More PBI Yanks.

Just a very brief post today. Here are my latest lot of 15mm US Infantry for PBI. The figures are a Mixture of Battlefront and Peter Pig. Three Bar stands, one Bazooka Stand and a Garand Rifle stand. All painted and based in my usual way. I have been lucky these last few days and found some that I had put aside. You know what it's like you put them somewhere safe and forget where. Anyway I have found another 6 stands worth of infantry. Not as good as winning the lottery but it did put a smile on my face.

Club day tomorrow and at this stage I think we are trying SAGA for the first time. Anyway that's it for today. Very quick. I'll post again on Tuesday, all the best Clint.

PBI Yanks

I have struggled to get much painting done this week. I did manage to get these two MMG stands done for PBI. The miniatures are from QRF ( http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/ ) Nicely sculpted and cast (some of their vehicles are less well cast If I am honest, but not badly cast as I will keep buying more). The guns are 2 piece castings with a separate tripod and gun. Attaching the belts to the loaders was a little fiddly but worth the effort. They were easy no fuss to paint with deep enough folds in the clothes to be able to hold a wash. As the first US troops I have purchased from QRF I must say I am very happy with them. Most of my other US troops are Battlefront and a smattering of Peter Pig. Now though having used these I will look here in the future as I like the sculpts and the delivery speed is pretty good as well.

As you can see there is a mold line on the helmet, second picture, loader on the left. It only really shows on the picture and hardly at all in real life. It just shows what a flash will reveal. As mentioned above I have struggled to get much painting done, a lot of the reasons were that I was waiting to get some basing materials which I managed to secure at SELWG. I can no longer use that as an excuse. Since SELWG I have started to re-base the mechs, as I bought some proper bases for them. I have also started the next few stands of US PBI Infantry (only 6 but still it needed to be done.)

That's today's post. Thanks for reading take care and I shall do my next blog post on Saturday. All the best Clint.



SELWG Zombies!

As I mentioned a zombie game at SELWG yesterday I thought I should cover it in more detail. The game was in the main hall and run by the SEEMS club (South East Essex Military Society, Web site: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SEEMS/) Only met them in passing, but they were very approachable on the day. And as it was a Zombie game I thought it deserved a special mention. Firstly the two I did talk to were not aware that there was a Zombie Bloggers Association (ZBA), but at least they do now.

The game was a participation game set in an alternative WW2 where Britain had been invaded by the Germans and somehow zombies had come into being. They did not have any hand outs or I would have nabbed one, but they had a very brief historical recap of how the Zombie Virus and Germans had managed to arrive in England. Not that I was so keen on the details I just wanted BRAINS! If you have very good eyesight you should be able to pick up some details from the history to the right. If like me your eyesight is not so good or if you don't want to read it that's OK I did not on the day either.

I am not sure of the rules they were using but it was a "you-go-I-go" Mechanic and being participation was bound to be quite simple. The game, like so many participation games, suffered from the Wargames creche syndrome, by that I mean younger players were playing perhaps dumped there by parents who wanted to spend their cash without being pestered to buy "Chaos spiky ninja space troopers" or some such. I mean no offence to of GW games, oh who am I kidding yes I do!.

A nice board, obviously using things from other club games, which I applaud. The buildings for example are from PCM (PMC I forget which) that you can get straight from eBay at a reasonable price and do a very good job. You can see by the bases of the trees that they are from another game as well. Let's be blunt we all use what we have and what we are familiar with so I think it's really good that they did not go overboard and instead represented a more achievable looking game.

Most of the action, (when I was stood at the game) seemed to be centred around the ruined buildings with the forces of Good (the British of course) both exploring and defending the area.

A couple more close up pics just to show a little more detail and to prevent eyestrain.

Lastly for today, I would like to thank Fran the angry (hedge hugger) Lurker for giving me one of the "Posties Reject" d6. I am told that I have been entered in the draw, for both his a Rays, competition despite the fact that I asked not to be. They both said tough and that I was in it. Which is really nice of them and I do appreciate it. So thanks guys. I am sure you have already come across their blogs, but just on the off chance that you haven't. Fran at
http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/  and  Ray at http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/


That's it for today I shall do a very brief post tomorrow, just to get back into the rhythm I had established. This was a special post for the ZBA.
So that's it for today take care roll dice, laugh and avoid hedges.

