Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Friday 27 September 2013

ECW - New Group Photo

Current state of the armies - the King's men on the left
An early task after arriving home from foreign parts was to base (and issue flags to) my new ECW units of horse, recently received back from Lee. These new units have already appeared in much higher quality photos on Lee's own blog, so I opted to work them into some general photos of the current state of my armies.

Bearing in mind that I only bought the first figures in March of last year, and the first painted units didn't start to appear until late in the Summer of 2012, I am delighted with progress. Anything less typical of my usual level of effectiveness is hard to imagine. Much credit, and thanks, must go to Lee, David Young, Martin Amon, Clive, Old John and a few more for guidance and painting and everything else. Thank you, gentlemen.



Royalist horse - Tyldesley's regiment at the front

Parlies - Bethell's and the Derbyshire Horse


More Parliamentarians - Wm Fairfax's boys in the foreground

More Royalists - Northern Horse and Prince Rupert's
I must be back home in Blighty - things are crazy again this morning. My email no longer works, because of improvements to the service, but I am assured by the nice man in India that they are working on it and it should be better by the weekend. Right. That's good then.

Before the email packed in, I got a message from my pal Bernard, the idiot robot, from his night-time job at Amazon, to tell me that the Kindle Fire I bought for my wife's birthday last week is now £30 cheaper than it was last week. Thanks, Bernard.

Final thought - while I was passing through Amsterdam duty-free I saw a demonstration of a new Cube 3D Printer. Holy Smoke. If you haven't read up on 3D printing I recommend you have a look. This one copies a solid object in a plastic material - maximum size a 5.5inch cube. Goodness knows what the cartridges cost, but the machine retails at 1449 euros. I think that, like hybrid cars, they will get much cheaper and much better - this is not the time to buy one - but the potential is mind blowing. I'm keeping an eye open for developments. Miniature soldiers? - absolutely.

6 comments:

  1. Nice work Tony (and Lee!).

    Might just print off an ECW army of my own in a year or so...

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    1. Thank you, sir. Printed armies must be coming soon. At present the fluorescent pink and lime green modelling media are a bit outlandish, but it will come. I fear the copyright laws will be more of an obstacle than the technology - whether 3D laser scanners will make it into the home is a moot point.

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  2. Having mastered my jealousy over the Danube trip, I'm now confronted with two pretty substantial ECW armies. Hmmmm. must apply myself!

    Lovely armies. They really do remind me of my first ECW foray, but much, much better painted.

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    1. There are those who might suggest that the armies and the trip are both proof of my not having anything worthwhile to do...

      Don't you believe it. I spent so many years doing things that were worthwhile (though I have some trouble remembering what they might have been) that I am relaxed about it all. I am hoping to go off on a further short trip in November - this one to Chester. The food is less exotic, but the language is less of a problem.

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  3. An impressive muster. I look forward to seeing them take to the field again.

    As for 3d printing for miniatures - up until recently Mongoose publishing were offering 3d printer files of ships for Victory at Sea (Second World War Naval) for sale on their website. I just checked now and they seem to be gone, presumably because selling resin versions is more profitable.

    This might also be relevant - though it's a tad alarmist.

    http://www.tested.com/art/makers/452866-how-home-3d-printers-are-disrupting-miniature-gaming/

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    1. Interesting article. Also a welcome opportunity to read a contributor's view on what the worst thing ever was - always a good idea to get things back into perspective. It's always a privilege to get the insider view from someone who knows everything - there's not that many around, and they are all under 16.

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