A Flying Visit

Only paid a flying visit to the club tonight which I went so late approx 8.45pm. There were 2 games going on: 25mm Victoriana using Legends of the Old West rules, between Andy Hamilton and Joe Dunn using their own figures. Mark Alcock was overseeing the situation;
HUGE WW2 game on the 18 foot table downstairs using the Blitzkrieg Commander Rules. The British, using Steve Mercer's figures, were Steve Mercer, Jase Whitfield and Dave Hewins. The Germans were Dave Tuck and Ron Skeet using Dave Tuck's figures. Desert Terrain again. Not quite sure who was winning the WW2 game when I left but I think Andy Hamilton won the Victoriana game.
Took a few photos as usual. Only a few will be put on this blog with the rest of them to be put on our new wargames galleries which I installed yesterday and still configuring.

Joe and Andy's figures skirmishing. Not sure who's figures are whose.

One of Steve Mercer's planes smoking quite a bit. It's a spitfire I think.

Birds eye view of the British Line.

Close up of a german tank, under Ron's command.

Some more of Dave Tuck's Tanks, Panzers, specifically. Don't ask me which ones. At this moment in time my tank recognition abilities are almost non-existent.

Discussed the new galleries with Martin Buck who suggested putting restrictions on them. The idea is that the members photos galleries get passworded so that only those with the password can upload to them, which is a great idea. I have to look a bit more into it as it may turn out that the albums can be passworded so that only those with password can view them, which will defeat the object if that is the case as we want everybody to see all the photos.
In the next day or so all of tonights pics will be uploaded to the new galleries. Ignoring all this technical talk each member will have to login and register to use it but it should be easier after that. Recommend everyone using it resize their photos to 640 X 480 before uploading.
Once again the new galleries are at:
http://www.gywargames.co.uk/pics

A Year In Photography

I'd hope some members of the Grimsby Wargames Society that compared to last year my photos have improved considerably. I think so. They are not perfect by any means but the photos I took last year look terrible compared to how they look now. I am still trying to develop my artistic eye as suggested by Henry Hyde who also offered other constructive criticisms on my photos. In particular, making sure the subject at the front of the photo is in focus which I seem to have managed to do. My shots I think have become more artistic though it is hard to keep it like that. Not all my shots have looked even slightly artistic which is a skill I am still after.

Over the past few days I have added Joe's Photostream link to this blog, the galleries and members websites page on the main website. Also bought and started reading issue 1 of Battlegames that Henry made available as a pdf. Continued searching through all the wargaming binders I have got of Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames looking for any article and/or photos by members of the club and I found a large pile. I know that what I have found is probably scratching the surface. Looking through those for the article I plan to write for the website. Announced I was going to do it on TMP months ago.

After the comment Joe made to me about having mainly my photos on the website, which is true, it is mainly mine, had a rethink. My plan was to go sort out my wargaming show photos then get back to our game photos at the club done by everybody which is still my plan. Then I thought, why don't I make it easy for all of us? Why don't I just find a way for all to upload to our photos to the main website? All members would have to do is register and upload, like a forum, but just for photos. So I have. For some time now I have known of some software that could produce photo galleries for websites but never got round to looking at it properly called Coppermine. Today I installed it on the website. It's not completely configured yet. There is still much tweaking to be done. Adding a php forum to it is my next trick after getting it how I want it. Mainly designed for just members of the Grimsby Wargames Society in mind, it is open to anyone. Don't want to exclude other wargamers from posting their pics and joining in with us.
Any members reading this post please sign up and upload. Beware that it is not completely configured but it does work. The look will change over the next few weeks.
This is how I intend to revamp the galleries on the website allowing members to just login and upload their photos themselves. Old photos will slowly be transferred to the new gallery. It can be found at:
http://www.gywargames.co.uk/pics/

Really Disappointing Result

I am really disappointed that we didn't win though it was great we made it to the final. 15-6 score to South Africa. We made several mistakes early on in the game practically giving points away to them. It was still quite a good performance from England but not quite able to match South Africa. All the points we won were down to the excellent Johnny Wilkinson and the penalties he took. Thought that first penalty shot was brilliant. If it weren't for him we would have had zero points. Unfortunately no more points were scored on our side. There was a close one with that Matthew Tait which to me looked like we should have got the points for that but they decided against it.
Think England still gave South Africa a good match but I think the Africans put in a better performance sorry to say. You could tell by looking at Johnny Wilkinson's face at the end how unhappy he was about it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the match and I am not accustomed to watching Rugby.
We'll take that title back again next time.

