Lifes Ups And Downs

Wow another month gone. At the beginning of October I made the annual visit to the Derby Worlds, on my own this time as Dave was flying out to Oz the same day. Quite a good one I thought, it did appear a little quiet but then it did not appear to have the same afternoon desertion rate that I have noticed in shows of late. Picked up more figures to paint and two more potential customers, didn't get much for myself just two packs of Perry Wars of the Roses figures off Dave Thomas and some bases from Warbases, I also intended to get a couple more trench pieces for my Great War project from Ironclad but forgot my list.
 A week later and it was off to Cyprus for a week, didn't venture out much mainly a chill out visit, this was our fifth visit so we have pretty much seen most of the sites, it was my birthday on the Friday so we booked an excursion to the occupied north, visiting
Famagusta

Bella Pais Abbey

Kyrennia

On our return we learned of the sudden death of my brother in law the previous day, made all the more sadder as it was my sisters birthday too.

Edward Ernest Blower "Ted" 1943-2011, a good man to have at your side, RIP.

Games wise have managed to fit in two games with Jon, an ACW game at Jon's with his superb figures and terrain, using Black Powder rules, and believe it or not I won! a rare occurrence for me and Black Powder. Here at OHQ we played a World War II Eastern Front game using Rapid Fire, another win for yours truly, Jon just didn't get the rub of the dice all game really. I have not managed to paint any figures for myself this month so here are some in game shots of the Eastern Front game.

 The Germans view of the approaching Red horde from the ruined farm

 Soviet armour crosses the train track

 Soviet armour fans out to attack the German positions

 Little Kate prepares to give supporting fire

 The Red's receive their first loss

 The Germans lose their Stug III, whilst the Reds lose another T34 to the German Tigers

 Overview towards the end of the game, at this point it was looking obvious that Jon's Soviet forces would not get the required Tank and Infantry company to the road by turn ten and fulfill their objective.

 The Soviet attack on the right flank is bought to an halt also.

Till next time after my visit to Warfare, another game with Jon and who knows I may even have painted something of my own to show.

David Bailey, I think not.

Well I was going to accompany this entry with pics of our Great War set to using "Through the Mud and Blood" featuring my Great War terrain boards, alas the colour balance was that far adrift even Photoshop couldn't get them looking half decent, oh well better luck next time. As much as I would like to make boards in the style of http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/ ( if you haven't visit Sid's blog, do so, its excellent), I do not have the storage space, so I have put towelling on the B side of three of my boards and sprayed them with brown shades as well as green, the effect is quite acceptable, on top I will put my Ironclad Miniatures trenches, shell holes, barbed wire etc. Pics when I get a better camera. How did the game go, well despite a great deal of hesitation from Dave the British player, my German defenders were eventually overrun, sorry again for lack of photo's. This week we played a game of Hail Caesar over at Dave's, again another loss for yours truly. My two divisions in the centre steadfastly refused to advance, meanwhile my troops on the flank were destroyed one by one, allowing Dave's cavalry to envelope the rear of my tardy forces.
Again commission work is impacting on my own painting, I have however completed another base of Wars of the Roses billmen, a base of early Great War German uhlans and two late Great War British bombers so that I can now field the representative number in the bombing section, a total of 6 figures for myself this month :-(. I cannot post without putting up anything, so here are some shots, using my wifes new Nikon S3100,  from an ongoing War of the Spanish Succession commission.
Dismounted British Dragoons, more pics on my website in the photo's section

 All figures are Front Rank, based for "Beneath the Lily Banners" the client will add a guidon.

Till next time.