A New Year's Eve feast.

Normally, New Year's Day but this year we've decided to do the main meal a day early. So this is it, prepped and ready to cook (doubt I'll be taken photos of it after cooking - too busy eating.)

 

Firstly, these holidays we got silly... including buying half a suckling pig! Having said that, we were expecting there to be more than just the two of us here!

It fits the cooker, so that's OK. To be fair, I always buy large pork joints and cut up leftovers for sandwiches and/or stews. They cook a lot better than small joints. So the pig isn't really much of a leap in the dark.

Most of the veg prepped and ready for roasting. The idea is to do as little as possible later (it's now just past midnight, the prep was done a couple of hours ago). Apple sauce out to defrost - lots made and frozen last month. Pig's in blankets will be roasted together with the potatoes - these days I find the one pot roasting solution for veg is a lot easier and tastes just as good (better!!) than boiling the things separately.

For afters, can't beat Melon au Porto. Chop a melon in half (this is a Gallia), remove seeds, ball the pulp, add a schooner of port, leave in the fridge to stew over night.)

Quite looking forward to it.

Getting ready for next year

Just because the painting has stopped over Christmas doesn't mean everything has stopped...

Currently 48 infantry and 24 cavalry undercoated and ready for painting.

The horse archers are conversions, the javelin heavy cavalry will be painted as late Persians.

Apart from the Sparabara infantry, these are also conversions - the archers are simply the cavalry put on a base with the left foot twisted to point forwards. The Spara are Rose shields glued on to a spear and based...

 

Meanwhile I have continued prepping more figures - I've got loads of Greek  hoplites lying around, these ones were simply Greek medium cavalry put on a base with the left foot twisted to point forwards. Again. I'll probably start prepping some early hoplites later.

Of presents and casting

 It's fair to say that the figure situation has been a bit skewed this Christmas so....

The only figures actually received were from my son and posted direct from Early Wars Miniatures. Interwar British, mostly for Lovecraftian adventures, and some Japanese for general use. I've now put the wheels in motion to top this lot up with another order.

I had hoped to have more items available - ordered some Whippets and Vickers Medium MkIIs from Frontline but they might be delayed - email from Tim Wade saying he had tested positive for C19 and was in isolation, but hoped to be back in production by the 19th December when he would start catching up on orders.

Meanwhile, the cancellation of our trip to Titchwell meant I was able to do something I hadn't managed for a while - a couple of casting sessions so that I have managed to put together a month or so of figures! Still way behind where I wanted to be though!

So that's about it for now, though I will be sending off an order to S &A Scenics in a day or two to top up my roads and rivers.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year everyone

 As I've said, fully intend to have a good Christmas, likewise don't want to do everything today, so started preparations last night...

Start with the alcohol... Buck's Fizz when we get up, the Champers is dual purpose - add some of that Norfolk blackcurrant liqueur to make Kir Royale, or use neat. Or perhaps the odd cocktail... Finally, for the meal I'm going with a Chapel Down Bacchus... which is a pretty decent English wine (and these days it's stocked by Sainsbury's - the vinyard is not far from Canterbury - that's where we first found it)

The goose was originally meant for when our son visited us over the New Year - except now that he can't come it's being pressed into Xmas service. The veg will act as a trevit and then a base for the gravy - though might (will) need to separate some of the goose fat off first!

I became a great believer in one pot roasted veg a while back... easy and tastes better than soggy steamed. I'll cut up and add a rasher of bacon before I start cooking it. A separate tray will be put out  later with the pigs in blankets and potatoes.

Other things will include apple sauce, cranberry sauce and redcurrant jelly - the first made ages ago and frozen, the rest in a jar. We usually have Yorkshire Pudding as well (Aunt Bessie's formerly, Sainsbury's have proved just as good since that first period of lockdown and they're cheaper!)

So that's mostly it - dinner about 6, snacks and things probably about 12 or 1, nothing sorted for them yet but quite a few things lying around that cook from frozen...

Christmas cancelled. And New Year.

OK, New Year was really cancelled first - our son Steven was supposed to be coming for a few weeks but he lives in Croydon - went to Tier 4, not allowed to come to us as Norfolk Tier 2... Haven't seen him for a year - Salute cancelled, Partizan cancelled, Birmingham Christmas Market cancelled...

