Saturday 7 June 2014

May: Dave's Parade....Part 1


Not quite what I meant but this post was born in May and will feature a parade - well sort of, in due course that is....

The month of May was a very good one for me from a work perspective. As you may (or may not) know I am currently working within financial services recruitment and was delighted to have placed two and a quarter people (the quarter was my share from helping someone else with a particularly tricky role) in new positions - by that I mean jobs. The end result of all this was that my sales billing target for the month was smashed by a record-breaking margin. Anybody that works in a sales environment will be aware of the use of incentive schemes whereby when certain thresholds above your target are reached prizes are given out to a stipulated value. By virtue of my successful month I qualified for the top prize; specifically the cash equivalent.

I mention all this because it does have a direct bearing on this post as we (SWMBO and I) decided that whilst the main bulk of the prize monies (and this is separate and in addition to the commission earned) would be used for our forthcoming holiday a portion could be used by me for whatever I wanted in reconition of the amount of hard work I have put in. Naturally gaming bits and pieces figured prominently but I was also toying with the notion of acquiring a tablet to support my mobile computer needs. Then it happened - an 'Oooh shiny' moment of such earth-shattering, buying the winning lottery ticket, 'watcher-in-the-skies-when-a-new-planet-appears' proportions that everything in my gaming universe was been turned on its head. As an aside this will also the reason I will be missing Broadside.

So what exactly has caused this great conundrum? 



A taster of what is to come - and boy oh boy I am delighted with this little lot!

Essentially I have acquired a previously owned 3/4 professionally painted metal 20mm WW1 Middle Eastern collection consisting of horse, camels, foot, guns, machine guns, limbers, wagons, command, armoured cars and pack mules. There is nigh on 700 models in this collection - Tumbling Dice for the most part, with some Dixon draft horses used with the wagons - and are mostly (the 3/4 mentioned above) professionally painted in a early Dallimore style (black lining and bold shading) complete with textured bases. The figures are based for storage in six box files, all lined with magnetic paper so the entire collection stays in place when on the move. The figures are primarily based individually with machine guns and artillery on larger bases. Some of the earlier units are on multiple bases whilst the camelry are on massive bases which will certainly need changing. 

The forces represented are the Turks, Germans, Imperial, Indian and Australian with some camel and horse mounted Arabs. I will be holding a photo shoot of each force in due course. The significance of this collection for me is that in one fell swoop I shall be able to tackle all those games that had only existed in my imagination or had been fought using the blocks. If I am completely honest the likelihood of me ever acquiring a such collection using conventional methods - that is buying the bare metal and painting the same - is extremely unlikely and probably impossible. Having said that, there are a couple of units that will be repainted by yours truly - the Arabs and Indians to begin with.

To say that I am delighted with this collection would be putting it mildly. I now have the wargaming wherewithal to undertake not only one off battles in a period I am passionately interested in but also to realise, at long last, all those ideas kicking around for campaign ideas.

The models in the collection are probably around 30 years old and as a result there is a degree of routine maintenance required. the biggest issue is around the basing as some of the models are not based as per the bulk of the collection so some degree of rationalisation will be required. Some of the models will need to be rebased completely which will have the knock on effect of meaning that everything will need to be painted in a uniform fashion. I am not fussed by this, in fact it will help to tie in those models that are not painted in the main style. I often find that a uniform basing style can help units to blend in - even when they are painted using different techniques.

In the meantime though....

The current frenzy of warship painting will continue unabated with the only change being to the long term plan in respect of ship acquisitions. For reasons that will become obvious I will need to add some of the older kit to the two fleets - protected and armoured cruisers and pre-dreadnought battleships mainly - as the theatre the Middle Eastern collection will be used in will feature much in the way naval activity.

It may have been Confucius that said something about 'May you live in interesting times' - mine have certainly gotten a whole lot more so!

12 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

David,

As you know, Panzerschiffe has a very extensive line of Pre-Dreads in 1/2400 (and I have quite a few myself).

Did you also know that War Times Journal has expanded from their lovely 1/3000 metal models into 3-D plastics in 1/2400?

Please check out their models here:

http://www.wtj.com/store/

The even have the 1895 Greek "Hydra" class Battleships.


-- Jeff

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

I am looking forward to seeing your new 'recruits' in the near future.

All the best,

Bob

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Nice turn of events Paul

Well done!

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

Well done! To the victor the spoils.

David Crook said...

Hi Jeff,

That is really good news re the Hydra class - they are essential for the Greek Navy in the Balkans! I hope to have my first batch of Panzerschiffe models completed soon - I had hoped to have had them completed yesterday but I was sidetracked slightly....;-)

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

The 'gallery' should be completed by this evening - and it will be worth the wait!

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Cheers old chap - and Paul sends his regards....;-)

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Ross,

There will be a degree of maintenance and a complete rebase but I am really happy with the collection. I plan to start work asap on this as I want to get them ready for the autumn campaigning season.

All the best,

DC

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

My apologies Dave, I was obviously was multi-tasking and got my wires crossed

The epitaph of "Happy Crazy Dave" seems quite fitting here ;)

Model on!

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

I did wonder if the paint and glue fumes had finally taken their toll!

I am absolutely delighted with this little lot - as you will have seen in the next post!

All the best,

DC

Clint said...

Well you were missed at Broadside. But I think the reasons are just and Valid so I shall let you off this time.

That's a lot of troops to acquire in one go. I an only imagine my feeling should I ever get quite so lucky.

David Crook said...

Many thanks Clint!

I will need to tackle some work with them but this is purely to bring the collection into line with how I want to organise it.

It looks magnificent!

All the best,

DC