A Kindness From a Friend I've Yet to Meet

A small parcel arrived in the post late last week, sent entirely out of kindness by one of those beloved wargamer friends that we haven’t yet met.  

In this case, the friend is Dai, one of the regular readers of this blog,  Dai is a fellow blogger, who does interesting and lovely projects in WW2, among other stuff.   We’ve exchanged emails and messages for years and encouraged one another in our lives’ ups and downs, but I’ve never met him, and I earnestly hope to do so if I can make it to California some day.

Dai knows that I am fond of Tolkien and have quite a few of the GW figures for my LOTR gaming, with an especial fondness for the Rohirrim, so he sent me these figures from his stash, thinking I could make better use of them then he can

Well, I hope he’s right.  These are lovely figures, and while I can break the GW horses off their bases just by looking at them the wrong way, they have great potential for painting and I can’t wait to get at them.

Thank you Dai!   You are too kind, and a fine example of what young Conrad Kinch likes to call “The Freemasonry of the Hobby”.

Speaking of Rohirim, recently I got one of those “You may like these …” from Kickstarte, and my eye was caught by a project called Riders of the Plains,  a set of STL files for figures that looked suspiciously like these, only slightly different.   I suppose a lawyer might have said they were just generic Gothic dark ages cavalry, but what appears to have killed the project was that the creators called themselves The Hobbit Hole.  That was too much for Warner Bros, which now apparently owns the Tolkien IP universe, and they killed the project faster than a Nazgul can screech something fell in it’s fell voice.    Had the project called itself something else, like “Small Cute Things Living Below Ground”,  they might have gotten away with it.  Anyway, my backing evaporated along with the project, but at least I have these fellows (and, to be honest, many more like them) to paint.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Some Heroes of Spain

Not much to say about these chaps except that I painted them for MS Foy, proprietor of Prometheus in Aspic, in return for many kindnesses he has shown me.   These chaps are part of his 1809 Spanish army, and represent the Voluntarios de Campo Mayor, a light infantry regiment.  Tony has some learned background on them here and here.   A learned chap, Foy 

 The figures are 20mm, by Spanish maker Falcata.  They are lovely sculpts, but according to Foy, Falcata has had a troubled business history and one would think twice about sending them one’s hard earned dosh.

 

 

 

 

I had great fun painting them, but I think if I was to do Napoleonics in a larger scale than 6mm, I would go all the way up to 28mm.  

I am happy to report that these fellows made it successfully over the waters and are now in Foy’s possession, where it does my heart good to think that they will certainly find the best of wargaming homes.

Blessings to your brushes! 

MP+

These figures bring my 2017 totals to:

15mm: Vehicles: 3

20mm: Foot figures: 18

28mm:  Foot Figures: 31;  Mounted Figures: 2

Some Napoleonic Kindness and Some Classic Rules

Last month and a bit ago I entered Max Foy’s photo competition and was delighted to win my choice of some lovely prizes.   Being late to the whole Napoleonics scene, I opted for a copy of one of the classic rules sets, Empire by Jim Getz and Scott Bowden.   

I have only heard of these rules over the years, never played them.   My understanding was that Empire was famous in its days, and still has some grognard cred.  There’s a good discussion of Empire’s pro and cons by what seems to be a pretty knowledgeable fellow here.  Empire is a gorgeously produced artifact, with the print rules contained in a “Gold Hot-Stamped Imperial Green Leatherette 3-Ring Binder”. and some impressive charts and (gulp) counters.  The level of detail appears to be Grand Tactical, with Maneuver Elements (brigades) forming divisions and even 1 or 2 Corps represented on the table.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Emperor’s Press logo printed on the box.   My own grognard cred, such as it is, includes a visit to this fabled wargames store in Chicago back in the late 1990s.   I remember driving for quote some time through semi-suburban neighbourhoods that looked like the opening minutes of The Sopranos, to find a store that was large but, even then, appeared to have seen somewhat better days.   I wasn’t touched by the Napoleonic bug then, I wish I had been because I am sure I would have enjoyed the visit more. 

