Two To Get Ready

I managed to get the Horse Lord and Household finished today:

The Horse Lord.
(A bit of a rushed job and the glue on the base hadn't even dried but table ready.) 

These are Garrison figures from the Hyborian range....hmm.. well mostly Hyborian, the armoured horses and the lancer are from the historical ranges. The Chieftain had a nice sword, which he appears to have broken over his knee at frustration over his decade long wait to be painted, so I replaced it with a mace. Well actually, I was using a map pin to clean out a drilled pilot hole for a new sword and inspiration struck.

In addition, I refurbished another stand of the Federation Horse Guards, descendants of the old Valdurian Royal Horse Guards. They are Minifig ME range Rohirrem, led by a Southron officer, and originally mounted on the older,  S range era 1/2 armoured horse but are now remounted on Garrison horses.

1st and 3rd Squadrons of the Northern Federation Horse Guards.

The Horse Guards were amongst the first metal wargames figures I owned and are the more special because I bought them in person in 1974 from the Minifig stand at the Wargame tent at Aldershot, part of some sort of Military Show,  a weekend event of some sort. (I saw 'Wargame' and didn't really notice what else was going on......)

At the time, I was on a 7 week, (which turned into 9 weeks due to an airline strike which threatened to make us awol!) , $5 a day, tour of Europe with a friend from military college. Yes, even back then, $5 wasn't much so we mostly travelled by thumb with occasional train rides and slept mostly in youth hostels or where ever we could find space to roll out our sleeping bags. At Waterloo, after closing, we crept back through the hedge  and rolled out our sleeping bags at the foot of the Lion Mound, a highlight for me. (ahh to be 18 again!).

The wargame weekend wasn't on our agenda but it was one of several solo breaks and I had hitched out to visit the Castle Dore, at the time thought to be from the "Arthurian" Dark Ages which was "my thing",  and just happened to see a poster for a Wargame Tent at Aldershot, part of some sort of Military exhibition. Took about 2 seconds to ditch my plans and hope Eric wasn't too po'd at me being a day late for our rendezvous  (pre cellphone). All the hostels in town were booked but acting on a tip from an old feller in a pub I spent the first night in a police cell (unlocked!) the only time in my life to date. Got to the show and there was Peter Gilder and Phil Barker and a Minifigs booth and.... Heaven! to a young wargamer from the boonies! Having spent the day there, the group of folks running the tent graciously invited me to join them for supper and talk, a prototype game of chariot races, and to roll out my sleeping bag in the tent. Another real highlight, even better than that co-ed hostel in  Copenhagen and the two Swedish...but that's getting way off topic.

Back to the matter at hand: 

The raiding force mustered and ready for the raid to begin.

I was planning to play Wednesday or Thursday but I've been invited to join a couple of local (within 100km) friends for a 25mm ECW game on Saturday and am pledged to build and bring a village. At the moment, the village is just a sheet of foamcore so I have some work to do. It might, or might not, interfere with the game. In any case, the details of the mini-campaign, once worked out,  and the battle reports when the battles happen, will appear on the Gathering of Hosts page but I'll post links when the time comes.