Wandering no more

At long last our time in the wilderness is coming to an end. My wife and I are in the closing stages of buying a house. There are more than a few things left to do, but we hope to move in before this coming weekend, Memorial Day here in the US. 

Thanks for the good wishes over the last six months. Once the dust has settled, I'll post wargames-related topics on here again. I have a man-cave lined up! One coming feature will probably be a reorganisation of the Barsetshire platoon to accomodate the three new recruits brought over from England. It'll be just in time, for word is there's a rescue to attempt...  

 

Whisper it softly...

...but with luck and a following wind, our spell of homelessness will soon be at an end. The Mem-sahib and I are walking on eggshells until all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed, and everything is in hand.

Fort Meigs - War of 1812

Fort Meigs was established next the Maumee River here in Ohio two hundred years ago as part of the defenses against British/Canadian incursions. It wasn't long before those defenses were tested in the first of two sieges. A number of special events are being held this year to commemorate the siege and the lives of those who took part. Re-enactors will be present in large numbers, and there'll be a spectacular night cannonade from the fort and the site of the British siege batteries across the river!

Details of these event may be found here. 

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My wife and I are still homeless and getting by with the help of good friends. I can at least use the internet to look for work. But, it's so wearying being unable to stop anywhere, to relax, to put stuff down and know we have to move it again within days.

We have made an offer on a house and there's another we like in case the first falls through. Both places have space for a Man Cave as it's called here. I live in hope. In the meantime, as Churchill said we'll keep buggering on...

 

Keep B*ggering On...

...as Winston Churchill once said. 

Our attempts to find a house haven't been successful to date. It appears the property market is moving after a long spell in the doldrums. The trouble is, other people are out there looking for bargains to buy up and flip/improve, and they have beaten us to the punch on the times we've found somewhere affordable. We'll keep looking, but all gaming is still off the menu for the forseeable future. 

Due to the amount of spam that has been posted here, I'm afraid I've had to reinstate the security measures on comments. I'm sorry if this bothers some posters - I don't like it myself - but I'm sick and tired of having to moderate inane drivel posted through spambots by people who seemed to have created their crap via Babelfish.

Hopefully I'll have some positive news before long.

An end in sight..?

'There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip...' 

I'm not going to say too much on a social media site, especially as I seem to be attracting spammers, if the last six comments are anything to go by. All I will say is, our current homeless state might be coming to an end fairly soon. More news to follow in a couple weeks, perhaps.

Back in the USA

We made it back here, safe and sound, after an uneventful journey. Airport security is still a pain in the fundamental. I wouldn't say it's intrusive and invasive of privacy, but the pat-down guy at Amsterdam Schipol didn't even offer to buy me dinner after the going-over he gave me!

Anyways...  Baggage handlers managed to damage the wheels on one suitcase, but the contents survived. I made a cursory inspection of the figures I brought with me, and apart from one figure bent over on his base and a bent rifle on another, there doesn't appear to be too much damage. Double varnishing helps protect paintwork, and is well worth doing.

The Mem-sahib and I are both getting over jet lag, and are busy house-hunting. We're living out of suitcases until we find somewhere to live, so gaming is right off the menu for a while. More here once we get settled. A J out.

Back to the USA

We're off home to America tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing our friends again, although I'll miss family and friends here in England. Plans are afoot. With luck and a following wind, we'll have somewhere to live and actual employment. We'll see.

Packing is almost complete. I had to think hard about what I can take. In the end I plumped for my Darkest Africa collection of Belgian Force Publique, Zanzibari slavers, sailors, African civilians and Colonial types. The Zanzibari in particular will be useful. Added to the existing figures I have, they'll pose more of a challenge to the British garrison of Ukraziland and their Belgian counterparts. I'm planning to set-up an equivalent Belgian colony for the latter to find fame or notoriety in. Details to follow.

I found some space for a couple of SF vehicles and a neat 10mm scale house for AVBCW, along with some paints and brushes I was given for Xmas. Some other odds and ends will be mailed to me at a later date, once we're settled.

