Over the Hills and Far Away

So an update even if it is not much of a hobby one!

After my essay (I got a merit though, so all is good!) my brain was drained, and I struggled to concentrate on anything.  Also, I had a need to have a massive tidy up of my hobby stuff, where I couldn’t move to anything else until that was complete.  That is now complete, and I am starting to sieve through things that I will never use, and eBay is starting to fill up with them.

At last, my brain has been able to flip back to the project, and over the weekend I have managed to complete the Hanoverians, and a unit of French Line Infantry.  I have not put any nests on the Hanoverian Flank Companies, and unsure if I will at this point, maybe if I get to the point to paint them, I will do.  I am thinking I may also try and teach myself part of the rules with these two units as well in the meantime – rules for shooting, hand to hand maybe, and moving could be incorporated at least.

I have now got the bases, and movement trays I need (although I think the tray for the artillery is slightly out).  Next, I will try and get another couple of units together, and then try and teach myself more of the rules as I go along.

Today I spent way too much screen time looking at sixteenth and seventeenth century letters written by women!  The essay I am working on is to what extent can personal letters be classed as ‘private’ in the early modern period.  It is a slog, but really interesting.

So time for a change of pace – tonight’s reading material is seen below, along with Fridays paint along live from Napoleonic Wargaming YouTube channel (If you haven’t found it I highly recommend it!).  Will certainly help to defeat my head before I restart on the essay tomorrow.

Though that has come to mind is that with going with individual basing and movement trays, I need some movement trays that can be used when a unit forms square.  So I think I need to work through how many bases I actually have and need and movement trays I’m missing and get some ordered!

I knew I had made a start previous on the models in the box, but thought I would take a look at where I actually got up to, and by the look of things the Hanoverians were being to muster and take shape.  Models are based individually to allow easiness of line up the units to begin with without painting them, so that I can get the game on the go.  Hence the movement tray!

I had also bought a set of Perry Miniatures’ Hanoverian Field command in peaked forage caps, red coatees, advancing to give them their full title.  I think the code was BN13.  I do find that they are a little thinner, and the slightest bit shorter than the Warlord Games plastics.  I may purchase some Warlord Games Hanoverian command to flesh the unit out correctly and compare against the Perrys, but for now I think I just need to build the rest of the Warlord plastics to get the unit on the table. 

Hoping (if I can make some decent round on my latest essay that is due in just over a week) to get some time and the unit built in full over the Easter Weekend.

Firstly, I have flirted with games, and modes over many years, and have been heavily interested in planning out the army and the lore of the games.  I have bought models, and sold models unbuilt, and very rarely actually built them, and even rarely painted them.  Over numerous years, it has been ‘joked’ that I have lots of autistic traits, but recently this has gone a little further, and am now in the process of contemplating seeking a diagnosis, as we have talked about at home, and when trying to nail things down have decided it may go a little further than just having traits.  Why write this?  Well I think it kind of explains the loneliness of my hobby, as I do when thinking about it more deeply have issues surrounding anxieties with new environments and people, and may help to explain why I have never really gone further in creating an army for playing against people.

That does not though mean that I can not find my niche within the hobby, and do hope that any diagnosis, and thinking of things in a slightly different way, it maybe I am able to find strategies to overcome these anxieties and be able to expand my hobby further.

My ‘pile of opportunity’ is vast, and it has taken me a little to try and decide what to tackle first.

If I was alive in 1815, and been in Belgium, the Duchess of Richmond’s ball would not have been the only event taking place on 15^th June.  It would have been my birthday, and I would have been having one hell of a celebration, before marching off to take part in one of the most famous battles in history.  Waterloo!

I have decided that I am going to make the Waterloo Starter Set, for Black Powder, by Warlord Games as my Spring Clean Challenge.  Although, the project aim is to get myself set up and starting to play and learning the game.  It is more about trying to see myself gaining benefit instead of just looking at grey plastic on sprues.  So this first part of the project will probably not include any painting, although if some takes place that will be a bonus.  I am trying to keep this realistic, as that is sometimes, as excitement runs wild at new ideas.

Waffling done – thanks for visiting, and please check in for future updates.

*ps.  Sorry if there are too many commas, I know I use it too often.  My partner, actually calls me ‘confetti comma’ when she is proof reading my academic work.