm space and ca...