Border Reivers Colours

Thinking of which colours I might use. So far I have decided on: Red, Blue, Brown, Green, Black, Grey or their nearest available GW colour but not on which reivers will be painted which way. Swords and Helmets (Steel Bonnets) will be Silver obviously. All those colours will be darker of course.

Over the past few weeks, I have also been busy collecting links on Border Reivers and The American Civil War, so that I can get ready to learn about both.

It seems these Reivers were thieves and raiders. Reiving went on for 300 years on the Anglo-Scottish Border involving many clans. That is one serious crime wave. There are loads of people around today with certain surnames that may be descendants of those reivers. Hopefully I plan to start undercoating mine with GW Chaos Black this weekend.

I closed my ebay shop today. Should have done it months ago as I have had nothing on it since December 2006. Once I have got my time organised, I will put up another large batch. With the shop gone, there is more chance of making some profit.

Quite Day

Didn't do a lot yesterday. Installed most of the programs I always use and anything else will be put in when I need it.

Now begins getting organised, getting back to the website, sorting out and processing all those photos I took at Triples and the remainder of the photos from Monday nights game at the Club. I have decided I am going to close my ebay shop: Prancing Pony Cards. I will still sell on ebay with my username Prancingponycardsuk, just not have the store. Of course I will still link back to the Prancing Pony Cards website on my ntl webspace.

Talking of ntl, sorry Virgin Media, I miss my regular fix of Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis that I watched every wednesday on Sky One.

The photos I took of Colin Rumford, which turned out to have a little red-eye, I have removed it and sent them to him as I had promised. I will use one of them on my article of my Trip To Triples, which won't be written till all those photos have been sorted out.

Pc Formatted

I finally formatted my PC at 3AM this morning and had the net up and running by 3.30AM. In the end I backed up 1 CD and 8 DVD DATA discs (8 x 4.7GB). I had got my email running through Outlook Express before I went to work. The Programs I really use like Paint Shop Pro, Dreamweaver etc and my security software such as Antivirus and Adaware are going to be put in soon.

25mm War of the Spanish Succession and the Maritime Powers

Went to the club tonight but did not participate in a game. There was a huge 25mm War of the Spanish Succession Wargame in action on our 18 foot table. I took some photos, most which turned out well. I will show some to you but the remainder will be put in a gallery on the Grimsby Wargames Society Website as usual.

The British Artillery Piece above belongs to Mark Alcock, as do the soldiers in this other photo below. On this occasion Paul was using Mark's figures and vice versa.

















Here are some photos of Some of Paul Robinson's figures:

The Mounted Commander in blue is Marshal Vilroy.
These other smashing figures by Paul are Bavarian Dragoons.

The only editing that was done to all these photos was a little resizing and brightening up using Paint Shop Pro. Sometimes photos need a little brightening up. It was also done to try to reproduce the light level in the room.

Other players taking part in the 25mm War of Spanish Succession game were Andy Sharp, Andy Hamilton, Tony Waumsley and John Ogden.

Also today:

Picked up my copy of Rapid Fire! 2 from Dave Hewins Model Shop along with some new paintbrushes to paint my border reivers.
Whilst in mid-game, the other players in the above game gave helpful hints as to painting my reivers. So I must remember not to paint them in bright colours, possibly put a St George Cross on their shields and look for some photos of reivers on google as an example of them.

This backing up my PC is taking ages but then I realised earlier today that I was backing up at least 30GB on data DVD.

Casino Royale

Today I finally got round to watching Casino Royale on DVD. Been dying to watch it all week. I took it round to a friend's house along with the book I bought him at Triples "Fighting Techniques of a Panzer Grenadier", which was much appreciated by himself. All 2 hours 18 mins of the film was excellent. The best scene in the movie is when Bond is chasing Mollaka all the way through Madagascar, over buildings, 200ft in the air on cranes to Mollaka's demise. It was a great sequence, the best i've seen in a long while. I have been a huge bond fan ever since I was a kid and seen all the bond movies several times over with the exception of this one. Daniel Craig does make a good bond. I wasn't sure about him at first but he carried the movie well.

Not having seen his other film performances either though I do remember watching him in a BBC drama called "Our Friends in the North" and he was great in that too.

While at my friend's house I picked up the Games Workshop paints that I had lent him several years ago. Checked the paints on the spot to see how much was left and there was loads left. I plan to paint the border reivers I bought from Triples with my GW paints. As I will be at the club tomorrow night, I will ask Paul Robinson for some suggestions on painting them with GW paints. Off now, got to start backing up my data so that I can format my pc tomorrow.

