Best pop your glasses on!.

Hello all, i have managed to completely miss the fun and games of Orctober, many fellow bloggers have done a stirling job of feasting our collective eyes with some wonderful greenies ( see Philotep, Paul and Sceavus to name but three) i have managed to get some other stuff done in the month (lummie!!) since my last post.......but first......

                                                            SSSLLLLAYYYYEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   So what have i been up to that's not blogging when im all at 'ome an' that?. Well, i have finished my first two 2mm armies for my upcoming campaign, observe:

The majestic army of Royal Crivenshire!.

The reet 'ard Bastards of grimm old Tuttinghammeshire!.

  As was mentioned in a previous post i will be revisiting a former almost fleshed out setting of Olde Albilande to finally play out the

 stuff. However i have switched to a far smaller scale to allow for MASSIVE games (oooh theres irony) and to let me expand on the setting by making it more of a pike and shotte meets steampunk type effort that i envisioned when starting the project last time out but was unable to complete in the previous 1/72 scale i was using. I will be......errr...... nicking the format of the campaign from Peter over on his blog (don't worry i asked if it was ok), with the odd change here and there to allow for my general laziness. 

  Most (ok all) of the campaigns i have started have floundered after the first few battles so this one will give me a chance to try a different approach. I think most of the issue has been my lack of prep, relying on getting minis, narrative and terrain together as and when required which i think left me feeling too 'busy' to be bothered to continue, other projects would creep in seeming more simple and fun or just as a quick break which i never came back from. This time i will prep before hand meaning rules for the campaign and game mechanics need to be clear before i start, armies need to be ready before i get going (although some things will only be available later in the campaign so will be done later leaving me safe in the knowledge that the hard work is out the way). I have also got ahead with terrain having made a board for the games, rivers, roads, forests and hills to be getting on with (nothing special, just things that work well enough, i can do better quality bits and bobs later as and when feel like it):

This stuff 'ere.

 I will have to crack on with working on the changes I want to make to the background, namely some fleshing out and name changes and some such, no major changes but important enough to get done. I also have to get the campaign map finished (almost there) to get hostilities underway.

 While I get on with that here are some more photos of the finished bits. Most of the minis are from the irregular miniatures 2mm range with some kallistra 12mm scale stuff as giants and some dystopian wars tanks chucked in.

Tuttinghammeshire armour supports the advancing cavalry wing.

Wazzockshire Brute Hounds rush to counter the brave men of the elite Storm Badgers division.

A Crivenshire combined armour and cavalry strike force advance.

And heres a scale comparison shot to show off just how small these 2mm minis actually are:

From the left: 28mm Perry(ish) knight, 20mm A call to arms ecw bloke, 12mm Kallistra command stand, 2mm Irregular pike and shot block.

 They are bloody small but in most cases you can make out rather a lot of detail, individuals are clearly defined on the pike and shot pieces and crew for artillary are clearly there on the mini. They are also nice to paint, they require the 'paint the unit not the man' approach, you kind of paint in lines rather than picking out details, although i have been finding the standard base coat, wash, highlight method is worth doing to bring out the sense of depth on the minis. Its about the grand sweep of the game as a whole when dealing with 2mm, which is something i find very appealing. I will be cracking on with the background stuff and the map next then tackling the 3 other major forces for the campaign, although the idea is they may join either of the two shires covered here rather than working as another side so no immediate rush there.

 Also while im here (it could be another month knowing me!) i wanted to point you in the direction of this post by WargamingPastor over on his deathzap blog. What a brilliant idea and a great way to use up the odd few minis you always have floating around after finishing a project!. I may have to explore this in the future!.........

.......'till next time.....

The breaking point of a chocolate matchstick.

'Tis quirky lounge rock oddness we be after!

Last time out i was going on about a couple of projects i was trying not to get sucked into....well guess what.....

.......

2mm pike and shot bits.

