Salute 2025

Went to Salute yesterday, and played with Rich and Nick of Two Fat Lardies. They were demonstrating version two of their Chain of Command rules.

I helped Nick marmalize the British Paras with our adhoc German force of reprobates in recreating an action at Arnhem. We played for about two hours, and the result were pretty much replicated the historical action, despite my dice rolling.

 

After which Susan and I had lunch, and enjoyed a much needed sit down after standing for so long.

This modern game by The Friends of General Haig called Breaking the Stalemate: Iran Iraq war, 1986 in 15mm caught my eye.

Then we looked around the show and pick up a couple of items. I had in mind getting an Osprey book, but none of the dealers had the recent Boots on the Ground by Leigh Neville, so I'll have to order it online.

I also wanted Pro Acryl's Glaze & Wash Medium, but again I came up empty handed. But, learnt that Element Games have opened a new store in London in Drury Lane. So, I intend to pop in and get the glaze medium from them come time next week.

I did buy a Artis Opis  texture palette for drybrushing.

We also came across Crow games who do STLs for Starship Troopers and some rather nice starships too.

And of course there were a ton of other wargames and traders at Salute too, but by about three o'clock my feet hurt enough that I decided to call it a day.

 So that was Salute 2025, which also felt a lot busier than last year. Catch you all on the bounce.

Addendum:

Whilst archiving the photos for this post, I rearranged the files and discovered I missed going to Salute between 2017 to 2023.

These dates coincide with my rheumatoid relapse, and also cover Covid, and my compromised immune system making me reluctant to expose myself to large crowds.

Salute is huge. It might only last a day, but it host thousands of people. So, I added this note, as I do understand why people find going overwhelming.

Herts of Lard 2025

Saturday we went to Rickmansworth to play at the Herts of Lard wargaming show. So we were up early and out the door to get there for the 09.30 start. After some confusion we arrived at the right hall to be greeted by Joe Bilton announcing the start of the games.

 

In the morning session, I played a Call of Cthulhu variant of What a Cowboy.

 

This was a skirmish game playing as faculty members of the Miskatonic University who were chasing a thief who'd stolen a page from the Necronomicon. We were intercepted by other cultists who also wanted the manuscript the thief had stolen.

 

We lost.

 

In the afternoon, I played in a Chain of Command game of US paratroops versus Fallshirmjager with Gary who posted this video on YouTube.

 

We played as the US, in a game of two halves. The first, the US doing a good job of tying up the Germans. In the second half the US advance ground to a halt due to my ineffective leadership.

 

These were the first games I've played in a long time, and I really must be more proactive about getting out and having fun, as the day made me realize what I've been missing out on.

 

Catch you all on the bounce.

Still Alive!

Catching shingles for the New Year is not the kind of present that anyone wants. A surprising amount of pain is utterly discombobulating. A lack of sleep has rather cramped my hobbies, and not wanting to move my arms much because to do so causes stabbing pain.

Anyway, still recovering, but managed to apply some decals to these models.

Now I just need to matt varnish them, and then I can all them done. Well, almost done. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed one the mecha is missing an arm.

Yeah that was an oopsie.

Forgot I needed to rebuild the arm, modify the minigun casting to feed from so the ammo belt would hang properly, and lost track of it while I was prepping the rest of the models.

I still have some other models I finished, or have managed to finish that I need to take pictures of, but shingles. Just saying, shingles takes the fun out of everything.

Catch you all later.

Christmas Score

Yep, no picture of our Christmas tree this year for reasons that fall under boring real life problems sucking the life out of living.

Instead, what we scored; that's what I got for the two of us. The only exceptions are Just Stab me Now, which I bought for Susan, who has her nose in it now. So, good choice. The other was the book Solo Wargaming for yours truly.

We've got older DVDs of the movies, but as we have a most excellent sound system, courtesy of Susan, and a big screen, Blu-rays really do look better than DVDs (480i versus 1080p resolution).

However, I have finished some painting, despite everything dragging me down, I just haven't gotten around to taking any pictures of said models. Some will come, at some point in the not too distant future.

So that's all folks. Hope you all had a good Christmas.

Russian Quad Mechs WIP

It has been a moment too long since I last posted any what's on my workbench. What can I say? I've been distracted by real life. It is what it is.

