Friends, who needs 'em

 I think it was Tuesday morning, although one customer had the nerve to complain I was 'grumpy' on Wednesday as well, so it might have been Wednesday, whatever day it was I turned the radio on and did not like nor agree with much of what I heard, then I looked at all my boxes of troops old and new, Normandy countryside, Russian villages, city scapes etc. and with no face to face games for over a year now and with almost another fortnight to wait I hovered over skip hire in Yellow Pages. OK a tad dramatic but you get the idea. By that afternoon I was back on an even keel, rant over.

Although I had decided no more new troops for a few months and no major projects until next year I have been looking closely at Stalingrad recently and most of the area is pretty flat with ruined houses and rubble, nothing like Berlin or Budapest so I decided on a bit of retail therapy. Charlie Foxtrot do a couple of 'razed' houses perfect for the Russian front and other periods, the owner is Colin Farrant, a friend. My order went in and the kits were despatched tout sweet. Within 24 hours I had them built, primed, weathered and ready to go. I also dressed up an Old West building with a few added planks as if the builders had fled the Hitlerites or the owner had run out of rubles.

My sons were on the phone that night to cheer me up and No.1 decided he was coming up to see me for the weekend, although possibly the main attraction was his mum's cooking as he was adamant he was not playing wargames.

Also on the evening of my rant an email came in from friend and fellow blogger Phil asking me if I would like to remotely take control of some Volksgrenadiers for one of his mini-campaign games next Friday, naturally I said "Jawohl."

Club friend Rob Martin is keeping me entertained also by running a World War Two naval campaign. I am in charge of the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, we were told to expect the Scharnhorst and Gniesenau raiding into the Atlantic, but we have been humbugged and the Germans have invaded Iceland! Several actions have taken place and HMS Hood has managed to sink KMS Admiral Hipper and one of the German convoys has been attacked. I am now hoping to join Hood and bring on a fleet action to stop the Jerries in their tracks.

I had to draw my own map.

Two large parcels arrived, I shouted upstairs at the missus to inquire what she had been buying, my name is always on parcels as Amazon etc. use my email. Not mine was the reply, so I tore one open "it's a game," who would send me a game, then the penny dropped, friend Julian sometimes uses my address as a drop off point, and he had phoned me but I had forgot. I got to the second parcel and noticed friend Matt Smith's name on it, it was heavy, surprised I opened it up. The contents were all wrapped in bubble wrap and out fell a packet of soldiers, French WWII to be precise, on further inspection there were enough metal troops to field a complete platoon along with supports. Matt has a large lead mountain and several projects on the go so decided I would get the Frenchies combat ready and use them before he managed to get around to it, it took hours to wipe the smile from my face.

 Having been pulled back to painting I decided to jump right in and worked out what tanks and guns I would need to complete the French infantry, by the time I finished I hesitated at the cost, the LMF could stand it but the fall out might cost me dear. Again Matt came to the rescue with a discount deal and he saved me a whopping £50 on the order, I would present this as a victory to the Memsahib when the parcel arrives, take that you capitalist lackeys.

Before I start the French I have a couple of SYW heavy limbers to finish and a few more small gardens, I used a couple of old bases for two of these and will use the extra bases from the limbers to do another three. 

So there we are, a great week thanks to friends, now which paints do I need, oh and bases, and more magnets and ...............................