 The other thing that Max Foy kindly included in the gift was an ancillary product, the Empire Campaign system.   This product was released in 1984 and includes a hexmap of Germany and a set of counters for Prussians, Austrians, Russians and French.  The rules include details for supplies, ammunition, sick and wounded, hospitals, and a myriad of other wonky stuff that would make a staff officer happy.   It is certainly a step up from the Scharnhorst system in the Sam Mustafa Blucher rules, that I was experimenting with recently.  It’s a beautifully produced map and counter sets.

I can also see some uses for this system in transposing it to the American Civil War.  That would be fun.

 

My thanks to Monsieur Max Foy for his generous present.  I will give these rules a good home and may even try them in the near future - I certainly hope so.

Anyone have any experience with these rules?

MP+

The Well Travelled Prince Arrives

“What’s this?” I asked Madame Padre, pointing to a fattish brown envelope sitting on the counter under a mound of 2015 New Years sales flyers. 

“Oh, it came yesterday”, she said casually, as she contemplated what to do with the New Years Eve leftovers.

“What?” I said, lunging for the mysterious package.   “Why didn’t you tell me?"

Madame Padre smiled coquettishly.  “Oh, I figured you got enough little men to play with this Christmas.  And you said something about taking me to the Star Wars film this afternoon."

Much later, after getting back from the cinema (no spoilers), I opened the package.  Could this be the mysterious visitor from the Orient whose coming was foretold?

No, I am not taking about the Magi who visits after Christmas.  I am talking about a package that Jonathan Frietag had warned me was coming … all the way from Japan.  

You see, back in early December, Jon emailed me to be on the lookout for a small package.  Mysteriously, he didn’t tell me what it was or why he had sent it.  I got quite excited.  The days passed.  Jon emailed me.  “Did you get it?"

“Nope”, I said.   Jon traced it via US Parcel Service.  On Dec 9th his package reached Los Angeles from Spokane, WA.   On Dec 11 it left LA and its whereabouts are swathed in mystery until Dec 26, when it arrived in Vancouver, Canada.   That makes sense, because Vancouver is more or less straight north from LA, and fifteen days is about right for it to have travelled up the Oregon Trail by mule train.  But then it gets odd.  Notice where it went on leaving Vancouver.

 

Japan.  Of course.  Makes sense.  Because Canada and Japan are such similar words.  Anyone could make that mistake, really.   Jon persisted with his tracking, and saw that it arrived at its destination, Casa Padre in Barrie, Ontario, on the 31st, where Madame charmingly left it under a pile of flyers.

Here’s what I found inside.  Notice the mailing label, BTW.  CANADA.  Not Japan.  And here is the little prince.  Not so little, really, he’s quite a large chap, at 1/54 (oops, err, I mean 1/32) scale.  Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, whose role I played last summer in Jon’s PBEM battle of Raab game.

 

Also enclosed was a very kind note from Jon thanking me and Phil, my opposite number, for playing in this game, which as I blogged yesterday, was one of my highlights of wargaming in 2015.  I am quite looking forward to painting this splendid fellow.

There are no shortages of portraits of Eugene.  I think I shall settle on this by Johann Heinrich Richter one as a guide.  

Jonathan, you are a generous fellow and I am most grateful.  I hope I can do him justice.   Thank you.  Given his itinerary, perhaps I should fortify myself with a warm sake before I start painting him?

MP+

Thank You Santas!

I have several Santas to thank this year.

Before I do, it seems that my photo bug has returned.  So, I include two versions of each picture.  The first is of the photo as hosted on Imageshack.  The second is a thumbnail on Google Picasa Web Albums.  Pls met me know if you can see only one or both versions of the same image.

I took part in the Secret Santa project run by Ian and Cath of the Blog with No Name fame.  This was my first time participating in this event, and I was delighted to unwrap these fellows on Christmas morning.  My Secret Santa carefully read my shameless wish list and discerned that I wanted some Foundry Saxons to stand in as Rohirrim for my Middle Earth project.  These fellows are the Saxon mounted characters from the Casting Room Miniatures Saxon line. Both the armoured fellows have a definite Rohirrim look about them.  The one with sword will do nicely as a lord of the Riddermark or perhaps a captain in the Royal Guard, and the fellow in the middle looks like a hearth guard if I ever saw one.  Orcs beware.  The mounted monk will find a use with my medieval collection, to be sure.  You picked very well - thank you Secret Santa!

