Royal Salute

Today is the anniversary of the succession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (God Bless 'er!) to the throne of England. I can't manage a 21-gun salute in her honour, but I can do at least three guns...

(ACW Re-enactors at Muster on the Maumee, Fort Meigs, Ohio)

Fun at Fort Meigs - Muster on the Maumee

We had a great afternoon out Saturday at Fort Meigs up near Toledo. A host of re-enactors from Roman times up to Vietnam were there, strutting their stuff with a mass of interesting stories and facts about their periods. Thanks to all we spoke to. 

I also met up with a group from the Great Lakes Gamers who were putting on a display of wargames in the information center. A nice bunch of guys, they were happy to meet a fellow gamer and talk games and gaming.  Plenty of Too Fat Lardies rules were in evidence; the chaps are big fans of their rules systems.

 French-Indian War in 28mm. 

 Frank Demana discusses the period with my better half.

 Romans in Germania Libera - Can they avoid the Varus Disaster?

Italy, WW2

US Artillery, War of 1812

Small-craft action on the Great Lakes

Roman legionary in Dacian-fighting armor

Grunts in 'Nam

   

Gebirgsjager - WW2 German mountain troops

 

WW2 Russians

British WW2 - ATS (Auxiliary Transport Service) and Somerset Light Infantry

In the photo are my favourite rifle - the Lee-Enfield - and pistol - the Webley (or in this case a clone). It might or might not stop a charging enemy at fifty paces, but it'll certainly make his eyes water. 

A sniper in ghillie suit takes his ease

US Marines at rest

 WW2 US Army HQ tent with staff and 50mm mortar

 A Wyandot warrior from both FIW and 1812 - in the latter period the British gorget signifies personal wealth rather than allegiance

Rider on her way to the mounted medieval warfare demonstration

 Camp of the ACW Ohio Volunteer Infantry

L-R, Canadian Essex Regt. Arquebusier, Ronin, US Army War of 1812, British Foot, another Canadian Essex Regt.

Tomorrow I'll post a video of the ACW live cannon firing demo. Who doesn't like a loud bang and cloud of nasty-smelling smoke? ;)

New cards

My man cave still has a lot of clutter, but now I have some shelving material which will allow me to get most of it stowed away.  I also have a network of garden vegetable plots to dig and a greenhouse to build. Eventually, I will get time to game again!

My next game will probably be A Very British Civil War to "Went the Day Well" rules, produced by Solway Games. These are a set of platoon-level rules which cover the alternate history VBCW and inter-war conflicts in general.

The rules require a set of playing cards for activating units. These have to be laid beside the unit concerned, which is where I ran into a bit of a problem. My collection is 10mm, so ordinary cards would be too dominant compared to the figures. After a bit of a search, I found these on eBay.

They're quarter-size and perfect for the job. Okay, fun time over, back to the greenhouse...
 

Never look a gift house in the mouth.

A friend gave me this nice little resin piece whilst my wife and I were in England.  

 

Socialist militia investigate a cottage.

 

It's hollow resin, manufacturer unknown. It was already painted but lacked depth, so I gave it a wash of sepia ink then dry brushed off-white to bring out the stonework. The scale is on or around 1/150th, so it's going in with my AVBCW collection.

A tour of neighborhood garage sales this weekend turned up this unexpected gem... 

One of the classic works by one of the experts on tank warfare, I'm surprised it turned up in a small town in Northwest Ohio. We got there at the time when the sellers were offering books at half-price, in this case $2.50, so it's something of a bargain. Now all I need is a bookcase to put this and my other books in. Maybe we'll find one at the next round of garage sales!
 

N-scale trees

One happy little result of our recent move was the discovery of a previously lost bag of Woodland Scenics tree flock. I put it to good use in between unpacking heaps of boxes (we struck floor in two rooms Tuesday!). The results I show below.

The trees are N-scale/10mm, made for my AVBCW collection. They're created by sticking flock to thistle heads using hot glue. The trunks are sections of thick twig, which are then stuck to simple roundish bases. I'm going to give them a quick going-over with adhesive spray to fix all in place before finishing the bases with spackle, as the flock has a tendency to rub off when handled. 

Sometime in the past I bought a similar bag in Autumn colours, so some Fall foliage might be appearing soon.

Man Cave in the Making

Let no-one tell you moving house is easy. It isn't. We found a nice place, but it has a few eccentricities in the electric and plumbing departments. Only this afternoon I had to help mop the floor after the washing machine outlet pipe turned out to be blocked on the first wash to be done under this roof. Sigh! 

Still, I have a Man-Cave lined up...

The clutter will be dealt with eventually, once I get some shelves and a bookcase. The space allows for an 8' by 4' wargames table, although I think a 6' by 4' might work better. We'll see. Little chance of setting up a game yet - too much to do. More here as things develop! 

 

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. 

 * * * *   

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.