All quiet....

 Sun is shining and it looks like a nice day ahead, I have decided this morning to do nothing but muck about, I have set myself the job of going over the 120 Atlas maps to ensure as best I can they are ready for the publisher, but I am not doing it this morning, that will be an afternoon job.

My first muck about job was to organise all my Really Useful Boxes with labels to save me moving half a dozen to find that elusive unit, 28mm metal is heavy. I got mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot to do me inserts for my WWII troops, I forgot however that I put my leaders on hex bases and not round ones, so I just placed them on some non-stick lining, this is great for vehicles and heavy weapons but not for individuals. I got a Eureka moment and filled the round holes with round bases including a magnet so now my officers are firmly fixed in nice lines just like the troops. I do like things ship shape and Bristol fashion.

 I don't have a game sorted for this weekend because I have the maps to go over, but I want to try Bolt Action next week to see how a remote WWII game works out, so fingers crossed.

That brings me to Warlord Games, I have some issues with Warlord, I resent, and will not buy another, the way they hire a cut and paste guy when they bring out a 'Second Edition' of something and charge you a fortune for changing a couple of sentences. I also will not touch their artillery, now I can only speak about their WWII stuff, as nothing seems to fit well without taking a scalpel to it, that is if you can find the instructions. Also their quality control is in catergory all of its own, but this to many is put up with as their customer service is quite frankly superb. I tried to use a 10% off code this week but the site would not accept it, I rang them up and after a chat the young man sorted my order over the phone and by my none too accurate sums I got 25% off! I also like the way they give you a complete range including stuff which no one else will touch and kudos to them, cannot make a lot of dosh. I also like their figures, I have two new packs of Soviets now on the way and which I expect next week, against my better sense I also got a couple of those sets which I mention only Warlord seem to bother about, a glass ball shooting anti-tank mortar and anti-tank dogs. Now I don't normally go in for gimmicks but these were used during the German invasion and both quickly went out of favour, although the dogs lasted I think until '42.

 I received my Blitzkrieg order of Early War German vehicles for Barbarossa, sadly I got the wrong armoured car sent but the original has now been mailed out. These are two really nice resin models, one a Sig 33 Bison which is essentially a 10.5 cm howitzer plopped on a Panzer I chassis to provide much needed mobile artillery for the Panzer Divisions, the other much the same idea but with an anti-tank gun instead of the howitzer, a Panzerjager I. The paint job is simply panzer grey, drybrushed and weathered, very easy, not even a lot of transfers to work with. Now of course I need some artillery crew, these are not as easy to find as you would think, not without a gun at least, so far it is once again Warlord who come to the rescue as they do a nice little four man group which I think will do. I will wait for the next 10% off. I almost forgot, I finished my odds and ends for the early Jerries, officers, NCO's and extra LMG's for 1942, I also completed my PAK 36 in grey, I also have one in dunkelgelb. As much as I like Rubicon kits I just do not like their figures, the Artizan troops here look like they are at war, the Rubicon versions look like shop dummies in uniform.

 

 

I have had to cancel my intended trip to Waterloo in June. I had to weigh up whether restrictions would have been lifted enough for me to travel 'normally' and that even if the UK was clear what would be the situation in the bumbling EU re Covid. I did not want to take the chance and my mate who was going with me and was fit and healthy last year when it was cancelled is not so fit and healthy this year.

Entertainment, I have another good one, "The Bridge" on Prime, started badly and I was reaching for the remote five minutes in, but wait, the female detective is not a bad actress, she is playing the part of a person with no empathy or social skills, how did she get to be a detective then, don't ask, it works. It is set on the Mexican border and shows why Mexicans want to live in the US. A winner.