Stuff! In the Mail!

Stuff! In the mail!

Reading material for gamesturbation.

Merry Christmas to Myself

Saw a used copy of the Malcolm McGregor Uniforms & Weapons of the American Revolution Posterbook at the local bookstore. Bought it for myself.

New Reading Material

Well, more like reference material, though I have started reading through it from the start.

My book (per Captain Brown's recommendation on Warseer) arrived today. Condition on Amazon was advertised as "Very Good" but the book that arrived was in virtually new condition. The spine hasn't even been bent. Bonus!

I looked up the illustrator (Bob Pearson) because the name sounded familiar. Found his web page with a CD of color illustrations for sale. Might look into purchasing that at some point.

http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/CDv2/index.htm

I have also been following the blog (and referencing the web page) of W. I. Boucher.

http://wwiaviation.blogspot.com/
http://www.wwiaviation.com/

Winter is Coming

I finished "Achtung Schweinhund!" and enjoyed it quite a bit. The last few chapters seemed to be a bit judgmental about others in the hobby (and "related" hobbies), though I've got to admit my own biases.

I ordered "Quintus Sertorius and the Legacy of Sulla" by Philip Spann from the library, but even though it's just a transfer from the main library to my branch a few miles away, it appears to be taking forever. I was going to buy the book a while ago, but when I looked it up more recently on Amazon.com, the cheapest copy was $65.

At any rate, my wife just finished "A Game of Thrones," and recommended it. So within a short time I'm already about 1/3 through the book and have to admit it's a bit addicting already.

I realize I'm slow to come around to things, but that's just how it goes. I didn't start reading the Dark Tower series until the last one was out, and I'm like the anti-hipster of music -- I don't discover music until the bands have already come and gone.


And just because I'm still in "proud pappa" mode, a gratuitous baby pic of my Lady A.

Recent Reading

I've got a pile of books on my "to read" list, but wanted something a bit lightweight. So this morning I tore through the first 50 pages of Achtung Schweinehund! which I had purchased about a year ago after seeing many recommendations across various blogs and fora.

It is entertaining so far. I can relate in a general way, but as an American boy who grew up in the late 70's & early 80's, the experiences of an English boy who grew up in the 60's does fluctuate between the familiar and the alien. I'm still in the early chapters of comics, war movies and toy guns. I understand there's more about toy soldiers and wargames later on.


Part the reason I wanted something lighthearted was that I just finished The Odyssey.

Not that this was really heavyweight reading. It was just horribly tedious. I'm not entirely certain why I finished, other than curiosity and a desire to say I've read it. I know that must be some sort sacrilege, but it just wasn't what I would call enjoyable reading.

One Ring To...

Reading

I've started re-reading the Lord of the Rings. I had wanted to do so after all the movies were released, but there have been a lot of books I've wanted to read for the first time. So it hasn't happened til now.

Since the last time I read LotR, not only have the movies been released, but I've also read the Simirillion (twice!), Children of Hurin, and portions of the Unfinished Tales. So in addition to comparing the books to the films, I've also got a completely different perspective on the story.

Of course, now I want to do some Tolkien themed gaming. ;)



Painting

I'm continuing to paint. I've only had time to work on commission figures the past few weeks, since that's now what's paying most of the bills. Still, I'm not keeping up as well as I should. No pictures at the moment. Some of it is commercial work, some others have been photographed but not edited. Maybe in the next few days. It's been a bit hectic around the ZeroTwentythree homestead.



"Life Moves Pretty Fast..."

In the midst of all this, I'm still trying to make plans for the impending offspring, the holidays, and still sending out resumes. I thought that as soon as my wedding was past, my life would slow down to a reasonable pace again. Instead I find it has accelerated to record speeds.

It's a bit of a contradiction, but in a way I also think I do well when I'm busy. "The devil tempts some but an idle man tempts the devil." I just hope that I can reap some rewards for working hard and provide for my family. And get back to playing with my toys a little more. ;)

We do finally have our first WAB2.0 games coming up. I think we've even managed to scrape up four players (including myself)!

Reading

Still not much to mention in terms of painting or games.