Triples Rundown

Woke up late this morning. Didn't hear the alarm. I actually woke up at 9.20am. Slightly shocked at what time it was, all i had time to do was feed the cat, jump in the shower, get all my bits together: Information for getting to Triples, digi camera, Mp3 player, spare batteries and make sure I had all the necessary cash. Got to the train station in time for the 10.36 train to Sheffield.
It was a really pleasant trip to Sheffield on the Transpennine express. The return ticket actually cost £15.80. Listened to my mp3 player for the entire hour and a half journey. Had no problem jumping on the tram, costing £1 to the University. Thats Sheffield University not Sheffield Hallam University. It is easy to see why the two could get confused. Once I got off the tram, followed the signs to the Octagon and arrived there at 12.25pm.

I have decided i am going to write my trip to Triples up for the Grimsby Wargames Society Website so will give a short rundown of what i did there. I will write some of it up for this blog too with photos but most of the content will go to the website.
While there:

Bought a £10 pack of Border Reivers from Vendel Miniatures;
Spoke to Colin Rumford on the Chiltern Miniatures Stall and took some photos of him too;
Bought an Osprey Warrior book - Union Infantryman 1861 - 1865 (American Civil War) whilst picking up the latest Osprey Catalogue;
Bought another book for a friend this time: The same one who runs the Panzers of the Reich website. The book was Fighting Techniques of a Panzer Grenadier 1941 - 1945. As he a huge "fan" of German WW2 tanks, panzers etc I thought this book would suit him perfectly;
Bought a copy of Miniature Wargames off Iain Dickie himself (Editor/publisher).

Also Took photos of:

Derby Wargames Society WW1 Display set in September 1914;
Falkirk District Wargames Clubs Display Game: 10mm Battle for hill 112, Normandy 1944 (Operation Jupiter) using the Rapid Fire! rules;
The Lance and Longbow Society's Samurai v Mongol Game: Figures by Curteys Miniatures.

I will post some more on this blog of my visit to Triples 2007 with an article for the website within the next few days I hope. Not all the photos I took came out well but there a few good ones from each game. I left just after 3.30pm, left Sheffield at 16.11 and was home by 17.45.
Had a few things to do when I got home including shopping. I plan to format my pc over the weekend.

Transport Trouble

I have been busy preparing for Triples, getting my batteries on charge for my digital camera and printing out information I will need when i get to Sheffield. Yesterday morning I got a text from Joe saying he was having problems with his car and was going to take the train to Sheffield. It was good of Joe to let me know, let alone to say he would take me in the first place. Before i got ready for work i went on the Transpennine Express Trains website and booked a ticket for Saturday 24th March. At least I thought I did. I even put in my debit card details. It said the transaction was successful and awaited my reference number to use at Grimsby Town Railway Station but it never came.
I logged in to see my recent bookings but there was no sign of it. I even rang their order status line but, would you believe it, it closed at 10pm! Extremely unhappy by this point. Will try before I leave for Sheffield as i am going one way or another regardless. Received an email from Joe reinforcing what he said in his text message. Emailed him back to tell him I received his text message and which train I was planning to take. Hope all goes well on this trip. Won't get a full night's sleep but never mind. It's a mixture of looking forward to Triples and going to bed too late.

Contacted Paul Robinson via his blog yesterday. Paul replied extremely quickly. I was surprised to find later that he had already linked his blog to mine. Thank you Paul. Paul also suggested that I buy a £10 pack of reivers from Vendel Miniatures. Namely either the Robsons or Charltons. They are the ones with Photos on the Vendel's website. Not sure which I'll go for, may decide before I leave or when I get there.

Blogging is a new thing for me....

This is the first blog I have ever done and in it I will try to get all my experiences, knowledge (or lack of it) of wargaming and life generally. Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargames Society has done an excellent blog for some time now, nearly a year in fact and admit myself that I enjoy reading his sometimes. I only hope I can do as good as job as writing down my thoughts and publishing it as well as he has. His blog is at http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.com and is well worth a read. Paul is a long standing member of the Grimsby Wargames Society and a highly experienced wargamer.

I went to the club today to drop by and see the lads who are usually playing Star Trek CCG on thursday nights. To my surprise Joe Dunn was there too. When i emailed him last night he said he probably wouldn't get to the club tonight as he was only allowed out once a week :) I then discussed arrangements with him to go to the Triples wargaming show at sheffield this saturday. Mark Alcock is going with us too. Andy Hamilton is going in his own car straight to the university at sheffield and meeting him there. We will be going to meadowhall before taking a tram to the uni. I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks and not been to triples for years. Might even take my camera. Some of the other lads were playing a 20mm WW2 game using the Rapid Fire! rules. I would like to point out at this time that the Original Rapid Fire! rules were developed and playtested at our club and were in fact based on our club rules. However, that only applies to the Original 1st Edition Rules published in 1994, not recently.
Off to get a few things done now. Have some more people to email regarding the main Grimsby Wargames Society Website. Might even get a good night's sleep.