SeIt has been a sort of bitty week this one. I started off working on the final strucure of my winter village. This time it is a Russian church, much smaller than the one I made at the beginning of last year, but an interesting model all the same.
I chose a log and finished timber exterior for this model. The logs were made from bamboo skewers, cut to length and then glued to a cardboard form. The finished timber is largely matchsticks with some pieces of balsa where larger boards were required.
The roof is sculpted foam board, covered with fine sand. I opted not to have a dome on this model, but did put a cross on top of a stack of spheres.
I have yet to instruct the base. This will be completed in the next couple of weeks.
Another item worked on during the week is a batch of nine Indian troops for East Africa required to complete a battalion for use in a game in October. These are Brigade Games figures. They don't match the Woodbine Figures that make up the rest of the battalion, but they are such lovely figures that I am happy to live with this.
Also included in the parcel from Brigade Games is a set of War of 1812 American generals - a mounted and dismounted officer. This is the advanced guard of a new project that will kick off properly in late-October. These are great little figures designed by the talented Paul Hicks, my only complaint is that the horse in way too skinny - it looks to me as though the person operating the casting machine has applied too much pressure on the moulds.
Then on Friday night we played a Dark Ages-Early Medieval game based around the Battle of the Standard, or the Battle of Northallerton, between English and Scottish armies on 22 August 1138. The rules used were To The Strongest.
Starting at around 5:30 we played until about 9:30 with a break for dinner.
It was a hard fought action that at the dinner break saw the English army with the upper hand. But fortunes changed after dinner and the Scots rallied and came forward again.
But the English, led by Ralph of Durham, held and drove off several of the best Scottish units.
Then in one devastating move the English fortunes changed and the Scots reversed history.
Hurrah ....that's what I like to see, the Scots reversing history - now we just need to refight Flodden and Culloden and.....
ReplyDeleteSo no Scottish bias then Keith?
DeleteMark a great addition to the Russia project, you have been busy in recent weeks.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Stu
Thanks Stu. Things are about to slow down a little now with several significant projects coming to a head in the real world and the need to finish some terrain items for our games weekend in October.
DeleteVery busy week for you on the hobby front. The Russian church is exquisite as expected from your hand. Words cannot properly describe my admiration for your buildings. Your TtS game is huge! TtS is a game I am yet to try but is on my list.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan. The church was a bit of fun and came together very quickly.
DeleteI am not altogether certain about the grid based games. Maybe they are a bit too much like a board game to me. My complaint about TtS is the table clutter...the playing cards that are left on the table for extended periods of time. My wife would tell you at she has never met a more untidy person than me, but we spend so much time painting our armies and making terrain, then when we do get them on the put them on the table we clutter it with dice, tape measures, rulers, templates, cards and rulebooks! The visual is every bit as important for me as the game.
That said, TtS is a fast playing game that causes much hilarity
That is plenty accomplished in the space of a week, Mark. I like the way you just continually build multiple projects towards a goal, but in a systematic way. I need to be more systematic... Looking forward to the War of 1812 getting underway. One of those wars I've got quite a bit of time for, even if I'll never end up gaming it.
ReplyDeleteYears of practice in project management...break the job down into the smallest components, figure out the priorities, schedule the tasks. I have wanted to do the War of 1812 for many years. My friend Keith at the Bydand blog has raced ahead an done heaps of troops for both sides. I will do a single brigade. Next year's projects are all supposed to be small ones, Great Northern War maybe and perhaps some French in Egypt (and their Ottoman opponents, that will also have a double purpose as opponents for the Russians).
DeleteExcellent modelling work, and the Dark Ages game looks very good too! Agree with you about the clutter in TtS not being the best though, prefer rules without it if I can find them!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark. We used to have a rule of only dice in the table, but it has sort of fallen by the wayside.
DeleteGreat looking church, the early medieval game looks great and the Indian infantry are lovely.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you Iain.
DeleteA full week by the looks of things. I recently purchased TtS and am looking forward to convincing the group I game with here to give it a go, once we have our venue back.
ReplyDeleteIt probably seems more than it was. Most of those things were small projects...I mean the Indians in khaki were only an evening's work for nine figures, the American generals another evening, the building took several evenings, but it is amazing how much you can achieve just working away in an evening. It might be a bit mindless, but last week was an incredibly complex and stressfull week at work so sitting there cutting bamboo skewers and matchsticks with a craft knife and gluing them to cardboard with some TV programme running in the background, is incredibly relaxing!
DeleteCricket's my thing nowadays. I can't sit still for more than an hour watching it on TV, but give me some figures to paint and a day's play seems almost too short. I'm hoping to be especially productive over the forthcoming Ashes tour.
DeleteDon't know if I could work like that. Every wicket lost would be too much of a distraction - either joy or distress...depending on which side you support!
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