A Definite Kind of Progress

Cockleshell heroes indeed and one that I am looking to reading and getting some inspiration from 

First of all and once again, a very big thank you to all for the kind messages of support in respect of the imminent surgery that Laurel is about to have. Both of us really appreciate it. This morning was the first visit to the hospital for her to have the pre op sequence - BP, blood test, MRSA and Covid swab as well as an ECG. It took us longer to get to the hospital than it did for all these tests to be undertaken. Even the parking was not too problematic! This Wednesday is the day so fingers and other extremities are firmly crossed for a successful outcome.

In the meantime life has meandered on and so I have found myself at something of a loose end this afternoon - I am working from home but have tackled the business of the day rather sooner than I would thought meaning that I have some spare time and of course, there is no commute involved unless you count heading up into the loft as such….

So I have some definite progress to report in a couple of areas as well as some new additions to the collection - one courtesy of a birthday Amazon gift cards and the other thanks to the generosity of a fellow gamer and blogger.

“Big wheels keep on turning….”

The ACW ships are finally taking shape and are beginning to look like what they should do! The six you see are the side wheel paddle ships - two for the Union and four for the Confederates with their respective paddle boxes in place. Originally I was going to paint the sun ray effect paddle boxes before fixing them in place but have opted instead to paint them in situ - mainly because it gives me something rather larger to hold on to whilst doing so.

The original versions. Note the dice frame that is incorrectly positioned over the edge of the large recess where the blocks sit. There is also a hole cut into the base beneath this which made the whole thing a little too deep for a 6mm d6.

The revised versions viewed from the front and the rear. I have opted to use just the dice frame to sit the d6 in and you can see that it has been positioned to that it is in line with the main recess. Altogether much smarter looking!

Originally in our kitchen but tucked away in the man cave for safekeeping - until now that is! Measuring 24” by 18” and ideal for a 2” square grid. It merely needs some work to get it ready for action and will make for a truly portable playing surface.

The revised movement tray prototypes for my block armies have arrived and I am delighted with them so these will be the production versions. I made a rather pleasant discovery with these - at least with the 1 1/2” square version - in that the small version will enable to make use of a 2” square grid with a single block per unit. This is really handy as I have an old cork notice board that measure 24” by 18” or, when using a 2” grid, 12 by 9 squares. Now that is what I call a Portable Wargame!

Gotta love some WW2 special forces action!

Over the past year or so I have been looking at and thinking about skirmish level games for various things, ranging from the crusades to the far future. A period of history I keep coming back to is WW2 in the Mediterranean, especially from the perspective of clandestine operations, raids and similar. Anything set in the Greek islands will always have my attention - shades of the Guns of Navarone - and so I have reading about various facets of this type of warfare. The two titles you see above are already in my collection - the SAS book came from a boot sale - but the newest addition concerns the exploits of the Special Boat Squadron. The book covers the Aegean as well as all the other theatres the men of the SBS saw service - including the Far East.

Planes, ships, vehicles, figures, artillery pieces and terrain items - all very useful and the inspiration for many thoughts within thoughts, schemes within schemes and plans within plans….

Finally, a most welcome package arrived from that well known bon vivant, wit and raconteur- the Jolly Broom Man - who was having a bit of clear out and kindly asked me If I was interested in the above bits and pieces from the board game Axis and Allies. Was I ever although I do have rather a lot of this already. There is a cunning plan afoot using much of this material but it is very much a long distance thing. The Jolly Broom Man is a thoroughly decent fellow and my thanks to him for this most welcome gesture - with the veritable apocalypse of things going on at home at the moment the impact of its arrival on my well being was far bigger than the bits and pieces contained therein.

My deepest thanks old chap!

In closing all I can say is that the support of friends and family has been absolutely priceless (many thanks once again) through this most challenging of times and although the above items are fairly low key in their impact and represent the work of but a small passage of time, the simple fact is that I had some time to do them and I feel far more normal having done so.