Samurai… W.I.P. Hurrah!

 Greetings…

Yes … Hurrah! Indeed for Perry Miniatures 😁

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/sam-mon-1-maeda-toshiie-japanese-samurai-mon-transfers/

Well that has sorted out my Decal problem….

All the best.  Aly

Samurai… W.I.P.

Greetings …

About a year ago I had an excellent game of Clashing Katanas around at my friend Matt’s…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2025/11/clashing-katanas-dashing-daimyo.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Clashing Katanas… The Dashing Daimyo.

Of course I needed to go out and get some Samurai’s painted for myself….

So here are the first three almost done 🤣

I have chosen to do ( My take on ) The Maede Clan… Unfortunately I can’t find anyone that does decals so I am waiting until I have a full unit painted before I freehand all the Crests in one go…

So here we go…

I’m very pleased with how these are going…

I’ve used a fair bit of Contrast and Shade type paints which has been an interesting experience…

I will post more details once the unit is finished…

I’m also trying out a new basing method which is a bit more verdant than my normal style…

More to follow…

All the best.  Aly

From My Side of the Table… Bolt Action

Greetings…

A few weeks ago we had a little game of Bolt Action round at Matt’s  house… The idea was to have a little introduction game for a couple of the youngsters who hadn’t played it before.

Matt set up a little scenario at a crossroads involving infantry and armour…

British Infantry advance towards the Church…

A second group sneak up on the crossroads…

No enemy to be seen as yet…

Time for the armour to get involved… With a couple of brilliant misses. 🙀

At last…. A sight of the enemy…

It does seem to be a friendly little place…

Making an advance up the centre we once more become bullet magnets…

Dashing into a house…We make brilliant targets… again 😳.

My men enter the church… Only to be shot down by a hidden enemy using hand grenades and machine guns…Probably in slow motion like a scene from a Sam Peckinpah movie…

Even round here it’s a land full of bullets…

We decide it was Beer O’ Clock.

This was a fun evening as we tried out different things to show off the rules… The vague plan is to get proficient at  Bolt Action and then move onto another set of rules and do the same.

All the best.  Aly

Blog Birthday… Nine Years Old.

 

Greetings…

Yes another year older… Doesn’t time fly.

So now I’ve got to try and remember what I have done over the last twelve months…sigh!

Well this time last year (JULY), I was about to go into hospital and have my first Cataract operation…

It actually seems like a lot longer than twelve months ago…It still amazes me when I wake up in the morning and can see the room without putting glasses on…

The other weird thing is I am still getting used to have reading glasses… the amount of times I leave them places or simply forget them is ridiculous…

I also bought and airbrush…

To my shame I have yet to use it in ‘anger’…

I have however been practicing with different types of  ‘airbrush’ paints… seeing how fine a line I can draw and what the coverage is like…

I had a go using Citadel Contrast Paints the Reds gave a rather nice finish… but were a bugger to clean through the brush. Tamiya thinners seemed to do the trick in the end.

AUGUST saw me waiting for my second eye operation and trying out magnifying lights…

Still not really a fan…

SEPTEMBER…

The second eye operation done and successful… My specialist was very pleased with the results.

And I painted something…

Hurrah!

I was very pleased with the results…It was really nice to get some paint on some toys.

I suspect that from this point onwards the Wargames Butterfly has been fluttering free and ruling my life.😁😁😁🦋🦋🦋

OCTOBER…

The other Partizan…

I managed a flying visit to the show which was as you would expect excellent…

There were… as always… more games than I could get pictures of…

Here are a couple that caught my eye…

The Battle of Montargris 1427 from The Bodkins.

Somewhere in the Low Countries from North Star.

The Black Ship from The Iron Brigade.

I also bought something silly… Well… I blame the butterfly 🦋

Who doesn’t need inflatable tank shells…

NOVEMBER …

I painted something shiny…

The French 3rd Infantry…

It was really nice to get back to the shiny… I always puts a smile on my face.

DECEMBER …

Well … I didn’t really do that much in December.

Partly due to building work in the house and mostly because I had a really bad Fibromyalgia flare up…

I did manage to post about my ‘Go To ‘ Books for Napoleonic French…

Here are a few…

I really must do this again for another period… If nothing else it’s a good way of sorting out what I actually have in my library…

JANUARY … The Boxing Day Game….Hurrah!

I know… This should really be in December… But I put it here and can’t be bothered moving it 🤣

Always the high point of the year…

It was of course a splendid game… I came third 😳.

Also the wargames room was mostly finished so I could start to get things back in place 

Hurrah!…

Due to my aching bones and muscles this was a slow process… but worth it.

FEBRUARY…Another quiet month as far as hobbies were concerned… 

But I did paint some Shiny Napoleonics.

The 5th Westphalian Landwehr using Hinchliffe miniatures… Hmmmm! Pretty.

MARCH…

March had me acquiring more Late Romans from my friend David… which meant more re-basing 😁

I also painted some Oscan Light Infantry…

I think the butterfly made an excellent choice with these… They turned out really well…

APRIL…

April saw me doing some more Late Roman re- basing.

MAY…

Retirement 😁 Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

I retired on the 1st of May… I recommend it to everyone.

I got a suitably crazy gift from a friend…

Can you tell what it is 😁…

My friend David came down from Scotland for a visit and we went to Partizan…

Here are a few notable games…

ACW Action from The Bodkins…

Pretty Samurai action from… The Shrewsbury Wargames Society.

Operation Bagration from the Derby Wargames Society.

Assault on Kawajima Castle from The Iron Brigade .

We also christened my wargames room and had an excellent Shiny Napoleonics game…

This was such a fine game… Probably one of the prettiest games I’ve ever had..

JUNE…
Although the report appears in July… We had The Wild Geese weekend in June.

Good friends and lovely games… What’s not to like.

And so here we are in JULY….

I acquired some (43)600mm x 600mm terrain boards they need a bit of TLC but they will save me load of time.

I really enjoy making terrain so I am looking forward for this.

And I have a nice tidy desk… 🤔hmmm

My Fibromyalgia is still playing up so I am taking things slowly and painting whatever the butterfly lands on…On the plus side…being retired now means I’m under no pressure and have no deadlines… I have also discovered napping… I recommend it 😴😄.

I should have my Photo Booth set up again soon… so I can/ shall post some photos…

I think I shall go and mess up my desk a bit more 🤣

All the best.  Aly

 

Wild Geese 2026… P.S.

Greetings…

I completely forgot to mention the quiz…

Every year we have a quiz set by one of our more intelligent comrades… 

This years was a tough one…( Thank you Toby).

And you will not be surprised to learn our/my team… came…. 🎉🎉🎉… Fourth!

Out of…. 

Four 🙀

But…

Rather surprisingly that meant we got a prize…. The Wooden Spoon. ( One for each team member no less)

First place got cheers… Second and Third gave the cheers… And we got this…

Beautifully hand painted…

I think I will strive to do minimal research for next year’s quiz 🤣🤣🤣.

All the best   Aly