Doncaster 2017

The Wings of Glory Aerodrome annual gathering took place at the Doncaster Air Museum this last weekend. I wasn't able to make the whole thing but I did get to be there for the "Ace of Aces" megadogfight on the Sunday.

Some of you may remember that when we ran the first of these events a few years back I was struck down with the lurgy - which I then inadvertently spread to many of the attendees, and that the following year I was also poorly (it seems i'm quite susceptible to colds and chest infections in the mid-September period!). Anyway, this year was similar in that I was recovering from a bout that stopped me making it to the Colours show at Newbury (well done Simon and Stuart for switching games), but family duties meant I had to be in Manchester that night and it was only an hour or so's drive across the (misty and foggy) Peak District.

My arrival was a (hopefully pleasant) surprise to many, and Tim (aka "Flying Helmut" on the Aerodrome) must have been especially pleased as it allowed him to prep his chums and give me the following welcome as we prepared for the game :D

To say I was chuffed is an understatement!

Anyway, the game was a couple of hours of "Wings" mayhem and for once I shot down more aircraft than I lost myself (4-3, although it should have been 5-3 but I was a victim of someone's dodgy maths) which learnt me a 9th place out of 30-odd players and a prize of a Barraca Nieuport 17 which was a welcome addition to my collection.

An excellent weekend, lovely as always to catch up with many old friends, an opportunity to make some new ones (and have a good old natter about mt FLoB and Action Stations rules), and made very special by having the opportunity to meet and chat with Andrea Angiolino, who as anyone who has ever met him knows is a thoroughly nice chap!

Looking forward to next year, and hoping I can make the whole weekend.

First Models of 2017

As the daylight wanes here at Cambridge HQ the first models of 2017 have been completed. To be fair these should have been the last models of 2016 but I ran out of time :)

The biggest is a renovation of the Skytrex Felixstowe that I completed some years ago. Alas time hd taken its toll on this model, several of the struts were dropping out and it was obvious that a rebuild was necessary. But I also had a spare Shapeways Felixstowe from when I was sent a damaged print a couple of years back, so I decided to cut out the central section of the Shapeways model and graft the wings and upper fuselage on to the Skytrex model in place of its original wings. All went well and the result was, I think, a success.

Of course now I had the nose and tail of a Felixstowe going spare, so I decided to make a vignette of a crashed aircraft, with thoughts to use this as the "objective" in a Wings of Glory rescue scenario. I may put some more work into this piece to add further details later but for now I'm happy with the result

The other four models left to finish were a pair of Spad XIVs and a pair of FBA Type Hs, all seaplanes to add to my burgeoning seaplane/flying boat collection. Lovely models, especially the FBAs, and I hope I did them justice. Still a bit of work to do on the Spads as I have mislaid my stock of aircrew figures.

So, 2017 off to a flying (ha!) start

WMMS 2016

Today I headed to the midlands for the WMMS show in Wolverhampton. It is a jolly, friendly show made notable for the annual sounding of the fire alarm and everyone trooping into the car park. At least this year it was sunny and warm out there, and the alarm was cleared in double quick time :)

As usual I was helping out with the "Wings of Glory Aerodrome" participation game, which also had an added "Sails of Glory" table. As is often the case a slow start, but once us gamesrunners start to play the punters come out of the woodwork and we played several very active games of each. Good fun as usual.

I had a short(ish) shopping list and came away with a small pile of goodies, including a copy of "Bloody Big Battles", a stash of Zvezda german and Russian trucks and some Peter Pig kubelwagens and infantry to round out my Eastern Front "Skirmish in the Snow" setup (of which more in future posts). I also made a purchase at the Bring and Buy which brought back memories from 30 years ago :)

It was also good to catch up with some old friends, especially Steve Blease who I haven't seen for ages - good news from him on the growth of Hysterical Games and some other things which the world may hear of one day :)

There were some lovely games on display this year, and also some nice kit from the local WW2 re-enactors (this year their 37mm anti tank gun tripping hazard was replaced with a rather nice motorbike on a trailer)

Reveille 2015

I spent the day at the Reveille show at Lincombe Barn in Bristol with the Wings of Glory Aerodrome participation game. Great fun as usual and I actually managed to shoot down more aircraft than I lost this time (5 kills, killed once, so much better than usual!)

As in previous years it was just as much about catching up with old friends as playing the games. I passed on some good ideas to a chum who coincidentally is planning exactly the same mini campaign as I am (Java Sea, 1942) so we swapped notes, I got some wicked ideas for a more combative version of "Thunder Boats" and I chatted professional wargaming with John Curry. I also was reminded how good children are at extorting money from adults as the raffle "brute squad" ruffed us up for tickets :)

I was aiming not to go shopping but a few odd items caught my eye. A 37mm M6 Gun Motor Carriage for the USMC offshoot of my 20mm "Burma Skirmish", a set of four Airfix 1/600 destroyers for a quid each and - the prize of the day - a copy of the original Battlelines edition of "Wooden Ships and Iron Men", which I have never seen before.

There were some lovely games there as well, a few photos below for your enjoyment. Looking forward to next year!

Warfare 2014

This weekend I made my annual trip to Reading for Warfare, one of my favourite shows in the UK wargaming calendar. As in recent years I was there with the Wings of Glory aerodrome helping to run the participation game. Great fun as always, we had two tables running with action packed games played throughout the day. I understand that traders selling Wings of Glory models, and KR (with their multicases designed to accommodate 1/144 WW1 aircraft) enjoyed a high number of sales as a result of our games :)

One of the reasons I enjoy Warfare is that so many of my wargaming friends from around the UK attend the show. So a good half of my time there was spent in deep conversation with them, and  a number of new projects discussed and potentially in the pipeline.....

Shopping is obviously on the agenda. But for once I was fairly restrained. A small bag of 15mm stuff from GZG, a couple of sets of "Tombstone" 28/32mm westrn gunfight figures, various 15mm bits and bobs from Peter Pig, and some 20mm Airfix Gurkhas and Aussies for my WW2 Burma Skirmish setup.

Oh, and something else on which I will be writing later in the week.....

 Anyway, as usual a rather nice selection of games, although not many that "wow"d me this time. Still, they were very nicely presented and quite a few of the players were happy to stop and chat.