A Call to Muster or when is Spring again?

 Sometimes I wonder if God isn't punishing the British for some reason. Perhaps their creation of the Spice Girls, allowing Simon Cowell onto television, letting Tony Liar well be Tony Liar or some other such perversity.
Because God just keeps p****ing on us. Above is a town that I passed through on the way to Call to Muster in Middlesbrough, the road was fairly clear, but the wind chill made you cry.
 I had offered to put a game on when I first heard about the return of Dave and Tom to the wargame show world. John and I have always put games on at their shows, and always have enjoyed it. The weather made me think it wasn't such a good idea. But a promise is a promise.
  Neil, John's son wanted to give his Russian WW2 army a run out using the PSG rules, Battleground Kursk. John wanted to use his lovely? German army, and I just wanted a reason to replace the boards that I had left in Newcastle during a very senior moment. An arrangement made in heaven.
  Anyway on arrival it was evident that some people had listened to the news, the Daily Express or such like threatening Armageddon again. So Tom and Dave were let down by a few groups and traders,however the majority braved the wind, and battled through the no show snow.

I should give a detailed description of what took place in the game based around Russia in 1944, but I am not a tankie really, although I do love the models. What I do know is the rules are very good, play very well and are understandable to a dimwit like me. Oh and a Geman Ferdinand is virtually indestructible.  Guess who had that in his command.
   I think I would have been quite happy to blast away at the Russian army all day with that tank,safe in the knowledge that it just couldnt be destroyed. I want a regiment of them please.

 I have put these photographs on the blog, purely for aesthetic reasons, as I know Neil has taken lots of photographs on his blog, The Old Hunwickian. I wanted to show readers my glowing explosions,and what happens if a Russian artillery team mess with my Ferdinand.

 My offending Ferdinand in action, painted by John and commanded by yours truly.

Because Tom and Dave are starting again virtually from scratch, trade was hit and miss. I know they struggled to get the show advertised, and the weather warnings frightened off would be punters, but up until the watershed at 2.00pm things seemed pretty busy.

I hope all the traders did ok. The pair have always tried to keep costs down, and the food was cheap and cheerful. Always a good example in these times of recession.

 I had a saunter around the games, and I loved the ancient game next to us put on by the Private Soldiers.

 I know Count Belisarius also like the game, because he took virtually the same photograph of the Irregular Miniatures elephants.

I was also strangely attracted to the Garrison light cavalry as I used to have this figure in my first ever metal ancient army,still a good un.  Also you may be able to notice the Hinchliffe foot archers,again a great figure in my eyes.

Tom and Dave have to be applauded as they always attempt to invite military modelling groups from the area to exhibit. This time Darlington turned up with some lovely models.This was one of my favourites, and I am afraid my camera doesnt really do it justice.

When I saw this tank on show in another game, I had to photograph it, just purely because it was a ridiculous piece of war engineering.I think the game was put on by the Middlesbrough Gamers.

There was a fine skirmish game from the Guisborough Gamers,with some well painted buildings and a great train station.

I did a bit of buying,and one thing that caught my eye was a range of 28mm Elizabethan figures from Hoka Hey figures.It includes Irish kern, and gallowglass. They also had a very nice late gendarme, especially the barded horse.

So in conclusion a good but tiring day out, with God still dumping on us.Who would be British?