The Wigton Book Fair 2012 – Day Out!

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One of these days I will manage to post on the day of an event or at least the next day!  Anyhow it matters not and I still want to tell you all about what the tribe and I did last Saturday; attending the Wigton Book Fair.

Wigton is an hours drive from Girvan so not that far by these parts and the weather was fine so the journey went well.  Wigton is Scotland’s national book town meaning that it is home to a very handsome group of bookshops arranged around the town square.  Wigton itself is of the same size as Girvan with a similar population and all in all is just as pleasant a place to spend a Saturday.  Those who know me will know I own a collection of some thousand books mainly on military matters and science fiction but also some rarer titles and a the finest collection of text on the Japanese nation to be had outside of Glasgow University.  I adore books and if possible try to get to these sorts of events if work, three children, distance, funds and the gods allow it.  So it was a wizz and a wheeze for me to make the trip.

I took some pictures and I will run you through them as this posting progresses.

The view from the rear of the library

Upon our arrival we decided to visit the town library which is a towering four story stone building that tells of a time when Wigton was much more than it is now.  The above shot is from the upper floor out over the landscape to the wash of the sea.  Very impressive and the picture does not do it justice.  The reason for the visit to the library was two fold.  Firstly to get tickets to ‘Horace the Haggis’ for the kids and secondly to see the exhibits on the top floor which included a reconstruction of a Victorian Gentlemans Study and letters from the First World War, one of these you can see with a book in the second image.

A diary from 1917

While in the library the children made little figures of ‘mankind’ using clay and I had a look about.  What struck me the most was the level of activity from literary bloggers who were getting photos for the local news and for the internet.  Always one to observe the observer I took the photo below of a BBC fellow taking shots of other visitors.  Not to worry though when he approached me I said…’oh, you don’t want my picture..it would break your lens!’.

Smile Please!

Outside of the library we enjoyed several nature events in the open ground next to the bookshops and then some freshly made cinnamon infused donuts from the food tent.  My middle son ‘The Poet’ had a really good time with an Owl science experiment to find the bones of mice in the remnants that the bird left behind.  Not my idea of fun but he enjoyed himself.

Owl Fun for the Poet!

 The tickets we got for ‘Horace the Haggis’ was for a reading of a new childrens’ book by Sally Magnusson who is a newsreader for the BBC here in Scotland (her father was Magnus Magnusson of Mastermind fame).   I did not attend the packed event but instead went for a wander around the book shops (funny that eh!).  The kids had fun though and the appearance of the Haggis itself at the end was a joy to watch, a real pantomime moment.  The Poet got himself a signed copy of the book which has been read to death this last week.

Sally and the Haggis

As for myself I left Wigton with three new books.  One on Arms & Armour (which has some nice colour images) and two on the Napoleonic period (surprise!).  The first titled ‘The Hussar General’ about Blucher the Prussian commander at Waterloo and the second a detailed account of the ‘Convention of Cintra’ a real low point in the Peninsular War.  I have made a start on the Cintra book but work keeps me too busy for extended reading.  Be assured though that if possible we will be going back to Wigton again soon.

GBS

Napoleon’s Army (H.C.B.Rogers) – Review

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My copy of ‘Napoleons Army’ by H.C.B Rogers published in the early 1970’s but still in print and available widely.

I had another book review planned on a science fiction paperback I just finished but I got passed a note yesterday that one of Alternative Armies customers who is also a member of the Notables Yahoo Group had asked if I knew of a good book about the French Army in the Napoleonic Wars.  Know of one I said…I own a load of them!  Sure I could help.   But which one to choose?  The notable in question had said it must be in English which narrowed the field and that it should have formations and structure of all arms of the army so that narrowed it again.  Lastly that uniforms were to be included in the book.  This took me back to one of my favourites namely ‘Napoleons Army’ by Colonel H.C.B Rogers.

This book has all that is needed.  Divided into sections including a history of the battles of the period the French fought in followed by Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers & Signals, Administration, Medical Services, Imperial Headquarters.  Then two accounts of the Third Corps at Auerstadt and in Poland ending with an Epilogue.  Each section has full information on structure, uniforms, weapons, ranks and more.  Importantly each section ends with a list of sources allowing further reading and proving the knowledge of the author.  I doubt anyone except a half mad games writer would need more information (though I own many of the books quoted as sources!) as this book is packed.  My own edition is nearly two hundred pages of easily read text with line drawings.  I have used it many times when creating material for Flintloque.

