Four years old….

 Greetings…

Gosh… another year…

Wow!… Where did last year go?…

Wow!… It’s been like Groundhog Day every day…

Two conflicting feelings of how yet another year has passed…

It has indeed been eventful… for the good and also sadly for the bad…

So… Hobby wise.

Lots of toys painted…

I have started a couple of new things…well of course I have… and hopefully I will be posting evidence of this soon.

The older collections continue to be added to…

My Shiny Napoleonic project continues to give me a lot of joy…And a slight amount of horror when I realised just how many Minifigs S Range castings I have acquired… It is however a dirty job and someone has to do it..😁

Having played a couple of solo games with my 3rd Century Romans and Sassanids I am also enthused enough to paint more toys… Camel Cataphracts… Oh yes…

In the background I have been steadily re-basing my Crimean War collection… l will hopefully be able to show something of that the near future .

Sculpting… Hmmm!… I’ve been playing about with bits and pieces… Trying to get my Mojo back… but while my hobby space is dominated by my works computer it is hard to switch my sculpting brain out of the virtual/digital world…

I suppose as I start to reach retirement age… in the next couple of years😲… I should be able to spend more time creating historical toy soldiers.

On a personal level…

Two jabs and I am feeling a bit more confident about returning to the big bad world… Of course my country is run by buffoons, so I continue to be cautious…

The ACW campaign I am part of is starting to kick off again… let’s hope that General Luckless doesn’t live up to his name…

Mharaid and I have had some jolly good games… However I still seem to come second 😕.

Games in general have halted as I sort out the wargames room in anticipation of work on my house towards the end of the year… when I say sort out… think archeological dig.

The major downside of this year was of course the very sad news of the passing of my old chum Duncan Macfarlane… A true giant in our hobby and a sad loss to our world.

To end on a positive note… Which I feel one should always try and do…

Having this Blog and getting the support from my followers has been an uplifting and enjoyable experience… I have and continue to connect with like minded individuals…many of whom  I now consider friends…

So I thank you all for your support and encouragement…

All the best   Aly.

Lion Rampant… Nellie!

 Greetings…

So here we have ‘Nellie’…. My Sassanid Elephant…

I know I shouldn’t but…

https://youtu.be/9m7tPikH0UA

It’s always worth a listen….😁

In all her glory…

An A&A Elephant with some additional crew and a couple of heads from Aventine…

Nellie… Mostly… Citadel… Storm Vermin Fur.

Crew Tunics… Citadel… Pallid Wytch Flesh.

Howdah… Foundry… Moss 29B.

Red Bits… Citadel… Mephiston Red.

Officers Tunic and Crew Tunic Piping… Citadel… Lothern Blue.

Spears… Foundry… Spearshaft Light 13C.

Leather Goods… Citadel… Doombull and Skrag Brown.

The miniatures are...
Aventine... https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/

http://www.aandaminiatures.co.uk/

The bases are...

Warbases... https://warbases.co.uk/

The Shield Transfers and Banners are from...
Little Big Men Studios... https://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

This was both fun and strenuous to paint… A lead elephant is heavy… 

Well I suppose it would be…🙄😂

All the best    Aly.

Books,Books,Books…

 Greetings…

The painting may have slowed down a bit recently… but the reading (book buying)continues with vigour…

I picked up these books by Simon Macdowall because I am continuing my reading around the Roman history in the 3rd century and beyond… I have no plans to start any armies at the moment but the subject is interesting.

I have started reading the Vandals which is so far an enjoyable and informative book…

Another set of Napoleonic rules…

These are a rather nice looking quick play set… I will certainly give them a go when I have enough shiny toys painted…

 

King Philips War…

Well because it’s interesting…

Although Brigade Games does have a range of miniatures…🙄😳😂

https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/kpw_king_philips_war_1675-76

Again something I have always been interested in… 

I have had a quick scan through and it looks very interesting…

Also my friend Florian did the illustrations…

I have also finished my Shiny Napoleonic French 18th Line Infantry… I am just waiting for a flag to come from GMB…

Keep safe and well…

All the best   Aly

Shiny Napoleonics… British Command.