I've done a bit more reading lately than I've had time for in a while.

I had picked up Tom Holland's Rubicon after reading some reviews and being a bit curious. I started reading it a short time ago, because I got sick of lugging around Peter Green's phone-book sized Alexander to Actium. I'm halfway through the latter, but since most of my reading time comes in small doses at lunch or any other time I can grab 20-30 minutes, the lack of portability has slowed me down.

Rubicon was (mostly) familiar territory for me (later Roman Republic) but I enjoyed the way in which he wrote so much that I ran out and picked up a copy of Persian Fire the day after I finished Rubicon. I'm much less familiar with the topic (early Achaemenid Persian Empire and their run-ins with the Greeks) and am enjoying it as much as the first book. I'm about half way through Persian Fire, and I'm already debating whether or not to give Millennium a try.

Of course (to relate this to wargames, somehow) in the midst of reading of Persians and Greeks, Immortal Miniatures has sent out a tasty looking email regarding their next few sets of plastic figures... Greeks and Persians, naturally.

History

Before I embarked on my (rocky) current career, I studied and received a degree in History. It was a gift to and indulgence for myself. Historical wargaming is a bit of an extension of that.

But the story starts long before that. Tonight was a little flashback for me...

If I had to try to name a start for my interest in history, there was a seed planed much earlier than college, and before the dark days of the repressive education of high school. When I was about 10 or 11, just before middle school, we had to do monthly book reports. Most of these were done on little pre-teen novellas or whatever. I don't honestly remember most of mine. But there is one that sticks out far more than the others.



Instead of choosing from the usual shelves of books that were set aside for our age group, I headed off into the general reading shelves of our school library and walked out with Rifles for Waite. In its simplest description (and for as much as I can recall almost 30 year later) it's the story of a 16 year old kid who gets pulled in to the American Civil War, and ends up experiencing life on both sides of the conflict.

Strangely, I stepped away from history after that, barring a minor, temporary obsession for the War of 1812 that comes from living on the shores of Lake Erie, and camping on "The Islands." We used to visit local sites like Perry's Monument, and Fort Niagra -- neither of which, in hindsight, are really that impressive.

While I was studying History at my hippy liberal arts university, I took quite a few film classes to fulfill some of my elective requirements. One of the most influential films (on me) that we saw was Clint Eastwood's (much more common) "Unforgiven."

Westerns, as I remembered them from childhood, were a shallow, stereotyped genre played on local UHF channels on Sunday afternoons. It was trash cinema and boring television serials. Unforgiven changed that, and I quickly ate up Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood films. Tonight I watched (again) "The Outlaw Jose Wales" on AMC.

At any rate, back from the babbling, Lone Waite, one of the (amusing) characters from Josey Wales reminded me of Stand Waite, the historical character from the book mentioned above, flooding my memories with bits and pieces of the (also) above mentioned book bearing his name.

Bringing this back to wargaming... I've done a bit of ACW gaming, mostly as a participant in others' games. But never really that seriously. I studied a lot of ante bellum history, and have generally been more interested in 18th century and earlier, both in my reading and my wargaming.

However... every once in a while... I get to thinking about ACW again...

Random Thoughts

This week I picked up two of the new GW washes, Black and Delvan Mud. I've heard a lot about them and thought I'd see for myself. I actually quite like them, though they're very thin. I will still use some stronger black washes of regular paint in some cases. I will most likely pick up a few more colors next week. I'm hoping to find a replacement for the now discontinued Flesh Wash. I may go back to using Coat d'Arms' Flesh Wash, which I preferred anyway. (The reason I quit using it was just lack of a local source.)


I'm currently reading Richard Vaughan's "John the Fearless," the second book in his series on the dukes of Burgundy. John's one of the reasons I'm considering the previously mentioned HYW era Burgundian WAB army. I like John. He's a ruthless S.O.B.


The Marauders tournament is fast approaching and I've barely started the figures I want to have done for it. Two half painted horses. That's it. I still need the riders and 25 swordsmen to assemble and paint. I'm just not motivated. But the weather seems like it will be crappy all weekend, so perhaps I will get something done.