Musings

Hello Again Everyone!!

I thought this post would be a bit more eclectic.

As you will soon learn, I'm more of a gaming 'Wannabe' than an actual gamer. I have had a devil of a time finding gamers in my area so I do not game much at all. In fact, there is a guy in my area who games, but we have a very hard time getting together. Hopefully that will change with the new year.

Anyway, since I don't get to game a lot I live vicariously through other gamers and their web sites and blogs. What I do is a lot of reading and research, collecting and painting miniature armies, and building terrain and buildings.

Part of this process is the purchase of books (I'm passionate about books - so LOTS of books) and other items used in the hobby. This past week as afforded me the chance to go to the hobby shop and crafts store to purchase some of these items. Unfortunately, the store I really wanted to go to was not open. This shop is a HUGE comic book shop that deals in fantasy gaming. I've never had an interest in fantasy gaming, but the shop has lots of paints and other goodies for the hobbyist.

While at Hobby Town USA I picked up a Citadel Hobby Drill.

This is what the little bugger looks like. It even came with a small case of bits.

Before we continue... Even though the link for the drill will take you to Amazon, I do try to buy as much as possible from local dealers - especially hobby stores. No one carries historical minis, flags or such so those need to be ordered. But items like paints, brushes, tools, and terrain materials I buy local.

That being said...a stop at the local Hobby Lobby was in order to pick up some Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour paints as well as brushes for them.

A friend in the UK showed me an interesting way to paint horses using artist's oil paint so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm going to see if he'll give me permission to post his method. I've never worked with this type of paint so we'll see what happens. Luckily I have a handful of 28mm Front Rank horses to practice on.

Okay, even though the excursions to the hobby shops was fun, the big event was going to the book stores!! I love books - all kinds of books. My favorite types are history books and if they are heavily illustrated the better. This hobby gives me plenty of reasons to buy lots of books. Even though my concentration is on the Russian army of 1812 right now, that does not prevent me from buying books of other areas I'm interested. Come to think of it, a discussion of those other areas might make a good post.

Again, this past week gave me a chance to lurk around a few of the shops and find some nice volumes.

Here are the ones that came home with me:

Mr. Kipling's Army by Byron Farwell.

Excellent little book. It gives and interesting, and humorous, 'Upstairs/Downstairs' type view of life in the British army during the Victorian and Edwardian periods.








Battles in Britain Volume 1: 1066-1547 by William Seymour.

Now that I have this one 'Battles in Britain Volume 2: 1642-1746' NEEDS to be on my shelf as well.










The Retreat from Moscow: the Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne 1812-1813

The title says it. This will be an excellent read for the project at hand.



The best part about the three books above - I got them at an antique / used book shop for next to nothing!!

Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior 1200-1877 AD by Thomas Conlan.

Now this is one of those types of books that's a pure joy to look through. This book has tons of illustrations and fascinating facts. If you enjoy learning about Samurai you might want to check this one out.




After looking through this book I was ready to buy some 28mm Samurai, but I restrained myself...really...I did...

Well, I think this is enough for now. However, this post might give you an idea of what to expect in from future posts. Even though this blog is dedicated to historical wargaming, it isn't going to cover just minis and games.

Till next time...

Cheers!
Larry