So, that's it for a while. This station is going off the air until the weekend. As Ed Morrow used to say, "Goodnight, and good luck!"
   

Winding up the break

We're in the final week of our stay in England. It has been like a roller coaster sometimes, and not entirely the stress-reliever I hoped it would be after the troubles of last year. Still, there is a glimmer of hope on the employment front. I'll say no more for now, through fear of scaring it off or jinxing it! 

Wargames-wise, I've managed to visit my old club at New Buckenham these last few months. The latest occasion was an all-day game last Saturday which saw a re-fight of the AWI/ Revolutionary War Battle of Guilford Courthouse. It was a good turn out of players. I took one of the British commands, my wife one of the Patriots (being American, she could do no less!). We fought on through the day and achieved a victory for Britain at less cost to British and American forces than our historical counterparts. Pictures to follow when I've downloaded them. 

The previous week we fought out a test ACW action to try the Rally Round the Flag adaptations one of our number worked up. Here's a picture of some of his superbly-painted and based 28mm Union troops advancing through the trees to contact. 

Of course, now we're heading back, we need to figure out what to pack. I have an unearthly amount of wargaming stuff I'd like to transfer to the States, but a finite amount of baggage space to use. The airlines have made it more prohibitive to take even a moderate amount of extra luggage these days, and it can be quite expensive too.

Prime candidates are my Darkest Africa collection, including a platoon of Belgian Force Publique, three waifs and strays belonging to the Barsetshire Regt., along with civilians and natives. Other items will have to be fitted in where possible, or even mailed, with all the risk that entails. Decisions, decisions...

Sci-Fi Find

Not a lot to report this week. I hoped my cold would amount to no more than a sniffle, but it turned vicious for a couple days, with full-on streaming eyes and bursting sinuses. Thankfully I feel better now, but I'm still under the weather. 

In between times I found more of my SF collection, including some terrain pieces. The figures are Ground Zero Games 25mm "Kra'Vak," with a Predator from another maker (the name of which escapes me at the moment). My take on this larger figure is it's a Kra'Vak which was fed an equivalent of royal jelly to make it bigger and meaner than the average grunt. 

The Sub-Leader points the way to his patrol in their search for nice, crunchy humans. 

An Over-Warrior brings up the rear to maintain march discipline. 

The blue conical terrain pieces were made by filling a cake-piping syringe with a gloopy mix of spackle and PVA, squeezing it out into a kind of "Walnut Whip" shape. With a coat or two of paint and ink for shading, they become strange rock formations, or alien growths, or weird mud vents from a volcanic fault line.

These figures will go toward my Keynes County game world, which I've slowly developed over the years. I have a set of home-grown rules for SF gaming in this scale, which work well enough. Exposure to the Too Fat Lardies way of doing things has made me rethink them, though. The card activation system used in Sharp Practice appeals to me, as it's useful for solo gaming. When I get time to think things through, I'll post some ideas here.

An Undergraduate's Survey

I once was a student, and have stepdaughters in university, so I'm fully aware of the vital importance research plays in completing a degree. This is why I'm posting a survey here, via Rich Clarke on the Too Fat Lardies' list:

I met up with a very pleasant young chap the other day from the War Studies Department at KCL who interviewed me as part of his thesis (presumably entitled "What do fat old blokes know about studying war?"). Anyway, he has sent me a questionnaire which he would like as wide a sample of wargamers as possible to answer. So, in the interest of helping a pleasant young fellow I thought I'd invite the boys and girls here to have their say. So here it is:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ToySoldiersAndArmchairGenerals

I invite readers of this blog to take part. The whole process is painless and takes about 10-20 minutes. 

* * * 

My eldest stepdaughter caught a cold during the past week, came home and "shared the wealth," so I'm a bit off-colour at the moment. Since I'm excused social calls and so on, and my eyes aren't streaming (Thankfully! They usually do, when I catch a cold) I'm taking the opportunity to paint more figures. Currently on the block are Darkest Africa civilians, animals, and a small test batch of 15mm 12th century figures. Progress is being made.