 I tried to be good, i really did. But the thing is....i'm a wargamer, and we are known to be easy targets for new stuff of a hobby nature, As one notable philosopher once quipped 'its like curry to a pisshead'. its in the D.N.A. and thats a scientific fact ....so i am excused (i think!?!) So one order to irregular miniatures and i now have enough troops to bang out a couple of large armies worth!. 'But how did we get here Sprinks?' I hear you cry, 'You were just going on about a campaign based on a nations love of pastry based goods...and hitting each other, so why the change?'.  Well it was two things really....

First off, i was going back over some old posts and stumbled back across my 

Campaign (i mentioned this last time out but it is important so i m dredging it up again). I like the setting but dont fancy painting 6 forces in 20mm!. However, 2mm is perfect for the scale of game the campaign and setting is begging for!. The troops above are test pieces and i'm sure more will follow.

Also i have been inspired by Peter resuming his ECW campaign over on his pretty darn spiffing blog which has ...errrr.... inspired me to almost entirely steal the format for my own fantasy civil war (if its O.K. with peter of course!).

   So it looks like a map based land grabbing narrative type deal which should be really fun.

  But what about rules?. Maybe this:

or this:

or even this:

Nope, nope and nope, you know what my mind went back to when thinking about this project?:

Thats right, just look at the sheer scale of it:

Did i mention that i was intending on doing pike and shot with big steam tanks, war balloons and armoured giants stomping around the place, more akin to the above in style of game (i.e. all out gonzo 'my land leviathans bigger than yours' style) than the more historic based rulesets. I will be writing my own rules using the old Epic system as a starting point, probably not including multiple bases making up a detachment but more of a one base one element idea but there will be big stompy bits too!.

Stuff like this mayhaps?.

 So thats whats new in the wonderfully messed up world of Sprinksland, all that remains is to welcome Mr Maurice Micklewhite to this bubbling soup of the unhinged that is Wronghammer. Mr Micklewhite is the author of the rather great The mosquito on the tenth floor blog, as well as another blog you will want to check out, i wont be spoiling the surprise but its well worth a click and a  read. Welcome sir!.

...right, wheres my magnifying glass?....'till next time.....

The bi-hourly turning of the head

  Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But first......

Scuzzy!

 So, i have, or more accurately am supposed to have a campaign on the go in a new setting i am putting together, i have done a bit of background and this time I EVEN PAINTED 2 FORCES FOR F*CK SAKE!!. So with that in mind have a guess what my brain is doing to me, go on, its likely you have an active interest in gaming if you are reading this so you may well know the answer so go on, have a quick guess.

    If you answered 'why Sprinks, your mind is pondering how to get the best out of the project you are focused on, i imagine you have played a few games and has come up with more material to really bring it to life'.  You are wrong, hopelessly, hopelessly wrong. 

    If you answered 'NEW PROJECTS, LOTS OF NEW PROJECTS!!!!!!', you my friend are 100% bang on (sadly!).

My head has been turned by some very silly things, in fact my head has not been turned, its almost done the full 'Linda Blair'!

  Now i am aware this is not a new thing among us hobby types, many a blog contain stories of forgotten projects cast aside to make way for the latest new and shiny gubbins to come along. But the things attempting to lure me away with their frankly bloody odd siren song are not new or even very shiny. So to hopefully get them out of my brain i will splurge them on the page to hopefully exercise them for good!.

Odd project the 1st:

 I am a fantasy gaming type. You may have noticed this. However i like a 'low' level of fantasy. A bit of magic, maybe dueling tech levels but human centered and defo no bloody elves!. Im more Martin than Tolken if you will.........

But........

.......images like these have been nagging at me to do something in their spirit:

 Something a bit more balls out 80s metal style fantasy!, evolutionary impossible monsters, proper evil bastards up to proper evil stuff and furry pant wearing mentalists probably riding mechtigers or some such. And my brain has been telling me i have just about everything i need to do it in my 1/72 collection!. Thanks brain...thanks!.

Odd project the 2nd:

    Can you remember another prematurely aborted project i was doing last year?

This one.

 Well i have been thinking maybe 1/72 was the wrong scale to tackle it in if i am going to paint upwards of 6 factions for it. So, my brain is telling me maybe 6mm would work best. Which means that my brain is not considering 6mm for this, oh no, its going for this: scale! 