For the second year running I participated in the Santa Clause project ably run by Chris Stoesen.  I love this project because the gift is painted and the gifted has to read the giftee’s blog and choose an appropriate present.  In my case, some kind fellow in the UK noticed my Middle Earth interest and found two little fellows - on the left, the hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck in the livery of Rohan.  On the right, his friend Peregrin Took as a soldier of Gondor.  Both figures are from Games Workshop and are difficult to find now, so I am delighted to  now have them in my collection.  My anonymous benefactor also included two stands for them, which I will gladly use.

Both still wear the cloaks gifted to the Fellowship of the Ring by the elves of Lorien.

I can see both of these fellows getting use on the tabletop.  If I am using my adaptation of Dux Britannorum, they might allow an extra die when with with a unit of Men in combat.   Lots of time to figure that out.

To both my secret Santas, thank you so much.  Your kindness helped make for an excellent Christmas.

There were some other wargaming goodies under the tree, but I’ll save them for another post.
Blessings,
MP+

Thank You Santa Clause ...

… whoever you are!

This is now under the tree.  I hope I can wait until Christmas!

Blessings,

MP+

Emissaries From Tradgardland

Last week, in the midst of a busy and tiring week, I was buoyed to come home and find an unexpected parcel from my favourite imaginary place, the Duchy of Tradgardland.

 Good Duke Alan like me is a longtime fan of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and has been very encouraging in my own gaming efforts in Middle Earth.  The package, pleasantly heavy and not cheap to post, I am sure, spilled out this alarming bunch of Games Workshop Isengard orcs and half-orcs, very nice metal castings with an interesting variety of shields, swords and boys.

Three stalwart elves ready to defend the woodlands against muddy iron-shod orc boots and bad breath.

 

Bilbo Baggins, ready to record these adventures!

 

And finally, this quite terrifying Nazgul Dark Rider, who will be quite lovely, though I don’t think I could hold him upright like this for an entire game.  Going to have to do something about that. 

 A very kind gift and sign of friendship, milord Duke.   Many thanks from your Duchy’s most loyal Canadian friend.

MP+

 

Dear Secret Santa

 

Goodness, I haven’t written a wish list to Santa since I was much much younger!   This year, since I’m involved in the Secret Santa project run by Chris and Catherine at the always interesting The Blog With No Name.  I have a target and I have started snooping that person’s blog for some hints, but the person is devilishly eclectic and it’s a bit of a poser.   I am sure I will think of something.  I am also part of Chris Stoesen’s Santa Clause project.  I have a target for that one as well, I received that person’s gift last week, and about to start painting it, though now I am all uncertain if it is what that person wants!

Now if MY Secret Santa is reading this, I do have some suggestions.  I’m taking a hint from fellow Posties Reject Ray R, whose own extensive wish list is totally shameless.

 

Hint 1

For my Weird War 2 project, I have a backstory that I need to tell involving werewolves in the Canadian Rockies, because … werewolves in the Rockies.  Any of the foot packs from fellow Canadian Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures’ Yukon Peril line, including any one of PYP 1, 2, 5, 6 or 7 would be most awesome, and that would be the cheapest in terms of postage, since Bob is just a few towns over (well provinces, and there are some Canadian Rockies between us).

Hint 2

Also for the Weird War 2 project, any of the Wargames Foundry Home Guard sets (WW2011 or 2012) or the German Sentries set (WW2025)

Hint 3

For my Lord of the Rings project, any single pack from the Casting Room Miniatures Saxon range to make Rohirrim foot and/or levy.  Alternatively, any of the orcs from Sgt. Major Miniatures - they look cheap, cheerful and useful.

Hint 4

Any of the affordable packs from the Perry Brothers ACW line, including either of their camp sets (Union 1 of Union2), dismounted cavalry or horse holders from either side.

I am of course happy to receive whatever else you decide on, and which you think might surprise me.

Thank you kindly, dear Santa, for considering these ideas.

Blessings,  

MP+

A Kind Gift of Nasty Orcses

Chris Stoesen is a good chap.    He’s a talented historian and scenario designer, runs an eclectic and interesting blog. and a budding author.  He’s also a kind fellow.   A while ago I did Chris a very small favour, and he mentioned that he’d send me some surplus GW Lord of the Rings figures, since unlike me, Chris has wisely decided to limit himself to certain periods and scales.   I was expecting a sprue in the mail, and was quite surprised to get a box full of plastic goodness.

