Ray's Giveaway

Ray's doing a giveaway on his blog. You know Ray? Everyone knows Ray! But he insists on getting folks to pimp out his blog every now and again when doing something like this just to round up the few stragglers out there who don't already follow him. I mean, maybe he's trying for 1000 followers, maybe that's his plan!

So for you, the one guy at the back who's just started out on blogging and hasn't already started following the Don't Throw A One blog, or has had Ray follow him, and leave comments, then you really should wander over and check out the prizes. There are rather a lot of them.

Congrats Ray on reaching 500 posts. Here's to the next 500!

Viridian Wars

As if my attention wasn't being fractured enough these days, I have found yet another way to procrastinate and eat into my painting time. I requested to contribute to another blog, the Viridian Wars, and the author there, Richard, has graciously accepted. So, I am now an author on that blog, and have already planned out a few posts on a variety of topics in that universe. The first real one will be posted tomorrow morning.

What does this mean for posts here? well nothing much. Normal service will continue. This does not even mean I will not be posting Void material here, not that I have done much of that in the past. I will still have the odd post with painted minis, and even, if the stars are right, battle reports and the like.

What I will try to post over there are more in depth articles on the game and the miniatures, that I would struggle to justify posting here, due to limited interest in the game. I have already got a few articles lined up, and they should come out in the coming months. These posts will likely inspire me to paint up more Void and Urban War minis, so expect a few of them to make an appearance here too. A little cross-pollination if you will.

After that, who knows, I may move on to cover the daughter game Urban War, another one that I have a passion for that struggles to find its voice on the internet.

So if you have not already, and you are interested in the game, the minis or the setting, go along and check it out, follow and most importantly comment on the blog, as it is through the interaction with other bloggers we thrive and build our community.

Le Zonion

I would like to pass on to you all, the socal media co-ordonates of another local artist and friend, who has recently launched himself into the ethernet.

The man behind this is one of the voices behind the previously mentioned Geeks of the North podcast.

Meet "Le Zonion", first stop is his website and blog, and there's also a page to like on facebook. Go check it out, to see some great painting, and some wonderful scenery and custom built gaming tables, as well as some sculpting (especially of the eponymous Zonion, pictured here).

New Sherlock Holmes Story Discovered

I was rather excited by this, and as such, I thought it would be something you , my reading public, may be interested in. There has been a new Sherlock Holmes story discovered, the first such discovery in 80 years. I'm not talking about one of the excellent novels of recent writing by modern authors, but by the Great Arhtur Conan Doyle himself!

I found the transcript, and posted it on my other blog, as it seemed more apt there. Please click through and have a read. The whole story of how it was found can be seen there too, so I won't rehash the same lonks here.

Geeks of the North Talk to Meg Maples

I've mentioned these two things before, the Geeks of the North podcast, and the Meg Maples Montreal Masterclass, well, now these two things come together. After the class, the Geeks got together with Meg and had a chat, the results of which can be heard here. Go check it out.

Want to go further down the rabbit hole? well, this blog post is mentioned on the podcast. So this is a post where I talk about a podcast that talks about a post on my blog. Talk about meta!

Signal Boost: American History Too

I would very much like to draw your attention to American History Too, a thirty minute podcast, coming very much from an academic stand point, being of direct use to students studying history at University, particularly Edinburgh University, but of course, learning and discussion are by no means the preserve of mere students, some may even say they're even wasted on students.

As a further gaming link, as if one was needed, you may have heard of one of the podcasters before in gaming circles. Dr Malcolm Craig, is a real renaissance man, as he is also the Writer/Creator of both Cold City and Hot War, two excellent indie RPGs that I can thoroughly recommend to those of you who play RPGs.

One criticism I would make, they need to work on their logo, but hey, I'll let them off since they're just setting out.

 

Go check them out, they now have a whole two episodes for you to listen to.

Scottish Referendum

I am Scottish. I live in Quebec. These are facts, the rest of this post contains nothing but rambling, politics and points of view. If none of those interest you, please feel free to skip this post, as it is not wargame or gaming related.

Still here? Okay. I have another blog, a personal blog. One that has been running in various guises for about 14 years now with sporadic regularity. Mostly it is pictures of my kids, and other stuff that would only ever be interesting to family and possibly my future self. However, the first two facts I stated in the beginning of this post dictate that I have a keen and special interest in the goings on in Scotland over the last couple of weeks, and that has been taking my attentions away from the delights of wargame blogging, hence the radio silence here. If this is something that interests you, and you want to hear my point of views on these matters, then please feel free to click on this link and go read the blog. They appear in reverse chronological order in that link, so scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the start.

If this is of absolute no interest to you, and I would assume that goes for the most of my readers, then don't worry, I won't be insulted if you don't click. Now that's all over with, I'll be back to this being my main blog, and there'll be some pretty pictures of painted toy soldiers for you all to admire in the very near future.

