Historicon Pix: The Other Games
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*Lee and his staff are looking at some of the other games at Historicon
this year.General Hood: "that's a great looking game over there on the
righ...
'wrench' Decepticon Medic
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I created this bot as I thought the 'Cons' could use some medical backup.
After doing some searching I found a picture of a Decepticon Medic in the
comic...
Escorts for the IJNS Fuso
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I found some suitable escorts for my 1:122th-scale model of IJNS *Fuso* on
eBay, placed my bid, and won. As a result, I am now the proud owner of some
me...
Adventure Games from TSR (Part II)
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Following yesterday's post, here are some more pages from the 1983 TSR UK
catalog, courtesy of reader Martin Williams, starting with this one. There
are ...
Hanoverian Command Figures
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The Hanoverian Command figures are done and the whole unit is complete bar
the basing which I will hopefully get around to in the next few days.
Nice to h...
The French Connection - Part One and Two
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*Plenty of useful detail and some wonderful photographs - with these two
and my copies of Janes and Conways I reckon I have all the information I am
like...
Who are you?
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Got this figure as part of a lot recently-
Can anyone recognise him and the manufacturer?
Finally can anyone guess the first name of the girl mentioned i...
LIFE DRAWINGS, part 5
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In recent weeks, we've looked at different approaches to figure drawing,
and discussed how different artists can use the same human form as a
vehicle for...
A Whiff of Entitlement?
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Over the last 14 years my hobby activities have benefited immensely, and
often, from the kindness and generosity of others; many friends, but also
on numer...
Sengoku: The Last Faction
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Several weeks ago I finally finished off the last of my five Sengoku
factions. Sooner or later I will have to begin a campaign set during the
16th/17th c...
3D printing has finished for now!
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So I have worked though my current wishlist for the printer and produced
the following for my own use, all 20mm unless identified otherwise.
From the top l...
Catching Up on My Reading no 21
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Operation Biting by Max Hastings.
Sometimes you just bet a bit lucky. I actually picked this book up in my
local Tesco's for half price- not as a remainder...
One of Those Wargaming Dreams Again. . .
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But not of the toy soldiers arrayed across a Gilderesque table variety.
No. Instead, I was in a hobby shop somewhere rooting through stacks of
old,...
Nassau Grenadiers at Hougomont
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Our hobbyfriend Thomas Mischak ask Frank Ziegler to sculpt him a set of
Nassau Grenadiers after the painting from Knötel
Here you see the result, painte...
Chatillon, 1870
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I ran this game a few weeks ago using a cut down version of Funny Little
Wars. Lloyd kindly provided most of the 54mm toys and I the terrain. The
ori...
There's A New Zak Book Available for Pre-Order
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I have a new art retrospective book coming out now available for pre-order.
The price will jump in a few days, so if you're interested, best to grab
one ...
Gentleman Pensioners Sunday Game
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A couple of weeks ago I posted (link) that our Sunday game following the
Phalanx Show would be an Eastern Renaissance battle. What follows is a
brief r...
All change!.
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Due to vast amounts of unwanted attention I am taking this blog down
permanently. But fear not, I have copied most of the posts onto a new blog My
"Old ...
Blood on the Sands at ShireCon
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Had a great day at ShireCon, or the Little MOAB, as I like to call it. Had
a lot of interested people play a game or two and got to play test some new
g...
Merry Christmas 2023 and Always
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This painting arrived as a Christmas card a few days ago. It is the most
beautiful depiction of love and adoration of Jesus by heavenly angels and
his...
Very Sad News
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I'm very sorry to be making this post but I've just learned that Dale past
away from a heart attack on November 5th.
Most of my relationship with Dale wa...
Happy Birthday Joseph Morschauser III
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Another year is almost in the books and today is Christmas Day… This isn’t
a Christmas story, but it is a story (article) written by a man born in New
York...
Trying Something New
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Based on what I said last time, I’m going to try out something new. Check
out my posts at Medium – one test you can ignore, one discussion of why I
chose t...
Wargaming the interwar period
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*CROSSPOSTED FROM WARGAMING MISCELLANY*
This year’s VCOW (Virtual Conference of Wargamers) took place over the
weekend, and I was able to take part in se...
The Constantinov Regiment
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Whilst I have, for the most part, 'moth-balled' my Classic Wargaming
collection over the past few years, occasionally I get the urge to dip back
into it....
Alas - no more ....
-
After a lot of thought I have decided to stop my gaming project in the
Caribbean for the foreseeable future.
The bulk of the completed units will become in...
The Fritz Leiber WIKI - [Currently Reading]
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---------- The Fritz Leiber WIKI Welcome to the Scrolls of Lankhmar. It
contains information on the writings of and also the RPG Guide to Nehwon,
which is ...
