New Year Catch Up and plans for 2026

Greetings…

Well it’s taken longer than I thought to get this post written up…

I think it’s just been one of these years…

For me it started of with Flu… And a hospital visit.😳🙄

I’ve also had two Cataract operations… Which I must say has made a massive improvement to my life.

I have now got some decent prescription reading glasses for my close up work , but on a day to day basis I don’t need really need any glasses at all… ( I do however carry a pair of shop bought £3.99 readers in my pocket… just in case😁)

The house has been ( and still is) a bit of a building site… but the Cellar is now finished as is the work on my Wargames Room…

The only thing to do is get all my books and toys back on their shelves… This has been a slow process as I have had a rather bad Fibromyalgia flare up which has made moving me and objects rather painful.

Bit by bit I am getting there…

Most of these boxes are now empty and all my toy soldiers are where they should be…

Painting as a result of all this has been at a minimum… but I have assembled quite a few figures in preparation for my retirement…

Yup!

Retirement! Hurrah!… The plan is April.

So! 

What are my hobby plans for the future?

I have planned out/ prepared/ front loaded for 6 - 8 projects/Collections.

In “All Plastic “…

Khazar Wars… Two forces for Lion Rampant…Khazars v’s Rus… Victrix Miniatures….8-10 units a side, all assembled while I was waiting for my eyes to heal…

The first thing I painted after the operations was a test unit for the Rus.

The Hundred Days…

Two moderate sized forces…All plastic… Made up of units that I think are pretty, based up in a way that will hopefully allow me to use a number of different rules systems.

I have already treated myself to a painted unit by my chum Mark Hargreaves at Over Open Sights.

http://over-open-sights.blogspot.com/2025/09/vive-l-empereur.htmlOver Open Sights: Vive L' Empereur!

In “ Metal “…

Pyrrhic Wars…

This is probably one of the bigger planned projects…

Four factions… Each 8 - 10 units strong…

Pyrrhic, Hellenistic Greek, Republican Roman and Carthaginian…

I have all the castings I need ( well probably more than I need 🤔)

Vandal Wars…

Vandals v’s Byzantines… Two forces for Lion Rampant 8 - 10 units a side with options for expansion.

I also have all the castings I need…Maybe 😆

Of course let’s not forget the Late Romans that I have just acquired from my friend David Bickley…

I have some rebasing to do… But I do have all I need…. Yeah!… Maybe 🤔🤣

Tintin…

A small project using Mark Copplestone’s beautiful “Marks Little Soldiers “

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1Mark's Little Soldiers - Copplestone Castings

Not sure where this will go… But I’m thinking Rebels and Patriots or Men Who Would be Kings…

Syldavia v’s Borduria… What’s not to like.

Oh!…

And there is The Lord of the Rings…

A bit of an outrider here…

I’ve been collecting various bits and pieces… Thinking “Dragon Rampant “… 

We will see where this goes as I always found it difficult painting Fantasy/Sci-Fi as it reminds me too much of Work… But as I won’t be working things might be different.

Also…

The Youngsters are planning something WW2… Set around operation Knights Move… I’m thinking a little force of Paratroopers… Maybe a Stug or two 😁

There also maybe a visit to “Pillage” later… I’m thinking Normans.

This is all on top of adding a few new units to my existing collections…

Well…

That’s the plan… Sort of…

I certainly won’t be bored…

But we all know what happens to plans….

All the best   Aly.

A New Year… Again.

Greetings…

So another year has come and gone…

It’s been an odd one… I certainly didn’t get as much done as I wanted… The world , Life , Health and Builders have conspired to getting in the way of me painting and playing with toys…

Anyway here are some pictures…

Shiny Napoleonics…

Rebasing Russians…

More shiny…

The Wild Geese Weekend…

Lion Rampant Wars of the Roses…

More Shiny…

Edinburgh…

And all the dry storage space I will ever need…

I was definitely leaning towards the Shiny in 2024…

Hopefully I will get a bit more done this year… I do have some vague plans and thoughts…

Whether they last the year is another thing all together…

Things that I would like to do more of…

Shiny Napoleonics,

Wars of the Roses,

The War of 1812,

3rd Century Rome,

All these collections would benefit from have more and new units added to them….