Geeks of the North

For those of you who listen to podcasts or the like whilst painting of an evening, I have a new wargaming Podcast fo you to try. Geeks of the North is made by a couple of the local gamers, and fellow members of the Oldies group I go to.

This is their first offering, so, you can hear the jitters in their voices at the very start, but they soon settle in. The topics of conversation for this episode are Club Chaos, Chaosludik, Northern Defenders and Gen Con. 

Check out the facebook page here, and twitter here. The podcast page here. So why don't you go line up Episode 0 and have a listen.

Liebster Award

I have been nominated for a Liebster Award, that prestigious chain letter of the Blogosphere, by Ian, who had some very kind words to say on his blog.

What is a Liebster? It's a way to pass on details about yourself, and your blog, and also a way to get the word out about what may be under-appreciated blogs that you enjoy. After all, we're all in this to get our words read and pictures looked at by other hobbyists out there. Yes there is an element of a chain-letter to it, but it is a friendly well meaning one. So with that in mind, here are the rules, and my responses to the questions asked by Ian.

The Rules:
Copy and paste the award on your blog linking to the blogger who has given it to you. Pass the award on to your top 5 blogs with less than 200 followers, leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won he award and listing them on your own blog. There is no obligation to pass this on to someone else but it's nice if you take the time to do so.

Why Did I start blogging?
I had a lack of time to do actual gaming, and more time to paint. I started the blog for a few reasons, but mostly to have an outlet for the minis I had painted, as they weren't seeing the table.

If I could change one thing about wargameing what would it be? 
That I have so little time to play. 

What is Best in Life?

There's something about the lamentations of my enemies' women here isn't there? I never really was too much into Conan, nor having enemies. I guess I'd rather just chill out with my family (and get some gaming in once the kids are asleep of course!).

Fame or Fortune?
Fortune. Don't see much use on fame. Can't buy more minis with fame!

What miniatures am I most proud of painting? 
I'm quite proud of the tartan trews on these guys. In the distant past, I was also very happy with this one but I think my technique has improved somewhat since then. Otherwise, the one I've just finished is usually the one I'm most proud of!

How do I deal with burn out? 
I don't have any particular tricks to this. I just take time off, hence the inordinate amount of time it takes me to finish any one project. The fact that I have a million and one minis to paint from a tonne of different ranges and games also means I can usually find something to do when I have the time to paint.

Why is a Raven like a writing desk?

"I haven't the slightest idea,"

Star Wars or Star Trek? 
Star Wars. I  was never really into Star Trek. I mean I watched Next Generation when it was on, but not religiously. I had Star Wars toys as a kid, and always coveted a Millenium Falcon, but that being said, I've kind of grown out of Star Wars too. Maybe it was the prequels, but whatever the reason, I cannot get up too much excitement over the next trilogy. Lord of the Rings however, there's a trilogy I would go back to for more!

If you could buy from one manufacturer who would it be? 
That is a difficult one. If it were down to local games played, then it would have to be Privateer Press. If I only ever bought their minis, then I know I would be able to field them all in a game. If it is down to the aesthetics of the minis, then I would be really hard pressed to choose.

Favourite Take-away?
Fish and Chips. If only because I crave a good chipper. They have some of sorts here in Montreal, but they are not to be compared to a good British chippy.

Anyway, that's enough from me. I shall change how I am dealing with this slightly, in that, most of the wonderful blogs I read have already been nominated (it's the chain nature of the award I suppose), so I'm going to refrain from passing this one on as such, but I would like to take this time to showcase two blogs written by guys in my immediate gaming meta.

Wargaming Ninja Turtles.  Despite the copyright issues on the name, a great blog for reiews and battle reports. These guys have been ticking along for a while, but deserve new readership, so go check them out.

40K with Blackjack and Hookers. A relatively new blog, with far too few followers for the talent in show. Go look at the conversions on this site. They are less conversions and more just outright sculpting. Well worth a look.

Colore ton Monde June

The results from last month are here. Please let me know if you can see it, as it's now on Facebook, rather than blogger, and I don't know what the access is. There was no real theme for the month, and we were left free to paint whatever. I chose to do the Tod-truppen for my Thule Society for IHMN.

As has been posted on the Club Chaos Facebook page, the theme  for the month of June is as follows:

* Le temps des boîtes *
En juin, beaucoup de monde sont dans leur boîtes, se préparant à déménager. On emballe, on emboîte, on protège. Pour le mois de juin, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle "en boîte", que ce soit une armure lourde, une combinaison étanche, un transporteur de troupe, ou toute folle déclinaison que vous créerez.