Go Get Em England!

I am not usually interested in Rugby but this time I have decided to make an exception. Nothing against rugger of course its not as interesting to me as football. I always support England in international games, in World Cup games in particular. So whether that may be Cricket, Rugby, The Olympics or some other sport the message is...

GO GET EM ENGLAND!

Don't really any players except for Johnny Wilkinson. They put a waxwork of him in Trafalgar Square yesterday.

So tonight I shall be watching the match against South Africa. At home unfortunately, not got a lot of cash. Here's to us giving the South Africans a rugby tackle they'll never forget.

World War 1 and The AWI

2 good games last night: 25mm American War of Independence and another Great War game downstairs. I joined in the AWI game. Took photos of both which came out quite well.
In the AWI game there was myself and Ron Skeet as the Yanks while Dave Tuck and Jason Whitfield were the British. All figures belonging to Dave Tuck.
Downstairs in the World War 1 game there was Andy Sharp, Joe Dunn, Mark Alcock on one side with Paul Robinson, Andy Hamilton and John Ogden on the other. I only knew what I was told and some bits I read from Paul's blog, being busy with my game. Apparently the plane in the game belonged to Andy Sharp, the French to Joe Dunn, The British also belonged to Andy Sharp on his side of the table. Paul had brought his figures - the Doughboys - though when I saw Paul's figures they were all occupying a wood and it was mighty dark in there. The wood I mean. Many of the British on Andy Hamilton's side belonged to him though some of the figures were also John's. As usual, they were playing the Schwerpunkt rules. The British Tank on the table belonged to Andy Hamilton. Mark had brought his German's which had been painted by Joe Dunn.
As for my AWI game, we were just managing to hold out by the time the game ended but we were losing. The Yanks were in defence. Losing our Cavalry early on although we did kill 2 british was not great. I was mainly under Ron's command. We did do some attacking which mostly did a little damage at a time. Ron was holding out better on the left flank most of the game though his position had begun severely weakening before the end with nothing to stop the British in the center. I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed as the game neared to its end with very few of my forces left whilst the British marched forward towards me with very little to stop them. It was a good fun game using the All the King's Men Rules. What surprised me most was the amount of dice I was throwing in 1 go - mainly 16 most of the time! Even more shocking I was throwing a decent amount of 6's.

Andy Hamilton's British WW1 Tank. What a great model, don't you think?

One of either Andy Hamilton's or John Ogden's men. Mortar crew and very nice figures they are too.

Some of Andy Hamilton's British sneaking in.

British Soldiers in the Undergrowth. Andy Hamilton and John Ogden's men. Andy's Tank in the background.

Some of the British, sorry, scottish. Notice the soldier with bagpipes on the left.

Some of the British under Dave Tuck's command. It's unusually rather dark on this photo but it does make a good black background to put the figures against.

British under Jase Whitfield's command.

Some Yanks under Ron's command in their defensive position behind a fence.

Yanks under my command grouped or clumped together on a hill standing by for action.

Ron's Artillery. Yes Ron had the big guns and they did get some use. These are really nice figures.

All in all, both games were good and the club night belonged totally to the British.

HUGE Renaissance Game Tonight!

When I arrived there was this HUGE game on on the 18ft table downstairs. No games went on upstairs at all. It was Muscovites v Poles 25mm Renaissance using Dave Tuck's Muscovites and Steve Mercer's Poles.
On the Muscovite side there was Dave Tuck, Andy Hamilton and Joe Dunn - unsually playing on a monday night. The Poles were Steve Mercer, John Ogden and Jase Whitfield. Mark Alcock was watching in a "consulting" capacity to Joe Dunn, who he was helping with the rules and movements. Paul Robinson dropped in. Andy Sharpe was just watching as I was, taking photos of games as normal. The Armati rule set was used for this game.
Not going to tell you who won till the end of this post. It was a really good game.

Before I begin, here is a photo of Steve's Polish Band. Lovely figures. Don't know what happened to these figures in the game but you can hardly defend yourself with drumsticks.

Overview of the table at least half way through the game. Muscovites on the left with Dave Tuck being immediate left. By this time there had been quite a few casualties on both sides.

Jase Whitfield's Poles on the attack after Dave's Muscovites. Charge!!

Some of the polish field guns/artillery. Under the command of John Ogden.

Steve's Polish Cavalry charging. They are on horses so they appear to be cavalry. They may be dragoons. From their uniform though they look more like knights.

