Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

As soon as I'd finished off the Landsknecht arquebusiers and musicians ( here ) I cracked on with the  remaining 33 figures.  This was 30 pikemen/halberdiers (they're the same figure you just get the halberds if you order that code) and two officers and a standard bearer.   I haven't attached any of the pikes or halberds to the figures yet.  This gives me a lot of flexibility in what units I can field, but was a right pain in the arse when taking the photos!  I'll have to glue the majority in place before I attempt to use them in a game.  As before the majority of the figures are based in pairs on 30x15mm  bases with a few based  singly on 15x15mm bases to allow for casualty removal.  The two figures based on round bases (above left) can be used as either Sergeants, Officers or Standard Bearers which class as characters in Donnybrook.   The pikes are made from a broom bristles.  They worked very well although the paint has...

On my return from holidays I cracked on with some of the 15mm Grumpy's Miniatures Landsknechts that I'd bought last winter.  I'd ordered one of each of the characters variants (officers and musicians) and a whole load of pikemen, halberdiers and arquebusiers which came with a good variety within each type.   I'd been after these since 2011 after buying some of Grumpy's 16th Century Portuguese to use as officers for my Elizabethan collection.  I believe the moulds have changed hands a number of times and I couldn't find a seller.  Periodically I'd search for them with no luck until Eureka Australia starting selling them.  I wasn't keen on paying the post from down under, but luckily to my joy I found Eureka UK were now selling them.  I'd just sold a few painted 28mm WW2 LRDG for a very good price and I immediately reinvested the cash. I went with a grey primer thinking that this would give a good neutral base to start from.  It was a poor choi...

My retail therapy is continuing.  The first delivery this week was One Faith, One Law, One King - French Armies of the Wars of Religion 1562-1598 from Helion.   I'd expressed my interest with Helion in the title prior to publication and was very pleased when I received an email announcing it was now available and offering a £5 discount.  My order was placed straightaway on Friday and the book arrived Tuesday post free.  I'm happy with that.  I've had a glance through and this sort of information is gold dust in the English language.  The colour plates aren't great but the rest of the book is.   On the same day my order of 3x1mm neodymium magnets arrived.  I've been looking at how to base all my single SHQ WW2 20mm figures so that they're easier to use when gaming and wanted to try out something using magnets.  I won't say anymore as I'll be doing a separate post on that soon. On Wednesday my order from Butler's Printed Models came....

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...