2021: Covid II

 Despite none of the local bookies taking my bet of a lockdown after Christmas the announcement still floored me, my enthusiasm leaked away like a very leaky thing. Covid has come ever closer since Christmas and I now know several people who have had it, some serious some not so serious and thankfully all OK, so I am taking the jab or jag as we Scot's say when our government can get it to us, breath not being held.

I finished my Christmas loot fairly quickly, two tanks for the Russians along with a truck, a truck and a tank for the Germans. The two trucks and the Valentine tank were Rubicon models and up to their usual high standard, the KV1 and the Char B1 were Warlord (Italeri) models, the former also came with the huge howitzer turret which allows a KV2 to be fielded, both these were nice kits especially the Char B1 which also came with several options on which model to field, French or German.

 

 Next up was a little train which a customer had given me after seeing my rail track minus a train on the gaming table for the Pegasus operations. It was a full set with a lot of extra track thrown in which will enable me to have double tracks and bends in the future should I need them. The train set itself had some very modern freight carriages which I just could not use for the 1940's, I did manage to salvage two. I weathered these along with the train and am happy they will look the business on future battlefields, yes it is a bit small but it is a little freight train and not a large workhorse, the dilapidated carriage was actually a Cadbury's boxcar!

 I have had some serious thoughts on where I am going in 2021, I had been going to build up my SYW forces by adding Hanovarians and actually have a battalion in waiting, I have gone back on this and will stay with British and French, I will add new units as the year progresses but it will not be the huge project I envisioned when I started them, the Hanovarians are going to a good home. 

So what are you going to do I hear you ask, nothing, for now, but fear not. I now have an idea forming in my head that I should move to Early World War II, I possibly mentioned this before, I am unsure what day it is, I have even got to the stage of looking for French and German figures for the period but am not ready to fully commit. It usually works that I have a bad day or Boris announces even further lockdowns and I am online like a whippet trying to cheer myself up, so watch this space.

We moved all the stuff out of our wardrobes recently in order to decorate the bedroom, a load of photos came to light and I spent some time reminiscing, I came across quite a few old wargame related photos. The American Civil War themed pictures were taken in my last home over twenty years ago when I had a huge loft in which to keep all my wargaming paraphernalia and a large 9x5 foot table, I had a heater for the winter and a velux window for air in the summer, coffee and tea making facilities with the missus even providing sandwiches, happy days.

The battle is a refight of Drewry's Bluff and there were about five or six of us, I got everyone to write an after action report and just like the real thing we were all architects of victory or let down by others, it was printed in Miniature Wargames. The 'wagon' cover I used to keep dust from my Geo-Hex and embellished with the 1st Cavalry Division logo. The large colourful array of banners and standards were some of my Wars of the Roses army, all hand painted on cloth, I should never have sold them.

 I should be working to finish the Atlas over the next few months and already I have completed map projects this month so I don't know when I will get another wargame on the table but I will have to try soon.