More comebacks than Lazarus

Hello?

Anybody there?

Hmmm, I guess it has been a long time since I've been on here. 

But I know that some of you are still on the go as I saw the pic of the Bloggers Gathering at Salute last week.

Yes, it's been a long time since I last put something up on the Menagerie. As always that curse of all hobbies - real life - had a lot to do with that. Work - boo; 5 shows - which were good but take up so much time with rehearsals etc; and then I was ill for a while which fair knocked the stuffing out of me for a while (do I hear volins playing???). 

As a result gaming time has been much reduced over the last couple of years. Not that I haven't done any - it's not been that bad!!! - just not a lot for me to feel justified in boring the pants of you lot. I'm definitely not one of those people who blog just to let the world know what I had for breakfast that morning.

Still it has been a pretty lean time on the gaming front. 2014 was the first time for many years that I didn't get to any of the Wargame Shows in Scotland so that was a bit of a blow and the way things are going I'll not manage along to Carronade in Falkirk next weekend either.

However, all is not lost as I will be allowed to cross the Border at the end of May when Ruarok and I go to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham so we are both looking forward to that.

One major plus on the gaming front did happen during my absence from t'internet. Last year, did see me hit a significant birthday - yes 21 at last. Persistent readers of these ramblings may remember a very early post where I put a picture of where I did all my gaming (those of you who don't remember will find it here). Well to celebrate this significant birthday, Mrs Kingsleypark agreed that I could get something special. So inspired by Postie's Hut from Postie's Rejects fame and also remembering a post that Jim Duncan put up many moons ago here I ended up getting one of these .....

A 22ft x 12ft self contained wargames cabin, man cave, games room, hobby escape call it what you will - just don't call it a SHED!!!!

Inside I have enough space for all my toys, including a mezzaine level.

So plenty of storage space......

It took a couple of weeks for the cabin to go up and then about a week to get the floor varnished and the furniture moved in until it eventually looked like this

Plenty of room for a 8ft x 6ft table and with some shuffling about of the trellis legs and the boards I can also put up a 12ft x 4ft table as well

First game on the table? 

.

Yup, started down that slippery slope that is Commands & Colors, so much so that Ruarok and I are taking part in the C & C Ancients tournament at the Expo.

Ruarok about to make the critical move which once more condemned me to another hammering at C & C

Although, figure painting has been almost non-existant, the C & C rules have got me thinking of the possibility of using 6mm or 10mm on Hexxon terrain. It's only got as far as thinking about it mind you......

Not sure when the next post will go up on the Menagerie - I have show next week and then an EXAM!!! the following week (an academic exam that is not a medical examination) so not much scope for gaming over the next few weeks. As a last hurrah before this hiatus the guys came round the cabin on Wednesday past to play Star Wars X-Wing. 

It was my first time playing and was enjoyable enough but I can resist the temptations of Star Wars, never having been a big Star Wars fan. This on the other hand might be the ruin of me....

Speak to you soon!

Topic - "Silfor Grass Tufts are the most significant development in Miniature Wargaming since the D6" - discuss

Ok, that is a bold statement but I would be interested, Dear Reader, on hearing your views on these little beauties.

For those not in the know, Silfor Grass Tufts (made by a company called Mininatur) are little tufts of, for want of a better description, static grass that, with a little pva glue can be applied on to the base of your meticulously painted mini.

Ok, doesn't look like much in the pic but on that sheet of film are stuck hundreds of little tufts - these are 2mm "spring" tufts, normal pack. You pick them off with a pair of tweezers or peel them off and then apply with a bit of pva glue to your base.

I was first introduced to the tuft by Dave T. He had brought into the club some of the Mexican figures that he had painted up for the KWC display table for 2009. His bases were made from cork tiles onto which he had applied some filler, textured and painted and these little green tufts. When questioned further about the tufts he produced the box with this film covered in the tufts and proceeded to demonstrate their application. Hmm, I thought, interesting but then he told me the price of them and I then I thought - nope, too expensive - not for me, nothing wrong with good old static grass. But Dave persisted with them and by the time he had finished the all of the figures for the display table in addition to being beautifully painted, the bases looked really effective.

Some of Dave T's Mexicans for the KWC 2009 display table on the US- Mexican War of 1846-48.

So when we are at Claymore that year, one of the stalls was selling packs of the stuff, they come in different sizes and colours and in small and normal size packs, so I plumped for a small pack of the 2mm spring green tufts.

As I have said in an earlier post ("Brits Update"), I hate basing figures, but this stuff started to take some of the pain out of the process. No more slapping the pva glue onto the base trying to avoid getting it on your figure's feet and then dunking the base in the tub of static grass, trying to shake the excess off back into the tub, only to find small piles of the stuff covering your workbench, and then the figure moults grass thereafter until it becomes practically bare and you have to repeat the process all over again.

Now you just peel, dip and stick - sorted.

While everyone has their own preference and style for basing figures, gone are the days where you would simply cover your base in the static grass (or coloured sawdust as it was when I first started). A lot more "modelling" and texturing is done on bases now and I think the tufts really compliment these techniques.

My Gripping Beast Byzantine Skutatoi all tufted up.

Don't get me wrong, I still use the loose static grass - all my Blood Bowl figures have their bases covered in that, but then again that's because they like to play on grass pitches, not on artificial ones, but I am definitely sold on the tufts now, and they last for ages.

They can be had from various outlets - I see that  Army Painter has started their own range of them too.

So Dear Reader, I would be interested to hear your own thoughts and experiences on using the tufts, good, bad, indifferent and whether there are any other basing materials that you use and which you think make all the difference to your models, so please feel free to leave your comments here and let the debate commence!