And now Norfolk has moved to Tier 4 so our 'traditional'  four day Christmas stay at Titchwell Manor has gone...

Still, food not an issue - New Year goose comes out of the freezer for Christmas, plenty of other stuff in the freezer for New Year itself.

Thought 2019 was bad, apart from the 'incureable life threatening disease' part of 2019, 2020 seems to have been worse... a 19 week lockdown, a 4 week lockdown and then this lot...

Really looking forward to 2021...

And as a quick update - less than an hour after the government broadcast I got my ''Clinically extremely vunerable people should shield in areas of England in Tier 4" text!

Some Christmas Persians

One of the 'delights' of Christmas is a rash of films on the telly showing various people, elves and grinches dressed in green, red, or both. Which set me thinking: Why not paint up a load of 42mm figures in red and green uniforms , possibly for Cadet Commander. Thoughts evolved and I finally thought about all those Persians I had lying around... so this is the last item of the year now that there's a tree in front of my painting desk...

And these are the Persians dressed up in a vaguely Christmassy Elvish colour scheme.

 

I didn't bother with any decorations on the costumes - just left them plain apart from the leopard skin pattern on the standard bearer.

Overall, it's quite an effective colour scheme that goes well with Persian outfits showing the same pattern material over arms and legs with a short sleeved blouse on top. It's a basic pattern I'll do more of in the future.

Incidentally, note that the archers have a spare bow... the original figure was the Garrison J/B/Sh light cavalry figure originally converted to a horse archer. As many Eastern horse archers carried a spare bow I kept the original bow in the bowcase of the horse archer conversion. When it came to then convert it to an infantry figure I just kept that idea for the infantry.

 

 

Getting ready for Christmas

Tidiest this lot has been since last Christmas. The bureau is something I've had for quite a while - it was a 13th birthday present!

But for now there's a dirty great tree in the way!

 Which is why painting has now stopped until the New Year.

'20mm' Pulp aircraft

 Not really sure if it is really 20mm, probably not,  but looks ok...

Before I carved my two 28mm Pulp planes I had bought a load of various balsa planes from jsmwarplanes in America. Both the cost of these and postage have increased a lot since then! They were a mix of scales and one of them was a French Potez 540 bomber circa 1938.  It looked like a good Pulp candidate so... Removed assorted turrets and painted it up as some kind of generic civil aircraft...

Firstly, worth noting that the blue is a lot darker than this photo shows!

Cheated a teensy weensy bit on the number - it's basically a Potez 540 so...

Simple paint job - Vallejo flat blue, couple of bits of red to break things up and a sky blue windscreen.

And the black number was simply drawn on using a Sharpie. Incidentally, haven't made a base for this plane yet so just used the one from the Boeing 247 for the photos.

Interesting thing about this plane is the way the engines are mounted - looks as if it's a flying boat and the engines are floats!

Another cohort finished

 Well, been painting it for a few months now so it was about time I finished it!

Slightly slipshod paintwork on a couple of figures...

And I seem to have made the musician look a bit mouldy (must correct that later).

But really doesn't look all that bad.

My original idea for a Roman army included 1 cohort of Praetorians, 3 cohorts of legionaries plus auxilia and cavalry. At least I've done the Praetorians and most of the legionaries now!

Steve Sykes obituary

 Sometimes you come across something and think 'was he'? MSN today listed the obituary of Steve Sykes and it has left me with one of those moments...

Is it the Steve Sykes I knew?

An explanation. 

In the early 70's I was a Cloggie. Cloggies is the term used to describe anyone doing Colour Chemistry at Bradford University. While there I started a wargames club, membership including the likes of Pete Harris. Later, Pete was quite well known in the hobby - he wrote the Tercio set of rules used for a number of years at the Nationals. Pete got friendly with someone called... Steve Sykes. Steve was in the Roundheads Association - specifically, Sir John Lambert's Regiment, which Pete took up with a lot of enthusiasm (he started a Roundheads Association club at Bradford).  Can't pretend I knew Steve all that well, but the photo in the obituary could be him... and says that he did Colour Chemistry at Bradford two years ahead of me. Funny thing is the topic never came up so I honestly don't know if the Steve I knew was a Cloggie...

And the profile in the obituary doesn't mention an interest in Roundheads so...

Whatever.