Some men of Gondor and warg riders.

 Some rather rare Uruk Hai siege and assault troops, as well as Mordor orcs and some goblins.

And three stalwart Rangers of Gondor.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a soft spot for the GW LOTR line and while I don’t care for the GW rules, have wanted to do the War of the Ring on a large scale.   Chris’ very kind gift gets me a long way towards doing that.      In a recent post, young Kinch described getting a similarly kind gift and used a phrase I quite like:  “The freemasonry of the hobby working its magic yet again”.   I have experienced many acts of kindness from war gamers and bloggers over the years, and continue to marvel at how kind we are to one another.   Thank you, Chris.

Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!

MP+

The Indispensable Napoleonics Playing Aid: The Foy Mug

I was quite saddened to learn that while I had strayed from the Interwebs this winter I had missed the deadline for a contest to win the highly prestigious MS Foy mug.  I wasn’t above emailing Max Foy including his agent Tony, and whining and snivelling until he relented and sent me one.  Here his stern and martial visage watches critically as I send La Grand Armee into battle.

And an inspirational message to keep in mind.

Bless you, Tony, I am quite delighted to have this prestigious and highly necessary piece of kit, from which I shall sip tea (hot, strong, sweet) while I contemplate brilliant moves and ask myself, What Would Foy Do?

Contest and Cookies

What ho, folks.  That capital artist fellow, Pete, has a splendid contest going at his blog, where you are invited to come up with a name for a Viking warrior he’s drawn.  Grab your shield, horned thinking helmet, and Danish axe and head over there.

That’s the contest bit taken care of.  Would you like a cookie?

Mmmmmm, delicious.   That desiccated thing on the left is a piece of hardtack from my last ever Civil War reenactment in 2006.  I found it while I was throwing some things out the other day.  It’s rather amazing that eight years later, it’s still mostly intact, save for that nasty spot.  Sadly, no weevils.  Our group made our own hardtack in those days.  When I started, it was pretty funky stuff.  I recall making hardtack with cinnamon and raisins in it because it was tastier that way.  Other folks just took Pop Tarts because they kind of looked like hardtack.   Eventually I gravitated to a more hardcore, authentic group and we made it following period recipes, using just flour and water.

At some point I found this hardtack cookie cutter to get the right look.   We would make large batches, and take it to the field in wooden crates, where we would do ration issues.   Don’t ask about the sowbelly.

 

Hardtack was more a Union staple than a Confederate food.  The rebs favoured cakes or loaves made from corn flour.  Billy Yank wasn’t overly fond of it, and i can tell you that after a weekend living on these “dried mummies”, even when washing them down with coffee or pounding them into fragments and cooking them in bacon fat, they are pretty gross. Trying to eat one dry and risk breaking a tooth, or sucking on it to try and soften it, is just darned unpleasant.  No wonder hardtack inspired this satiric song, set to the tune of the popular song “Hard Times Come Again No More”.

Anyway, I’m not sure if this is a contest, but if you’d like to make your own hardtack, and want this uber cool cookie cutter, drop me a line.   Serve hardtack at your next ACW war-game.  Impress your friends.

"Let us close our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand
As we all stand by the cook's tent door
As dried mummies of hard crackers are handed to each man.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

Chorus:

'Tis the song, the sigh of the hungry:
"Hard tack, hard tack, come again no more."
Many days you have lingered upon our stomachs sore.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

'Tis a hungry, thirsty soldier who wears his life away
In torn clothes-his better days are o'er.
And he's sighing now for whiskey in a voice as dry as hay,
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"
Sing Chorus again.

'Tis the wail that is heard in camp both night and day,
'Tis the murmur that's mingled with each snore.
'Tis the sighing of the soul for spring chickens far away.
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"
Sing chorus again.

But to all these cries and murmurs, there comes a sudden hush
As frail forms are fainting by the door.
For they feed us now on horse feed that the cooks call mush!
O. hard tack, come again once more!

Final chorus:

'Tis the dying wail of the starving:
"O, hard tack, hard tack, come again once more!"
You were old and wormy, but we pass your failings o'er.
O, hard tack, come again once more!

