A last minute disappointment. Saved.

Ordered a goose for New Year, went to collect... not there, someone came to the shop yesterday saying they had ordered a goose so they got ours...

So we're stuck with a frozen turkey (if it defrosts in time) - still, they didn't charge for it so...

 And updated - Sandra started going round trying to find a goose. And succeeded. A half-price goose that was already half the price of the one we were getting.

So, to sum up:

Free 7.8kg free range turkey.
Goose costing £19.50 instead of a goose costing 'about £80'

Quite a nice ending to the year really...

What I did over Christmas

We seem to be settling into a Christmas routine: when my son Steven is here for Christmas, it's turkey at home. This year he's here for the New Year so Christmas was away for four days.

At Titchwell Manor. This picture from the Internet as I forgot to take an external view photo myself!

We always get the same room.

I suppose we COULD light the fire, never have.

The jars and items in the basket are the 'freebies' in the room.

Nice to go down to the creek past the beach

Usually a few seals to look at in the creek but none were basking on the banks this year.

The RSPB reserve is down there as well - at one point, from our position by the creek, we could see 7 or 8 Marsh Harriers whilst also looking at 4 seals.

In wargames terms, I did succumb and get one of those Langley boats... the cheaper of the two! Just got to make it up now.

Merry Christmas everyone

Some Rose 20mm Confederates

I've sometimes dabbled with the idea of doing ACW armies - in fact, years/decades ago I did paint up a lot of Airfix figures. More recently - but still a few years ago - I started a couple of units of Rose 20mm Confederates. However, it didn't last long and the figures were put to one side and quietly allowed to deteriorate....

Didn't quite get them finished. Basic finish, very similar to (and compatible with) the Airfix figures.

Very basic... but still look good on the table. I'll probably make another attempt soonish.

A Roman army Review

Not one of my biggest armies so I can't say 'Garrison' or 'Minifigs' Review - This lot include Irregular, Garrison and Minifigs. Add them all together and I'm getting towards one reasonably sized army - though with some very incompatible paint jobs!

The whole army, Garrison/Minifigs right flank, Irregular left

The Garrison/Minifigs half - 2 Minifigs cavalry units, some Garrison archers and Praetorians and a cohort each of Garrison and Minifigs Legionaries. No javelin armed auxilia yet.

The Irregular part, organised as 12 figure units. Not sure who made the artillery - have got a couple of Irregular ones somewhere.

Minifigs cavalry on Garrison horses - riders bought ready painted but without horses.

The infantry. Garrison archers, Garrison Praetorians, Garrison legionaries then Minifigs legionaries.

A couple of close ups of the Garrison infantry.

And views of the Irregular infantry

Meanwhile, plenty to paint - 2 cohorts worth of Garrison legionaries.

Casting ZinnBrigade Prussians

Back in May...2018... or thereabouts I ordered some Prussian ZinnFiguren moulds from Germany. What, with one thing and another, I finally got round to trying them out!

I bought 2 moulds - officer/marching soldier and 2 different firing.

Moulds are neat but I was originally concerned at the lack of air channels.

It didn't prove a problem. In fact, I needed a clamp to hold the moulds together - elastic bands just weren't enough. To spread the load on the rubber there are rigid 2mm mdf boards on the outside of the mould.

After just a couple of trials it worked - one thing, I found that metal temperatures had to be lower than for spin casting.

Initial trial batch - by the end of the holidays I hope I will have cast quite a few of these.

Setting up for Christmas

As I said, once the tree goes up painting stops...

Tidied up painting desk before...

After putting tree up...

Last figures this year

As I've mentioned, once the tree goes up I lose access to my painting desk. So this lot are probably the last lot of figures I'll get finished this year. As it is, I only painted the horses - the riders were bought ready painted. I don't know whether it happens today, but back in the early 70s 'S' Range and early PB riders were moulded with saddles attached and the horses were were bare backed - so quite a few people would only buy a few horses and just swap the riders for the battle they were fighting. So these days I buy some riders that never had their 'own' horses - happily, Garrison horses usually do the job!

Figures in pretty good condition though one has lost his plum,e (me being ham fisted!)

Simple paintwork - personally, I don't think I could ever leave the shields that plain!