Picture taken from the irregular miniatures website.

  I think the project is begging for the sort of grand sweep of the smaller scale and the mass effect of a table full of these (plus large monsters, steam tanks and zombie hordes) would bring. A nationwide multiple sided civil war needs to be BIG and the best way to go that style of BIG is to 'zoom out' so the table gives a larger area, villages and towns on the same table, mighty rivers and rolling hills, sieges of whole cities.....er.....etc. The painting would be a challenge but thats o.k. and it could look really different compared to my normal bobbins!.

 Right thats my head emptied (my normal state!) so im going to get back to my current project completely distraction free........yeah right!.

.......'till next time....

A public shaming!.

Yep, you read the title correctly.......but first:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Before there was grunge.....there was Mudhoney!!!.


  Right on to the naming and ruddy shaming (rant upcoming!).

    My wife, the Amazing Mrs Sprinks was right, there i have said it!. Do i feel better.....well, sort of!. 'but what was she right about?' i hear you cry, well Mrs Sprinks has often been known to proclaim the mighty maxim 'DONT YOU HAVE ENOUGH LITTLE MEN BY NOW YOU WONDERFUL, BUFF, KINDHEARTED EXAMPLE OF A MAN?' (she may not use those words exactly). My normal response being to don the metaphorical smoking jacket and quip 'My dear, you simply cannot have too many of these wonderful little toys, for there is much to explore. Dont worry your pretty head about such things' for the record this response was never finished in its entirety and always ended in '.OWW!!'.

 But i have finally come to the realization that she may have a point!. I know, pick yourself up oh fellow hobbiest and gurdle your loins, this next bit may require the use of smelling salts to plough through!. I had decided to sell off a few bits and bobs i was never going to get on the table to fund the purchase of some more 12mm goodness and to that end i decided it would be a good idea to organize my collection of 1/72 plastics to see what was surplus. I skipped to the hobby area (where Mrs Sprinks keeps the 'little men' out of eyeshot of visitors!) with a roll of plastic sandwich bags in hand to quickly execute said task and then put my feet up. Two hours later i had maybe sorted a fifth of my bits and run out of bags!. With hindsight this should have sounded the alarm in my head that all was not well. Another roll of bags and three days later the plastic goodies are sorted into sets ready to decide whats staying. It looked like this!:

Millie the Wronghammer hound included for scale!.

  It was at this point i realized i may have a problem!.

 So, it is with head bowed i admit i am a hoarder of plastic with far more minis than i will ever use, its no wonder i can never stick to one project with all this nagging away at me for a go on the table!. So the first step to recovery they say is admitting you have a problem. Check. The next one is to get ruthless and sell off the stuff that is surplus.! Lummie, that may be a huge task!. So i will be chucking a few batches of stuff on the 'bay to shift it in the next few weeks, looking to keep only what i will actually use in projects (and what i can realistically paint in one lifetime!). However there are two things i will do first. First, dear readers of this bobbins, is to show the bits for sale here first for you guys before they hit ebay. You guys put up with my cruddy blabbings so its only right you get first dibs (although i may be simply enabling some of you!). If you fancy any of it leave a comment and i will get back to you. Twhit:

Caesar Libyan Warriors

Zvezda Persians

Zvezda Austrian Pikes and muskets one full set on sprue and some odd bits.

Dark Dream Studio Landsknechts

Red box 16th cent Italians

Revell Normans

A f**ktonne of Mini Art Medievals. (my legs not included!)

Red box and Orion Turkish troops.

  The second thing is to say that if in the time you have been reading this blog you have seen any bits you think you would like feel free to leave a comment and i will see what can be done.

.......'till next time......

Quite the find!

Things have taken quite an amazing turn here at Chez Sprinks and have honestly got me bouncing around the place (more than normal) with pure excitement!!. Before i get into whats causing all the glee i suppose i should do:

                                                    So thats what an estimated 1.6 million strong crowd looks like!!!.