A Tale of Two Battles - Part the Second
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After the battle recorded in the previous post, I felt I had unfinished
business with Paul and his Russians, so I challenged him to a game the
followin...
Problems with Jackson Gamers Web Site
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We are having problems accessing and updating the Jackson Gamers web site.
Evidently the main page has been "stolen" by a French language pharmacy
site. ...
Hot Reception
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Gun and crew by Hinchliffe (SYW range)Christmas is an anxious time if
you're Hessian - but this year we're ready for you Mr Washington!
Battlegroup Tobruk Goes Strong into the Desert
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Pavlov's dogs, famously, were conditioned to salivate when hearing a bell
which they associated with food. I have been similarly conditioned to
associate...
Happy Winter Solstice!
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I decided I might as well face the truth, that this blog and project is
pretty much over and done. It was fun while it lasted, but my gaming
interests lie ...
Sky Pirates of Venus - Teaser
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Sky Pirates have been the scourge of the Worm Empire of Venus for years,
and the Great Worm has had enough! He sends a team of four crack worm
commandos to...
Stephen King’s Threshold
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“There is probably no dedicated fantasy fan in America who doesn’t have at
least one of those distinctive black-bound volumes upon his or her shelf .
. ....
High time...
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It is high time I posted here again. The project has stalled. Last night I
decided to have a read of book 2 after many years away from it. It begins
so wel...
La Passeggiata
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Artist: ItalianTitle: La *Passeggiata*
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Thank you for subscribing to the Orientalist Gallery!
Memories, Tangents and the Power of the Pastoral
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*Charles Stadden 30mm BEF released fifty(ish) years ago*
It occurs to me that wargaming the Great War is not going to be a straight
forward thing.
L...
Second World War comparisons on "World War 20mm"
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Piers Brand has recently posted a side by side shot of several figures
painted in his inimitable style. They represent a number of different 20mm
metal ma...
Byzarbia at Ayton Game.
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Once again it's been a while, though in my defence I plead that I have been
busy painting figures for our second Ayton Weekend Game, even forgoing two
of o...
Painted Bengalis
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Finally, pictures of the painted Bengalis!
variant 1
All painted by Peter as usual.
variant 2
variant 3
variant 4
The paint scheme depicts the arm...
Buy my e-book and save the police (again!)
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*Wasting Police Time** is now available on Kindle.
You don't need a Kindle itself to read it - you can download an 'app' onto
your iPad/laptop/whatever.
U...
10 of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
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1. The sun setting over a still sea, woven to silk, and the swimmers,
silhouttetted wading back to the shore like merman returning to land.
2. My br...
Why the WAR OF 1812?
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I just received two of the more recent Osprey Men-at Arms books on the War
of 1812 in the mail the other day (not really that recent - 1998 and
2000...but...
Home from work. Life has been very busy here - work in particular has been extremely demanding over the last few weeks. The days have been longer and I have seen less of Mrs. Kinch than I would like, but the end is sight. Reflecting on things today, it was brought home to me what a great many things I have to be thankful for. A day for counting blessings certainly.
Wishing you all a very happy Easter.
The green blade riseth
I was reminded of this by the redoubtable Alan of Tradgardland. Stuff to move the heart.
I fixed the green pennants on these chaps. Hopefully they will be doing their best for the Pasha before too long.
In the meantime, I found this in a box while looking for something else. It is great war monument from Sergeants Mess. A crisp little casting this lovely sharply defined detail.
I have no pressing need for it at present, but it was such a nice little model that I couldn't help putting it together.
I had originally thought of using a standard grey plinth and dark bronze statue with some verdigris, but I think I might use this monument as a model. It's a bit brighter than I expected - which is no bad thing.
I’ve finished the Egyptian lancers and on the whole I’m
reasonably pleased with them.They
aren’t going to win any awards, but they look well enough to pass muster at
three feet.
The lances are made from steel spears which were recommended (and a sample provided) by Mike Lewis of Black Hat. They were intended for 1/32 Prince August Highlanders, but not being able to find my drill has tied that up for a little bit. I added pennants made from printer labels, though I now realise that I sound have painted them green rather than red and white.Too much time thinking of the 17thLancers on my part I think. Better fix that before I varnish them.
The saddle and tack are probably too complex, but I just painted around the detail where I could and it seems to have done the trick.I don’t think Mike Snooke & Co will be banging my door down for uniform tips any time soon, but for my purposes they’ll do. I probably could have done more research on these, but it would have taken time and to be honest, I just wanted to get on with it. Uncertainty has a terrible tendency to paralyse, decisions are deferred and nothing gets done – which is frustrating.But in the case of toy soldiers, where very little (if anything) is at stake, it seems silly to get overly precious about things.
Definitely a case where it is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
And a shot from the rear.
Does my fez look big in this?
