Hubris

 "Each year arrives, waxes great, commits the sin of Hubris and must therefore die." - Aeschylus

I rather tempted fate myself with my last post, suggesting that wargaming had moved to the foreground and things were about to happen. Immediately I had published that post the curse of the blogger intervened and kicked all such plans down the road. The next game scheduled is currently in the diary for January 21st, inshallah.

Well, despite all that, a Happy New Year to you all. 

Return of the kern

 

"beware the preachers" - Charles Bukowski

There has been a bit of wargaming going on in the background, namely a fine refight of Talavera in the legendary wargames room of James 'Olicanalad' Roach. As we get older the weekly sessions seem to get shorter before we reach the point where we can no longer stand up for any more time, and so this game has taken several weeks. As luck would have it I had to miss this week's conclusion (*), but I think I had, as Wellington, done enough to ensure the correct result.

Wargaming has also moved a bit to the foreground, which is as much to my surprise as anyone's. I have ordered a new set of rules, which obviously I don't need, and will report on them when they arrive. I have also after a long, long gap got the paintbrushes out. The main output has been the kern last heard of here two years ago. Adding Irish troops to my Wars of the Roses forces was Peter's idea; I think he thought javelin armed units would add a bit of variety. It was undoubtedly his death eighteen months ago which badly knocked my mojo. I have tried a variety of things to kick it off again such as the MTB and E-boat models I inherited from Peter (**) and buying some Mexican Revolution figures (***) off eBay. What has finally made the difference is buying myself a new lamp, one of those where the lights surround a magnifying lens. It's great. I can't paint any better, but at least I can see my mistakes more clearly.

One of the things that was passed on to us by Peter's widow was a small collection of cowboys with which we have enjoyed playing using the Too Fat Lardies rule set. While I had a brush in my hand I painted up a preacher as a small contribution to the period; he can be a bystander, innocent or otherwise. I have literally never painted a 28mm figure before, but I don't think it turned out too badly. It was also nice to get the lightbox out again.

* I went to see The Fast Show Live - very funny.

** I fully acknowledge that these are never going to be painted.

*** I haven't given up hope of these.