Rumours of my demise...

Well that's a bit exciting to say the least!

...are greatly exaggerated...  or words to that effect...  though as I was reading this afternoon even this quote (attributed to Mark Twain), is exaggerated itself..  what he actually said was "The report of my death was an exaggeration", but as it ever was, you don't want to let the truth get in the way of a decent quote..

So what have I been up to in the almost 7 weeks since I last posted? Not much to be honest...  certainly not a huge amount of wargaming...  and certainly no painting...

One of those fallow periods all hobbyists go through I guess, some call it the painting funk, but basically a period of time characterised by no great interest or enthusiasm in pursuing the hobby actively - a time of retrenchment - doing other stuff - in my case reading (a lot), and also unusually for me catching up on box sets, and television that I missed the first time round...  

Working from home has entailed me using the loft-waffe for an office as I have a desk and screen's up there anyway - but what I wasn't expecting was a disinclination to go in the loft to do hobby stuff once I'd been in there all day for work stuff...  throw in a couple of weeks of the hottest weather in the UK for some time and there was even less inclination - in fact in the end I said 'bugger it' and went into the office just for the air conditioning! Very strange to be in an office for two hundred when there are only a half dozen people in (for much the same reasons as me!)

Autumn is coming - with a drop in the temperature the loft will entice again...

So what have I done that I recommend??

Box sets - catch "Cardinal" if you can, simply superb..  I re-watched the "Cormoran Strike" box set, also very good..  also all umpty seven series of "Spooks"..  thank you Beeb - worth my licence fee for 'Cardinal' alone..

Books...   Maigret, Maigret, Maigret..  an absolute joy...  my book page will give you some other leads...  my non-fiction book of the year so far was "Chastise" by Max Hastings, the story behind the Dam Busters raid told from the perspective of the unbelievably brave crews, the boffins, (Sir Michael Redgrave really was Barnes Wallis in the film!), Gibson (what a brave, troubled and complicated man) and also the German civilians who experienced the results...  ten plus for a reason, read it!

Wargaming - not a lot of table top action, but DG and I have been having a whale of time playing DBN [clicky] (thanks for the lead, Lee!) using Battle Chronicler to exchange turns ...  a few Peninsula games were followed by a triumvirate of 1812 Russia games, but just for a change we are currently in North America, and for the first time (and as a result of the figures Lee has been painting) I am fielding Congreve rockets..  Lord only knows how that will turn out!

....and that is largely it, let's hope it is in't as long to the next post!

DBN French camp anyone?

DG and I are playing a DBN game at the moment (I blame that Lee Gramson [clicky]!) because against all sense I am contemplating another project, and DBN would allow me to contain it within manageable levels..

Steve the Wargamer started his wargaming life with two projects, one was 20mm/HO/OO WW2 North Africa, but the other, earlier ,was Napoleonic - the first regiment I ever painted was the Airfix Highlanders... after that stupidly large numbers of (unpainted) Airfix French and British fought many battles across a largely unadorned dining room table using the rules from "Wargames"

Cut forward to Warfare in 2013 [clicky] (and 2016 [clicky]) and my game of the show was a Napoleon in Egypt set up - I was hooked..

No it's not a fantasy game - they really are Napoleonic French on camels what is NOT to like? 

So IF I was to pursue this to the logical conclusion, DBN requires each side to have a baggage/camp marker, and IF I was to do a Napoleon in Egypt DBN project, then this would just have to be the model/basis for the French camp, it's stunning..

The Egyptian Expedition Under the Command of Bonaparte, by Leon Cogniet, painted on a ceiling at the Louvre, 1835