While my own edition can be had second hand or on ebay etc if you look, there is a current edition which is easily had for less than ten pounds.  Here is the Amazon UK link for it.

If you want a solid title on the French Army under Napoleon then this is the one.

GBS

777th Croaked Line – Concept to Green (pt1)

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Since I began this blog I have been asked to give an account of a new set of Flintloque miniatures from their deepest origins through concept to greens to white metal and release.  This process often takes six months if not near a year in some cases so it is only now that a project has come along that I have been able to detail in such a manner.  Interested?  Well you should be for this is the stuff of miniature making magic!

Back when Flintloque 3rd Edition 5026 Death in the Snow was published in 2010 the realm of the Witchlands was greatly expanded and among those expansions were more troop types and unit profiles. In the months that followed the feedback from the new book was really good and one of the most talked about subjects was ‘Undead Todoroni’.  After all had the Todoroni of Nepolise not come a long way since the late 1990’s, from a unit of militia to a whole army in their own right with cavalry, artillery and more?  With that army in the Witchlands it stood to reason that there must be re-animated Zombie Toads!  I had come to this conclusion on my own and as a result I squeezed in a mention of the ‘777th Croaked Line’ in the army structure of the Dark Czar.  This mention caught players attention and led me to a conversation with miniature designer and Toad Mad man Rob Alderman in May this year.

As you can see above we came to an agreement over what a potential set of 28mm white metal Undead Todoroni would look like.  Rob’s sketches along with his own and my own input worked out a concept and then a design tender that would meet the needs of fan’s of the shambling dead.  Over the course of a week we batted it back and forth, consulted mortal Todoroni uniforms and other Undead formations and agreed on a total of nine greens to be created.  This took Rob about ten weeks among his other tasks as a designer and working man (he is a busy chap!) with a couple of checks of progress and some images to finalise creative direction.  Once carefully package Rob sent the greens to me at Alternative Armies where they arrived in late August.  You can see them below!

As you can see Rob followed the initial sketches and expanded on them too.  My own input kept his sanity hat screwed on tight and we worked out that in doing a full (and with nine greens it is a full unit) set we would need to provide not only troopers but also the command and the always found Witchlands requirements of a Vampyre and a Liche.  Since no Undead Todoroni exist in the Flintloque range they would also be ‘firsts’.  Details discussed included the style of dress and demenour of a Todoroni Vampyre (slick and slightly camp as it turned out), if a Zombie Todoroni cannot sing like normal Todoroni then what is the unit musician doing (playing an accordian of course!), the standard bearers flag pole topper (a homage to Mad Queen Maria’s glove puppet Mr Froggy).  As well as those we decided to vary the level of decay in the troopers (as in the rules of 5026) and to avoid bayonets as many gamers now prefer their muskets bare.  Late on in the process we decided to drop the fourth trooper and replace it with a unique and new miniature for the Undead…a Zombie Todoroni Chef!  Why..well humour of course, it is Flintloque’s goal.  The last addition was a dead Todoroni.  This figure has several purposes in that it could be a dead mortal Toad (battlefield marker) or a corpse ready for re-animation or such.

So that is it for the initial stages of this new set of miniatures.  Any questions just post below or email me direct.

This is the first of several postings on the ‘777th Croaked Line’ and in the next one I will be detailing the master molding stage and white metal ‘tins’ along with an account of each pose.

GBS

The Thinker’s English Adventure!

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This is a rather special post as it is not about me!  It is a short account of the trip my eldest son, ‘The Thinker’, took to the south of England two weeks ago (yes, it has taken me this long to get to it!).  This trip took him on nearly one thousand miles of road and not only to the Uk’s biggest military modelling show but also to a famous garden centre and the site of one of Europe’s most pivotal battlefields too.  While I have written most of the text here anything that appears in italics is by his fair hand and straight from the horses mouth as it were.  So without further ado..the Thinker’s English Adventure!

Sunny South!

After leaving Scotland with his grand parents on Friday morning the Thinker headed for Folkstone.  I had to get up very early and then I sat in the car and watch all of the films I had on my DVD player.  It was a really long ride in the back seat but I had fun and I got to eat in the service station for lunch and then a ‘beefeaters’ for my dinner.  It was warm and sunny on the Saturday morning and you can see me above sitting on a bench.

