Please spare us from the madness

I have just read an article from Wargames Strategy and Soldiers, a real headline grabber, Challenging Historical Stereotypes, hard on the heels of other worries in the hobby, not enough women, inclusivity, diversity et al, prepare to have the joy of wargaiming sucked out of you. Enough of this hand ringing and self flagelation, I have spent fifty odd years without worrying about the periods I play, or that my opponent ticked a pile of imaginary boxes before setting up and losing myself from real world concerns with any like minded individual willing to meet me across a table. Now that is out of the way, I can report things are moving on the Berlin front, I now have a nice collection of bricks and gravel for debris, oil cans, boxes, street lamps and my mat is on the way from Milan. Several other bits and pieces are on the way and others have yet to start their journey, the main buildings for instance. While ordering the street lamps from Rubicon I bit the bullet and also ordered up an 88mm flak gun, quite a few of these were in Berlin during the battle so I may as well have one as well. I ordered the Rubicon one but got the crew from Empress Miniatures as an early war German crew were no good to me and civvies were the next best thing. The model and the new crew are all first class.

Since completing my small industrial unit and using it in a scenario I realised I needed a fence for it, Andy Duffell over at Tiny Hordes Blog had put together a chain link fence and it looked good, so I kept his article in mind and a couple of weeks ago I went past a place I normally do not go near, a DIY store, it was a WIckes and had a lot of different sheets of what we sould describe as model fencing, it escapes me what they call it. I got a large piece for around £6. I remembered I had some MDF bases lying around so cut them up into long strips, to these I attached matchsticks and then glued the 'fence', this I had cut into strips to fit the MDF and around 40mm high. I used Evostick wood glue and clothing pegs to hold it all together, once this chore was done I spray painted everything grey, drybrushed with steel then again with rust, I added a couple of barrels and a tyre I had lying around. Andy went a step further and put hinges on his gates, I didn't.

You know I upgraded my warbands a few weeks ago, well I forgot two, the Western Patrician Romans have two, so another order off to Footsore and Little Big Man Studios as all my old transfers have fused together it being several years since I bought them, I also of course had to order new bases, so a bit of a side step. Along with this I now have a small lead mountain gathering which is unusual for me, two SYW battalions and a couple of limbers are also in the 'ready use locker' patiently waiting. At the moment I am painting up the 88mm crew and will then do the gun, hopefully by then my buildings will have turned up. I have just finished Sicily 43 by James Holland and bought David Glantz's When Titans Clash, he is an acknowledged expert on the Eastern Front if not thee expert and as I have worked with him on an Atlas and with my recent turn to the East, I thought it would be a good idea to read some. Now back to Sicily 43, like Burma 44 I did not enjoy it as much as Normandy 44 and to be really honest I was glad to finish it. I only came away with two things which stood out, Patton was very strange and the poor Paratroops and Airborne men had a dreadful time of it, mostly due to poor planning and training of transport pilots and not the enemy. At the moment I am reading The Run Of His Life (The People vs OJ Simpson) about the OJ Simpson trial, the TV series of the book drew me in as it was very good, I just had to read the book.

I have been lost recently for something to watch, because it won so many awards I decided to give Schitt's Creek another chance, no, it needs flushing. I have gone back to Misfits and started binge watching it again, great stuff, a classic. I have found Criminal which I had kept flicking past, big mistake, really enjoyed it, so much I am now watching the French one and will continue with the Spanish series when done with that. I am keeping the new series of The Boys as a treat to myself when I can steal the telly for a couple of nights.

At the moment I am running another Dark Age game by email so a report on that next week probably, bits and pieces with maps, doing some scenario maps for an upcoming set of wargame rules and I have been asked if I would be interested in doing maps for a Sci-Fi author, now that will be interesting if it gets off the ground (see what I did there.)