A Challenge...

All,
Curt at his excellent Analogue Hobbies Blog is running another painting challenge, in which he helpfully awards points to inspire us to work through our lead piles.
Having been inspired to paint more last year even without participating, I leapt at the chance this time and am already thinking of what minis I can prep to start on.
If a light-hearted challenge appeals, get in touch with Curt through http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/
Finally, an appeal - does anyone have any spare plastic round shields suitable for Vikings? Flat ones from the Wargames Factory set would be preferred, but any will be gratefully accepted. I need just four!

A milestone of sorts

Well, not sure when this happened, but this blog has crept up to 100 pageviews. Ok, so not greatly impressive, but I never expected many people to find this corner for my ramblings.

Anyway, I'm off for a weekend with my brother so a little gaming will be on the agenda. I won't see him until Feb am he has a baby due so this may end up being our last chance to get the minis out for a while!

Saga is on the cards, I'm looking forward giving it a whirl. I've done ok my painting schedule, with 20 brave Vikings nearly finished and some Levy prepped to start next week.

Second Saga unit

Just finished these off and am pleased with them - four colourful 'Berserkir' for my Viking warband.
The one with the white shield needs an LBMS shield transfer applying.

Testing LBM transfers

So, I wussed out of dipping my Saga Vikings. But they are still substantially quicker to paint than anything Napoleonic.
These are the first few Bondi, finished with Little Big Man shield transfers. A doddle to apply and came out well, even from just a phone pic.
I'm impressed, though the Saga-specific transfer sets are a bit of a jip - by my maths you get better value from the normal ones buried in the LBM section of Gripping Beast's store.

PhilH

This...is...Saga!

Ok, bad joke. But, like everyone else I've been tempted by Gripping Beast's Saga rules. At first glance they are well-presented, tactically interesting and well-explained. I look forward to testing them out next month.

Luckily, I already has some Wargames Factory plastic Viking sprues and GB metals from a previous aborted project. They made a 4 point warband - result! Though I've already supplemented this with some levy archers for variety.

And my brave Hirdmen need some transport...perhaps a boat?

News and a pic

So, personal life scuppered painting, let alone gaming in recent months. In a nutshell, I've relocated with work to London for the next couple of years. The change is great, but things got pretty busy, especially as I spent some months working in the city and only being home at weekends.
Anyway I'm in a new flat now and looking to new projects. News on that soon.
London also presents many opportunities for those with historical interests. The first is below - during a relatively aimless wander around tourist London my girlfriend and I stumbled across the Guards museum (and caught some of the Changing of the Guard).
The museum was small but reasonably priced and had some impressive artefacts. One is below - one of the Guards regiments' Colours carried at Waterloo. Awful that I forget which, but there were a few in varying conditions.
I found being in the presence of these humbling, and couldn't resist taking a snap. Among other artefacts for the Napoleonic connoisseur was the lock and some remnants of the gate from Hougoumont. Fascinating.

Minor update

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I've been incredibly busy, working away a lot in the week and lots of housework to catch up on at weekends. Hopefully I'll be more settled in a month or so.
Anyway, I did manage a few games with my brother over the bank holiday weekend. I took quite a few snaps, mostly on the proper camera. Below is one off my phone from the second game, where the British were assaulting French siegeworks hoping to spike their guns artillery.
We are still settled on Sharpe Practice as a ruleset but are adapting to suit larger units, 16-25 men. Those 10 man units just didn't look right!
Unfortunately this means we need to paint more minis to bulk all of our units out. The game below was really stretching our painted collections. Never-ending, this project!
Thanks for reading - more picks and BatReps when I get chance.