Bit blurred, but still shows that the Garrison horse is a reasonable fit. I didn't bother touching up the paintwork on the riders - it isn't really all that noticeable on the table.

Early Persian field army, Winter Review

My early Persian armies have expanded quite a bit this year so it seemed like a good idea to hold some kind of Review. Sheer logistics meant restricting the army to Garrison line infantry/sparabara with a few supporting cavalry. It also gave me a good opportunity to see exactly what I had in various areas in terms of units and colour schemes. This would enable me to plan future expansion (as if...)

The army parades for the King in front of a 50p Ahura Mazda (picked up at a car boot sale)

The king and head noble (?) follow elements of an Immortal unit and Guard cavalry.

Another unit of Guard Cavalry follow the chariots.

Next, elements of 2 other Immortal units plus representatives of the Persian and Mede portion of the Empire.

The right being post of honour a complete Immortal regiment is joined by high-ranking and noble regiments of Medes and Persians. Cavalry at the back include lights and line heavies.

Some line Persian/Mede regiments in front of the Ahura Mazda.

However, the field army has more than just Medes and Persians in it - Elamite and Saka/Dahae infantry backed by line heavy cavalry and Scythian light cavalry.

In total, about 60 cavalry and 350 infantry. Not massive in relation to my total Persian army, but looks good as part of a standing field army! Also, worth comparing with my last Review and remembering many of the infantry here weren't around then.

Meanwhile, still casting the robed figures like mad and also want to cast a few more Guard cavalry...  Also thinking about next year. Want to get some Roman armies sorted - shouldn't be difficult but I just don't seem to manage - did do most of a small Irregular army once, plus   a larger Airfix Roman one (including light infantry and cavalry conversions) about 45 yrars ago. Might also start 7YW British or German force... though not sure my eyes could cope with the painting.

Tidying up some Persians.

When I first started using the body filler basing method I originally intended to just use that as a base before adding flocks, etc. As such I experimented with a number of colours for the base, usually an earth colour. Finally decided it's time to get some some of these units up to the 'Chapter Approved' (is that an actual GM Trademark?) colour standard so I've overpainted the earth colour on a couple of units with an olive green/green sky paint mix.

One of my 'original' generals from way back 10 years or so back - the army standard was one of my first Garrison conversions after I bought the range.

Figures from the original Garrison range. The archer is still one of the mainstays of my Persian army, the javelinman/spearman  isn't used as much as it should be!

Garrison conversions, the figure holding the Spara works equally well as a Sassanid levy if I ever get round to it.

Side view - note the originals are in a later Achaemenid scheme.

Another unit of Garrison robed sparabara.

Partly because I like them I seem to be painting a lot of the Garrison Persian robed sparabara conversions. The Immortal figure, for example, I consider to be a poorer design - one thing is that the spears are very fragile. So, another unit of the Persian levy. Again, I'll point out that they should be Medes, but I'm aligning my id of the figure to the Minifigs Mede and Persian figures, so the figures I call Persian are actually Medes and the figures I call Medes are Persians... anyway, I know what I mean...

Again, I've gone for a 24 figure/3 element unit.

3 views...

And an enlarged picture to show up every painting imperfection.

And a picture of the original Garrison Immortal mentioned earlier.

Persian Hordes

A bit over  a year ago I mentioned that I'd painted up a unit of Hordes for my Persians but didn't get round to basing them. I thought that, perhaps, I would base them in the New Year. In a way I was wrong and have actually based them before the New Year. I just hadn't stipulated which New Year...

Indian Army Review 2019

The logical end of the November mass painting spree...

Not as big as some of my other armies but quite reasonable.

Inspecting the first chariot unit...

Second...

And third...

Along the line of javelins.

The archery Corps

And finally the cavalry

The 2 horse chariots came with a 1 man crew - I've replaced them with a 2 man crew.

Medium cavalry units - in blue, so could possibly substitute for Kushites.

The EHC came part painted. 'Actual' EHC in an Indian army should be Kushans, basically a Parthian cataphract figure on a half armoured horse. Not something I'm going to quibble about!

These elephants show the flesh tones issue - figures all came ready painted though I painted the elephants.