 Greetings…

It’s time for something a bit shiny…

A little while back I received a little gift of some Lamming British Command figures from my chum David over at the Miniature Minions Blog…

http://miniatureminions.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in the world of shiny I would certainly have a visit…

Here are the toys…

Classic Lammings with a basic gloss paint job…

I decided it was about time I got at least one of them painted…

This chap was a real pleasure to paint… a simple but bright colour scheme…

And of course a decent coat of varnish…

The Tunic is…Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Facings are… Citadel… Kantor Blue.

The Breeches are… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The paints are Citadel...
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

My wargames room clear out/up is continuing at a slow but steady pace…But I have managed to find a new place for my Photo Booth… so if nothing else I will be able to take some pictures of toys.

All the best.  Aly

Lion Rampant… The Villa.

Greetings…

While I’ve been tidying things up in the wargames room in preparation for some building work later in the year… I realised that I hadn’t taken any pictures of my finished Roman Villa…

So here we are…

I am very pleased with the way it has turned out

It has been painted in the same way as my Roman Temple…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2020/12/lion-rampant-my-first-roman-building.html

The Villa is from Warbases… It is the Hurlingstone Villa but with extra small store rooms, some walls and a pool.

I was originally going to have the Hurlingstone Villa with just additional walls and the gate , but in the end I combined them all into one.

https://warbases.co.uk/product/hurlingstone-villa/

The water in the pond is Woodland Scenics Realistic Water…https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/C1211

I got mine from Amazon

It’s the first time I have used this and I rather happy with the results… next time I may be a bit more adventurous.

The amphorae and bits and pieces came from Magister Militiumhttps://www.magistermilitum.com/era.html?cat%5B0%5D=61929

All the best    Aly

Duncan Macfarlane.

 

I was truly saddened to learn earlier this week that Duncan had passed away suddenly over the weekend.

Here is the announcement from Dan at Wargames Illustrated.

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Duncan Macfarlane.

Duncan was the original owner and editor of Wargames Illustrated, creating and publishing the magazine for the first time in August 1987, after having previously been the editor of Miniature Wargames.

Duncan passed away suddenly but peacefully on 28 May 2021, aged 73. He will be sadly missed by all those that knew him, and those within the hobby that didn’t have the good fortune to call him a friend will doubtless be aware of the debt of gratitude owed to him as both an innovator and stalwart of wargaming.

A full and proper obituary to Duncan will be forthcoming both online and in the pages of Wargames Illustrated magazine.

So long Dunc, thank you for all the memories.

Dan Faulconbridge
Current Wi Editor

I first got to know Duncan when I moved down to Nottingham in the early 1980’s he had previously been the manager at Citadel Miniatures so we tended to move in the same circle of friends.

I well remember going round to his book filled house in Newark and doing a stint of ‘sky holding’ while he took pictures of our toys to use in the magazine.

Duncan was an amiable soul who made friends easily, the last time I saw him was in the pub after work not long before the lockdowns started… he was chatting away to a couple of people as if they were old friends… it turned out that he had only met them about 15 minutes beforehand.

Strangely enough before the call came through I had just been looking through some old copies of Miniature Warfare magazine where I came across a couple of articles by the man himself… I am fairly certain that there was only one Duncan Macfarlane…

From 1969

From 1972

Duncan always felt like a permanent fixture in the wargaming world …

He will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace old chum.

Aly

There is now a lovely obituary up on The Partizan Show Blog…

http://thepartizanshow.blogspot.com/

Lion Rampant 3rd Century… Second try

 Greetings…

I have eventually got around to finishing off my little Lion Rampant solo play test…

I am pleased with how things went…

It has taken me a while to finish it as I have been slowly clearing the wargames room in preparation for some building work later in the year… I will of course leave the important things till last… 

You know the kind of thing… Wargames table …Terrain …. Toys…

Anyway here are some pictures… And as it’s blogger they will be in no particular order…

Here are the last two…

I decided to end the game if a commander was killed…

The Romans look to be in for a bit of a kicking here….

And yes they lost the combat…

So did the Sassanid commander…

I will set up my photo booth and take pictures of the few toys that are painted…

I also have a bit of nostalgia lined up…

All the best    Aly