Some more Poles under Jase's command coming over the hill. They just kept coming.

Some of Dave's Muscovites in Melee.

Muscovites in silly hats under Andy Hamilton's command. These ones appear to be standing their ground.

Dave's Musovites occupying the farmhouse. Its a bit crowded in there.

Some more of Dave's Muscovites. Reminded me of Genghis Khan for some reason. It's those silly hats and uniform.

Just to let you know, the Pesky Poles won again. Apparently they have won more games than the Muscovites have. Don't mean to rub it in Dave.
The figures were excellent, colourful and brilliantly painted as always. Great Eye Candy. Nice scale to play with.

Before leaving Dave asked me if I wanted to join in a game of AWI next week. AWI for the historically challenged is the American War of Independence. It took place years before the American Civil War. Not sure of exact date but I am historically challenged. I said yes of course so I am looking forward to that. It too will be fought in 25mm. Hope to get photos of all the games on next week.

At the moment I am busy trying to maintain 45 websites including the club website which is not easy. Links etc which is time consuming. Acquired another site the other day which went live tonight. Will upload more show photos in the next few days.

More Partizan Photos Uploaded

More photos have been today uploaded to my online photo album. 2 more sub-albums from games at Partizan:
28mm Derby Wargames Society 28mm Napoleon's Italian Campaign (though I thought it was the Crimean);
28mm Seven Years War by the Forest Outlaws.

The Forest Outlaws photos can be found here:
http://grimsbywargames.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album06
Derby Wargames Society Photos can be found here:
http://grimsbywargames.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album05

Although I did like The Outlaws the Derby photos have to be some of my best ones and the figures are great.

AK47 and The Great War (though not at the same time)

Went to the club tonight for the first time in weeks. Quite busy tonight. Martin Buck, Dave Tuck, Paul Robinson, Mark Alcock, Jase Whitfield, John Ogden, Andy Sharpe, Andy Hamilton, Tony Walmsley, Steve Mercer and myself. Pretty full house. I didn't play a game though just dropped by. The games that were on were:
Close Signal Action rule game with Steve Mercer and Andy Hamilton using those really nice ships that are in our Naval Warfare Gallery - the Napoleonic ones;
AK47 Republic game with Martin Buck being the Colonials, Dave Tuck apparently being the Dictatorship. Dave was unfortunately severely outnumbered;
Great War game downstairs between Paul Robinson and Mark Alcock. Mark using his germans as usual. This time however Paul was using his own newly painted figures, the American "Doughboys" which he had recently finished painting. First time they had been used.
Photos were taken by myself as usual. Here are some below:

Paul's American "Doughboys". Not exactly one of my best shots but you can see them.

Mark's German's hiding in soft cover. These Germans were painted by Joe Dunn, our resident figure painter.

Paul's "Doughboys" about to enter the soft cover and give Mark's germans a nasty shock.

Close up of those same "Doughboys". I cropped it to focus in on them. As always, Paul's painting is very good and of a high standard. Quite colourful too. Always good to look at.

AK47. Dave Tuck's Armoured Cars. Apparently these small things pack a punch. The scale is 15mm.

AK47. Dave's infantry. Not one of my great shots either. These had just come on at this point and had a long walk ahead. Cropped to center in on the figures.

AK47. Martin's armoured cars I think.

AK47. Martin's Tanks and Infantry.

Would have taken more photos of both games but my battery power died. Martin was good enough to let me use his but just as I was about to his camera died of the same problem. Oddly enough, my spare batteries that I would normally take were still being charged up at home.

As regarding the club website I have added a new page in the past day - Wargaming/Hobby News. Not only will it be good for the site as google will pick up on it, the news on it can be read on our site now. The news headlines are actually the RSS feed of all the headlines from TMP, one of my favourite sites. All my main announcements before the yahoogroups and forums are always put on TMP. What better source of news for the site?
In the past few days added another Partizan gallery to my online photo album. Bill Gaskin's display game. As the album scroller on a previous post is not very good, I will provide a basic text link to it instead. The whole thing will not be properly announced till it is fully uploaded.
All the show photos (when fully uploaded) can be found at:
http://grimsbywargames.myphotoalbum.com/
Bill Gaskin's display game can be found here:
http://grimsbywargames.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album03
Refight of the Battle of Mollwitz:
http://grimsbywargames.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album04

Hope to add more to that Partizan album in the next day or so. Watch this space.