   Now on to the good stuff!. As some of you may remember aside from mucking about the gaff with toy soldiers i also do a spot of delving into this nations fictional history, particularly the forgotten battles of the period between 1010 and 1604 that had not actually taken place and the lives of those fabricated protagonists that, errr.... protaginized them. As a member of the non accredited fictional historian club and a keen delver into the non historical i could not believe my luck when i was contacted by a dear friend and fellow histspurian  the esteemed Cedric Hamilton-Kidway (yes, the man that lifted the lid on the wool makers rebellion and the resulting 1801 sacking of Gilford no less!) who said he was sending me some newly unearthed materials dating from 1454 that had been found in Spilfington Abby on the non existent isle of Epplidge!. Now i am sure you dear reader are asking the same question i was, were these in fact the missing accounts of the so called 'Epplidge unrest', a period in nonhistory that has eluded the delvers of the mists of not time for so long?.  Well it is with great excitement i can reveal to you all that yes, they are an almost complete set of writings of the time by one Jude, a priest of the Abby who was tasked with recording the annals of the war of 1454!. The writings are very detailed giving a good idea from a non source of the whos, wheres and whens events did not occur!. I have looked through the writings in fine detail and have  had them non varified  by some of the best in the non historical community and it is my pleasure to announce to you all it has been agreed that i, with the aid of the Wronghammer plastic re-enactment  society (Wincanton mini metal chapter), can serialize the events of the 'unrest' on these pages with an aim to publishing the collected materials in book form when complete!.

 So to begin i thought i would look into the wider picture that led up to the events of 1454 as not detailed by the good Jude, a Priest. His first entry in the annals is as follows:

   'Dear diariee, 
it has beene a difficulte day here upon thee Abby, a fowle did crapee upon ones cassock  this morn when the collecting of egges was being completed, causing myselfe to steppe southwards onto a discarded rake, said implemente did swing upwards in comedic fashion and twatte ye goode Friar Bullridge betwixt yonder eyes, killing him upon the instant. The Abbot wase muchly pissed offe at such a happenstance and dothe punish myselfe fore my mishappe by forcing me to travele hither ande twine upone this goode isle to regarde ande recorde upone the unrestte emerging betwixt the goode Lordes of the mighty houses of this fair isle reguarding the publicatione of a booke containing much elicit and unsettling materials. Thee goode Abbot assures me the path aheade wille be thwart withe dangers moste real and that i am to be unswerving in my hunte fore only the truthe as it reveals itself, even to deathe most unpleasent if required. He seemed most animated on this point i doth think he dislikes me.
I hate being a priest.

This first entry in the annals gives some small clues into the reason for the friction that would not develop later in the year. The mention of a book gives a clear indication that it was not just a simple border dispute or tit for tat raid or two. This mystery text opened up a can of worms indeed, what book could cause such large scale conflict on such a semi peaceful isle such as Epplidge?. After a ruddy good delve two texts emerged as front runners, namely 'House Stones are a bunch of girly, girly swots' by famed academic Sir Norbet Collicton and 'I wish all of house T'head would die in an imaginative and painful way such as a barn fire or some such' by Mr Bitton Farrage. Both seemed fairly insulting to the Two most powerful houses on the isle and were written by members of the other house. I discussed this at length with respected members of the non history community but opinion was split. I then stumbled upon a line of text scrawled on the back of a loose leaf of writing paper wedged between the writings given to me by Hamilton-Kidway. It simply said:

DAMNE YE MRS ENTWHISTLE!'

  This was indeed a turn up. Delving into the name Mrs Entwhistle soon revealed the spark that started the trouble!. As any expert on 15th century Epplidge knows Mrs Entwistle was an author and proto-domestic godess of the time, sort of a fore runner to Mrs Beeton, Fanny Craddock, Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver. Looking into her published works (of which there are over 300!) i finally managed to pin down a likely source of the issue:

    To give this some context i must fill in some culinary nothistory. The above text refers to the most revered of British snack foods, the humble pasty. It is often wrongly believed that this dish was invented in Cornwall, this however is not the case. Its true origin goes back to 10th century Epplidge.

