Bank Holiday Lethargy

 

I often wonder if these animals have worked out the meaning of life....



Well that is another Bank holiday chalked off for the year! Actually I should say that is a another Bank holiday where I did not get half the things done I thought I would do but did manage to some things I did not expect to....

I did not get the Denmark Strait action fought. Time ran away from me as we had a number of domestic duties to tackle as well as the usual weekend routine 'stuff'. By the time I was able to get into the man cave with every intention of fighting the battle I was too tired to do anything more meaningful than some gluing. My resolve melted like an ice cream in the May sunshine - it gets very warm in the man cave - as, to be honest, I was feeling pretty lethargic and sloth-like as a result of the busy day we had spent.

I was however, able to glue the Royal Navy Axis and Allies ships on to their bases and the Kriegsmarine ships have all been cleaned up. These will be glued to their bases before the weekend so I can at least get them undercoated. The weather has been hot and sunny with clear blue skies but it has felt really oppressive. This has slowed me down somewhat.

Apart from the naval non-event I have spent some time pondering matters relating to my avowed intention of tackling something for The Men Who Would Be Kings and Congo. There is no hurry with this but I want to get a plan in place sooner rather than later. I know this smacks of 'ticking things off for the sake of it' but I find that it helps me to know what I am going to be doing even if I am not doing yet!

The Colonial 'period' has a lot going for it in terms of variety but true to form I would prefer to tackle something a little less than mainstream. Much as I like them this means no Zulus or the Sudan. I rather fancy the North West Frontier between 1890 and 1920 or the Foreign Legion over the same period.

Being primarily a solo gamer I am quite used to thinking about raising both sides for a game and this would be no exception. I am presented though, with a rather delicious conundrum in that (and I have said this before) these rules would work equally well with 54mm figures. In fact I acquired a whole pile of Armies in Plastic stuff for the Foreign Legion era - partially used in  turn to acquire a vast quantity of Axis and Allies material - but never pushed through with it.

 

Another film from my list of those I have not seen - although I am currently watching it courtesy of iTunes.

It would be easy enough to amass the material required for the adventures of the Legion. For the French I would merely need some artillery (Armies in Plastic produce a rather nice screw gun which would suffice) and a machine gun. It would be nice to have some mounted troops - I have always had a soft spot for French Colonial cavalry - but these would need to be conversions methinks. The Arabs would be straightforward enough as Armies in Plastic produce them although they represent several quite distinct tribal groupings.

Add in some palm trees and perhaps a couple of the Airfix 1/32nd scale desert outposts (actually 'normal' Arab style dwellings would be easy enough even for me to knock up being as they are, essentially boxes of various sizes) and away we go.

I have yet to make a decision as what I am going to do for this period but by virtue of the fact I already have some material to hand for the Legion it would need a compelling argument for me to not to proceed with it - in 54mm or otherwise.