*The Time for Boxes*

In June, lots of people are in their boxes, preparing to move house. We wrap, we box, we protect. For the month of June, we invite you to paint a "boxed" model, that could be in heavy armour, a diving suit, a troop carrier, or what ever other crazy variation you create.

I have a troop carrier for my Britannians sitting waiting to be painted, which takes care of that!  Sorted!

Finally, there are two other little things I would like to mention. First off, Ubique is running a wonderfully unique give-away on his blog, so for more details, click here. Obviously, it is not in my interest for you to enter, but I really do feel it's worth yours.
Secondly, I have rather generously been nominated for a Leibster Award by Ian, who had some very kind words to say about my blog, so I shall be posting my response to that shortly.

Peter Cushing: Wargamer

Yes, that's right, Peter Cushing, the man who portrayed all the greats, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, Van Helsing, Grand Moff Tarkin (on second thoughts, with that list of credits, his geekyness wasn't really hidden was it) was a wargamer. A player of H.G. Wells Little Wars no less. The proof? Why I have it right here!

I'm fully aware that this is not news to most of you, but British Pathe making available all their old film allows this little gem to come to light.

April Fools!

Happy First of April everyone. Did you get caught out? The local version of Virgin Radio and the Local Rock station (CHOM) switched frequencies on me this morning. It took me a little time to figure out when I turned the car radio on, but was fun and amusing. Especially when they turned back, then played a bunch of calls from people kindly phoning to tell them there was a problem.

The local radio stations are not the only ones running little gags, there are some wargaming related ones out there too.

Rather nifty tutorial on the Tale of Painters Blog, showing how to paint Frodo wearing the One Ring. Of course, you could also Proxy this as Bilbo wearing the One Ring, if you want to use it for Hobbit games too.

Clever but obviously April Fools post from Warlord Games, teaming up with Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine to produce a new Magazine, Warlord Soldiers and Strategy. A little gentle digging at the Wargames Illustrated/Battlefront team up too.

Privateer Press have tinkered with their site too, suggesting that their Gobbos have been having a go at the pics on the site. Usually PP are rahter imaginitice with their April Fools, but unless I'm missing something, this one seems rather flat.

There's also this post on Wargaming Tradecraft, less of an April Fools post, and more of a joke post. How to win more games through better cheating

Of course, the web is full of such little gags this morning, for a run down of some of the better ones out there this year, click here.

EDIT: The PP site has taken the boards off the images now, to show all the pics with Bodgers faces. The link to the story why is here.

EDIT II: The estimable Mr Awdry has a post detailing the new range of Rustled Cattle, and there's a lot of work gone into those images, and the box ! Good one Michael!

The Second World War in 7 Minutes

I'm not a huge fan of World War II gaming, but that doesn't preclude me, as a history enthusiast, from enjoying this little video. A great video, that shows, per day, how the borders of Europe changed during the war.

Taken from here. Thanks to Yaum for the heads up.

O'Leary's Giveaway

It's not often I do a post soley for the reason of pimping another blog, but this one seems to be a little ifferent. Over on her Blog, Anne O'Leary is doing what she calls a Double Triple Secret Give-away. Although, after all the pimpage that has passes on other blogs, I think the name cold be shortened to just Give away!

What is different however is this:

"This give away is being sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt. You can find Mr. Hatt's Amazon Writers Page at http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC."

Of course, I've put my hat in the ring, as there are some fun prizes up for grabs, and surely Ray can't win 'em all!

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

This one of of local interest, as it's the battle that decided the fate of the Province that I now live in. Today is the 254th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains Of Abraham, which happened on the 13th of Seoptember, 1759. An historic event indeed, in wich both leaders were mortally wounded during the battle.

So, to commemorate this battle, and the war of which it was part, I have a few of links of interest.

From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham, a virtual museum.

A Soldier's account of the Seven Years War.

Wolfe and Montcalm. A short film (1957).

A link to a previous post on my blog, which, amongst other links, has a Black Powder scenario for this exact battle. I have yet to dabble with the scenario myself.

The Canadian Military History website, with lots of nice colour images for use as inspiration for painters.

Colore Ton Monde, Septembre, la Rentré

Some great entries to August's challenge, and some new names entered too, which is great to see. Go on over to Club Chaos's blog to see them here. And of course, mine can be found here. Of course, the gamers behind the blog are based in Montreal, but that's not to say if you are not, you can't join in. Feel free, it's all for fun anyway!

Onwards to this month's challenge:

C'est la rentrée, les vacances sont terminées

Pour le mois de septembre, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle qui représente une des deux facettes suivantes de l'enseignement : l'autorité ou l'érudition. Un commandant, un tyrant, un sage, un libraire: ce ne sont que quelques exemples. À vous d'interpréter  le thème à votre façon.