2014: Ten Highlights Of A Good If Scattered Year

Last year was a productive year, if lacking in any one dominant hobby theme for me.   After a very disruptive 2013, which saw a military posting and a move across country, it was good to have a year of stability while the Canadian Armed Forces wasted its money sending me to graduate school for 18 months.  I was able to commandeer a sizeable chunk of the basement in our rental house, with Mrs. Padre’s gracious consent, and while it was a tad dark and sometimes cold, it sufficed as a gaming and modelling space.

I’m not sure there was a dominant goal for me in 2014, so much as the determination to finish some projects that had been languishing half finished on my workbench for several years.   My academic workload was not crushing, and I was able to get some stuff done.  Thanks to Robert Avery, one of the indefatigable lights of the Too Fat Lardies community, I was able to participate in a painting challenge that simply gave each participant an incentive to get work done, without prizes or special recognition.   A gallery showing my painting accomplishments for 2014 is here, and I was quite chuffed to realize I got so much done in 2014, even if it was a little scattered.  Thank you for doing all that work, Robert, I will be participating this year as well.

For a final time, here is a summary of my hobby totals for 2014.

 

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 85, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 7, 15mm Foot: 119, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1105

Thesis Pages Written:  30

Time for a reset (except for the thesis pages, which will remain here as an incentive to get the next hundred done.  Please rag on me if you don’t see this number growing.)

Here are my top ten (mostly hobby) accomplishments in 2014

1) Learning how to tie a bow tie by hand.  Very useful skill to have for a chap.

2) Buying three used 6mm Napoleonic starter armies (French, Austrian and Russian).  A large box arrived on an apocalyptically wintry day beginning an on again/off again rebasing project that still continues.  It was the impetus to finish an initial order of Baccus figures made back in 2012, and to order some more scenery.  Getting this lot finished and augmenting the French from the tempting new line of Baccus French sculpts is a priority for 2015.

3) Making some significant progress on my 28mm Weird War Two project.  I now have enough figures to do some skirmishes, so I suppose I should start thinking of rules for werewolves, etc.  I bought the .PDF for 7TV’s Vlad’s Army and had a look at it.  It was cute and may have some useful ideas, but I’m thinking I will modify TFL’s Chain of Command rules.

4) Creating a small but useful 15mm Soviet WW2 army from scratch.   This was mostly thanks to the very affordable products from Plastic Soldier Company, augmented with a bit of lead.   I even had enough complete (10 T34s, almost a company of infantry and supports) to get a game in with them.   A minor goal for 2015 will be finishing off my unpainted infantry, and maybe augmenting them with some AT support and light armour for scouting.

Toasting my Russian hordes as they advance to defend Turnipograd from the kitten-easting fascist hordes.

5) Actual gaming.  After three years posted out west, where I couldn’t find any regular miniature gaming opponents, it was a joy to come back to Ontario, within driving distance of some old friends, including my wargaming chum Rabbitman.  James is an old friend who thinks a lot like I do, and is a great pal to game with - nothing too serious, always lighthearted, but serious about the history.  Most of what we played in 2014 was Too Fat Lardies WW2 stuff, I Ain’t Been Shot Mom and Chain of Command.  We had some epic scraps, of which was my favourite was the Battle of Trois Lapins, in which Douggie Mercer and the North Novas foiled the plans of Dynamic Panther Man.  Sadly I will be posted fairly early in 2015, and we are both hoping it might be to the Chaplain School up the highway in Borden, which will make some gaming weekends doable.

7) More actual gaming.  One of my earliest loves is board gaming, and it was pleasant to get some, mostly solitaire games, in and to try some new titles.   My favourite new release of 2014 was GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, an American Civil War strategic naval game that scratched a lot of itches for me.   I have several games I am looking forward to playing in 2015, including GMT’s Prussian Expansion for Command and Colours Napoleonics, their game on South Mountain which came out late in 2014,  and their Vietnam game, Fire in the Lake.  One of my happiest gaming memories for 2014 will be the Play By Blog Diplomacy Game that I ran online here.  It was a great joy to run and to introduce some folks to this venerable and vexing game, and I have some prize figures on my workbench to finish and send out in January.  I expect there will be another game offered here in 2015, once I get the next posting behind me and figure out how demanding my next job, whatever it may be, is.

8) Looking at Robert’s gallery, I was reminded that one theme in my work in 2014 was some progress on my 28mm SYW collection, which consists of Russians and Ottomans.  OK,most of the Ottoman figures are intended to be earlier than 18th century, but they’ll do.  I think my favourite figures from 2014 are the Spahi command group I completed back in May.

