ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Tuesday, 29 July 2025

So… I bought myself an Airbrush

Greetings….

I decided that I could do with an Airbrush…Yup! This is what happens when you have time on your hands 😆

I have had one before…Many years ago.. So it was interesting to see how the quality and pricing has changed over the years…

I bought a Harder and Steenbeck Ultra… From Element Games…

https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/Airbrushes-accessories/harder-and-steenbeck/ultra-series/ultra-2024ULTRA 2024 - Ultra Series | Element Games


Along with a Sparmax Air Compressor…

And a Cleaning Pot…



After reading and watching some reviews….It turns out that this bad boy is the “ Bees knees “ as is the Compressor…
The Airbrush is incredibly well made and is designed with the beginner / Lapsed User in mind…
I am still working out what it can do and hopefully when my vision is back to normal I can have a good deal of fun exploring and investigating….

Everyone I have spoken to who uses an Airbrush says this is an excellent choice…

Oh!…
I also bought something to practice on…


Yup! Why go for something simple 🤣…

The operation on my right eye is on Thursday and hopefully the left eye will be in a couple of weeks down the road…
And then… Lead/Plastic Alp beware….😁

All the best.  Aly



Sunday, 13 July 2025

Eight Years Old…


Greetings…

Well there you go… Another year.

Thinking back over the last year I had the feeling that I didn’t do much… But it turns out I have done more than I thought…

A reasonable amount of games… Mostly Lion Rampant.

A bit more painting than I thought…

Of course I could have done a lot more but building work intervened along with various health issues…

Looking back I can now see when my cataracts started to affect my painting output… From late December to January onwards…

With my operation coming up and retirement on the horizon I am hoping there will be a lot more painted toys to show you all in the next year…along with many more games.

So here are a few pictures to show some of the things I did manage to do…



Lion Rampant, Wars of the Roses… 
Our little group have been trying to meet up once a month which means we have had a number of excellent games over the year.




Some ‘Shiny Napoleonics’
I am looking forward to getting back to painting more of these…



More Wars of the Roses…



A few more ‘Shiny Napoleonics’…


Xmas Wars of the Roses…


The Boxing Day game…


Pyrrhus of Epirus…

A new project… 
Alas as this unit was finished I began to notice that my eyes were getting a bit ‘fuzzy’
I do however have another unit cleaned up and undercoated…


At about this time I decided to start ‘Front Loading’ for retirement 😁


My favourite place in the house…
Although that might change when the Wargames Room gets done up next month…


More Wars of the Roses… This time using Midgard.


Napoleon in Egypt round at Alan’s house…


If I can’t see well enough to paint… I can still stick them together.



Partizan… An excellent day out… As always.



The Wild Geese Weekend…
Splendid fun… In splendid company… With lovely toys.

Plans for next year?
I have a few…🤔
Getting on with the Pyrrhic project…
More Shiny Napoleonics…
And getting some of the Plastic 100 Days painted…
And Dads Army…
Of course this is what I am saying now… But I haven’t taken into account what the Butterfly will want…🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

All the best.  Aly





Monday, 7 July 2025

And Another New Book…

 Napoleon’s  Hussars & Chsseurs…

By Paul L Dawson…





This is another excellent book from Frontline Books…

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Napoleons-Hussars-and-Chasseurs-Hardback/p/24302Pen and Sword Books: Napoleon’s Hussars and Chasseurs - Hardback

It’s up to the usual very high standard that I’ve gotten used to from this author…
Lots of high quality photos and plenty of information and interesting statistics and information…

This is also part of an on going series which includes Heavy Cavalry ( Already ordered), Lancers and Dragoons, Line Infantry, Light Infantry and Artillery.

Probably not to everyone’s taste but if you want to ‘ go deep’ on the detail of Napoleon’s Armies this is the place to go…

All the best.   Aly