Derby Loot

Hello again.

After my belated post on the Derby Show, held on the weekend of 7th and 8th October, I thought I would muse on the things I went for, what I missed and what I bought from the show.

Perhaps unusual for me, I had actually made a definitive list of what I wanted. I reckoned I wanted two further regiments of French foot for the Seven Years' War in America/ French & Indian War. I also wanted another three British regiments for the same conflict. All five regiments, along with some half a dozen individual French figures, would come from Eagle Figures. I then planned on visiting Redoubt for some Highlanders and Light Infantry, together with a British gun or two. That would see me right for my FIW needs, I felt.

I also went with the express intention of boosting my 10mm Crimean War project, mostly with Russians, but I also wanted to check out Magister Militum's offerings in this arena, so that too was a definite. Most importantly in this project, I wanted the uniform book by Laurence Spring on the Russian Army, which Caliver Books had stocked at previous shows but I had not so far purchased a copy of.

I had planned to get the new "Ghost Archipelago" book, and possibly a few figures, new in from the "Frostgrave" people, but learned that it was not yet out (at the time of the show). Also, I wanted some Chinese Pulp-style characters for something I had in mind for the reasonably near future.

Anything else would be ad hoc.

So, what caused me to part with my money on the day?

A large selection of Eagle Figures SYW castings, which will bolster my FIW ranks considerably. I managed to get a whole single pack of British command from Redoubt too - their stocks were rather low, so I missed out on Highlanders, etc. The book looked interesting, so I picked it up from Paul Meekin Books.

A host of the desired Crimean War figures from both Pendraken and Magister Militum, along with a range of bargain books from Paul Meekin again. Almost £80 worth of books for less than half that! I now have a miniature British Light Brigade, the Heavy Brigade, the Guards Brigade, a Russian Light Cavalry Brigade, two brigades of Russian infantry and whatever the Pendraken packs hold. Quips that I want to host Balaklava in one-to-one scale are wholly unwarranted!

THE book I had set out to get, covering all aspects (I hoped) of the Russian army. A flick through showed just how much I did not know, such as Russian cavalry regiments having identically coloured horses within each regiment. I have started my first regiment of dragoons with their horses and had painted around half of them chestnut, with a view to doing the rest bay with the odd grey. NO!!! All chestnut now, which makes them either the Tsarevitch dragoons, Prince Emil of Hesse's dragoons...there are a few options! Flags are described too, so I can hopefully get them right as  well.

Related to my Crimean War interests, these two books were nice to have. The very new Osprey offering covers the Piedmontese but also other Italian forces in the unification struggles. Gringo 40's were at the show with some wonderful-looking troops for this conflict...The large, hardback book features loads of uniforms in colour for conflicts ranging from the Crimea to the Boer War (the 2nd one, featuring Spion Kop, etc). Ideal I felt not just for my Crimean interests, but also my latent ACW, 1859 and 1866 collections, all of which are awaiting their turn in the spotlight.

I have a passion for the Wargamers' Annual series, so this was a must-have. My currently dormant interest in the Thirty Years' War also meant I had to have the book on the Bavarian army too. Returning my 30YW figures to the tabletop is long overdue!

A hefty dose of whimsy! All looked interesting and "Bolt Action" may well see the light of day with my First World War figures, although I do have a 28mm Japanese army in the "To Do" pile...

And finally, more whimsy and necessity. I always need bases, but the Goblin Spider Rider and the two LOTR trolls were just "shiny".
 

So, I got a lot of what I went for, bought a lot of stuff on top of that, and still missed out on a few things.

1. No Highlanders or Light Infantry for the FIW.
2. No FIW British artillery.
3. No Fu Manchu or similar for Pulp games.
4. No "Ghost Archipelago".
5. Rather stupidly, I did not stock up on magnetic sheet and steel paper. I used the last of my supply of the latter yesterday! D'oh!

But, that was what I call a successful show overall. Whilst I felt there was too much crammed into the hall, some games not really "on the money" in my opinion and it was a bit of a pig to get to from where Nephew Nick and I live, the trade was lively, the money well spent and the Winter reading and projects well stacked up.

I really should take stock of the mass and bulk of my "To Do" list, however, and curtail my expenses going forwards. That may well mean I curtail one or two show visits for the next twelve months and Derby may well be one I miss next year. We shall see.

G

Hibernation over

Well, not really hibernation, more lengthy periods of semi-consciousness.

I cannot believe I have not posted anything since the middle of December!

A combination of changed working hours, family commitments, poor light caused by almost incessant rain and a number of sundry other factors have led to a slow start to 2016's painting season.

There is also one other factor which has adversely contributed - the absence of a big project for this year.

Unlike each of the past few years, I am not faced with the prospect of several hundred figures to prepare and paint for the next Wyrley Retinue show game, with our "season" traditionally starting with the Wargamer show in December. We have not seen each other since Wargamer back in December 2015 and have neither discussed nor even mooted what next year's game should be. That means it will have to be something we basically already have or one that will require minimal time outlay. Or perhaps a year off...

I have not been entirely idle, however. "Frostgrave" was the last major purchase of 2015 and I have finally got round to building and painting a warband and some wizardry. Fantasy figures have not so far featured on the blog, so, for the inaugural outing in this genre, I give you some wintry, sorcerous fare and sundry hangers-on.

(For the record, I have also knocked out a few Mordor Orcs, some more bits for our Swiss-Burgundian game and started some Woodland Indians, but all in good time...)

The humans are from the standard "Frostgrave" plastic figure set, in which you get  twenty figures to build largely as you would like. I used ten only, however, and sold the rest, as I did not want basically identical warbands. It is not beyond the wit of even this man to sculpt some Greenstuff fur on the odd figure. And I have various Fireforge and other plastics that I need to do something with!

G

First purchase was the Witch and apprentice. I like the feral nature of the Witch's spell repertoire and the connection with animals and faunal imagery. The figures are the official Frostgrave ones.

And, given my passion for pyrotechnics in wargames (just hand me the lascannon and stand back!), An Elementalist and apprentice had to follow. I was determined to avoid the clichéd fireball, however, so I call this particular spell "Stream of Mucus".

Some regular soldiery.

And some licenced thuggery.

The whole warband at present, including Fluffy and Binky, the savage warhounds. All the humans are built from the "Frostgrave" plastic figure boxed set, the hounds are Mastiffs from Vendel Miniatures.