Zombtober (2)

So here we are the second week in Zombtober and this time a survivor as opposed to another zombie. Slightly different from my usual survivors in that he's modern and on some motorbike. While I am not totally happy with the way he's turned out I will not repaint and he is good enough. If nothing else it makes a tiny bit more room on the painting table which is always a good thing. Painted to represent some school or collage "jock" with a varsity jacket in Purple and cream. I have a few corpses in the same type and colours of Jackets. He rides one of those bright trials bikes that sound like noisy hairdryers. You know the kind I mean. And that is bound to summon extra zeds to the table. To make matters worse he has a one handed machine pistol they type used in "spray and pray" style gun play. Very little chance to hit anything but a lot of chance to make some noise and scare crowds. Ahh the folly of youth! Obviously he's of no use in a wild zombie west but in normal zombie games he should find a purpose, if only to attract more shamblers to the table.

Carl over at hitting on a double 1 is celebrating a milestone by having a giveaway. It is the standard set up, be a follower and leave a comment and get put in a draw to receive some books. I have asked not to be put in the draw as I already have far too much to read at the moment without making the stack by my bed get any bigger. (I doubt that will stop me at SELWG though in fact I will be looking out for a couple of Osprey books if the price is right.)

And finally for today I will be posting on this blog irregularly for the next few days as real life is interfering a little at the moment, as well as SELWG show and a few other things. Nothing to worry about just keeping it loose for the moment so I don't trap myself into saying I will post again and then having to miss a day. (As I did yesterday). I will try to do a show report and a lot haul in the next few days and then get back to my normal posting of every other day. I will admit here and now my predicted loot haul at SELWG is looking very small but who knows what I might find on the bring and buy or what impulse buys might suddenly become VITAL!

Anyway Hope to update on Monday so hang in there and catch you all soon. Best wishes Clint.

The Army Grows.

Slowly ever slowly I am growing the 10mm Samurai army. Today are 2 more units of Samurai. I say unit as I am thinking od 4 stands as being a unit and no other reason, I could equally say another 8 stands. As with all the others they continue to be by Pendraken Miniatures simply because it avoids compatibility issues such as scale creep and sculpting style. Observant people will note that two banners have a red stripe at the banner base and two do not. This allows me to identify units within an army quite quickly and has nothing to do with historical accuracy.

They are two separate units I promise! Clearly they are all in the same pose but that just makes it easier to identify what they are armed with. When I start a second force I will keep all the armour as red as Il Nomasa did. I will no doubt talk more about that when I do them. The army is starting to come together now and once I do a few more units a whole army shot will no doubt be in order. At the moment though there are still not sufficient to warrant it.

Some of you will know I am not a huge believer in KICKSTARTERS. I can and do see a place for them but I also feel that there are just too many of them, and yet yesterday I made a small pledge to my second one! Only $30 before we get to involved in jeering at me and saying "I told you so!" As I do not trawl the kickstarters looking for projects I was actually on the companies home page checking out their products and happened to notice the kickstarter. HERE it is if anyone cares to see where my money has gone. It has a mere 9 hours left to run and the stretch goals are not so massive to attract anyone particularly, However as a fan of Science Fiction in general and the Alien Films in particular I felt it purposeful to support them. Way way way in the future I can see myself doing an ALIENS game but that is at least 1 year and probably 2 before I get that far. I really do have far to much to do with these Samurai before I get carried away with other ideas.

And that's Wednesdays update, the next one will be Friday. I hope to have my week 2 Zombtober figure done by then. As I will not be able to post it on Sunday due to SELWG. So with luck on Friday something 28mm to show. Until then take care have fun and paint a zombie or two! All the best Clint.

Inspiration and background (1)

I forgot my Camera! What! What has that got to do with inspiration and background? Clint you have lost it! I would normally do a club AAR on Sunday after club but as I forgot my camera it might not be a very good AAR so I am back talking about Samurai!

Many of you will know I live in Gillingham in Kent. What many of you will not realise is that Gillingham is twinned with a couple of Japanese towns. Yes I know most towns have a twin town but why has Gillingham been twined with towns in Japan? You will have noticed the book and DVD on the right. That's a big clue. Change all the names and this book was pretty much a true story, obviously adapted into a story and then TV series. The lead character in this story is "John Blackthorne" who was based on "Will Adams". And "Will Adams" was born in Gillingham. ( Click HERE for the wiki!).

The Will Adams Monument on the A2

Antony J Bryant in the osprey Campaign book "Sekigahara" hi-lights this connection and goes on to say that the Shogun book has the political setting about right. Thus we have a local history link to my current wargaming interest. In fact I would say more than local history as it does link to the Far East and that can hardly be considered local.

One of the plaques on the monument.

While the monument was erected in 1934 and the events go back circa 1600 AD until the towns were twinned most people in this area were unaware of this person. More recently however roads, roundabouts and medical centres have all taken the Will Adams name. So growing up I was not made aware of this local hero. Typically English understatement the town did not celebrate and hardly acknowledge William Adams. Personally I think we could do with a grander monument and perhaps a small visitor centre, nothing too fancy perhaps a permanent display in a local museum. (There are no museums in Gillingham we ain't very cultural here!)

OK enough of the waffle and back to the wargaming. So I thought to post this to show that some background to wargaming need not be all stuffy and involve much reading. And indeed can have local and international overtones.Obviously I am reading around the subject as well as re-reading "Shogun" by James Cavell for the third time ( you can see by the cover it has been read a few times already, and I got it second hand as well). It is a most excellent book and TV series and I would recommend it without hesitation even if you are not interested in wargaming with Samurai. For me it is very gratifying to have such a strong local link and to think that "Will Adams" was the FIRST western Samurai!

I should have some more painted figures by the time Wednesday comes around for my next post. I had anticipated a game report today so I had nothing varnished and ready to photograph. So until Wednesday when I will do my next update I hope you found something of interest here today. Not very wargaming I'll have to admit, but I think it is of interest and with luck I hope you do too.

Best Wishes Clint.