The year so far

By my standards I've had quite a productive year, having completed the following:

• 30mm - Privateer Press Hordes Brun Cragback and Lug. 2 figures - pic. below
• 28mm - Empress New Zealand Wars Royal Navy Boarding party. 10 figures. 
• 20mm - Newline Designs NW Frontier Afghans. 48 figures.
• 20mm - Newline Designs WW2 Red Army infantry. 8 figures.
• 20mm - SHQ WW2 Waffen SS Pak crew. 6 figures.

When writing the above it struck me that two of the entries on this list perfectly illustrates the butterfly approach to how I've accumulated my collection. 

I don't collect/game the New Zealand Wars. However, the figures are lovely sculpts, classic Paul Hicks and I had to get them in somewhere. I have an eclectic loosely categorised "Old West" collection so they are now shoehorned in here. 

The NW Frontier Afghans shows how else I can get sidetracked. Back in 2013 I became interested in Modern Warfare, something that I'd not touched before.I decided to get some Modern Afghans from MJ Miniatures. After painting these, other shiny things grabbed my attention and I didn't do anything else with this. Then I got an email from Newline Designs with a very good offer and I promptly bought 40 of their NW Frontier figures thinking I'd use them with my Modern Afghans. But think again. By this time I'd read some bits on the North West Frontier Campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s, purchased some appropriate Brits from Early War Miniatures and my Modern project had morphed into a North West Frontier project. The MJ Minis with their AKs which started it all off  are sitting in a box with little hope of seeing the light of day. 

As is the norm I've yet to game with any of the above figures. Well it did take me 10 years after buying Hordes at the release event at Salute 2006 to actually play the game. 

Brun Cragback and Lug

Starting out

After thinking about it for a long time I've finally started a blog for my wargaming hobby thoughts. As a solo hobbyist (I can't call myself a gamer due to the infrequency of which I play any games) I think it's good to get these thoughts our of my head - it'll stop me boring my wife so much and someone out there may even be interested.

I started in the hobby over 35 years ago but after a break in my mid teens and early twenties, got back into it properly about 22 years ago. Both times my interest was reignited though collecting WW2 militaria and that's where my core interest and hobby heart lies. However, like most gamers I'm a bit (lot) of a butterfly and have accumulated a varied gaming collection now.

I'm hoping by writing this blog it will motivate me to keep on top of the hobby and share some stuff. Onwards and upwards.