♫ It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...♫

Yes, it's "hammering down outside!" as we say round here!  Been raining all day, and looks like it'll be raining all afternoon and evening, as well.

So, what does a wargamer do in the rain?  Well, sort out his his hobby room, that's what!

What!!!  Why not paint a few soldiers?  Or set up & play a small skirmish game?  Well, the reason why not, is simple... My hobby room is now *so* full of (family) junk - boxes of my dear old mum's photos, when we had to move her out of her Assisted Living flat into a proper Car Home; our family photos, and boxes of paperback books, which I read years ago, but can't bear to part with!  And so-on, and so-on...

So "spring cleaning" it has to be, then.  And *then* I can - perhaps - have sufficient space to erect my small gaming table and set up a dinky-little skirmish game.

Question? When *was* the last time I set up, and played, a wargame? ... ... Oh, only about ten or more years ago, that's all (!!!)  And even that was only the second or third game I'd ever set up on the dining room table.  After that last game - and the succeeding ones - the missus had complained *so* much about the "mess on the table" and "not that silly wargames stuff again!" that I lost heart, and hence my hobby room started to get used by anyone wanting to store other junk...  Till now!  The fight-back has already started - this week - and now I'm going to stop typing and start sorting out my hobby room for the rest of the afternoon.

My new Blog is up!

My new wargames blog, called "Squibzy's Solo Wargames - a wargaming miscellany" is up and running... well... it's got two posts on it.

Actually, I'm so pleased I decided *not* to go public with it, yet, because I'm finding it a BIG learning curve, making this new blog "relevant" to the world-wide wargaming community which it will finally be aimed at!  I mean, uploading photos and adding captions is a pain!

For instance, I wanted the first photos I uploaded to be left-aligned, and my captions to the right... can I do that???  Can I 'eck-as-like!  So I've got a *lot* of learning to do before I get this new blog right enough to go "public".

Hey-ho...

Intentions, objective, and purpose ... Will it be accomplished this time?

Intentions, objective, and purpose ... Will it be accomplished this time?

Intention: to paint-up my "lead mountain" (see footnote) of wargames figures - especially my 28mm Darkest Africa characters, natives, and Colonial British Forces figures for my African campaign - within this next six months.  During the same period, construct the model buildings, scenery and terrain for these.

Objective: to finally get the campaign underway, albeit over ten years since I imagined it!

Other objectives are to get my Second World War, French Resistance, 20mm game finished writing-up, and then play-tested, before submitting it for publication to the Solo Wargames Association magazine, "Lone Warrior".  Also to finish the 15mm Pirate ships - Galleons and Brigs - ready for wargaming with my collection of 15mm 18th Century Pirates later this year.

Purpose: all this is so that I can begin writing a new blog, specifically to showcase my wargames figures during their 'campaigns', or one-off battles; together with photographs taken of the game, with an accompanying narrative, like a picture book story, which, hopefully, will emulate my "role model" blog, "The Campaigns of General Pettygree" - see < http://generalpettygree.blogspot.co.uk/ > - that has fascinated and inspired me for several years, now.

So, those are my Springtime Resolutions on this, the 1st May 2013 ... and I just hope that, after nearly two years of retirement from work, during which I've longed to get back to my wargaming, I'll finally get to paint my "lead mountain" of wargames figures and actually get some solo wargames played!  It's about time!

Footnote: Historically, toy soldiers were made of lead, hence all metal wargames figures are referred to 'lead' soldiers.  So wargamers call a collection of many (i.e. hundreds!) of unpainted, metal, wargames figures a "lead mountain" because if they were all piled up together they'd look like a 'mountain'!  And Richard has got several hundred unpainted figures!