Sunday afternoon...

It's been a few weeks of coughing and spluttering in the house with my son, and then me, and now finally my wife succumbing to a particularly unpleasant chesty cough/sore throat type of lurgy that seems to go on for ages and re-appear just when you think it's gone. I'm now feeling a bit brighter and had a quiet day today with my wife in bed, the dogs snoozing after a lengthy walk and my son off being a teenager (probably best I don't know anymore...).

I thought I'd take advantage and start work on my Frostgrave figures which I undercoated a couple of weeks ago.  Despite the afternoon sunlight I felt I needed a lamp to help pick out the detail.  I tend to use an old angle poise lamp which I knew had a slightly dodgy connection but this afternoon I discovered the actual problem was the socket holding the bulb had completely split in two!  My eyes weren't up to job on their own so I only managed a little bit of painting before packing it in to watch the rugby instead (...muttering "it should have been us!" as Australia took the field!).  I'm due for an eye test and I think I might need to talk to the optician about struggling without bright lights. A trip to Hobbycraft might be in order too, to pick up a better light.

 

Earlier this week I took part in an interesting on-line game set in the Very British Civil War period.  This was organised by a couple of chaps from the Molesey Wargames Club in Surrey, one of whom I know from Eric the Shed's regular games, and both of whom I knew coincidentally about 20 years ago in the now-defunct Epsom/Stoneleigh/New Malden club (it had several homes in it's lifetime!).

  The idea of the game was that 5 or 6 players per side command Companies under an overall commander and that over the course of an evening we email our orders in to the 2 umpires who would then update us on enemy encountered etc.  The action takes place on the Surrey/Hampshire borders with the good guys (an assortment of Anglican League and Communists and Anarchists) attacking into Surrey to drive off the evil Fascists.  We managed to complete a days action and are now trying to find a convenient date to reconvene...I can't say too much about the events as you never know who's listening!  Suffice to say the good guys are making steady progress and I suspect there have been a few near misses as columns march/ride/cycle up and down the Surrey country lanes.  Excellent fun though and a real sense of drama as you advance towards a town unsure if you'll receive a friendly welcome or face the guns of the BUF.

I've always found the VBCW setting really interesting but have done little about it apart from some excellent games at the Shed.  This has inspired me to invest in the original source book from Solway Crafts and Miniatures as a start and I'm already beginning to think about figures...oh dear....