Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Once again I've split my Ovelists into gaming and doing ( here ).  Here's the 2026 gaming plan: And as in 2025 I've gone for periods rather than specific rules.   Fantasy  - I didn't play any games using Fantasy figures last year.  I lost all interest in the genre and mused  about selling my Warmaster armies, having little interest in the GW world.  Sword Weirdos, Warlords of Eherwon and Midgard will be the rulesets I'd use, dependant on the size of game for this genre. Verrotwood  - I'll be continuing The Awakening Campaign for it's third year. I never lose interest in this! Sci-Fi/ Post-Apoc  - I played a couple of neo-Sov post-apocalypse games last year using Space Weirdos.  Much as I like that game I'm thinking of using What a Cowboy/Cartel going forward as I can then run the games as a campaign.  I still want to give the Last Days zombie rules that I've owned for years a go. Ancients & Medieval  - This covers my Punic ...

2026 will be my third year of using the Ovelist approach to track my hobby progress.  It's working for me so why change it.  As before I've split out the doing from the gaming ( here ).  The list is mainly determined by what I've got outstanding as we start the year and then modified as I complete these items and acquire more.  Here's the starting point: The starting balance is: 28mm - 6 figures (all Verrotwood) 20mm - 45 figures, 1 gun, 1 aircraft (all French Indo-China War) 15mm - 7 afvs (all WW2) 6mm - 368 figures (11 Iran-Iraq/1980s, 33 1980s, 9 1980s afvs/aircraft; 240 Seven Years War; 84 19th C. French Colonial) All of the above are additions to my existing collections and there's a square each to cover these.  My collection covers such a wide range of periods that I have more than enough getting these rounded/finished off to last me the rest of my life, let alone starting anything new.  However, as before I’ve left a number of squares with quest...

Well that was 2025. Where did the year go?  The gaming update for this period is here . The image below is how the Ovelist looked at the start of the year, the detail is  here .  Here's what it looked like at the end of April with the detail  here .  Here's how things at the end of August (detail here ): And here's how the doing Ovelist looks as 2025 ends. The balance at the end of August was: 28mm - 9 figures - all Verrotwood 15mm - 6 afvs - all WW2 6mm - 302 figures; 5 afvs; 5 aircraft - all Iran-Iraq War It's now: 28mm - 6 figures - all Verrotwood 15mm - 7 afvs - all WW2 6mm - 368 figures; 44 figures 5 afvs; 5 aircraft Iran-Iraq War/1980s. 240 figures Seven Years War.  84 figures 19th Century Colonial.  I've completed the following this year: 28mm - 37 figures 20mm - 39 figures 15mm - 1 afv 6mm - 266 figures, 43 afvs. I bought a fair few 6mm figures in November, but overall I don't have anything that's been hanging around for too long.  I've no...

Here's the final gaming update for 2025.  This is the summary of my gaming from September to the end of the year.  The doing update for the same period can be found  here .  This was the gaming Ovelist at the start of 2025 (detail  here ): This was how it looked at the end of April having played six games (detail  here ): Here's how things looked at the end of August having played a further eight games (with the detail here ): And here the final gaming Ovelist for 2025 with another four games under my belt: As can be seen by the big red crosses I didn't get to play three of the categories of games that I planned to.  I lost all interest in playing any fantasy games part way through the year and this hasn't changed.  I may sell my Warmaster armies in the New Year as I have no interest in the GW setting.  I started wargaming pre Warhammer and by the time it had come out, I’d moved on to guitars and girls, so I have no feelings of nostalgia for ...

Here's the 2025 second third update, the summary of my gaming from May to August.  The doing update for the same period can be found here .  This was the gaming Ovelist at the start of 2025 (detail  here ): This was how it looked at the end of April having played six games (detail here ): And here's the current status: I've played eight games during this period, working out at a doable two a month.  I’m very happy with that, especially as I didn't get to play at all in July.   16th Century  - I used the Sword Weirdos rules to play a game set in the Elizabethan era ( AAR here ). Verrotwood  - I picked up my Verrotwood campaign again and played the fifth and sixth games (AARs here and here ). 18th   Century  - I got the 6mm Seven Years War collection out for my biennial game using the Honours of War ruleset ( AAR here ). Second   World   War  - I played another Eastern Front Battlegroup game using forces from the Bagration supple...

Two thirds of the way through 2025 and it's time for the second update of the year.  The gaming update for this period is here .   The image below is how the Ovelist looked at the start of the year, the detail is  here .  Here's what it looked like at the end of April with the detail here .  And here's the state of play at the end of August. As is my way I've tweaked the Ovelist. For this latest version large ticks are still for projects where I've finished the miniatures/afvs etc. I've avoided the term completed project as in reality they don't exist!  Small ticks show how many months I've completed something for that project.  However, the small ticks now also indicate which month.  There's three rows of four which corresponds with how I divide the year.   The previous balance at the end of April check point was: 28mm - 30 figures (8 Verrotwood, 10 WW2, 12 Old West) 20mm - 15 figures (15 WW2) 15mm - 2 afvs (2 WW2) 6mm - 311 figure...

