Wargaming 'Risorgimento'

Well things have been somewhat quiet on the painting and gaming front here, owing to us in part having had the hottest June on record. We knew it had been warm and frankly like being on holiday in the Med for much of the time, which was rather nice to be honest, but a record breaker came as a bit of a surprise! So much of my time was spend gardening and keeping stuff alive and it was simply too hot to paint, assuming you could get if from the brush to the figure before it dried. 

However Blogging kept me in the loop so to speak which as ever is a big bonus, especially for those in my position. One of the joys is seeing what other Bloggers are up to and earlier in June, one such post sent me down an unexpected but rather enjoyable rabbit hole.

Italian Risorgimento

The Italian Risorgimento was briefly covered at school and college, with the focus always seeming to be on Garibaldi and his efforts to establish his global biscuit enterprise gain Italian independence. With my ongoing interest in the 1848 - 1871 period, I was happy to read Bob Cordery's post on a new book on the subject, but one that covers the Armies that fought throughout the wars for independence. An order was soon placed and despite it coming from Poland, it took two weeks to arrive!

But the wait was worth it as this is simply a wonderful book! If you read Bob's post above, you will see that in the comments loads of lovely 'what if's?' have been mooted, which has certainly caused the butterfly to flap rather frantically here. Luckily pretty much all the figures I currently have for my ImagiNations Armies will work really well for many of the units shown.

On the ImagiNations front, it did occur to me that they always seem, by and large, to be set in 'Germany' rather than anywhere else. Of course 'France' and the 'Low Countries' make the odd cameo, but somehow never 'Italy'. There is lots to offer here for the gamer and my little grey cells have been mulling things over for sure. But more on this another time.

Terrain for India and Far East

The above book did help kick start some gaming related activity, namely getting back to sorting things out for our planned 18thC India game at the Cotswold wargames Day in October. Now many of you will now I love scratch building stuff, sadly at the expense of actually painting figures, but it is something that is easy to fit in around parent/carer duties. 

The buildings contained herein look a bit dated now but there is plenty in there to inspire one, even in today's 3D dominated market. The Afghan hill fort is something I plan on making, or at least inspired by.

My paddy fields ready for paint, which is progressing nicely since this photo was taken.

A quick trial to make my doormat wheat fields look, well, more like wheat! Simply some coloured flock (looks like saw dust that has been dyed) glued to the top with pva glue. The sample worked well and now I have to figure out how to scale it up to make it easier to do my larger fields. A nice challenge for sure.

I have plans for some other bits'n'bobs for the table, many of which have been inspired by David of Tales From GHQ fame. He really does put on a good game, with lots of lovely little details and vignettes to delight the eye. If you've never visited his Blog, I highly recommend you do. I've found a 10mm tiger already and hope to scratch build some other things too, time permitting.

The Pile Of Shame

Well not quite but a real mix of stuff that I've brought down for priming so that I can paint them as and when the Muse is upon me. Lots of 'planes and AFV's which I've bought over the years, with the former rarely getting used in games but just lovely to have. Maybe it's the memory of making kits that makes we want to buy them?

What's Next?

Well the weather has finally turned and at last we have some much needed rain and cooler weather, which means I am at last returning to sorting out my figures etc. I'm trying to maintain my 18thC focus as even though the show is 4 months away, I know the time will fly by and I'll be left rushing at the end. I saw a Little Wars TV episode on painting 10mm figures a day or so ago, which I'm going to give a try to see if it helps speed things up for me. Time will tell. At least I will have plenty of free evenings now that Wimbledon has started, which means less Netflix watching which is all too easy to do.

There might be another FtF game at Chris Gregg's towards the end of the month, subject to SWMBO being OK after some dental work. As always I have plenty of ideas but just lack the mojo to actually put a game on. After all it's a hobby so I'm not sweating about it and it's time will come for sure.

TTFN.