A blast from the past
This is the end of week four of my unemployment but despite the lack of paid employment I have certainly not been idle! SWMBO has a list of DIY jobs that seems to get longer each day but the accrued brownie points will be put to good use; of that you can be certain! I have 95% completed the repaint of the shed and have jet washed the decking as well as weeding the front drive. Luckily the weather has been unusually mild!
Enough of this domestic trivia and on with the good stuff!
I am saying hello to a copy of a 1973 vintage WRG rules set covering ancient naval combat from 1,000 BC to 500 AD by Richard Nelson. I was really pleased to get these as ancient naval is something I would like to try at some point (along with the 16th century). The rules themselves seem fairly straightforward and are also hex based which was something fairly radical for a set of miniatures rules 'back in the day'. One note that caught my eye though was the fact that for sources of models the rules stated that Miniature Figurines produced a 1/1200th scale range. Methinks I shall have to take this up with Dave Ryan for sure!
On another old Minifigs slant I am reminded of the fact that many years ago they produced a range of troop blocks for, I believe, the ancient and the horse and musket era. I have seen some of these in use for a Napoleonic battle a number of years back and unless I am much mistaken Tony Bath used them for some of the larger actions of his famous Hyborian campaign. Again, another one to take up with Mr Ryan!
I have waved goodbye to a vast chunk of 1/3000th scale nautical kit as I am abandoning using this scale for my naval games. The only reason for this is simply because I now find them to be too small which seems odd when I am looking at using models that are considerably over scale for my nautical fix. This means that the Turks, Greeks, Russians, Spanish Civil War and North Atlantic convoy set up are no longer. The proceeds have been earmarked for a number of ideas - one of which will be the acquisition of some of the newly released Minifigs ships as well as some building materials and large chunk of acrylic paints.
I am also looking at Axis and Allies: Angel 20 simply because it is far too good a game to turn down and has an inbuilt limiting factor in terms of the amount of models you could realistically deploy on the standard game map. At the present time it would be a fairly small project but I am quite sure I am not the first person to say that - or the last!
12 comments:
You might want to take a look at "Roman Seas" ships, etc.
They are paper models that you download .pdfs for so that you can print off as many as you like . . . and they have a variety of markings for each ship type so that they don't all look exactly the same.
http://www.romanseas.com/
It is true that they are 1/300th scale . . . but I think that you can re-size them (even if you have to transfer them to a clipboard and then a graphics program).
They are not expensive and you could be printing off ships today.
-- Jeff
Hope something turns up on the job front
Meanwhile I am envious of your hobby time but not the DIY schedule (hard labour) in my book
Now don't go tempting me for ancient naval I have some 1/1200 Navwar Greek triremes I was going to paint for someone ...
What ... saying goodbye to 1/3000, there is a visible tear in my eye, say it's not so David!
Hi Jeff,
That is a good wheeze and one I shall have a look at for sure. What I have in mind though is something a little more radical....;-)
Many thanks for the heads up - much appreciated!
All the best,
DC
Hi Geordie,
The hobby time has been increased marginally but I still do not seem to be making much headway with anything as yet!
The DIY jobs have been outstanding for a while and so although there seems a lot of them once they are finished I shall be clear for some time to come.
Still giving lots of thoughts to galleys - both the ancient and the 16th century varieties.
All the best,
DC
Hi Geordie,
Re 1/3000th - I am afraid it is true and the collection is now a 1/3000th free zone.
I will write a blog post as to the rationale for this but to be honest, it has been coming for some time. I have had some truly epic games with 1/3000th models over the years but for my own purposes I want to use larger models.
More to follow and a packet of tissues is in the post....;-)
All the best,
DC
Nice pickup. I too am in the process of upscaling - the 1/6000 treasures are now gone and 1/1200 will be my focus now
I am sure you have your logic, but as Gollum once said "this thing is precious to me" ...
Do point me to some of the older choice games you have posted about
:)
Hi Paul,
I really like 1/1200th as a scale despite the problems of fitting anything on a tabletop. Where there's a will I say!
I am looking at something rather different though for a number of periods so watch this space.
The rules after closer reading are REALLY good and designed very much with fleets etc in mind (even including squadron reaction rules which is always good to see)and I don't think it would take too much tweaking to run them up to the Renaissance period.
All the best,
DC
Hi Geordie,
Sadly the majority of my 1/3000th games did not make it onto the blog as the pictures were too problematic. I have fought many actions though - especially in the pre dreadnought era using both a DBA derived set and going back in time - The Devil at the Helm - using a rather large French Navy. WW2 General Quarters 2 games have also featured.
Is this perchance a cunning ploy to make me change my mind?
All the best,
DC
Perhaps ;)
Hi Geordie,
....must stay strong....must stay....strong....;-)
All the best,
DC
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