Christmas Presents from Kind Friends

As many of you will realise I neither ran Secret Santa or took park in Santa Clause this year so it was quite a surprise when I received two presents from Secret Santa. Well Christmas day found me receiving not two but four presents.Words fail to show my appreciation as I just did not expect such gifts. Just shows how great our community is.

From America I received this Leven Miniatures windmill that will see use in upcoming Peninsular games with The Boy and Lee. I actually have an unpainted one prepped but waiting some paint and did want to get at least one more so a perfect present. The kids devoured the Peeps too having had some at previous Christmas's usually from my wifes friends.

I have already mentioned the £10 Baccus gift voucher which I spent on some more 6mm figures that arrived Christmas eve. These included yet more peltasts and lots more phalanx figures. These Peltasts will fit in lovely with my army for Magnesia and being troops I have been putting off for months I now can use these as a basis to copy. These will give me four units so is a real boost.

The fourth present was another four units of Gauls which again can fit right into my plans for Magnesia. 

So what can I say other than a heartfelt THANK YOU to the kind folks who have given me such wonderful gifts. 

Other more expected gifts with a wargames slant (i.e. off a list) has been the rest of the troops needed for Magnesia, a copy of To The Strongest! rules that we are planning on using at the Magnesia game at Joy of Six which I have had a quick go with Lee last week and seem to run well and hopefully will play fast enough to actually show good progress at the one day show.

I also got a book on Dunkirk that may provide a scenario or two's idea for ASL but if not be a good read. I also have had enough figures to provide me with four more Battalions of infantry for my SYW 15mm Prussians which will not help me keep up with Lee but at least gives me a respectable force to try and see him off.

So quite a haul and I am very pleased with what I received, hopefully you all will also have had a good Christmas and look forward to a good New Year. I will be posting some of my more recent finishes having done the final touches to a group that were all based at the same time.

A Little Reading Top Up

Christmas has been good to me on the reading front too. I have to admit to having picked Incomparable, To War With Wellington and Kursk for Cath but she picked the Iain Gale novels as I am close to finishing the Sharpe books and am almost up to bate with the Uthred books.

The surprise of them all was Death Before Glory, my nephew bought this for ma, it's about the Napoleonic period but covers the British in the West Indies and as such something I know very little about. It looks to be fascinating and will be next up after Incomparable. So well done James  for a star find and it looks to be a very pleasant few months of new books to work through.

Partisan Christmas Gift

I saved this last Christmas present for a post of it's own as I am sure a lot of the figure painters will appreciate what a nice gift this is.

This is a hand painted ceramic tile and was a gift from one of Cath's friends. Her daughter has a shop selling various crafted items but this tile the daughter did based on one of the figures I have painted and shown on my blog, anyone remember it?

As you can see from the two images above it's been nailed and I am more than pleased with this present and will be sure to keep the tile close at hand. My painting area is nicely filling up with little fun items that make me smile when I look at them and gives me that little more of  boost when I want lifting up. This is sure to be a big smile generator.

I a not sure if tiles such as this can be ordered if you would want some of your artwork restyled but it's a question I have asked Cath to check out so look here for further updates.

Snow on Christmas day

The family also looked after me on Christmas Day and reinforced my hobby funds and victuals. As you may have already gathered I really don't need any more figures right now so it was great to be able to get the support gear added to.

Cath bought me a Deluxe Materials Snow Effect Kit, the speed of delivery was really fast even ignoring the time of year. These look great, you get their standard snow that you can add with multiple layers to get the depth of snow you require. On top of that you get glitter snow that when added on top of the normal snow gives the look of frosted snow for those sub-zero moments you want to share with your troops. I wanted the pack mostly for the Winter War figures but will also be adding it to various Sniper Reminders as well.

My Mum and Sister each bought me some Vallejo paints. This was a bit of a surprise as originally Marie had asked about paints so I gave her a list of paints I would be interested in but was just expecting a few of so when I ended up with all the paints on the list and one extra it's fair to say I was wrong footed, but in a good way.

Cath also bought me a headset for gaming to replace my battered and well used set. No not the usual computer games but ASL via VASL. We also got my Nephew a set for the same purpose. I hope to test them before the year is out ;-)

I also had money that brings my Wargames Neutral back into the black and has allowed me to order a new camera so future photo's should be less of a problem. 

So with fund's sitting in the warchest I am ready for what 2014 throws at me. I am already thinking of more cowboys and maybe a few buildings but I will not jump just yet, that can wait till we have had a bit of fun with what we have. Hope you all are now recovering from the trials of Christmas Day and are as happy with your presents as I with mine.

Secret Santa Revealed

Happy Christmas to one and all and a big THANK YOU to my secret Santa. I was a good boy and waited till the big day before opening up my present. As you can see I have been spoiled with some of the excellent Baccus figures. Indeed these will jump forward in my to paint list. With this reinforcement I will have 20 guns all Baccus which means the tiny Irregular can be put out to grass. Even better four of the twelve guns are howitzers just what I had started to hang my nose over. Indeed I have been blessed. I also have a further four limbers to help move around my horse artillery. Now if only I could get all these painted up for Friday along with the cavalry I have on the go at the moment,  could really give Lee a pasting  ;-)

So again Thanks you to my Secret Santa and indeed a big thank you to all who joined in this years SS I hope you all will join me again next year.

 

Cath and I was talking whilst clearing the decks for the festive clutter. Cath brought u the advent calenders, anyone remember the ones that had little pictures behind them instead of chocolate? Now fast forward to today's, even the little pictures behind the pressed plastic have gone. The front cover now shows Disney Princess or Spider Man. At least the shaped chocolate is there to remind us of Christmas, right? Er wrong, well in case of Spider Man, the strangest symbol of Commercial Christmas had to be two toadstools, next up was a horseshoe. I know I preferred the Choc ones but now Cath has mentioned it, I do miss that little bit of Christmas every morning. Now, it's just a chocolate and off to school.

 

This kind of underlines the whole Secret Santa for me. Sure I was really excited opening that special package that was chosen by another wargamer just for me but at the same time I was also hoping that my target was having just as much fun as I had selecting his items. I sure hope so.

 

I also took the opportunity of paying it forward as Cath would say. I added a second target to share the fun just because I knew they would be chuffed and selecting bits from my mountain to give them was rather enjoyable and wondering the response to a few of the bits left me in a positively good mood. Glad to say I hit the target and they have gone down well. Now I can sit back after stuffing myself silly and bask in the warm glow of contentment. We are having our Christmas meal later today over at my Mums. Cath the saint that she is offered to redeploy our whole Christmas meal and there after over there after my Mum broke her wrist and is unable to put something together. It will be the first group Christmas I have had in so many years and I am rather looking forward to it, especially as Mum has not got a TV (not had one for about 30 odd years).

 

Well I hope you all have as good a day as mine and see you on the other side.