The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Parade

Nothing to do with toy soldiers, more to do with real ones!  I've just got back (yes at gone 1am) from parading down at Windsor in front of Her Majesty.  Quite honestly this was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I am incredibly proud to have been one of the 2,500 Service Personnel parading today.  In the end it was absolutely worth the 4am starts, chaffing, dehydration, sore muscles, hours of uniform prep, questionable food and a total of something like 24 hours spent on coaches; absolutely and completely worth it.

If Facebook is to be believed then I made the cut on TV and I'm going to have to get the cakes in at work next week!  In the meantime I think that I need to consider some Albertine Forces under the command of the then Princess Elizabeth.

Anyway, it's time for a very much needed shower and some even more needed sleep!  Normal rambling about models and painting will resume soon.

What next?

Having just finished another 16 unmarried zulus I am pondering what to do next; looking at the lead/plastic mountain the options are:

64 plastic married zulus plus 2 lead zulus.
6 policemen to finish off the Northumbria Police force.
8 British command figures from Anglo-Zulu war
Blackadder WWI character pack
Assorted Kings of War and Warpath sprues
Assorted Celtic plastics
The Contents of the Project Pandora: Grim Cargo Game.

Yes if you've read this far then you can probably guess what arrived in the post today!  I was really impressed by Dwarf King's Hold and love the look of the Veer-Myn so I found myself unable to resist it at the discount price that Wayland Games were offering!  More details to follow once I've got it painted.  Don't hold your breath though, work is mental at the moment, I'm away next week and every ounce of spare time is getting taken up with the Wife's business.  Well that and typing rambling witterings on here!

Support Iron Sky! An update

I emailed the distributor yesterday to ask why they were only doing a single day release.  I got the following response:

REVOLVER OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON IRON SKY RELEASE 

We recognise the concerns of the makers of IRON SKY and appreciate the support of the fans. We ourselves have been huge supporters of the project since day one, coming on board in 2009. 

We feel this release structure is very much in line with the spirit in which the film was made, being available both on the big and small screen almost simultaneously.

We have seen all of your feedback and contrary to the opinion of a few we are not trying to 'kill' 'bury' or 'dump' the film. Revolver is still in discussion with the exhibitors about extending the cinema run. Come out on the 23rd May, show your support, make IRON SKY day a huge success and lets keep the film playing on the big screen!

 

Not the greatest but I noticed their mention of similar timings for large and small screen release and so had a peek on Amazon.  It turns out that the Blu-Ray and DVD will be released on 28 May 12.  So rather than an 80 mile round trip to a cinema plus the cost of tickets and popcorn I will instead being buying the blu-ray version (that also has a digital copy) and spending the money saved on some lovely shiny new miniatures. 

Anybody know where I can buy 28mm space Nazis? :D

Support Iron Sky!

Following on from the publicity already given to this project by Panzerkaput and Smillie please have a look at the film Iron Sky.  It's got Nazies and Aliens.  If it had zombies as well then it would be too much for the average wargamer to deal with!

The bad news is that the publishers have decided to only release it for one day in the UK and worse still that's a Wednesday!  If you'd like to see this film given a slightly wider release then please follow this link. 



Post 100!!! Even more scenery

I've come to the conclusion that the recent lack of erosion of the lead mountain is not solely due to my complete failure to stop buying miniatures, it is also a result of spending increasing amounts of time on scenery.  Hopefully this will be worth it in the long run.

I recently acquired an American farm house from the hands of the ever so talented Perry brothers.  It went together really easily and painted up in no time.  My original intention was to make this the village green cricket pavillion.  I'm not sure what happened but suffice to say the colour scheme went completely wrong and I've ended up with some sort of Northumbrian holiday home. . . . . . or just a building from the American Civil War!  I might get the North American Store and convert it into a cricket pavillion using the top screen as a score board. . .  . . . . time will tell.

The Horns of the Buffalo - Part Fifteen

I've been rather busy over the last couple of weeks and so not got that much time in the vanishing cabinet.  However, this morning I finally got a couple of hours to finish off a second unit of British Infantry.  They are slightly different to the first batch as I've deliberately kept the helmets more dull as I recently discovered that the bright white helmets of Zulu were complete Hollywood.  Hopefully one day I'll get time to dull the others down, I might see what a drop of sepia wash does before entirely repainting them.

I've stuck with my standard green grass mix for the same reason that I have previously, South Africa is pretty green in January and so the dusty desert look of Zulu is plain wrong!  Plus this gives me the added benefit of being able to use one colour of base texture for all my miniatures.

I only have about 8 British miniatures left to paint, 4 key characters and the command pack from the 2nd unit of British infantry.  All that's left after that is the rest of the married zulus, seemingly thousands of them!  I won't be able to create Rorke's Drift at 1:1 ration, but it will certainly be a rather full table!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15