Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

If anyone was wondering why there's been  no updates I've been away for the past two weeks.  I didn't take any hobby bits with me  which was just as well as we were out everyday and it was good to have a complete break.   One of the highlights was a trip to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby.  As well as a superb tour of the hangar viewing the majority of the flight's historic aircraft, we were fortunate enough to see a number of RAF Typhoons taking off, landing and taxiing as they went off and came back from training flights and patrols.  However, the icing on the cake was to see the Lancaster go through it's pre-flight routines, taxi away and then in the air.  I feel incredibly lucky to have seen this special aircraft close up.  Painting/modelling   First week back after being away is always a bit slow, but I've made some more progress with the 1/48th Sopwith Camel.  I'm not sure if it's the kit or m...

A few things going on hobby wise but off on hols so that's been my priority.   Painting/modelling   As time allows I've been continuing with the 1/48th Sopwith Camel.  It's a nice kit but goodness some of it is fiddly!   Research & Reading I appear to be doing the opposite of most people and transitioning from historical gaming to ahem Games Workshop.....forgive me, forgive me as the blundering ex-PM was prone to say.  To clarify I've become very interested in the Warmaster Revolution game and project, the ethos of which appeals to me in many ways.  So much so that I've even spent some money - see below. Incoming! I received a pack of 10mm Warmaster Revolution Ogres from MGS Miniatures .  What can I say?  I always wanted an Ogre army but was never going to pay GW prices.  And being in 10mm it actually appeals to my current mindset even more ( see here ).  The figures are lovely, the service was excellent and I can pro...

When I tried this blogging lark before, I wrote a piece about three principle factors that impact hobbies -  money, space and time .    Six years on and I think that this piece is more relevant than ever so I thought I'd do an update on how these factors have changed for me in the intervening years. Money is such a hot topic at the moment which everything seeming to get more expensive by the week.  I've been lucky (ie. worked hard and been careful) and have disposable income.  However, as I wrote back in April this year hobby costs have risen and this has modified my purchasing.  So the financial impact on the way I approach the hobby has increased. Space has always been an issue and as I've kept adding to my collection and become interested in yet morenew periods, there's been even more of a squeeze (literally) on the space I have available.  I've had to make a conscious effort to limit my book buying over the last year with bookshelves groaning unde...

It's been a very relaxed week hobby wise just pottering about.  Painting/modelling   With no figures to paint I've finally started a very nice 1/48th model of a Sopwith Camel which I was given for my birthday a couple of years ago.  It's very enjoyable to do something different.  I like to work on an aircraft kit once in a while, takes me back to where I started all those years ago.  Thankfully the quality of the kits and my skill level  is somewhat different now though.  I've had my boxes of Celtos figures out.  As well as reattaching the shields that seem to periodically become detached, I've been converting Celtos forces into Warlords of Erehwon forces.  There's not a lot of difference really, both systems use quite generic stats.   Research & Reading I've flitted from this to that this week just browsing the web and through my rules and books.  No real direction but it's been good.  Incoming! Nothing new ...

As we start September here's the outline plan for the last third of 2022.  Like all plans only time will tell if it survives first contact! Existing projects Anglo-Sikh Wars Complete movement trays and add flags for each unit 16th Century Western European Wars (15mm) Make scenery to go with English church model Purchase/make specific terrain Look at buying more figures to extend the collection back to the 1540s and also for the Irish Wars Algerian War (20mm) Repaint helicopter models WW2 Italy 43-45 (15mm)  Work on bases for the MDF buildings I repainted in the summer  Repaint water tower building Zona Alfa/Last Days Zombie apocalypse (20mm) Work on MDF buildings Make specific terrain/scenic pieces Fantasy terrain (28mm) Make terrain/scenic pieces that can be used for Celtos, Warmachine/Hordes and Burrows and Badgers Decide what to do with unused 28mm figures Continue blogging Improve on storage Finish the 1/48th Sopwith Camel model New projects Start a new project in 6mm...

Incredibly we're already into the last third of the year so it's time to review how I've done from May through to the end of August.  The updates are in italics but the rest was copied verbatim from 01/05's post.  Existing projects Continue with Sikh Wars project (20mm) Complete the EIC Sepoy regiment currently in progress - Completed. 👍 Chip away at the lead pile adding more units - This has been my main focus and I'm pleased to say that I've eradicated the lead pile for this project completing all the figures I had.  That's 98 figures in 20mm.  👍👍👍 16th Century Western European Wars (15mm) Make scenery to go with English church model - No progress.  👎 Purchase/make specific terrain -  No progress.  👎 Purchase more figures to extend my collection back to the 1540s and also for the Irish Wars - No new figures purchased. ☝ Algerian War (20mm) Finish making terrain  - I painted up all the hills and rocky outcrop scatter. 👍 Paint up last few ...

I've had a varied week hobby wise with a bit of everything and it's been very enjoyable.  Gaming I finally got round to playing an Algerian War game, using Ambush Alley rules.  Read the AAR here .   Painting/modelling   I've completed the Great Escape Games plastic gunfighters.  These seemed to take no time at all and were really enjoyable to paint.  Have a look here . I've been working on my 10mm Punic Wars collection bases again.  I spent some time on these  last year , but have reworked them to go with my current thinking which is actually going back to my original thinking!  I'm not indecisive at all.  I've now recut the card sabot bases so all foot are based four figures in two ranks of two on 20mm square bases and cavalry are two to a 20mm square base.  This gives a lot of flexibility for a number of rulesets and makes them far more usable and easier to handle for a game being the same size as one 25mm figure base....