Assyrian army

Assyrian army

Monday 30 August 2021

Increasing the herd

One of the vagaries of my Ancient armies is that I had a load of Minifigs elephants but only four Garrison. Thought it was time to redress the balance.
So the first part of this was to do a load of straight Carthaginian elephants. I've done them quite simply, no shields on the side or bowcases! At some stage this will allow me to take the howdahs  off my converted  Minifigs Carthaginians elephants so they can join the Indian army.

Plenty more to do - these 12 have been allocated to provide four Vanha elephants to supplement the mammoths plus eight that will be used as Sassanids or fantasy Persians.

Once this lot are sorted, my next lot will hopefully be a dozen to act as Atlanteans. 

Obviously, of course, just because I intend to follow this plan doesn't mean that I actually will...

Friday 13 August 2021

Japanese officers and HMGs

 Representing the small amount of (poor quality) painting I've done recently...

Definitely minimum wargames standard! All figures Frontline.

I feel I should have at least tried with the senior officer! (didn't)

Officers set looks to have lots of uses, especially for artillery units?

Originally bought 4 HMGs but one kind of broke...

That pretty much finishes the Japanese until I get some field artllery.

Thursday 12 August 2021

Japanese Infantry Equipment

Found it! The original Airfix magazine article I based all that Japanese equipment on! 

So, in the spirit of Fair Usage purposes/Educational and Research, this is it. Further, although I was convinced the article had been cut out, it was in fact still intact in the magazine!

From April, 1965 - so I was doing these conversions when I was still 13 (just!)

The article was actually by C.O.Ellis

Nothing really to add to this - I'll just let the article speak for itself.


Sunday 8 August 2021

'S' Range Assyrian army Review.

 So things like that pond are still taking up all my time... 

Put it this way, the original was about 6' by 4' and a bit under 2' deep. The present version is currently about 22/24' by 10/12' and up to 3' deep. It's taking a while to dig the thing out and stopping everything else. Had hoped to have had a casting session by now, it keeps getting put back..

That being the case, already did the Egyptians, so this time I set up the Assyrians. They have been covered before and not much added, just gave me an excuse to get them out! (To be fair, have been quietly painting a (very) few Japanese, but again figures that would normally have taken  a couple of days are taking a couple of weeks.)

Unlike the Egyptians these are not sorted into Divisions - just one glorious mixed up whole.

Also unlike the Egyptians this lot haven't been designated as 'finished' - still a few units patiently waiting their turn.

It's also an army that is not purely Minifigs 'S' Range. This lot are from about 1975-1978 and have Minifigs chariot bodies that I had 'updated' with Lamming horses, crews and wheels. At the time I was building a Lamming Assyrian army and used the chariot bodies to make 4 horse rather than Lamming 2 horse chariots - Bill was always happy to sell 'bits'. Really must paint the bases to match the current army.

Same basic style, but these are ones I did just a few years ago - all Minifigs 'S' Range apart from     Garrison chariot wheels. The armoured horses are 'S' Range cataphract horses. The general was inspired by the next lot.

The next lot are ones I got from Harry. The design looked good so I took it as a template for my 2 horse chariot force!

The spearman in this acts as the general for the 2 horse chariots - and is one of my figures painted back in about 1970. He would originally have crewed one of the 4 horse chariots from the first chariot picture.

Chariots painted by me from unpainted ex-Harry chariots. Some of these are crewed by Garrison 20mm I cast.

Finally some ex-Harry charioys credited to Ray McGarry but given Assyrian crews to replace their original Persian crews - this is, after all, the 'right' chariot for Assyrians!


Thursday 5 August 2021

Retirement prezzie

 Knew something was coming, but still a nice surprise...

From NT&AS, the company I've been with since my 'first' retirement.

They know me so well!

Plus a nice message.


Tuesday 3 August 2021

Clive Smithers RIP

Just found out about this from Prometheus in Aspic blog.

Never met Clive so can't say anything about him. It's one of those cases where I think it's best to add nothing except commiserations and refer people to the link.

RIP.

Monday 2 August 2021

Never, never use Yodel...

 OK, background. Still working on that pond, so need a 100 metre hose to run water to it. Duly ordered.

Email from Yodel to say it's on it's way, went to tracking, message 'We tried to deliver your parcel but it was refused at the door. Please contact the sender with any queries' No you didn't, we were in and noone tried to deliver anything.

Two minutes later; 'Sorry we were unable to locate your property. Please contact us.'

Eventually  got on to their Live chat'. Most of the day it was saying 'We're sorry, all of our operators are busy. Please try again in a few minutes' - it's saying that now at half ten in the evening, been saying that virtually all day. But as I say, eventually got on and the following is a transcript of the 'live' conversation:

Dinesh Sharma 14:34:20: Good afternoon, Rob. How are you today?

Rob Young 14:35:33: Not happy? Got message on tracking saying we had refused delivery - no delivery had been attempted - followed by a message to contact you as they could not find us! Both can't be true.

Rob Young 14:38:21: Reply please?

Rob Young 14:41:54: Hello?

Rob Young 14:43:39: Is anyone there?

Rob Young 14:44:32: THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!! PLEASE ANSWER!!!!!!!

Ten minutes of a LIVE conversation and not the curtesy of any acknowledgement of my query.

After my blast, they just disconnected.

So it's now with their complaints department.

Now, is it just me?

Nope. Looked up Yodel.

'PD Local is the UK's “best” parcel delivery service, according to Money Saving Expert users. The consumer website's annual survey also reveals the worst-rated services, with Yodel and CitySprint scoring the lowest. ... Just 11% rated CitySprint 'great', while Yodel finished in the bottom three for the sixth year running.27 Jan 2021'

'Yodel tops list of WORST parcel delivery firms (again)' from  https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2017/01/yodel-tops-list-of-worst-parcel-delivery-firms-again/

' BBC Watchdog says that it continued to regularly receive reports of bad service after the re branding to Yodel. In January 2014, Yodel was named the "worst parcel delivery firm" in a poll by MoneySavingExpert.com, of 9,000 people, with 78% of customers rating their experience negatively.'

 Etc, etc... 

So, if anyone ever wants to send me anything...

PLEASE don't use Yodel! 

 An update: latest message ' Thank you, we have received your new address. See you soon.' - what new address? They just messed things up and sent it to the wrong place.