Smile though your glue is drying…

Saturday 22nd September was Euromilitaire day (well one of two!) in Folkstone and the Thinker got to go along with the throng!  This is the largest military modelling show in Europe and he was under instruction to bring me his loving father some scenics and bits and bobs back from the show.  We got there early and I was excited (but you would not know that from my tired and stern face above!).  It was very, very busy and I took a photo of the hall which you can see below.  We spent hours looking at everything.  My favourite things were a scale model handmade of the Millennium Falcon from Starwars and a special unique figure (150mm) of a space man in his armour.  The spaceman is in the second picture below.  I had a good time and want to go again!

The Hall all Athrong!

Spaceman in Armour

 The Thinker had a big day and as you can see below he likes nothing more than planning out his grub for the next morning.  I was tired after the show but my Papa insisted that I go to bed early but not before choosing my breakfast from the menu.  We stayed at the Premier Inn and it was really nice and comfortable.  My Gran said that now we had been to the show it was time for us to do some things she wanted to do.  So I got a big sleep and was ready for more! 

Decisions, Decisions!

On the Sunday the happy trio headed along the English coast and visited a few places including Battle Abbey at Hastings where he learned a bit about Saxons and Normans.  It was raining all day and I got wet a few times, but I enjoyed the Abbey and now I know about Harold and his eye!  There was no Battle but then I was told I had missed it by a thousand years!  Once we left Hastings I had lunch and then we went to Gran’s favourite place the  nursery at Great Dixter.  I don’t know much about plants and flowers and neither does daddy!  Gran enjoyed this a lot and we saw lots of insects like Bees.  That is me below at Battle Abbey and Great Dixter.

Abbey Tymes

The sprout among the plants!

With the trip nearly over the Thinker spent most of the Monday travelling back to Girvan with a brief stop in Nottingham to visit his most favourite Uncle James.  I did not see him until I picked him up on the Tuesday from school since his Gran refused to give him back!

I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot on this adventure and I would do it again.  It was great to see the models and the battlefield and Uncle James too.  Thanks Dad for letting me type on your blog! 🙂

GBS & ASBS

Beighton’s Shipyard Blog

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HMS Surprise takes to the waves

Mighty Albion needs all the ships she can muster to hold the French tyrant at bay.  This task for the Royal Navy has now become easier thanks to the laying of keel at Beightons Shipyard blog run by model maker Mark Burgess. Mark has come to my attention this last week with his impressive skill in assembling wargaming scale Napoleonic ships of the line.  He has but one vessel at the moment but do go and read the postings as they are very interesting and his approach is to use paper, wood and more to make these unique models.  Keep up the great work Mark!

Three Huzzah’s for the King!

GBS

Odeon Cinema – Epic Fail!

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Can't see this properly...you ain't the only one!

Can’t see this properly. Annoying ain’t it.

I had planned on seeing Resident Evil 5 at the Odeon Cinema in Kilmarnock on Saturday late afternoon.  But it was not to be.  After an enjoyable morning in Wigton at the book festival (more on this in a later posting) I drove the sizeable distance from Girvan and bought to tickets.  You might remember from my two previous film reviews at the cinema that it was this venue I travelled to for Total Recall (1st September 2012) and Dredd 3D (9th  September 2012) that there were problems with the showing of each film.  While I mentioned it (and blamed it on Eve Hallow!) for Total Recall where the screen went blank and the sound cut out I did not mention that the first five minutes of Dredd were out of focus leading me to miss the overfly of the city and its environs.  Well this time is was far worse.

My good lady and I sat waiting for the Undead carnage to begin and sure enough the sound started and then..no picture.  Ruddy Nora says me to the lady, three times in a row that is something.  Anyway twenty minutes later the six people trying to fix it gave up and the film was cancelled.  Being the only screen showing the film it was completely cancelled with no further showings.  After then standing in a que I was given a refund and two free tickets to any showing for the next four weeks.  I will not be taking this up personally as work commitments mean no cinny trips for me in October but it does mean that my eldest ‘The Thinker’ can go with his mother to see Paranorman next week.  So some good from it does come.

My point being that I accept technical failure in this day and age but I do have trouble with staff members having no clue as to how their projectors actually work and being unable to do anything about it except stand about slack jawed.  Three failures of varying degree for my personally across a month must mean that Odeon Kilmarnock has a big issue with its staff and or screens.  I hope they work it out before it really comes back to kick them in the ass.

Besides who needs cinema when you have wargaming!

GBS

I Can Feel the Burn!

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Maj. Diz Aster over on Firebase Aries 15 blog is getting set to unveil a new adventure in miniature wargaming.  I was intrigued by the image above and the cryptic clue and asked him for more details…to my delighted surprise I have been offered and have accepted a senior position in the new adventure which will feature USE ME heavily.  More on this when the time is right…but I can feel the burn!