It certainly means that I have 'lost' a fellow Cloggie, probably a fellow acquaintance (can't claim friend), and possibly the hobby has lost an ex wargamer (Steve did get involved in the hobby to a certain extent).

So I think it is appropriate to offer my condolences and best wishes to his family. He joins a growing list of deceased wargamers/Uni contemporaries of mine - perhaps he's met up with Alan Cook and Ian Beck and they're discussing old times...

Refurbishing 42mm Turks

From that ebay purchase. Just a few rifles to unbend, paint to replace and put them on bases.

Original figures painted to a good standard

Not sure if it means that 2021 could include buying a few more Turks...

 

You can never have too many boxes...

Found I was beginning to scrat around a bit looking for storage boxes. Added to that, some of my older ones are starting to look the worse for wear...

So it was a case of waiting for Weston's to have one of their Second's sales...

 So now I have enough storage to last a while.

Zenobia

 Another catch up figure - should have finished painting this one up years ago when I could!

This is a really nice one piece casting.

Basically it's a figure mounted on the 25mm version of the 20mm camel and marketed as 28mm.

Sadly, the rest of the range actually tried putting 28mm figures on the camels.... producing some some of the most ridiculous figres SKT ever issued...

Sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul?

As I have 20mm WW2 forces and am currently building up 20mm Pulp ranges there is an obvious overlap in vehicles...

So three 15cwt trucks have been quickly painted as part of the fictional occupation forces in Germany.

 

One thing I didn't notice until I had sprayed the vehicles was the fact that the back truck had been miscast around the door of the front cab. It'll do.

 

Looks a bit Christmassy

Last year's Christmas tree has replaced the cherry tree for winter - and the first snow of winter gives it a bit of a Christmas look

Just for a day it looked pretty good...

Meanwhile, the orchard area - very tall and neglected trees in May...

I had started to work on over the last few weeks - the area will soon be a bit water logged - but weather meant no work today. It means I haven't done much on the wargames front recently - should have been casting today but didn't.., which is a bit naughty of me. Perhaps tomorrow.

 

Other Crossleys finished

 As part of my ongoing 'finishing small projects' attempt I dug up the other two Crossleys and quickly sprayed/painted them.

I decided that 3 plain A/Cs didn't look good so I've added a couple of things.

Being pulp figures rather than historical I've simply numbered them 1-3 and painted UK flags on the side.

Together with the HBLS armoured cars and the Independent I'm starting to build up a nice Pulp 'army' - 3 Whippets and 3 Medium Mk IIs should more or less complete the setup.

Some Greek peltasts

Another unit that has been lying around for quite a while - long enough, in fact, that my painting skills have gone seriously downhill since I first started them! 

I originally started with two units years ago - part finished and only a few of each to check out a paint scheme. The project basically stopped because the figures I got from Harry also included a unit.

So seemed reasonable to cover several individual schemes instead of doing them all the same.

Should provide a useful extra unit to the Greek/Macedonian armies.

Roman artillery

Firstly, let me say straight off that I don't like the Garrison ballista... which is why my Greek artillery all use RAFM. Likewise, I've also got some RAFM ballistae for the Romans, now I just need to cast some crew for them.

Completed as 2 stone throwers and 1 bolt thrower

I think it's fair to describe the Ballistae as 'crude'

To add a bit of variety I've included one crewman from the Greek range.

The far one includes the commander of the unit.

I've painted the two crew on the bolt thrower with empty hands a bit differently, again to add a bit of variety.

Couple more moulds sent off

Must admit, for someone who hadn't intended to have any more moulds made this year seems to have gone a bit haywire... 

The first one is the final artillery mould. I didn't get everything I wanted on it - had to limit myself to 2 crew for 6 separate sets - Royal Artillery, Bavaria, Russia, Prussia, Austria and Wurtenburg, one crew carrying ammo, the other portfire or ramrod.

Second mould includes a couple of artillery figures. Others include some Persian infantry, Roman artillery crew and some Fantasy Arabs. Roman artillery are included in my current haphazard painting spree.

I've been working the Fantasy Arabs for a while but still haven't completed the 'Range' yet - want another light cavalry figure (basically Napoleonic Mamelukes with the carbine cut off and a shield added) plus at least 1 other infantry figure with a sword and shield.

Wanting this range finished is one reason why I haven't had the cavalry horse mould made - finishing the infantry plus a couple of other things would give me my next two moulds.