Post Script: Postie has asked me to mention Hedge Hugging and Fran a few times on different Blogs. And a promise is a promise so I consider it done now, at least until Fran posts next!

All the best Clint

Selwg 2012

 

As many of you will now on Sunday I went to SELWG. AS my eyesight is "borderline" I don't drive for fear of accidents. I was therefore very grateful that Ray, (http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/) Fran (http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/) and Postie. I must say sharing a car with them was actually a pleasant experience (Perhaps I should get out more). They all have a wealth of knowledge and put me at ease quickly and it turns out Fran can navigate as well. Cutting a long story short we arrived Early and were joined in the Que by Lee (http://www.blmablog.com/2012/10/selwg-2012-part-1.html) who has already published a comprehensive show report in four parts and I would recommend checking it out. Moments later David Crook (http://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/) Joined the crowd outside and the time passed very quickly until the doors opened.


The Above Picture was taken at 12:30ish and is a good judge of the crowd and show attendance. It did seem that numbers were a little down, but until I speak to a few traders and see their view on the crowds spending habits it is hard to judge. Some traders I know did very well, and it is inevitable that some did not meet their expected targets, such is always the way at shows. As already demonstrated I was very reserved in my spending this year, As I have a number of projects in the planning stages which have not reached the wallet opening level just yet.

Here are the pics of the games at the show, not all the games of course, check Big lees blog ,above, for a MUCH larger selection. These are just the ones that for some reason caught my eye. No captions or descriptions, just random pics of pretty games. There was a Zombie game as well and I shall post about that at another time. Just for the Zombie Bloggers Association. Most of the games have had outings before as show games are the showcase of the clubs that put them on so if you have been to a show in the south of England the chances are you will already have seen them, so this is just a visual reminder.
I should have payed more attention to the table I was getting a pic of so I could label them and put them in some sort of order. My day consisted of talking to traders and fellow wargamers, I was even introduced to Tamsin, (http://wargaminggirl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-selwg-some-gossip.html) and can confirm the GZG gossip she put forward in her blog today, Jon having said the same to me as well. Then having wandered away from the table chatting failing to return until later. This is just how unorganised I am. Maybe it will be different if I ever grow up.... don't hold your breathe!
Clubs can't afford either the time, money or effort to host a new game for each show, that would be ridiculous we would never get to play games. As such many games fall into the pre Salute and post Salute category. Overall the standard of the games was incredibly high, in fact I cannot think of a single game that I would not be proud to have worked on. It just goes to show how many talented people are drawn to the hobby. Anyway I hope you enjoy the photos and find something of interest. As mentioned before I will talk about the zombie game another time.

Anyway thanks for reading, or more likely just looking at the pics. I shall try to get things labelled and identified next time. Yeah right!

All the best Clint.

SELWG Loot 2012

Just a very quick post to show my SELWG loot. Very meagre haul this time. I was not really going shopping this year, and came hoe with more than half my money.  Here's what I actually bought and reasons why.

• Ground Zero Games, one 15mm infantry squad (Federal states Europa) and one hover APC, (Command Variant) I bought this to finish the platoon, so it can be a finished force all ready to play.
• A box of Green Toxic Dice. This was an impulse buy but it gives me some dedicated Zombie dice, which ia always good.
• 3 packs of hex stands, suitable for Mechs/Battletech. A bargain if you ask me.
• 2 Packs of Peter Pig 30mm square bases. I had run out and buying them this way is just so much easier.
• 2 Packs Peter Pig Figures, 1x US Artillery crew, 1x 105mm Field gun. This will flesh out my US PBI company.
• 2 foam Trays for figure storage.

As you can see quite a small haul, but for once everything has a purpose. My impulse buys were a real minimum only £3.60 in total. Which means the pile of lead which is my life is not growing too much larger this week. If I look back at the spends harshly I could have gotten all this Mail order, cheaper than the travel and entrance fee, but that would not have been as valid an experience. I could and very nearly did buy more, but while I did enjoy the show there was nothing that really grabbed me as a must have.

I shall post a show report on Tuesday, just to get back to normal. Thanks for reading and have a good couple of days.