Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Last October I bought a 15mm Tudor House from Warbases to see whether it would work alongside my  Hovels Tudor buildings I've had for a dozen or so years ago.  The Warbases house ( link here ) is as you'd expect a simple MDF kit.  It's nice enough but by it's very nature is flat and therefore a bit dull, especially compared to the Hovels building which is full of character.  It's also got a larger footprint than the Hovels one which is fine for skirmish games maybe not so much for battles.  I decided to give it a makeover. Before I did anything I painted the inside of the building with matt emulsion paint coloured matched to Vallejo Model Colour Leather Brown.  Then I started work.  First off I added wooden beams.  Using the lines marked on the kit as a guide, I cut strips of coffee stirrers roughly 1mm wide by 1mm deep and stuck them on with PVA.  I trimmed them to absolute length when they were stuck down.   When all the beams wer...

I managed to get in a reasonable amount of hobby time over the Easter Weekend.  I'm off work next week and will be out and about so there probably won't be a hobby update for the last week of April. Painting/modelling   I finished prepping the Newline Designs Sepoy regiment and managed to make some good progress with the painting.  These won't take too long to finish now. Research & Reading I finished "The Commotion Time".  This was a very interesting read.  In my opinion the background information about the key personnel, logistics, the causes and such like is stronger than the actual descriptions of the battles.  This is no criticism of the author, but probably more to do with there's more records of this than the actual fighting!  If you are interested in the 16th Century and the Tudors I highly recommend it.   For a wargamer there's definitely enough information to game the Western Rebellions if you want to try something differen...

A very quiet week hobby wise.  I've not had any solid blocks of time to do much, just grabbing the odd 10 minutes here and there.   Painting/modelling   I've started cleaning up the next unit for the First Anglo-Sikh War project.  This is a regiment of 24 Sepoys which will join the Anglo-Indian forces.  I don't like cleaning up figures much, so doing this in the short bursts of time I've had for hobbying has worked quite well. Research & Reading I'm pressing on with "The Commotion Time" which tells the military history of rebellion in the West Country in 1549.  A really good read about something I previously knew nothing about. I wrote a post about the rising costs of the hobby which sparked a bit of debate on TMP.  You can read it here .  After writing this I'm even more convinced that any new projects will be in the smaller scales.  Although I love  skirmish games I hanker after something that looks like a real battle, bu...

I'm very pleased and relieved that things have settled down in the real world.  Consequently I've had a bit more hobby time and here's what I've been doing:  Painting/modelling   I painted and finished off the Newline Designs 20mm Sikh infantry regiment for the First Anglo-Sikh War that I'd cleaned up and primed last week.  Click here to see some pics. Research & Reading I've been reading "The Commotion Time" by E.T.Fox.  This is one of Helion's From Retinue to Regiment titles covering warfare from 1453-1618.  It details what's often called "The Prayer book Rebellion" which took place in the West Country 1549.  I got it as a Christmas present and it's a fascinating read. I've been looking at Lion Rampant and The Pikeman's Lament and seeing which is going to be best for Tudor and Elizabethan 16th C warfare.  I'm determined to get the 16th Century project back on track for the next part of the year. Incoming! No spen...

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...