WSS Austrians

 First Austrian WSS unit for the Dendermonde project - 25mm Minifgs. Just need flag adding and bases tidying. (Figures from a very generous Alan Gruber).

Warfare 2023

 I spent two days over the weekend at Warfare running the Guildford Club Demonstration game  "Guildford 1940" - a sealion game in 20mm using Rapid Fire Reloaded rules and (mostly) my 20mm early war collection (including a lot of Airfix figures).

The game board was 2' by 12' and represented a slice of surrey countryside very close to where the club meets and was brilliantly put together by Martin Burford. It is based on an attack in on the GHQ line in a book about the sealion invasion that sees the germans coming up through Guildford.

We had a force of germans entering from the south, a recce group coming through middle and paratroopers landing at the far end (opposed by home guard).

We won the Most Innovative Demo Game award and talked to a LOT of people - my voice is quite croaky today.

Here are the very few pics of the game I managed to take first thing on Saturday.

Warfare seemed well attended and they had more through the door on the Saturday then last year.  I spoke to some traders and they seemed happy with takings. There were a few of the normal trders missing such as Colonel Bills (Stu is no longer doing 2 day shows). Plastic Soldier Company, Peter Pig, etc but I think this is a reflection of traders getting older and attending fewer show, and people's mail order picking up and staying strong during and after lockdowns.

There were plenty of newer traders who I hadn't seen before - mainly scenery and 3d printing companies - there does seem a lack of new figure companies breaking into the market.

The only comment I would make is that the demo games could have been better spaced out with larger gaps between them for people to move and stop and chat.  It all felt a little cramped at times.

But, all in all, an enjoyable weekend. 

We have been asked by a couple of other shows if we would take the game to their shows next year and we are discussing that at the moment.

French Toy Soldier Museum

 

We  spent 2 weeks in France in the middle of September starting in St Malo and driving down to Carcassone and back to Dieppe.  No real plan apart from those two places so we randomly picked interesting looking places 2-2.5 hours drive each day or so.

We saw lots of old buildings, the slightly "disneylike" Carcasonne , the arena at Nimes (and the 5AD temple that is still complete), the Pont Du Gard, etc

On the way back up my wife was working out where to stop before Dieppe and looking at Compiegne in the guidebook when I heard her say loudly "Bugger!".

"Problem?" I asked.

"They've got a Toy Soldier Museum!"

And they have and it was open the Tuesday morning we were there and I managed an hour looking around and took slightly over 200 photos before taking pity on her and moving on.  Well worth a visit.

The full set of photos  are on a google album here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/W9mtGhscV7BrVrPp7

Here are some samples:

More WW2 painting

 

Still working on some WW2 bits for our Club's Sealion game at Warfare.

Some EWM Boyes Rifles - they are more robust for gaming with than the SHQ ones I currently have.

Hacked about airfix spares (I have an ice cream tub full to the brim of old ww1/ww2 airfix figures...) to make some casualty markers.

First Marlburian battalion finished

 

I finished the first battalion of 24 British this morning.  Block painted, some shading on face, black lined and then glossed.  All unbased as they will be used for siege games.

I am planning on starting the laser cutting of Dendermonde later this month and have 2 Austrian battalions on hand to paint (thanks for Alan Gruber's generosity) and need to order a few extra figures for another British unit.

After that, I will move onto the French.  Iam still hoping to find someone who has some 25mm Minifigs Marlburians they no longer want for a cheaper price than from Minifigs themselves...

Swashbuckler board complete

 

I have finished painting all the components for Swashbuckler.  Everything made by me except the tankards which were bought from an ebay seller.

I will add walls at some point but the game is playable now.

It all fits into one box with rules, dice, figures and everything you need for the game.

Swashbuckler by Yaquinto Games

 I played Swashbuckler when it came out in 1980.  It was one of the "Album" style games that Yaquinto produced where the board contains the game pieces.

I picked up a copy on ebay a few years back on a whim to see if I could convert it to a figure game to use with my Three Musketeers collection.

A random discussion over a boardgame a couple of weeks ago led to us trying the game out at the Guildford Club last week.

It was great fun and all 4 of us enjoyed it. You plot your moves for the turn over 6 phases and write them down in advance, so things inevitably go wrong.  There was a lot of mug throwing and chair tossing and Ray's character eventually died from being kicked after I got fed up with missing him with a sword.

The other players' were keen when I mention a miniatures version and I spent some time this week thinking about it.  I sketched up a board layout yesterday and spent today laser cutting the pieces.

Encouraged by the look of the board which uses 40mm squares, I started work on the other pieces and added:

Tables, Chairs, Carpets and the Balcony and Stairs.

I have drawn up the shelving units and just need to cut them.

Then I need to decide on tankards - I might 3D print them but experiments with using some files off Thingiverse and scaling them down haven't worked that well.

Once I have mugs it is pretty much ready to play - I will paint it at some point  and I will eventually add walls and might redo the Balcony as it isn't quite right.