Sunday 6 October 2013

In the words of Marvin Gaye....


"The World Will Hear From Me Again!"

....What's goin' on...?

That is a tricky one to be sure and one with no easy answer - other than the fact that it is a VERY typical example of my somewhat haphazard approach to anything project related! This will also be very much of a mixed bag of a post due to work and real life 'stuff' stopping anything more frequent!

I fully intended tackling the cleaned up and based 42mm plastic WW2 figures this weekend but something managed to get in the way. 

A tray full of 1/2400th WW1 warships for both the Grand and High Seas Fleets.

These are based and under coated and need only some TLC to be ready for action. There is rather a lot of them to tackle in one hit so I decided to go with the battle cruisers and escorts to begin with so the Royal Navy will get HMS Tiger and a pair of Lions whilst the Germans will gain a pair of Derflingers. Both sides will also have eight destroyers to go with the light cruisers that are already finished.

I am waiting on some models from Panzerschiffe to complete this collection - especially the earlier battle cruisers for both sides - and so this little lot will suffice for the time being. I have the battleships on the stocks for both sides but and working of scaled down fleets in terms of numbers so representatives from each class (usually in pairs where able) is the order of the day - rather like the system Paul Hague used in his book Sea Battles in Miniature.

I have a couple of ideas around rules to go with these (another project existing in scribbled note form!) and so once the models are ready I hope to be trying them out.

SWMBO and I headed to a local boot sale this morning and I was able to source a couple of cheap Blu-rays - Avatar and Braveheart, and a hardback copy of Roy Adkins book Trfalgar - The Biography of a Battle. This came in at a massive 40p....

I have no immediate plans to tackle any 'wind and water' type naval actions although and such games are invariably a lot of fun and are a particular favourite of Mr Fox at the club. For me the problem is that the models take too much work to prepare properly unless one goes down the 1/2400th or even 1/4800th route. I have a couple of simple ideas though that may yield useful results - more of which later though.

It has been a busy week at work and so little else has been tackled although I have been catching up on some reading. I have finished Three Weeks in November - the title I have been raving about on the Swiss civil war of 1847 (LOTS of ideas in that one I can tell you!) but I am currently wading through the complete series of Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer - something a little different to be sure but I am thinking that a cracking army for HOTTs would result....;-)

8 comments:

Simon Quinton said...

Bargain! Lots to keep you busy. Look forward to seeing some pics of the fleets when they've finished in the dry docks!

The Angry Lurker said...

Damn fine procrastinating my friend!

Ray Rousell said...

Swiss civil war?? I know nothing about that war??

David Crook said...

Hi Simon,

The first batch of ships are moving along quite nicely and I reckon could be finished and ready quite soon. I am cautiously optimistic that they can be completed by the close of play next Sunday all being well - and they will appear on the blog as well!

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Fran,

This whole 'work thing' has played havoc with anything remotely looking like a timetable in respect of projects etc! I went with the ships mainly to clear the painting tray before the real fun starts with the 42mms.

I like to think of it as tactical project management rather than procrastination....;-)

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Ray,

Neither did I but for sheer inspiration value it would take some beating - rather the book I have just read would.

It has given me lots of ideas for mid to late 19th century imagi-nations.

All will ve revealed in due course.

All the best,

DC

joppy said...

Fu-Manchu, I saw these at the cinema - one of them in a double bill with something starring Shirley Eaton (the details of which I've forgotten)and was amazed to recognize many of the sets appearing in both films!
I have the Swiss war book, and agree that it is the perfect Imagi-nation inspiration.

David Crook said...

Hi Joppy,

I can vaguely remember the films and would certainly like to see them again at some point.

The 1847 book has given me a whole lot of ideas for assorted 'stuff' - which will be revealed in due course. Certainly it was a great £10s worth!

All the best,

DC