For Joshua and the Stockton Wargames Show

Hi folks,

This is a blog post I should have done a few weeks ago, but I kept putting it off - not for any particular reason. 

At the end of November myself, Martin and Dave - with help from John, Ian, Angus, StiG and Chris, took all the painted figures that have been received for the Joshua Project along to the Stockton Wargames Show. 

As regular blog followers will know, this project was a 10mm fantasy good vs evil collection in honour of my son Joshua, who was still-born in September 2019. All figures were painted and donated by gamers and friends all over the world. The aim is to raise some money for 4Louis and the North Tees NHS Patient charities.  

We'd set out a 12' by 6' table, with the help of some terrain from Dave's collection, and lined up the armies. 

Thanks to all the contributions, it was a pretty full table. 

While we didn't play a game with the figures (there was a lot going on), we did shift the figures about a bit:

We spoke to a few people who stopped by, giving out some of the business cards I'd had made ready for the 2020 show season! Interest in the project was fairly reasonable, and it was nice to encounter a few gamers who were really enthused by the look and mass of the armies on the table. It's always nice to hear something you've been part of has been inspirational. 

It looks like Covid is going to continue to have a bit of an effect on the wargaming shows moving forwards, so I'm planning to start doing something with the various armies now, and start raising money for the charities as originally intended. More news will be posted once I've sorted out what that will be. 

As ever, thanks to everyone who contributed, and who stopped and spoke to us on the day. 

Finished: For Joshua! 10mm Trebuchet

Hi folks,

I've continued clearing the painting shelf lurkers this week. 

This 10mm siege engine from Pendraken has been completed to fit in with my Knight army for the ongoing charity project For Joshua. Unable to fit on the standard 50x100mm bases, I've stuck two together using the bottom of the the Trebuchet. This just means that on the table the trebuchet will take up a full square. 

It is a big beastie and comes with three crew members. I used some of the larger rocks from my sand as ammo, however I'm unsure how these three men would be able to shift any of them. 

I had considered adding thread in order to represent the ropes, but I figures it would be tough to get the thickness and tension right, so it was best to leave that to the imagination. 

Trying to finish off a WW2 1/300 British armed trawler next. Hopefully more progress will be made over the weekend. 

Happy Ne'erday - 2020 roundup

Hi folks,

Hope everyone had a good Hogmanay and is having a good Ne'erday (New Years Day). I've a very busy January ahead, so have prepped this post in advance. Hopefully I don't have to come back and change anything!

As is the tradition, I decided to do a roundup of the various finished models this year, which always serves as a bit of a reminder of how much I've achieved and the various collections have grown. 

Starting back in January - my main focus was on 10mm fantasy mini's for the 'For Joshua' project, with a smattering of 15mm Sci-fi. I also completed a couple of 15mm WW2 items as part of the AHPC - some Fireflies for Martin and a US command diorama for Dave:

January also saw our only in person FoW game of the year!

February, which focused on 15mm and 3mm sci-fi, and on basing 10mm fantasy figures others had contributed for Joshua:

February also saw is getting a test game of 'To the Strongest' using the initial 'For Joshua' donations at the club, followed up by a smaller test game at mine:

March was lockdown, and back to painting 10mm fantasy with some more 3mm sci-fi:

April - nothing finished in April. I spent most of my time basing 10mm figures others had sent me for Joshua. I did finish a number of items in November that I had started in April, but that had been lurking in a semi completed state. I was also prepping 15mm ww2 models for my Recce Squadron project during this month, which took a lot of time:

'Joshua's Army' basing, a good chunk of which was completed in the first few months of the year, and in April - note, I have only included pictures of the models I based, I received some armies where the basing had been done. You can check out For Joshua's Army on Facebook for more pics. I'm listing this all here as it shows the time spent basing the fantastic work sent from all over the world. At time of posting, I have more troops from CurtC and Pete awaiting basing:

Models from StiG

Models from JohnT

Models from Lee

Models from Lee

Models from AdamC

Models from Big Lee and the Posties Rejects

Models from StiG (the three unfinished bases are shown above)

Models from StuartS

Models from BobF

All the models from NoelW

Models from ChrisE

Models from Dai

Models from Domesticated Bill

Models from Domesticated Bill

Models from Gary

Models from Domesticated Bill

May saw me finishing some 10mm camel riders (Mahdists) for Joshua. I also completed my first two troops of 15mm armoured cars:

June was spent continuing on with the Recce project, completing my 3rd unit of armoured cars. I also spent some time building some of Pendraken/Red Vectors 15mm MDF landing craft (still to be painted!):

June also saw DaveD put on a D-day game via Zoom:

July saw me complete the PSC 6-pdr guns and carriers for my Recce squadron, 15mm crew for my armoured cars, 10mm fantasy spearmen for Joshua and some 15mm sci-fi:

August was spent working up 15mm infantry figures and carriers, with a week spent on a much needed holiday in Wales between lockdowns. I did manage to finish my FOO White M3 scout car and my Humber scout car. Much time was also spent basing 10mm fantasy figures I'd been sent for Joshua:

September was one of those months when a lot of WiP came to fruition at the same time. 15mm mortar carriers and M5 halftracks, dismounted FOO and FBO teams, dismounted carrier patrol, motor platoon and 3" mortar platoon! Most of this I had been working on in August as well. 

October saw the universal carrier patrols completed, and work started on prepping the next project. I was also starting to work on more infantry. It was a tough month, with the one year anniversary of Joshua's death. Work on the charity project has continued, although C-19 has brought everything to a stop plans wise:

October also saw DaveD host another FoW Zoom game, this time a US airborne attack to capture a bridge:

November saw more 15mm infantry completed - my final dismounted carrier patrol and the end of the Recce squadron project, as well as a 15mm British infantry platoon that brought my total infantry collection to a battalion sized force. 

December saw the completion of the first unit of my Polish Cromwell project, with some M10Cs done. Paint shelf lurkers were also focused in on, with 15mm sci-fi infantry, power armour and a drop ship completed. I also finished my first couple of Cruel Seas 1/300 boats:

Finally in December, for the current AHPC, I finished a unit of 10mm mounted sergeants as part of my For Joshua knight army: