For Joshua

Hi folks,

Apologies for the not strictly wargaming content.

Regular blog readers may have noticed my comment a few weeks ago that I was going to be a dad again. My second child and my wife's first. Our baby was due in early October (due to be induced at 37 weeks).

Unfortunately, on Monday 16th September, my wife felt unwell. This resulted in an emergency scan being undertaken and as a result it was found that our baby, at 34 weeks and 2 days, had no heartbeat.

No words can even begin to describe the level of grief and pain that our baby's passing has lead to. Made all the more difficult and cruel by the requirement that my wife deliver our baby. She did this on the early hours of Friday 20th of September. We are both, obviously, extremely upset. I suspect we will remain so for some time.

Following his delivery we had the opportunity to meet our little boy, Joshua, to tell him he was loved and that we were sorry. And for him to have an all too brief cuddle with his mum and dad before he went on to the next stage of his journey in this world.

We endured, and continue to endure, the unendurable - mainly due to the love and support of our family and friends. But also through the dedication, care and empathy of the NHS staff who we dealt with.

We spent the last week staying in a suite at the local hospital, where I was also fed and looked after while staying with Amy. We were provided with a separate entrance and a room with a double bed to stay while we waited for the medication to induce Amy to take effect. When our son was born, he was treated with utter care and attention by the staff. We were given, free of charge, clothes which would fit him as well as a memory box of items to help us record our son's time with us, clay and ink materials with which to take prints of his hands and feet, cot cards and name tags and a host of other useful bits - all for us to keep and treasure, and to help use remember our little boy.

I would like to repay this kindness in some way, and to do something for Joshua. I would like to undertake a project with some contributions from the community with a view of selling or raffling off the completed project. 

My current idea is a 10mm project - fantasy undead and orcs versus the 'free people'. The free people would be eclectic - a mix of whatever anyone wanted to contribute or paint that fitted the 'fantasy' setting. Arthurian knights, Elves, Dwarfs, Humans of any variety, Lizardmen, etc, etc - anything and everything from medieval or late medieval model ranges or fantasy ranges.

The baddies would be in black with a little red.

The set would then do some of the wargames shows in the UK, as a display or demo game.

The whole project would then be raffled (or auctioned) off - The proceeds would then go towards an appropriate charity in honour of my little boy whom I will never get a chance to share my hobby with.

This may take some time to organise, paint, set up, etc. Possibly it would take more than 12 months.

However, I would love if you, dear reader, could contribute in some way. Whether it be donating some unpainted 10mm figures, providing some painted 10mm figures or bits of terrain, etc, I would be grateful. It would mean a lot to me if someone out there would take some time to paint something for my little boy, that I could then use to raise some money for a cause which helped me and my wife when we needed it most. Either for a donation to the maternity ward or to the charity who provided the memory box we received.

I've not settled on unit sizes or base sizes yet - It would be more about look (massed ranks, ala Warhammer or Warmaster), with me either coming up with some simple rules or adapting something off the shelf. My initial idea is also that I would base the models, to keep both armies using the same basing technique. (edit: More information on these details can be found here).

If you think you would be able and willing to help, please let me know. This is very early in my thought process but the outline is there and I hope others can see my purpose and are willing to help.

Thanks,

James - dad of Joshua.

Finished!: 3mm Titans and Duxford

Hi folks,

A bit of a delay since my last post. A mix of being on holiday and not painting a huge amount.

After the last batch of WW2 mini's, I decided to do something a bit more arty and unusual, so started work on a couple of 3mm scale 3D printed titans acquired last year. I used some of the Vanguard Stalker arms, which with a bit of whittling I got to fit. These have been painted up in a similar style as the Vanguard Cybershadow 3mm Stalkers I previously did. These are in my version of the Legio Praesagius colour scheme.

I used some 40k decals I picked up on the cheap to add some interest.

I'm not sure they look too great in the pictures, but they look a lot better on the table. I've now got 6 of these 'medium' scale robots, which I plan to use for Vanguards own rules and a 3mm version of Titanicus.

Painting wise, that's been it. I think the potential house move in September has put a bit of a dampener on my painting mojo. I've not mentioned it here previously, but in addition to the move, I'm going to be a dad again in the autumn. Suffice to say all this is having an impact on what else is happening with my time! I am planning to clear some of the stuff on my painting desk before the move though.

This year for holidays we were down on the south coast, in Hastings.

79 years ago, you might have been able to watch the RAF and Luftwaffe tussle high in the sky above the channel here. 

As you can see, the weather was rather changeable!

