2014 Roundup

Slightly later with my roundup of last years work, mainly due to being away over the festive period. Christmas was spent at A's family's house near Middlesbrough, where I received exactly what I asked for from my xmas list model wise... only to find I made a mistake with my list and asked for the wrong type of tanks! D'oh!

So if anyone has any American M3A1 Stuart light tanks they would like to swap for British M3 Honey light tanks, let me know!

Anyway, New Year (or Ne'reday in my native Scots language) was also spent at A's parents. This was a cunning ploy on my behalf, as by that point I had purchased an engagement ring and planned a proposal just after New Year. Thankfully she accepted.

Model wise, I dug out all I have managed to paint this year (apologies for lighting and tablecloth!):

Not really a huge number of mini's! Some of them were quite technical - the picture includes the 3 Sherman I Hybrid conversions from Sherman II's, 2 Sherman Crabs with my own chain flails, Ambulance Half Track and modified Forged in Battle Bofors unit.

In the 'Work In Progress' pile:

These models either need touching up, finishing off or varnishing before highlights. Winter weather has prevented any varnishing. I do have permission to varnish indoors, but I felt my time was better spent finishing block painting models at the moment. 

In The 'Oh Sh*t, I've still got a mountain to climb' pile:

The infantry above were purchased from Cameron, along with 3 Universal Carriers. I say purchased, but I still owe the money and have not seen Cameron since. Cameron, if you read this, get in touch! They are painted in a different style than my normal infantry, so will need stripped and re-painted.

In this pile I have a lot of the items I need to finish my 6MMRPC painting chart (and some more on top of that). I still need some Sherman I's and Quad tractors to finish off everything on that chart. I also still need some more armoured cars to finish my recon list, which is a separate project.

So that's the roundup! Gaming wise, I got a couple of games in but not as many as I would like. One of the plans for 2015 (aside from planning for a wedding) is to start trying to acquire some scenery and a green mat/cloth for my kitchen table. I also intend to keep working on the 6MMRP Challenge and once that's done start alternating painting my WW2 models with some of my many, many, many Full Thrust models. Hopefully alongside getting some small regular games of Full Thrust as well.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my engagement post. Those kind responses are a great example of the hobby bringing people together. Those people (that means YOU!) who take the time to read and comment on my posts are one of the great motivators that keep me making my (all be it slow) progress.

Happy New Year!

Societies Views...

A week or so ago I saw a very interesting blog post on Big Lees Miniature Adventures Blog about a very poor article (found here - titled "If David Cameron must ban anything, let it be Warhammer fantasy games").

At the time it was something I read, tutted at and commented on Big Lee's blog about. I had intend to post a blog about this myself afterwards, but I decided to leave it as many other wargames blogs had covered the same stuff. Basically it was someone taking a cheap shot at the Warhammer games specifically, and by association the whole hobby. There are some people who believe that the article was designed to be some sort of satire... but personally I'm not convinced.

The article in question also caused me to look at how my hobby is perceived by my friends, relatives and colleagues. I'm lucky in that my partner is very supportive (see previous blogs mentioning visits to Haugh Battery, Eden Camp, Cardiff Castle, The Royal Welsh Regimental Museum, etc) and will happily let me sit quietly and paint. Mainly because I am sitting quietly, I suspect. My family have, by now, gotten used to my obsessive tendencies and I would like to think are impressed at the quality of my painting. I'm very open about my hobbies with my colleagues - some don't understand, some do but leave me to it and others will ask me about what I've been doing and ask me to see pics.

This hostility that seems to exist about this particular hobby seems to be one of these nebulous things that 'society' (aka, elements of the media) seems to have. Just as it's fun to take the mickey from geeks, it must be even more fun to make fun of subsets of geeks. I mentioned in Big Lee's blogs comments about this attitude not applying to things like football.

I was interested then, to read this article on the BBC website, about HG Wells and the creation of the hobby. A much more balanced and informative article, although it only briefly touches on the smaller elements (painting, modelling, etc). The comparison between the two is massive, and really made me question the purpose of the original telegraph piece. Maybe it was satire - comparing playing and banning warhammer to watching and banning hardcore pornography.

The final point of this blog entry? My names James and I'm a wargamer - and not ashamed of it!