Blogging? Its an imperative.

This is a first and its something Im not proud of its the first time I didnt 'do' a Christmas Annual to welcome in the New Year. Basically I felt it wasnt something I needed to do. Who wants to know what a wargamer plans to do and then realise twelve months later that they havent achieved anything they said they would do.  

But then I felt guilty about the lack of effort and the fact that all bloggers need to put more effort into their journals. Im not going to berate anyone who religiously collates what they are doing as wargamers and Im always envious of the bloggers who post very regularly. 

  I know some think that hosting a blog is a dying art and that everyone has moved on to podcasts etc. But I think there is definately a place for blogs and sometimes they serve a purpose, such as my tribute to Peter Gilder. Unless I continue to put information on there the next generation of wargamers wont have a scoobies who the great man was and what he contributed to the hobby.  

In early January I attended ARDHAMMER, a one day event staged in Gateshead where people turn up to sell wargaming and Games Workshop stuff. As the years have progressed it has grown expotentially and this year was the busiest. Of the 80+ tables about 40% were selling wargame related stuff which is down on last year, but one can always find something to buy cheaply. This year it was paint. I came away with 20 bottles of Vallejo paint for £20, oh and a couple of books.One thing I noticed as I people watched was the age of the attendees. The majority were aged between 12 and 50 years old. Obviously a lot were there to buy Games Workshop but it was encouraging to know, well at least I thought it was, although the general fitness of the majority left a lot to be desired. 

Returning to blogging in general, because Ive been suffering from the Winter lurgy and a very painful back I sought reassurance by re-reading Harry Pearson's brilliant Achtung Schweinhund. This book is a perfect description of my wargaming life except Im not a smoggy. Thank God. But as an account of  a typical wargamer it is perfect, and the mix of humour, pathos and basically patheticness it describes me to a tee. I was lucky enough to have sat with Harry Pearson in an effort to get some information about Gilder and I found we had a lot in common. We both supported shite football teams who dreamt of a glory that would never happen but still hoped but knew we would always end up disappointed. 

  But I digress. In the book Harry described various early pioneers and toy soldier collectors who are very, very rarely spoken about and having given some thought to this I think it would be nice if someone ie me did produce a series of pieces about these people. 

Okay one could probably go onto Wikipedia aand potentially find out about some of them, but I think they deserve to be collated in one place. It will give me something to do between feeling sorry for myself. Its not a New Years resolution, more a small project I will  do something about.

I picked up a number of figures at Middlesbrough late last year from Tiger Miniatures, from their Tudor Irish wars range which I had to have for my Billhooks Irish army. I didnt need them, I have far too many anyway, but they were too nice not to buy. So I painted up some light cavalry, some gallowglass and some fighting dogs. 

I bought a small number of figures off E Bay months ago, when I reaalised they were Irish kern. I havent a clue who made them, they are big buggers but were very enjoyable to paint.

So a nice addition to my burgeoning Irish army.

And now to my second project.

Inspired by Rick Priestly and his love of old ancient Mini Figs Im steadily replacing my ancient Persian army made up of Foundry,Victrix and other more modern manufacturers with good old pre 1980 ancient Persians, and in particular using Hinchliffe and Garrison figures. 

Garrison Immortals, pretty big figures and certainly bigger than I remember but great sculpts.

And then, the well known Hinchliffe Immortal figure. Still one of my favourites. I think I maay have overdone their numbers, but I did enjoy painting them up. 

Next week its York and hopefully I will be making my trip down to the racecourse. I do enjoy the day although it can get a bit frenetic. Its only a shame that there wont be a couple of dealers off loading realistically priced old figures. Oh and a Happy New Year to all and sundry.