 

9) Madame Padre and I vacationed in Italy this summer.  Nothing much to do with wargaming, except that I saw Napoleon’s bathtub. 

10) Last but not least, a highlight of 2014 for me is the wargaming blogging community, among which I can count friends from Dublin to Dusseldorf to Stockholm to Christchurch.  A number of small packages mailed and received the year attest to the strong bonds and extraordinary kindness of these wonderful folks. 

What are the goals for 2015?

A coming move this spring and a new job to learn will be disruptive, so I expect my activity here will diminish somewhat.   Here are some quick goals:

1) Finish rebasing all that 6mm Napoleonics and play some games with them.

2) Finish some Ottoman Spahis and some Russian SYW horse I bought off a chap late last year.

3) Paint some wonderful ACW Iron Brigade figures from FG MiniZ Forgotten and Glorious - I don’t know why I haven’t gotten these done already.

4) Putter away at the Weird War Project.

5) Round out my 15mm WW2 Soviets and play Battlegroup Kursk with them.

6) Play some more games, preferably with new friends I make in my next posting.

7) Remain healthy, fit and happily married to Madame Padre.

Thank you for your comments and support of this blog in 2014.   There are so many blogs I visit, and so many more that I wish I had time to visit, and I know that following your exploits and enthusiasms will make 2015 a pleasant and interesting year.

Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!

Michael+

Much to Be Thankful For

I have a lot to be grateful for this Christmas, and as part of that, I want to tell you the story of three people, members of our wargaming community, who were very kind to me.

First, several years ago, Paul Foster of Plastic Warriors very kindly represented me in miniature based on a photo of me from an army route march.  I had coveted that figure for some time and Paul very decently sent it to me just in time for Christmas.  Thanks, Paul, I shall treasure him and find an appropriate way of basing him for display.

 

Pat G, who played Germany so ably and entertainingly in the recent game of Diplomacy by blog run here, very kindly sent me some figures for Christmas.  I had asked if he knew of a figure to represent Miss Amelia Roosevelt, all-American Girl Reporter of the Gilded Age, and Paul very kindly sent me this RAFM Call of Cuthulu lady investigator, who will do nicely for Miss Amelia should she appear in my Weird War Two campaign or some other pulp project.

 

Also in Pat’s gift was this very energetic, youthful and trim-figured young priest (a dead ringer for me, really) who might do well for Tristram Mercer or perhaps one of his clerical colleagues from the Church of England’s E-Team.  

 

And finally, another RAFM pulp chap, who is holding some sort of futuristic weapon and looking quite dapper.   Perhaps he’ll be one of the technical boffins from Project Alice?

Thank you Pat.  My fondest hope now is that the CAF posts me to Ottawa in the new year so you and I can game with these figures.  You’re very kind, sir.

 

AS if this generosity wasn’t more than sufficient for one Christmas, I had been waiting for a very tense and suspenseful week to open a package from Germany, thanks to Stefan, the proprietor of the Monty’s Caravan blog.  Stefan was a participant in the Santa Clause project, and drew my name.  The idea behind Santa Clause is to research the blog of the person whose name you draw, and then buy and paint a fairly inexpensive figure that you think, based on your research, the recipient will like.  I have to say, Stefan nailed it.  Inside his package, carefully wrapped, was this figure, a 28mm 18th century civilian chaplain, one of the figures from Germany’s excellent Black Hussar Miniatures Prussian line.  Not only that, but Stefan included two very special bases, one with two slots for dice, and another with a moveable dial going from 1-12.  These bases will be very useful for keeping tack of morale, army cohesion, initiative, turns played, or whatever I decide to do with them.  Stefan, my friend, you are a kind and gifted man, and I do hope to repay your kindness one day and to thank you in person when I visit your part of Germany and you show me where the good pubs in Dusseldorf are.

A sermon on the sin of gambling, with giant dice as sermon illustrations.  With the gray hair (well, powdered wig) and blue eyes, he rather looks like me!

Brethern, let your life be free of dice, as this base is free.

