Spring 2003

Made the first Panzer II to Wespe conversion. Bought a Revell German Artillery set to get the guns. This will also give me a spare trail and limber for the existing horse drawn guns. Found a side view of a Wespe on the 'net and did a scale reduction on the drawing board to get the dimensions for the gun compartment. Used thin card to build the gun compartment. Looks really nice. Need to finish painting it. Will get another Panzer II from Frontline for the other one.

The Aristia campaign season has now finished with a resounding win by the Carinthian forces. The allies sued for peace. The problem with this campaign is that the countries are geographically far apart which means that it takes a lot of map moving to get any battles. Secondly, the armies that I wanted to fight insist on being peaceful!! Because of this I am going to try running a "from the book" DBA campaign of the Norman conquest. Checked out the Fanaticus web site and found a version but I didn't like the map - a simple linked block map. Also it had Ireland as a participant for some unaccountable reason. Designed a new linked areas map as described in the rules. Vikings moved first and advanced to York (no problem with sea crossing). English army moved from Mercia to York in response. Battle of Stamford Bridge! The Saxons won, with the Vikings losing 4 4Bd elements. Very historical.

Half term holiday. David and I went to Essex Miniatures. He bought 6 crossbowmen to paint up as orcs. I bought the Rapid Fire Market Garden supplement, some Coat D'Arms paints, some AWI Hessians, some more WOTR men-at-arms and some sacks and barrels for the Western town. Also some grave stones with which I've made a "Boot Hill".

Worked out a shopping list from Frontline Wargaming. If I get everything on the list its just over £60! Hmm… will have to drop some of it then...

Set up an FMA game using the SF police background. The Cops have to stop the bad guys from escaping off the table. The multi level SF terrain can be a bit fiddly.

I'm currently working up Megablitz orbats from the RF supplement for Market Garden. I can fit the whole thing on two tables 60km by 40km.

Nugget arrived yesterday (Wednesday 26th Feb) with my 2 articles in it. John A. needs more stuff...