This week, what time and energy I have been able to spend on my hobby, in my war room, has been spent taking down shelves, moving furniture, putting shelves up and pushing things about trying to fit 6 quarts into a gallon container and trying to sift the overflow of junk that I might be able to use one day or have nostalgic ties to into stuff I can pry out of my fingers and throw away, give away or sell as appropriate, and stuff whose time has still not come yet.
At least its given me a chance to handle nearly 1/2 the miniatures I own.Well by weight anyway. Have hardly touched any of the 20 or 54mm plastic figures stashed away in the cupboards. Also many books, I find handling books to be a slow process, they keep opening up and trying to show/tell me things. Anyway, after a several month hiatus, I now have a full time painting desk again, or well almost plus a work table for basing, scenery etc ( and for boxing up ebay stuff).
All this has not, however, stopped my mind from thinking hobby thoughts, just interfered with doing something about it. One result is a new version of my ancients game which I can't wait to try out once the table, which was being used as a way station, completes its re-emergence from under various piles. This is of course a ripple from trying out Bob Cordery's gridded wargame.
More ripples from that experience as well as the inevitable ripples from playing Charge!, even in a siege guise and from reading various memoirs, (I highly recommend Twelve Years Military Adventures in 3/4 of the Globe) by John Blakenston, an engineer on Wellesley's staff with a bad habit of getting mixed up in cavalry charges and the like, very entertaining ) have led to a revival of the 19thC wargaming single figure vs multi-figure debate now flavoured by the semi-skirmish vs battle and unit vs element debates.
I really love/hate debates over issues that don't really have answers, only choices but this does help explain the sudden return to ancients. :)
I haven't quite got it all sorted yet, so for now I will leave you to ponder the difference between wargaming Assaye or the Mutiny at Vellore, and various ways of trying to do either or both.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Ripples
Born and raised in the suburbs of Montreal 7 decades ago. Began playing with toy soldiers at 5 years. Started painting & converting at about 12 yrs and wargaming about 15 yrs. Never really stopped.
5 years in the Black Watch of Canada Cadets, 5 years at the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean followed by 4 in the navy. 25 years with CPC in IT simultaneous with 23 years running a boarding kennel. Inherited my love of toy soldiers from my mother's father. Married with a pack of litle Italian Greyhounds and a cat. Prematurely retired and enjoying leisure to game, maintaining our 170 yr old farmhouse and just living.
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Ross, you have convinced me; and if I ever get around to giving my 1/72 plastic infantry a real paint job, I am going to pull them off their 4-man cardboard bases and mount them individually on 3/4-inch washers, then make multi-figure bases of refrigerator magnet material, so that I can use them either as individuals or elements -- or even elements that lose figures for casualties. I might even use them for Memoir '44 then.
ReplyDeleteSo at least your agony has done someone some good. ;oP```
Regards,
John
Ferryman, I did exactly that relatively recently (see recent blog post). It's a lot less fuss than individual chaps while still allowing you to mess around with single figures when you want to.
ReplyDeleteRoss, I experimented with our kitchen table last night and horror of horror discovered its too small for my "Big Memoir" mat. I have a wargaming guest coming soon. I better get weaving.
John, so you're saying that now I can add guilt to my angst? :)
ReplyDeleteActually, its not really about the basing, stay tuned!
Conrad, so how big is the floor? :)
ReplyDeleteFor years I used to play on a piece of plywood laid on a kitchen table.
Ross,
ReplyDeleteGuilt?
Bah!
I take full responsibility for my wargaming addiction/hobby. It's captured more of my thoughts and dreams in the last 43 years than any other aspect of my life. Such as it is.
John
Me too John. (and I really was kidding about the guilt thing)
ReplyDelete