 

With twelve numbers displayed on this base, I could perhaps turn it randomly and choose one of twelve sermons to read to my opponent before the start of a game, or perhaps read to him while he is making difficult tactical decisions.   :)

 

The two padres together.  Now I have an 18th century avatar and a modern avatar, so I can represent myself in two different periods in two different scales.  Cool!

 

This was also under the tree, from me to me.  Mrs. Padre says I’m hard to buy gifts for.  Strange, I don’t have that problem.

I hope you all had good things under your Christmas trees, and that you are as blessed with kind friends in this hobby as I evidently am.

MP+

Doing the Santa Clause Thing

 Image from the British Army website, here.

My blogging friend Chris Stoesen is to thank for getting me involved in the is year’s Santa Clause challenge.   You can read the full details about it here.  As I understand it, Chris as the organizer assigns participants a blogger, and then you go research that blog, figure out what the blogger likes to collect and find a figure, building, etc of no more than 5 pounds sterling (about $10 Canadian) in value, paint it, and send it to your assigned giftee by 20 December.  It’s not to be confused with the Secret Santa thing that is running elsewhere in the wargaming blogosphere.

I think this is a cracking idea and I’m part of it.   There’s still time for you to consider joining the fun.  Have a look at Chris’ website and contact him before September 15th.

MP+

And The Winners Are ...

This shameless image of a kitten reflects my general state these last four days after I turned in the last of my three term papers for this semester of grad school.   Almost 20,000 words of highfalutin nonsense and verbiage.   Kitten is tired.   

 

However, I’m reasonably recovered and while I am quite late in getting to the caption contest (I think I had promised results on Easter Monday) my charming assistants, Madame Padre and Stanley the Wonder Cat, have done the draws

The winners of the three random draws are:

1)  The winner of the $40 gift certificate from J&M Miniatures is CJR, owner of the TwoThreeSixMM blog.  Congratulations CJR!  Please email me offline at madpadre (@) gmail (dot) com.

 

2) The winner of this handsome adventurer chap is Joakim Strom, The Miniature Man.   Joakim, email me at madpadre (@) gmail (dot) com if you want him unpainted or if you want him painted with your specifications.

3) The winner of Beregond is Baconfat, owner of Baconfat Log.  Monsieur Baconfat, please email me at madpadre (@) gmail (dot) com and let me know if you want Beregond painted or unpainted.

Right, and now for the really, super-exciting bit.  There was a fabulous mystery prize for the funniest and cleverest caption or dialogue, as chosen by myself, Stanley, and Ms. Padre. 

Several of the entries were very clever and several came very close.  

 

The Lowry cartoon had some very imaginative entries.   We really liked Peter Douglas’ entry: “You think he could’ve picked a better time to meet with his analyst.  At some point he has to stop compensating for little man issues.”  That was actually very similar to the original Lowry caption, “We’re in deep trouble now, he’s begun to have doubts about whether he really is Napoleon”.

 

The Samurai and Oktoberfest Fraulein image inspired a lot of cleverness around heads on beer.   However, one that made us laugh because it was different, especially after I’d just seen the Noah film, was from Chris Stoesen: “O, Daughter of Herodias, I bring you the head of John the Baptist … Ummm. Mr. Aronofsky, are you sure these are period costumes?”   Well done, Chris.

 

However, the one that we all enjoyed the most was one of the entries for the German Aviatrix and Resistance Femme.   There were several references to Allo! Allo! and, Ms. Padre thought, more than enough references to big bottoms.   The one that made us all laugh, though was from one of our favourite Kiwis, Archduke Piccolo:   “Nice going; there’ll be no finding much of that duck, now!”  We loved that entry for several reasons.   First, it was original, and amusing to think of these two characters out hunting together.  Second, it made us laugh to think of the French girl shooting a duck with a Schmeisser, and it perfectly matched the annoyed look on the German lady’s face.

So, milord Archduke, congratulations.  You’ve one the super mystery prize.    This is a rubbish photo, but the prize is this 28mm Foundry figure, which sort of looks like a cross between St. Nicholas and the leader of a Viking war band.  I was thinking of painting him up in Santa red and white, unless you’d like him in different colours, or unpainted.  Let me know.   I hope that’s an agreeable.   

So thank you all who played this competition, it was a lot of fun for me and I enjoyed everyone’s creativity and humour.   

I look forward to posting here more often now, and to having more time to paint and play, now that those papers are off my back.

Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!   MP+