Gaucin trip and real life stuff

 We recently had a family holiday to Gaucin in Andalusia,southern Spain . It's one of those picturesque whitewashed hillside towns/villages with a view of the straits of Gibraltar  and North Africa ( you can see why it was called the pillars of Hercules in classical times) from our verandah. 

There is a little castle, originally an Iberian strong point then a Roman fort and an Arabic castle, the castle of the eagle, a battle in 1309 and the fort stormed by the French during the Penisular/war of Independence. 

I have to say I am tempted to dig out my old airfix Roman fort and bash it about a  bit , to make it usable over a nice big period of time and area, Roman, fall of Rome Medieval or Napoleonic? We also went to Ronda which was an Andalusian city with Arabic baths.

There is still some of the walls left and I am tempted to do something inspired by the last building for my Italian wars terrain!

We also managed a  trip to Baelo Claudia, a Roman city that was just past Tarifa, the family allowed me to wander around taking photos which was good of them as they were a bit bored, but nice bit of Forum,  theatre and museum, even better it was all free!

So not much figure painting, it's been too hot and busy, work and family, also a couple of weeks ago on Saturday my brother was told the chemotherapy wasn't working, we went from some years to a two to four weeks in a day and then to a matter of days, he died the following Saturday so one week.  

He took me to my first wargame when I was about nine on the back of his motorbike, we went to some hall where there was a game with airfix plastic battleships on the floor.      I remember his Vosper MTB model he made with love and care ( and the moment it was destroyed by our older brothers lobbed football!) My interest in model making and probably wargaming stems from him. I also remember him being stationed in Crossmaglen with his British army unit while I ( as a child) was visiting our relatives barely on the other side of the border, interesting times!

I'm going to miss him, apologies for the lack of wargame content, and also being remiss in visiting blogs but on both counts I hope to be back up to speed pretty soon. 

All the best 

Iain 

Blunders on the Danube and Austrian Infantry regiment No 4 Hoch and Deutschmeister Napoleonic 19

Planning for my Christmas game I wanted to try and base the game on a historical battle if I  could and if not I wanted some scenarios for the 1809 Danube campaign.  Where else but Peter Anderson's Blunders on the Danube,( who's blog of the same name is a great resource) designed for Piquet but adaptable for other rulesets, I  managed to get a real book from Lancashire games ( I always prefer them to pdfs) I'll be using it for Blackpowder  I'm clearly joining the book posting fraternity!

In addition,another Napoleonic Austrian Infantry regiment, No 4 Hoch and Deutschmeister , this time it's, primed halfords grey, flesh, black, brown , facing colour and metal then agrax earthshade wash and then yellow and white, pretty happy with this lot, three of them were  painted during the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge, I've just changed the facing colour on those chaps, slightly different finish but I think they fit in, a bread and butter post but hey at least it's a post, having missed July due to a holiday, a trip abroad for a funeral and it just being too hot to paint. I've still got quite a few more Austrian units primed in grey ( and one primed in a combination of black and grey, that'll be interesting? I'd run out of grey and wanted them primed!) But I've primed a load more in white, how retro I hear you cry but I am going to try out contrast paints, who said I am a dinosaur incapable of change? I don't know who you are, but you might have a point, nevertheless in the interest of productivity I'm willing to give it a go!

In addition I had another Kings of War game at the club which was fun, I took some photos of the set up but after that was too busy, a hard fought draw which is an improvement, here are some photos since apparently without photos it didn't happen    ( so says Jonathan anyway!) Chariots were mostly useless but terribly characterful!

Next up? Napoleonic Austrian cavalry or French infantry? Or possibly some terrain with some paint rapidly thrown at it? Who knows, I know I don't!

All the best 

Iain 

Boudicca/ Boadicea and six chariots Ancient Briton 1

 Well this is a bit different! In order to have a game at the club I needed to have an army to go up against an Early Imperial Roman one, I've got plenty of historical armies but not one that works for that( my Early Imperial Roman army is not finished and  based for Impetus/ To the Strongest!) So I figured I'd be able to scrape a stand in army using my pagan Saxons/Picts and Irish , I remembered I'd picked up Boudicca/ Boadicea ( you choose, I don't mind!) A warlord model from Orcs nest which is one of the only bricks and mortar shops left in central London that sells wargames figures and I try and find something to buy when I go in there and the last time I was in there ( some time ago!) This is what I got as a long term build an opposing army for my Romans, I didn't think I would need her quite so soon  !  One chariot is clearly not enough so, as I am a cheapskate, I ordered three mdf chariots from warbase for £9 , I already had some 25mm horses that I'd got to mount my English civil war dragoons on, so I press ganged them in , then I decided three wasn't really enough so I scratch built three more out of balsa, irregular wheels,wire, 1/72 wicker panels and three spare mdf poles left over from my great Italian wars wagons( see Stew, never ever throw anything away!) I also felt the warbase chariots were a little chunky so I wanted to go slightly thinner but I still needed to fit figures based on 1p coins on them.

 You will I hope, excuse the paint job, essentially in the week leading up to the game my wife got covid which meant no spare time in the evening during the week, she was meant to be taking our daughter to Cambridge to see the Rocky Horror musical for the day on Saturday leaving me with eight clear hours of painting, instead of which I had barely two hours, up till midnight to paint seven chariots including herself and driver and an old GW druid that I rebased onto a penny, he just seems slightly portly! I've chucked some flock at least on their bases after the game which was great fun, fast and brutal, I was in it up until the last go when it all collapsed and I didn't really use my chariots well but, first game great fun and we've agreed on a rematch next month and I've got to join with the cool chariot kids! At least I've managed to squeeze a post into June! The infantry and cavalry are on temporary bases I've got a cunning plan to economically replace them with ancient Britons down the line but for now they'll do! Next up we return to our normal programing ,Napoleonic  probably Austrian ?

All the best Iain