So, as slow as I am, I've managed to work out what was niggling me about the scheme I'd used on my Russian combat walkers aka Pokhodnaya Boyevaya Platforma. And above is where I'm at, below is where I was.

Obviously, duh, this is me we're talking about, they're not finished. But, proof of life. Given the adverts I've been seeing on YouTube, the algorithm seems to suggest otherwise.

Catch you all on the bounce.

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance

Finished watching Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance on Netflix last night. We enjoyed it.

The whole white demon is going to kill us all vibe is excellent. 

Others disagree, for reasons that I get about it not doing as well as it could've, but I don't care enough to allow them to get in the way of watching giant mecha action.

In other news, I took my truck down to Lasham to have it serviced and renew the MoT for another year. It was a day to remember, but not in a good way. The phone app said an hour twenty minutes trip, which was the first underestimation of the day, as I reckon it took way longer that that to than that to get to the M25 ( I wasn't paying attention to the time as traffic was nose-to-tail bumper car goodness).

Usually getting to the M25 takes about 45 minutes, so you can see where this is going.

After coming off at junction 5 on the M3 things went really Pete Tong. Lost the internet connection, and ended up in the middle of nowhere when I realized I was no longer being nagged to take a turning. That will learn me to pay attention.

Anyway, after circling around endless country lanes that all looked alike, I get the GPS back and proceed again to my destination, and then the phone battery died on me, despite having a full charge when I set off.

After a major panic, I managed to park up outside Alton, and find someone to help me out. Drew a map on the back of the old Mot certificate, and finally got to Lasham. Total trip time 4 hours.

And the icing on the cake, got a lift to Alton station to catch the 15.4, but didn't get home until 19.30; a normal journey back to Clapham Junction turned the trip into a nightmare, due to the West London route closing at short notice for maintenance with a bus replacement service.

All good, right?

After waiting half an hour for the bus, it's late Friday afternoon and traffic is solid, I was informed by another bus replacement service driver that the one I'd been waiting for wasn't coming. Ever. So, I was guided to another regular bus stop, and the handy-dandy clock said it would arrive in 20 minutes.

It did not arrive. Cancelled on route for reasons unknown.

So, back to Clapham Junction station to ask, given the state of everything, whether or not I could use my ticket, only valid for travel on the West London line to go into Waterloo and use the underground? I could, and so had to wait for the next inbound train, and then negotiate the commuters and travel on the tube to get home.

Arriving at Hammersmith, the connecting train to my stop departed with the next reported as not departing for 20 minutes. I walked from Hammersmith to Shepherds Bush at a rate of knots that left me frazzled.

I have spent today chilling.

Russian Quad Mech Repaints

It has been a year since I posted anything about my Russian four legged walkers. I seem to be suffering from the time loss equivalent of the MCUs Infinity War snap. Instead of half the population disappearing, it's time.

I start writing something, get distracted by something else, then look around to find the whole day has flown by.

I was going to apply decals, but I wasn't happy with the paint job. I wanted more contrast and to also make the models look sharper. Make them pop. So here's a comparison shot of the revised paint on the left versus the old paint on the right.

And I'm still not convinced this new look is the look I want (edit to add first version of this scheme).

My painter's lament, sigh...

Paint Haul

Went to my FLGS for some Citadel base layer red and found they were having a clear out of old paint. So, I got all of the above for seventeen pounds sterling, which is a bargain.

OMWB: Subatduku Alien Mecha

This is RattapoomK Gorgon Frame (Lancer RPG Mech) Machinegun and Grenade Launcher. Printed by my beloved, her first resin print. Woot!

Took a while to clean up supports, and while the arms detached, everything came out looking pretty spiffing.

Okay, so what's this all about?

Well, you might remember I had a short story in this collection, Clash of Steel, an anthology with a number of much better known writers. This model is going to represent those alien mecha that Sargent Jones unit faced.

You can buy the anthology here and at other good retail outlets.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

OMWB: Laser Towers for Ogre/GEV

I received the Combine laser tower set as a gift, and like lots of projects, it has taken me more time getting around to them than I would've liked. I ran out of spoons, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I decided to base them, and I took the opportunity to base my two original Pan Euro ones at the same time.

I also magnetize the new towers allowing the turrets to swivel, but skipped doing the same to the old models, because I didn't want to damage the paint and touch up any damage.

Far too much faff.

The Combine towers are primed so now all I have to do is figure out how to apply the colour scheme I use to these buildings.