As is my tradition April is time for the first update of the year.  The gaming update for April is here .   At the start of the year this is what the doing Ovelist looked like (detail here ): And here's the updated list as of the end of April: Big ticks are for completed projects, little ticks show how many months I've completed something for that project.  The only changes are: the 1980's project has now solidified into The Iran-Iraq War project; and I've added a square for The Old West.  This is a project I've been adding to for 20 years or more and I've recently picked up some superb Native Americans to work on. The starting balance as of January 2025 was : 28mm - 43 figures (21 Norse Age, 8 Verrotwood, 10 WW2, 4 Burrows & Badgers) 20mm - 24 figures (24 WW2) (this was 26 but 2 had missing/broken bits so I binned them) 15mm - 2 afvs (2 WW2) 6mm - 44 figures (11 WW2, 33 1980s, 9 1980s afvs) The current balance is: 28mm - 30 figures (8 Verrotwood, 10 WW...

Here's the first third update of 2025, a summary of my gaming up until the end of April.  The doing update can be found here . This was the gaming Ovelist at the start of 2025 (detail here ): This is the current position: I've played six games.  This is not as many as I'd have liked (I was aiming for eight, two a month), but it's six more than I did in the first third of last year so I’m happy enough.   Sci-Fi/ Post-Apoc  - I used Space Weirdos to play a game set in my fictional neo-Soviet city of Grozniansk ( AAR here ). Rome’s   Wars  - I gave the Early Imperial Rome collection that’d I’d completed last year its first outing with a game of Midgard ( AAR here ). 18th   Century  - For the first time in years I got my small collection of 15mm Pirates forces on the table for a game of Sword Weirdos ( AAR here ). Second   World   War  - My other games were all set in Hungary during late 1944/early 1945 using my 20mm collection. ...

Last year was the first time that I’d tried the Ovelist approach from The Hobby Support Group.  I found it really helped to focus and keep me from disappearing down too many rabbit holes, so I’m doing it again.  Once again I've split it into gaming and doing ( here ). You’ll notice that I've gone for periods rather than specific rules.  I agree with the Too Fat Lardies maxim of “playing the period not the rules”.  I also have so many rule sets that I don’t know what I may use 😄  All those listed are ready to play and as with last year it's about getting those unused collections onto the table.  Here’s a few notes behind each choice: Fantasy Skirmish - I love Sword Weirdos and it's an easy game to set up and play in a short time,  As I don't have a dedicated gaming space that's an important factor for me.  It also lets me get those figures out that I don't use with their "parent" system anymore like Warmachine/Hordes and Celtos and the handful of...

After a successful 2024 using the Ovelist approach I’ve been mulling over what to do this year.  Strangely this has been quite difficult as I cleared far more than I bought and haven’t got too much to work on.  As before I've split out the doing from the gaming ( here ).  Here's the 2025 doing Ovelist: The starting balance is: 28mm - 43 figures (21 Norse Age, 8 Verrotwood, 10 WW2, 4 Burrows & Badgers) 20mm - 26 figures (26 WW2) 15mm - 2 afvs (2 WW2) 6mm - 44 figures (11 WW2, 33 1980s, ; 9 1980s afvs) There's a square each to cover off all the above.   I’ve also got the perennial Terrain square.  I like fiddling around making terrain and my tables sorely need improvement.  While the outstanding figure count is so low I want to try and spend more time on terrain and produce or improve at least one item each month.  Another square has been allocated to getting my 16th Century collection ship-shape and ready to game with.  I’ve looked at...

It's the end of the year and time for the third and final Ovelist "doing" check point.  The original plan is  here,  check point 1 at the end of April is  here , and August's check point 2 is here  The latest gaming update is  here .   This was how the list looked at the end of August: And here's the end of year position: As usual the size of the tick shows how complete a project is.  In the case of the very large ticks that project is complete with no figures left to do.  That’s Imperial Rome, Late-Romans, Verrotwood, WW2 Partisan Warfare and Sci-Fi.  The only failure was that I didn't do anything on the South African Border Wars project.   Between the end of August and the end of December I did the following: Imperial Rome - I've completed all 175 Roman and Ancient Germans for this project.  I also made unit bases for them all for Midgard.  This is the project that I'm most pleased with.  I didn't start th...

The gaming Ovelist original plan is  here , with check point 1 at the end of April here  and the end of August check point 2 here .  The "doing" update is here . The first part of the year had been a gaming failure.  I picked it up from May and this is what the gaming list looked like at the end of August: And here's what it looks like as we end the year: During the period from September through December I was very targeted in my gaming, ticking off the remaining squares and played the following: Second Punic War.  Thanks to the release of Midgard I finally got some of my 10mm collection onto th e table .  The AAR is here .  Fantasy Skirmish .  I had a really enjoyable game of Sword Weirdos.  I think it's impossible not to enjoy the Weirdos.  The AAR is here. 10mm Fantasy Battle.   I had my first game of Warmaster Revolution using the 10mm Ogre and Chaos Dwarfs armies I completed in 2023. The AAR is  here .  I also got i...

When I started this Ovelist business I'd separated out the gaming side from the "doing".  The original plan is  here  and check point 1 at the end of April is  here  with the "doing" update for check point 2 here . As of April I'd not played any games and as I wrote in check point 1 this is mainly due to not having a dedicated playing space.  I therefore revised the gaming Ovelist, using genres or periods that I want to play rather than being too specific.  Here's what the revised gaming list looked like at this point: I'm pleased to say that in this period there's been a big improvement: I've played the following: First Anglo-Sikh War.  I've got quite a nice 20mm collection for this period but I've never played a game.  I finally got round to playing a small game using Black Powder, which was also my first game with this rule set.  It worked well enough and I'll be aiming to play again using more of my collection.  Verrotwood ....