David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Monday 5 December 2022

Book Sniffer Persuivant, 1st Class

Now that Sue and I are back from a few days R&R in Herefordshire it's back to the mundane hobby stuff as and when opportunity arises. But first, while we were away, I sniffed out two books on a visit to Hay-on-Wye. 

Firstly, a tome by the late Christopher Duffy on a SYW theme. I paid £5 for this, which I think is a good price. I hope to have a better grasp of SYW gaming as a result of reading this over the coming weeks ~

Secondly, an old Osprey Men at Arms on the Mexican-American War. Ever since I played in a large multi-player game at Dave's in North Carolina I've had a hankering to dabble in the period here in GHQ, I've just never found a range of figures that suit my style or enthuse me sufficiently to have a go. Who knows, I might yet ~
Now finally, and by way of a correction to an earlier post, I've decided to have a break from figure painting and am instead working on the first of my German rural buildings from Warbases, starting with the large barn. It's enormous, so it's a good job I chose the 20mm version as I think the 28mm one would dwarf troops on my tabletop battlefield here in GHQ! So far I've dry assembled the basic structure and must say the joints are super tight. More progress on it hopefully when my hand recovers a tad!!


16 comments:

  1. Duffy's book is superb, as frankly are all of his that I've read so far on the 18thC. Going a scale down on buildings works a treat for me, unless you are doign skirmish games at 1:1, which I no longer do.

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    1. I've read just the first chapter on characteristics, which was interesting, and assembled the first building, a German Barn.

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  2. Duffy's book is a classic and at a fiver a bargain. There are a number of solid MAW ranges out there. Pick your scale and style.

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    1. I'd need it to be 28mm and have only seen Old Glory or 1st Corps.

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  3. A fine bit of book sniffing there Mr. B. A good shift to the building front too.

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  4. I would have parted with that book for the postage, but a good find nevertheless. You look at home in that seat, must get to Hay at some point.

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  5. I would love to see a work in process on that barn you are building. Im currently building a few armies for black powder and Building scale is something I'm concerned about. Love the articles. Thank you for writing them.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words on my writing efforts, much appreciated. The barn is built now and appears to me just fine with 28mm figures. I'll build the farmhouse later in the week.

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  6. Two more nice looking books David…back to painting soon hopefully πŸ‘

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  7. Well sniffed out there Dave... a fine haul there by the look of it. looking forward to seeing the completed barn

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    1. Overall Hay-on-Wye was disappointing book wise. The barn is under the brush now.

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  8. I've always found trips to HoY a bit hit & miss. There's either loads of interesting stuff or nowt. Good job it's a nice run out. As for SYW tactics nothing beats lucky dice.

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    1. You are right of course. Got 4 good books on last visit, two this time. As to 'Lucky Dice' you should know...🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲

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