Edinburgh Castle visit

I'm not sure if these pictures may be of interest, but I'll post them anyway.  

Recently a good friend and I went to Edinburgh Castle. She's a fan of Mary Queen of Scots and the visit was prompted by the recent film. 

We approached the castle from the north and went round the rock.  Here are views from below, so you can get an idea what it might have been like in years gone by if anyone wanted to attack.  

A quick view of St Margaret's Well. 

Now round to the north-west side of the rock. The mesh is there to stop any loose stones falling.

A little more to the west.  

And now to the south. Imagine in medieval times if some nobleman order an attack up here.

A quick picture of the Esplanade looking west towards the castle entrance.  

And a picture looking the opposite direction towards Arthur's Seat. 

 Some views from the battlements. First looking north across the river Forth to Fife. 

View to north-east. 

A view to the east from the northern battlements. Here is a rough idea of the northern slope. 

 And a view to the west. 

Inside the castle, this is the entrance to the war memorial.  

And finally a few pictures from the 'half-moon battery' on the north of the castle. I tried to get a couple of pictures of the line of sight.  

And a view of the moat as we left. 

I left out pictures of the royal palace and various rooms, but I hope some of these pictures were of interest to gamers and historians.  

Some club games

Some quick pictures of games played at the club recently. First Cruel Seas ( or Bolt Action in boats, if you want to call it what that!). Here I'm British, escorting a convoy moving from left to right. 

The enemy has hit one of my boats, but I can't remember now if the additional smoke was deliberate or due to enemy action. Then one merchant ship got sunk. 

But then the second merchant ship got rudder damage and turned to the right, heading for an enemy boat and an island.  

A game of Rebels and Patriots using AWI figures. This game is the latest in the Lion Rampant series, and was great fun.  If you haven't played these games, and you fancy a great skirmish game that's fun for all involved, then do give them a try.  To me, they're far better than other glossy and more convoluted skirmish game systems out there.    

The objective was to capture the wagon between the two hills, but for our club it's more a case of getting stuck in.  

At the end we captured the wagon, and thus bragging rights, but it didn't really matter as we had a great game. 

And a few random shots of a game of Maurice. Here the forces are 15mm Great Northern War. Maurice is a card driven game that we return to on a regular basis. Always a great game.

The views are all from my Russian side, though in here a couple of Swedish units are substituting for Russians. Above is the Russian right wing cavalry, below the centre advances. 

The Russian left of centre holds it's ground for now. 

But the Swedish centre starts to crumble. It seems on this night, the dice gods did not favour the Swedes. 

Another great game, and one that we hope to return to in a few weeks for a Seven Years War bash. 

games still going on

I realised I've not posted anything for ages, though games are going on at the club and I'm still waffling about from project to project. 

Here's some recent activity. I was working away at these dark ages figures, then a couple of things bubbled up.  

A project I revisit over the years is the forces at Quatre Bras in the 1815 campaign. I've fascinated by the battle for maybe 50 years or so, and a lot has to do with the different uniforms in such a small battle - British line, rifles, highlanders, Dutch Belgians in green and blue, French line and light, lancers and chasseurs.  

So I thought about clearing out lots of my figures and just focussing on Quatre Bras. !5mm / 18mm is the chosen scale this time (though 10mm is still bubbling under 😂). I was thinking about doing it all with AB miniatures and I got a batch which a friend picked up for me at Salute. 

But I've also had an interest in Campaign Game Miniatures (CGM) so I bought a batch.  And here, I must give a big positive shout for Dermot Quigley of CGM.  I ordered figures and two days later they arrived in Dunfermline from Barcelona. 

If only my painting was as fast as the delivery.  However, I got the figures mounted on bases and undercoated with my usual white, so we'll see how the painting goes. In the box are Dutch Belgian, French, British and French cavalry.  

And then, before much more gaming stuff happened, the guys at the club suggested playing the fantasy game, Warlords of Erehwon - though essentially it's just Bolt Action with swords. We played a game and I used my Perry Wars of the Roses figures as substitute elves, and it was OK. Them I bought some Mantic elves. 

I did my usual undercoat of white, put them on temporary bases and decided to 'paint' most of them with inks and washes. Here are the experiments with various greens, with the bottle placed behind the figure. Of them all I like the GW biel-'whatever name it has this year' green, but more so the Vallejo black green ink.  

Then I carried on and used every wash and ink I could lay my hands on. Not too bad overall, though I suspect the yellow chap will be redone in a different colour.   

I'm not sure if I'll carry on with elves. I'll finish these off, but they could end up on that well-known auction site. 

Then I got the chance to get these goblins, and had a great game with them.

And not forgetting these shield maidens I got a while back but which are still on sprues. Someday they'll get finished. 

And so the games go on …