I did go on a visit to Battle, the supposed site of the Battle of Hastings. Bit of a waste of time and money, to be honest. I didn't find the information available about the battle particularly interesting (in all honesty, the Bannockburn museum was smaller and far more interesting and interactive). I was particularly annoyed to find, having paid the extortionate entry fee, that a large part of the abbey is a private school with no access to visitors. Money goes to money I suppose.

On the journey down to Hastings, I had the opportunity to stop by a proper museum in the form of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. Properly cool (although a very warm day)! Here I had the joy of a Mustang and a Hurricane being towed past me as I walked through the museum. I took so many pictures by phone died. Some pictures below:

My mothers dad did his national service in Scotland as an armourer in the RAF. He served over by Stranraer (Wig Bay, I think), which at the time was a base for post war Sunderland Flying Boats. 

Airborne Assault Museum

Lancaster

PIAT

Vickers MMG

German weapons

Briefing boards used for planning and teaching the troops prior to the Pegasus Bridge attack

Another planning map from WW2 - I can't remember what operation this was for. The maps are 3d reliefs, which was pretty cool. 

Better view of the Sunderland

B17G out on the tarmac

The Mustang in RAF Invasion markings which was towed past me. I have a cool video of that!

PR Spit? Late mark, I think. 

Later mark Spit. There were a lot of these!

Earlier Battle of Britain Spit. 

Crashed Battle of Britain Me109

The sweet looking Hurricane which I filmed being towed past. I think this took off later but I missed it as I was in one of the hangers. 

B25 in the American Airforce Museum

B24

A10 - bringing the Brrrrt

British 2-pdr

Valentine

German diorama with a Pak38

Some more German guns. A 15cm IG and a 105mm arty gun. 

88 Diorama - that gun is pointing directly at the tank commander...

Sweet little LCA model

20mm display of rear areas forward to fighting troops. Pretty cool. 

Frontline part of the diorama

Another view of the frontline

Some nice lifelike dioramas

For my own reference, an artillery tank LCT(A)

Whilst on holiday I picked up a book on the 8th Airforce and one for Dave on the rise and fall of the Mahdi's. I managed to build 3 M5A3 Stuarts for my Poles, along with several 28mm Necromunda Goliaths. Back to work this week though...

Birthday loot and A Very British Civil War

Hi folks,

A busy July with some very warm days which prevented painting. It was, however, my Birthday month and as such I received many gifts. This year this mainly took the form of gift cards. I used these gift cards, along with some I had left over from Christmas, to buy some more books (although I was very tempted by Blackstone Fortress...).

I picked up a Dennis Oliver book last year on British Shermans while at the Tank Museum in Bovington. While mainly aimed at modelling larger scales, there was some decent info as well as colour prints for painting purposes. With Cromwells, Churchills and Tank Destroyers in the queue at some point, I thought these books would be useful. Unfortunately the M10 book only covers British units (so no Canadians), and there are some discrepancies (text which says they were painted SCC15, images which show them to be brown, modelling pictures which show them as green?).

The Panther book was a bit of an afterthought  - I enjoyed making my little unit of 5 and might get a full company at some point... With Battlefront Plastic Panther A's coming out I thought more info on them might be useful.

The Juno Beach book was one I had missed from my Christmas list. Operation Bluecoat because I enjoyed Ian Daglish's other 'Over the Battlefield' books (although this one was not as interesting photo wise, and confirmed my very low opinion of Guards Armoured Division). The Falaise Pocket book was just for any further Operation Totalize info - but focuses more on the American side of the battle. Hitlers Atlantic Wall for possible info on the Juno Beach defences (not much luck there).

Last weekend we also had a club meet in Billingham, which turned into a bit of a Bolt Action fest. Myself, Dave and Martin were playing a 'Battle for James new house' game. This was using the VBCW rules and was a fight for the F Hills factory that stood on the site of my new house (and made a large % of the aircraft grade plywood for the Mosquito, as well as Jablo propellers during WW2). Martin put on the table and provided the models:

I have to say I wasn't too keen on Bolt Action as a rules set. I had suspected that might be the case, but playing the game confirmed my reservations. Still, a fun game that ended in either a draw or a loss for me. Taking buildings seems to be just a matter of luck and numbers, and as such I don't think I could have captured the buildings I needed to win.

On the other table, Stig and Stu were also playing Bolt Action, but the WW2 Desert variety.

They seemed to have a good game.

Currently not painting any WW2 stuff, as I had decided to be a bit arty and work on some of my 3mm Sci Fi miniatures.