Back to School, the holiday's are over

For the month of September, we invite you to paint a model that represents one of the following two aspects of education: the authority or scholarship. A commander, a tyrant, a sage, a bookseller: these are just a few examples. It's up to you to interpret the theme in your own way.

Hmmm... nothing comes directly to mind for that one. Maybe a mage? I have a reaper mini of a lady reading a book, one of Werner Kloche's fine minis, but I'm not really in the place painting wise to give her the respect she deserves. Thinking cap on for this I feel...

P.S., Ian over on the Blog with No Name is having a give away t o celebrate 500 posts, and his 2 year anniversary, so go on over and congratulate him.

Stewart Museum

There's a fort, just across the water from my house, that I have been meaning to go to for a long time. In fact, it has been a threatened Father's Day trip for the past 3 years. However, as the kids are a little too young, and would likely be really bored by it, it hasn't happened.

A few weeks ago, they did have free tickets for families, so we finally went along to see the place. There's not too much there, but I do plan to sneak over by myself one afternoon and really get a look around. There's plenty of inspiration for the historical wargamer and amateur historian to be picked up there.

Meanwhile, here's some pics of the trip to the Stewart Museum.

Map of the fort.

Some better pics can be found here.

RLS and Wargaming

Everyone and their dog who knows anything about wargaming these days knows that one of the fathers of the hobby, was H. G. Wells. His publication Little Wars is of course can still be picked up on Amazon in eBook format, for all to share and enjoy.

What I did not know, and I think I am not alone in this, but that I recently found out, was that famous author and Scotsman Robert Louis Stevenson, he of Treasure Island fame, was also a wargamer. True Story! As is evidenced by this article from Scribner's Magazine, published in December of 1898. True Victorian Wargaming.

I have yet to read the whole article, but I plan to do so this evening. I will however, leave you with this ode to our little men, as was printed at the end of the article. Yes, that's right, a poem by RLS about wargaming. What's more, it seems very little has changed since RLS's day, and he himself suffered from Shinybloodyitis!

A Martial Eligy for Some Lead Soldiers.

For certain soldiers lately dead,
Our reverent dirge shall here be said.
Them, when their martial leader called,
No dread preparative appalled;
But leaden-hearted, leaden-heeled,
I marked them steadfast in the field.
Death grimly sided with the foe,
And smote each leaden hero low.
Proudly they perished, one by one:
The dreaded pea-cannon's work was done!
O not for them the tears we shed,
Consigned to their congenial lead;
But while unmoved their sleep they take,
We mourn for their dear Captain's sake,
For their dear Captain, who shall smart,
Both in his pocket, and his heart,
Who saw his heros shed their gore,
And lacked a shilling to buy more!

 Cheers to Morgue for the link

Blog Pimping

There are a couple of blogs I would like to draw your attention to. First off, from of the Oldies group, who I spend my Tuesday evenings with. The blog goes by the imaginative title of 40K with Blackjack and Hookers. There are no real post yet, but go to the links down the side to see some of the wonderful conversions and greenstuff work this guy has done. I'm not a 40K player, but I am very impressed.

Blogging old-timer Big Lee's Miniature Blog has reached 1 squillion hits, and is therefore running a superb give away. As the custom goes, sharing increases the chances of winning, by adding to my times in the draw, but of course takes away from my chances by increasing the number of people who know about it! Still with 1million hits, I'm sure there's enough folks out there already who know about this blog that my little advert won't affect my chances to greatly to the negative! ;)

And finally, not wargaming related (at least not directly), but I direct your attention to this wonderful article written by a friend of mine (who is a gamer), I seem to have some wonderfully talented friends! Why we'll never quit Star Wars.

With the Night Mail, A Story of 2000AD

Not 2000AD, the comic, but a science fiction short story by Rudyard Kipling.

I downloaded a bunch of Rudyard Kipling novels, shorts and poetry after his story The Mark of the Beast was covered on the H.P.Podcraft literary podcast. I've been sifting through it slowly. I was familiar with Kipling, of course, due to The Jungle Book, and the associated Disney film, which was a favourite of mine as a kid, and i was aware of his colonial and military inspired fiction. What took me completely by surprise however, was this little trip into science fiction.

What's more, classic Victorian Sci-fi, complete with an alternative future and Zeppelins! It may not be rip-roaring adventure, but it's certainly worth a look.

For those looking for Victoriana, horror shorts, colonial military adventure and now, it seems sci-fi with zeppelins, and all for the grand price of $0, then you could do worse than heading over to your local amazon site and downloading Kipling's back-catalogue. He really was quite prolific!

Amazon.ca Kindle free eBook

Project Gutenberg eBook.

Text online, with Illustrations.


Whilst I'm posting about short stories, here's a link to a short story by published author, and good friend of mine, Michael Logan. Warlord of Aisle Nine.