I’m quite happy with how this little project panned out.All the remains to be done for Kassassin is an armoured train carriage and a gun to mount on it. What could be simpler?
It was brought home to me the other day that I've been at this blogging nonsense for a while now. When I checked I discovered that Joy & Forgetfulness has been operating since the 10th of February 2008, which is a quite a bit in anyone's language. There have been approximately 750 posts in that time and 5219 comments.
I 've made some great friends via this blog, some of whom I have had the privilege of meeting face to face and others with whom it has been my pleasure to correspond. On the whole, it's been great and long may it continue. I will keep writing so long as you lot keep reading. Thank you very much for all your comments and for reading Joy & Forgetfulness.
To celebrate, I was given this rather lovely piece of terrain made by Capability Savage. It's an Old West style water tower, but would be perfectly at home for Colonials, American Civil War, Sci-fi or anything else you can think of.
Some video of the tower, shot by Savage himself.
Savage has suggested that a reader of J&F might like this tower and so I will be offering it as the prize in my "Eight Years a Blog Giveaway".
I will draw names from a hat on the 5th of April.
To enter you have to be a follower of this blog and must post a comment on this post confirming that you are interested.
If you would like to have your name entered a second time (i.e. if you would like two chances to win) include in your comment an explanation as to why you read Joy & Forgetfulness and what you would like to see in the future.
The tower breaks down into four pieces and is rock solid. The basic structure is made out of wood and plastic rod.
Having done all the trimming necessary in my last post, I got to work with greenstuff. Each figures has had a wire lance added and a green stuff fez with tassel. These were a bit awkward to do and looking at them now I've made them too big. Getting the lances to stick was another trial, but they're pretty solid now.
A quick blast of white spray later and it's time to get base coating. While the size of the fezzes seems to stand out a mile to me, I'm sure at a distance of three feet they will be less of a concern.
I shall reserve judgement until we see them with a lick of paint.
Having clearly set out my stall for what I wanted to bang away at this year, I have quite naturally done none of those things and attacked another problem entirely. Mike Dippel, who did sterling work on the Command & Colours website and other projects, wrote some Colonial scenarios, including one on Kassassin. I had intended to bang out some Second Afghan War stuff, but Egyptian blandishments lured me away.
Now, I have most of what is required to play this scenario, but I was lacking a unit of Egyptian cavalry and a railway gun. I shall probably extemporise something for the railway gun, using a flat bed and a spare gun model, but the Egyptian cavalry were more of a puzzlement.
Britains Egyptian Cavalry.
I don't mean Britains Egyptian cavalry, of course.
I mean Egyptian Cavalry made in Britain, but for Egypt.
Du Gourmand and I played a colonial game recently and I just wanted to playtest a scenario. As a result, rather than using the full panoply of figures (which I didn't have anyway), I just popped three cavalry figures down to mark a unit. Having played through the game several times, we realised that it didn't look bad and perhaps it might be something we should experiment with. At least until full 12 strong cavalry units and 19 strong infantry units become available.
But where to get three Egyptian cavalry figures.
The base figure, an Italeri Union bugler.
The Good Lord has bestowed upon me many blessings, a beautiful wife, an excellent cat, great friends and a job I loves. I am duly grateful.
Ability as a sculptor is not among my talents. However, I had this chap lying fallow and it seemed silly not to try.
Cut away the bugle and the front of the cap.
Now, there is every possibility that this may be the last post on this blog. I have attempted conversions in the past with mixed success, but three figures is certainly a record.
No doubt this will end in tears and Joy & Forgetfulness will be upside down and on fire by the time I finish. We shall see.
If that is the case, gentlemen, it has been an honour writing for you.
Inspired by Bob's Turkish artillery, I got myself a box of Strelets Turkish artillery. These figures are for the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, but they'll do very well for Turkish artillery in the Crimea and Egyptian gunners in the 1880s.
There's a very officious looking officer type with binoculars.
An 1873 Krupp gun.
This gun is suitable for Egypt in the 1880s, though I'm going to have to scare up another one from somewhere. These boys will be issued British guns for the Crimea, but for later service I'll need another. I have had a look at Irregulars Really Useful Guns, but there doesn't appear to be anything suitable.
As plastic soldier review points out these fellas with ram rods are not really required for the 1873 gun that comes in the set, but will do very well for the smooth bores used in the Crimea.
Having painted these, I've come to the conclusion that blue isn't that much more difficult to paint than white, so I may use the rest of the blue spray I used on these chaps to undercoat some Turkish infantry in blue coats.
The whole battery from the side
Du Gourmand and I played a Tel el Kebir scenario recently, based the modifications in Mike Dippel's Kassassin scenario. Not to shabby though I say so myself, though it does need further playtesting. These chaps will be seeing action there again.