GBS

Happy Birthday my Dearest!

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Edward Jackson’s birthday card to my good lady

Should I compare ye to a rather soggy and windy autumn day?  No I should not.  I should compare you my darling to the greatest of things and the best of me.  Happy Birthday and I hope you had a super time even if you had to put up with me for a whole weekend (see previous posting).  The day showed how adored my kind and loving wife is with so many messages online she took hours to reply to them all and dozens of cards and small gifts as well as those presents from myself and immediate family and close friends.

Eve Hallow’s birthday card to my good lady

While her birthday was only one day (Her Majesty is the only person allowed two birthdays of course) I had purposefully extended the experience to nearly a week with little treats and adventures all the while.  I did what I could and I think it was appreciated.  When the kiddies returned from their weekend away I got the picture below and that sums up the mood better than any words.

A fly kiss for the Poet and the Warrior

Happy Birthday my Dearest!

GBS

September Holiday Weekend Fun!

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What do you mean that is all the beer there is?

The September Holiday Weekend happens every year (duh!, you might say) in Ayrshire but most years upon its occurrence I am working so no fun comes my way.  But not this year.  This year I had four days off and I made the most of them with some ale house adventures and late lazy starts to do the say.  Debauchery you say…well not so say I.  Well deserved I say since I do (and many will tell you this) work rather hard almost all of the rest of the year.  The image above is actually a shipment of empty whisky casks waiting to go back to the Girvan distillery but it suits my purpose and implies the copious amount of ale consumed!

First off I have to tell you all about the weather on Thursday (20th September) which came near threatening to drown Western Scotland under what I think was a rather large amount of rain.  Road after Road closed and while driving forging through ‘puddles’ which lapped the very bonnet of the car!  This was not on the scale of the 2011 or this summer’s flooding but it was amazing how fast it came on and just how deep some of the new lakes on the roads actually were.

Friday saw me twiddle my thumbs something awful as I had made a promise to myself that over the four days off I would do NO WORK and while that was obvious in as much as me not being in the office but it also mean no blogging here or on TTWG Blog and no writing wargaming material what so ever.  None.  I had decided to do this after filling out a survey in one of my good lady’s magazines about ‘how much do you work’.  My result was off the top level of the scale and put me in the ‘woman get yourself a life!‘ section.  Ever a lass who listens to tabloid crap I decided that I would give it a try.  So instead of my early morning checking and writing online followed by work preparation and then actual work and so on I sat and watched television (having decided that watching anime for later review here was also ‘work’).  Eve Hallow said he would meet me for a beer (I had already sworn off a game of Flintloque…seemed like it might also be deemed work!) so hours and hours passed.  I walked, I went for a drive…lord help me I even went clothes shopping with my wife.  A long day before an evening of fun which I enjoyed especially the several attempts at the end of it to get my key in the front door.

The weekend was given over to my good lady in preparation for her birthday (see next post) and included more shopping and eating out.  My three little wonders were away with grand parents and with my no work promise it was a wonder of open time and idle speculation.  Many of the little things I observed I have now typed up for ‘idle muse’ postings in weeks to come; all for your amusement of course.  But I do have a visual treat for you below…I believe it to be the only picture of Eve Hallow which exists anywhere.  I broke several cameras and had to settle for the image below since anything with his demonic face shattered the lens and drove onlookers to gibbering madness!

Eve Hallow…as far as the camera would allow!

I cannot recall or recount what actually happened in the darkest hours of the weekend nights but by Monday morning I was truly ready to return to work and put off beer for at least a while.  I may well do a posting about my thoughts on Man’s need for Work or perhaps the Pleasure and Pain of Alcohol but that is for another time.   The holiday weekend achieved what I wanted from it.  A break, some amusement and a change in pace.  And if you are wondering just how much time I ‘wasted’ it is roughly enough for me to have written an entire new USE ME Title.

GBS

The Poet is Pupil of the Week!

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Who could not love that little face eh?

When he finished school and emerged blinking into the sunlight my middle son ‘The Poet’, who you might remember was a couple of  weeks ago moved up a whole grade in a day, handed me another achievement!  This time he had won ‘Pupil of the Week’ at the school.  While this happened last week, just like ‘Senior Student Badge’ I have only just now got around to it as I will go into in coming posts.  To win pupil of the week for his whole year so soon after being moved up is no mean feat let me assure you.  So pride blooms once more in my chest.

Well done my son!

GBS