Scots Wha Hae

 

 These are Gripping Beast 25mm SCOTS07 - 

My camera is playing up again now that Fuji have decided to cease supporting FinePix.  I can see my pictures on the viewer but they stubbornly refuse to import.  Will have to buy an external card reader.

 I wouldn't normally consider building 3.78 Scots Isles & Highlanders as I already have Vikings.  Another DBA army with an excess of 4Bd was, therefore, not on the cards.  So how come I have 18 elements waiting to be flocked and photographed?  

It's a question of accumulation.  Ian gave me a load of suitable axemen, Ben supplied some 'Viking' types and my own spares box ran to a few more elements.  What I didn't have I purchased from QRF - Bw & Pk (it took 23 days but at least they are still functioning).

Now I'm thinking about a double DBA army.  For that I need an additional 3 x 4Bd; 2 x 3Bw & 1 x 3Ax (Irish).  The WotR box can supply the last element.  What I am short of is 40mm x 15mm mdf bases (incidentally I highly recommend sandpapering the mdf to improve adhesion).

It is not necessary to differentiate between the 2 commands in DDBA but I'm going to do it anyway.  The painted soldiers are on wider (20mm) bases whereas the new ones will be shallower.  Doubt that it will make any practical difference but time, and experimentation, will tell.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No wargames for me recently as I have been quite unwell - balance failures.  Discovered that part of the problem was using Cymex (for a cold sore).  Seems that when you are over 65 the medicine is not recommended (contra-indications include dizzyness).  Who would have thought?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the painting tray:  (a)  Napoleonic Russian horse and artillery
                                   (b)  Anglo-Saxons
                                   (c)  Oddments - 4 x Italian Xb, 8 x generic medieval Sp,  6 x Celtiberian Bd(F) &                                                             10 x Elvish HotT elements.                    

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Stray Thoughts & Scattered Dreams

 

 Atlas of the Battles of the American Revolution 1775-83 by Bonk & Anderson

 This solid tome was recently on special offer at £20 from Helion.  At that price I could not resist.  Looks like a well crafted book with plenty of maps.

Thought it might be time to get all those 20mm Americans & Brits out of loft!  Then reality stepped in and reminded me of the current ban on climbing chairs & ladders.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) until my balance improves those Airfix armies can slumber on.  

Also occurred to me that I may have some British up there as well!  15mm figures purchased decades ago from a shop in Doncaster.  Of course the model shop no longer exists (now an 'adult' premises).  

Sadly yet another wargames establishment has shut down - Janco Toys at Worsborough.  The owner needs to devote his time to looking after his sick partner.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Something Dropped Into My Lap

I had run out of ideas for blog posts.  Inspiration was sleeping late (or later than me anyway). Maybe a look through some old box files would help!  Of course the lid of one gave way and spilled its contents all over the place.

Amongst the papers were a few things that had been 'put away for later' ...and later never came.  3 items needed further investigation:

1)  "Suggestions for HotT Naval Elements" [author unknown].  Only 2 pages - eminently sensible and easy to incorporate into HotT.

2)  D3H2 v2.0.  There were obviously pages missing - no idea where the disc is.  I contacted Thomas J Thomas (one of the authors) who kindly sent me a copy of the latest version (2.1).  This will probably be the last pro tem as he is helping to develop DBA Fantasy.  Have played D3H2 a few times in the past and found them OK.

3)  Hott With A Difference by G.Branco.  Posted to 'theminiaturespage' a few years ago (email address is no longer valid).

An attempt to add some colour/individuality to 'vanilla' HotT.  New army lists have restrictions and troop abilities.  Of course only play-testing will tell.
Now, if my camera & computer will talk to each other I could set up a trial game.......Hmm!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Paint Tray:

Nap Russians - 15mm cavalry & artillery
Ancients - 15mm Anglo-Saxons - slow going and dull,
Fantasy - 20mm Elves - need some extras (about 6 points short) - time to research Elven mythology.

 

 

New Purchases - Pt.2 Light Box

 

 

Emart Foldable LED Light Box - taken using natural light (very sunny).

A pure indulgence.  The assembly instructions were/are not super clear.  After studying the diagrams I made my first attempt.  Two more tries later I got it right (or close enough).  There's still one piece of net that I don't know what to do with.

For the first set of pictures taken with this box see the previous posts (Bedouin & Sea Peoples).  The backdrop colour selected was of a sandy hue (to match the figures) but it turned out pink.  Maybe I had the wrong light setting (3 available). Pleased with how much shadow elimination there is.  Obviously more practice is required. 

For the pic above I used 100% light and a red background.  Have to admit it makes the figures look like something out of a video game.  

     Huns - 1 x Cv(g); 2 x 2Lh; 2 x 4Bw  [When I find my 'Germans' they can share a box/tin]
     Knights - 1 x Serbian (white - for Ottoman army); 1 x Welsh (mixed - manufacturer unknown);          1 x Mixed (for general use)
     Artillery - general piece (stone-thrower)

It was only when I tried to import the pics that I ran into trouble.  Support for 'MyFinePix' has been withdrawn.  Shotwell was not happy on my system either but the 'native' Windows program worked (sort of). Cleared all traces of Shotwell and MyFinePix.  Re-installed Shotwell.  Worked well enough to get the last photo.  What a pallava!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

On order (Essex) - 12 Medieval Polish Knights (for 4.66 Later Polish); 8 Italian Xb (for Golden Horde);
                   8 Generic DA/Early Med Spearmen (always seem to be short of these).
         (Helion) - book on AWI battles.

Still on the painting tray: Russian Napoleonics & Anglo-Saxons.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DBA @ Gt.Houghton - Saturday 3rd August 2024

1.11a  Akkadian             v 1.10 Melukhkhan    8:3 win   Double DBA - I steamrollered my Pike forward.
1.25b  Early Neo-Assyrian   v 1.23b  Later Vedic Indian   4:1 win   Collision Course - Ian struggled to get his troops on the board.
1.9  Early Syrian           v 1.1b Early Sumerian   6:0 win     standard DBA - this was 'hairy' to start with but then the terrain effects took over.

The last time we played I was wiped out - loosing all 4 battles.  Just goes to show what a game of skill DBA is!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Still frustrated by the appalling formatting on this blog.  Cannot cleanly exit from the program either.  Seems that I need to look for another host!