The Witch Hunter Chronicles

My mate Stu has previously appeared in this blog under two of his aliases 'The Nameless One' and 'Loathpa' ('Lord of a Thousand Half-Painted Armies'). Last year he happened to mention to me that he had been working on a series of books (!) and had a contract with Random House (!!). Most hilariously, for a man who famously refuses to read any books written in the first person it turns out he had written one.

Anyway, this is a shameless and unsolicited plug on his behalf, because the first book in the series ('The Scourge of Jericho') is out this week. It looks like his Witch Hunter Chronicles are going to be huge with their target market of teenage boys. I can't wait to read them myself, although I haven't been able to extract a copy from Stu. Stu has a great knowledge of the 17th Century, which is when he has set his books, and the stories of the Hexenjaeger ought to provoke some interest in the period from his readers. So if you know a teenage boy, or haven't grown up yourself, buy 'em a copy.

You can read more about the book here, complete with a photo of Stu looking like a big eejit.

Covenanters in 28mm - WIP

Along with my 10,000 other projects I have a great big pile of unpainted 28mm figures for the ECW. And now I've actually painted a few! These will probably be for a Scots Government army from 1648, as I have already made a few useful banners, and I quite admire the pragmatism of the Engagers. But back to the Normans for now...

Oh - and figures are from Warlord Games and Eureka. The Eureka figures are a little smaller than the Warlord ones, but the mounted troops mix well enough. The Eureka figures are supposed to represent Lord Gordon's Horse, who went over to join with Montrose's army. And very nice figures they are too, even though they seems to have switched sides yet again.

Conquest Games 28mm Norman Knights

Just finished a first batch of Normans from the new 28mm plastic set from Conquest Games. These were lovely figures to put together. My only real criticism is the way that none of the kite shields in the set include bosses, and that there aren't enough kite shields for each figure to have one. I added some bosses by carefully carving some off the Wargames Factory Saxon shields, which was easier than I expected.

Figures are based for Impetus...


Each box of figures comes with one rather drmatic casualty figure, which I will use for disorder markers.

Oh the Humiliation....

My twins are about 22 months old now and starting to speak. The Mini Duchess is saying 'daddy!' a lot, which warms the cockles of the old Dux's heart. However, she has also started 'identifying' me in all sorts of unlikely places. So far, she has pointed out a photo of Adam Spencer as me (which might mean something to you if you live in Sydney) and some random bloke in the park. The common feature seems to be baldness. This was brought home to me with crushing humiliation when she squealed excitedly, yelled 'daddy!' and pointed at a picture of Humpty Dumpty.

I'll get my coat....

Buildings from Gripping Beast

To go with my Vikings I bought a couple of resin Gripping Beast buildings from War and Peace Games - their timbered barn and Saxon church. I love these - dead easy to paint and look pretty cool. I'll probably buy some more. They also make a longship that looks pretty tempting...

Yep, I'm stylish as well

Monsieur le Rosbif very kindly nominated my humble blog as stylish. I like seeing the Stylish blogger thing go around - it sort of celebrates the community of hobby blogs and is a good opportunity to highlight the work of others. I am constantly in awe of the amazing work I see on your blogs, and also at the amount of work some of you churn out. (Don't you have jobs??!!) I'm going to pass on Rosbif's beneficia by nominating just one blog - Nick Grant's 20mm Gamer Nick's blog, and particularly his website before it helped get me back into gaming, and inspired me to explore the Golden Age of 1/72 plastic figures. But to all the rest of you - thanks for all the inspiration.

I think I'm also meant to share 10 facts about myself, so here goes:

1. About the happiest I've ever been was wandering around the ruins of Ostia with the Duchess.
2. I teach history at a school,
3. which is ironic, since I hated school,
4. where I largely coped by developing insular hobbies like this one.
5. I wrote a book once, but it isn't very good.
6. After my hobbies music is probably the main thing that keeps me sane(ish). The last album I bought that sent shivers up my spine was 'Let England Shake' - PJ Harvey.
7. The best meal I ever ate was in a Ristorante in Ravenna. I was visiting by myself in 2004 to photograph mosaics and just wandered into some place and asked to give me whatever they thought I should eat. Bresaola, then the local pasta and ragu, then caramelised figs with mascarpone and flatbread, washed down with a bottle of Lacrima Christi del Vesuvio. Life is good.
8. I miss living in the UK.
9. My favourite historical novels are the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
10. I am graded as scholar in Single sword and English Longsword.

Vikings for Basic Impetus - Finished!

It has been a big couple of weeks, with the latest outbreak of plague to rip through the family and a week of exam marking, so apologies for the silence. I return to Blogland to see that many of you cleaver chaps have been very busy, and also that Monsieur le Rosbif has honoured me with a Stylish Blogger Award. I'll reply properly to that shortly, but I just wanted to get these images up before the end of the weekend.

Yep, I've finished my first 28mm army, Danish Vikings for Basic Impetus. All figures are from Wargames Factory. Click to enlarge.

Here are the skirmishers, converted from Wargames Factory Vikings and Ancient Germans

The Berserkers are also a mix of parts from Viking and Early German figures.

The shields are for keeping track of a unit's VBU (strength) in Impetus. Rather than the usual expedient of putting dice next to the unit showing the right number of pips, the number of segments the shield is divided into tells you the VBU (so 1-4, left to right).

Some simple conversions into casualties to use as Disorder Markers.




Oddddiiiiiinnn!!