Shiny War of 1812,

Shiny Neapolitans,

Shiny ACW,

The War of 1812 and Neapolitans would make excellent expansions to my Shiny collections… Especially the outrageous Neapolitan uniforms.

Pyrrhic and Hellenistic Greek…

This is something I am definitely going to go… Aventine Miniatures do some splendid figures that would be suitable for this…

Make some new Terrain…

I could do with some more flexible boards 600mm x600mm rather than the 300mm ones I have.

Maybe something Byzantine…

Maybe something WW2… The War in the Desert maybe…

Or maybe not…

Of course this may and possibly will all change by the end of the week…

Except for the Pyrrhic and Hellenistic Greeks that is…

Let’s hope my Butterfly agrees with me…

All the best.  Aly

2023… Another Year.

Greetings…

Well another year has come and gone…

Looking back it’s been quite a busy one… Maybe not as much with my hobby as I would have liked but time has certainly flown past…

Once again our so called leaders have shown us how to behave like total ‘Richard’ Heads… I am beginning to think that it’s well past the time we should have got the pitchforks and flaming brands out…🙄

And once again it’s family , friends and hobbies that keep me sane.

Due to Work, Building Work and Life/Health I haven’t been as busy as I would have liked… But looking at things I have done a lot more than I thought…

I have really butterflied around with my figure painting throughout the year… Only really coming into sharper focus in December…

A shiny start…

A jump up in size to 40mm..

15mm Dacians for DBA…

15mm Carolingians 

Back up to 28mm…

Dads Army…

Oh Yes!… Flutter Flutter Flutter…

Dads Army needs some Villains…

And of course the Normans need some Byzantines…

And Flutter Flutter…

Camels!… Not even I saw that coming 🤣.

Last but by no means least…The Wars of the Roses…

Which I surprised myself by finishing everything I needed in about four weeks… Then had a game.

Oh! And I also built and painted some Snowmen.

But wait… There’s more…

The Great Rebasing Project…

The Purchase from Mr Bickley…

Some of the 24 Rebased, Re-Flagged,Re-Speared and Re-Shielded units…Hurrah!

Of course once I got the rebasing bug…

The start of the Crimean War Rebasing…

Games…

Ive actually played more games than I have taken pictures of…

Alan Perry’s Peninsular War Campaign and I am also involved in David from Miniature Minions Vimeiro Game to name a couple…

Here are a few other pictures…

So why haven’t I had more of my toys out on the table…

Building Works…😱

Most of my toys and a lot of other things have been consigned to boxes while the drains were getting dug up… Concrete getting poured and the Cellar getting ‘Tanked Out’ and plastered.

I had a Bobcat living on the drive… They wouldn’t let me play with it ☹️.

Outside…

Inside…

Tanking material on top of a new concrete floor… It looks a bit like mega bubble wrap.

Good plastering always impresses me… My chap got a glass like finish on all the surfaces.

The electrics are actually started beneath the surface and the lights and electrical points should go in very soon.

It’s going to be a workshop and storage area.

The next place to see some attention will be the wargames room…New lighting, re plastering and painting.

I still haven’t fully shaken off the virus I caught at the beginning of November… Some of my younger friends took five weeks to get rid of it.. So I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that knackered old me with Sarcoidosis will take a bit longer…

I am feeling a heck of a lot better though…

Next year…

I’ve no real plans… so I am going to butterfly along until the wargames room is all finished and see where things take me…

Some new wargames terrain might be fun…

A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all… And thank you for following my butterfly adventures.

All the best.  Aly