Further to this, its true make up is a much disputed issue that can inflame passions like no other!. The Eastern Houses claim the Pasty was invented in the town of Cluntingham. In the west they are convinced it came from Ruckingham. Further to this the pasties produced in the East of the isle are still produced in the image of the original (as the locals see it), sealing the pastry with the method known as the Cluntingham Crimp:

 The Cluntingham Crimp

  However in the rest of the isle they only ever seal the pastry along the top edge using a method known as the Ruckingham Ridgeback:

The Ruckingham Ridgeback.

 Oh and a small section swear by the Falligthorpe flatty but they are regarded to be a load of wrong 'uns by all!

move along!.....

  This may seem like an innocent passage to the modern reader but to a man of Epplidge it is either a true validation of fact from the greatest source of the period or a kick in the pastry based nethers and no mistake!.  A further passage from Jude, a Priest seems to agree:

 Dear Diaryeee,

    It has alle gone and hitte ye yonder fanne!, Mrs Entwhistle has refused to have the offending passage removed from her lateste tome and has gonne as far as stating 'you Westerners are a laode of cattle leavings withe eyes thate are too close together and eye brows that do not rightly part betwixt a meeting!, come and have a goe if ye believes ye to be hard enough!'. House T'Head have called thier banners in the west and demanded her head, Lorde Maurice of thee house has demanded it by the nexte moone moste full!. Lord Roland of House Stones has said he speekes for the easte and house T'Head can 'shove it youner!'. Oh lummy diaree, i hate being a priest!. 

  So i am sure you will agree this is quite the exciting turn up!. Next time out i will delve into the first clash of the wars, the battle of Nippletons Knowle, Also i have had a mock up of the potental book cover back from the work experience lad at the printers:

Im not sure he got the grasp of old english!?.

.....'till next time

Of polystyrene, paint and singing chickens.

  I have done a fort and some paintings and other bollocks while i have not been blogging, but first.....

 a spot of experimental 'Murder rock' anyone?.

  Its been almost 3 weeks since my last episode of bloggery, but rest assured i have not been idle...but to be fair now i review my output its not really much to show for three bloody weeks!. Ho hum an' all that. Anyway first off the latest bunch of paint splattered bits of metal stuck to strips of plastic:

    Some 'orse and a unit of crossbows for the second force for my 12mm medieval armies, minis as ever by the fantastic kallistra. The force is coming together nicely, just a unit of knights to go and it will be done. Also i have looked at some of the minis i have painted for the other force, particularly the Ogres that i had completed before i discovered a way to adapt the cheep craft paints i have been using. As stated in a previous post the finish on these minis is grainy and a bit crap (not least because of my slapdash paintwork!) so i decided to redo the forces Ogres with the newly mixed paints. I say redo, its more a case of consolidating the 4 Ogres in to one larger, more 'manageable' Ogre:

 Ogre at rest, or a 28mm G.W. lotr orc depending on your perspective.

 The new Ogre vs the old ones, you can see the difference in finish.

Ogre vs Giant, i rather like the idea of Ogres being corrupted giants of a sort, also allows for them to be the same scale and for their bases to be uniform.

  As well as the painting we have had to replace our fridge here at chez Sprinks (cue 'fridge running' joke), and a good amount of polystyrene was included with it. With said waste material just laying around and a craft knife in hand your 'intrepid' blogger decided it could be more than just rubbish and set to work hacking out pleasing chunks of the stuff (and covering an area of about 2 miles in small static balls). After a coat of paint and a few passes with the dry brush i had the following:

 One knackered old fort.

 dragons eye view.

 Plenty of room for the 12mm troops on the walls.

'Its our turn now, you've 'ad it for ages!!'.

  I have gone for an unloved look mainly because polystyrene is a bugger to cut neatly but also because i thought it was funny to have a kingdom where the local lords deny all claims of ownership of these buildings and the heavy taxation and cost of upkeep that come with them during peaceful times but at the slightest hint of trouble send troops to claim them, slap on a gate and say they were there all along!.

 An example of the run down look  (otherwise known as 'a bit where the knife slipped'). 

 I also made some extra walls and damaged bits from the hacked up ends and leftovers  so i can make....

.......BREACHES!!!!!.

   The above should be going towards the almost ready to go setting and pastry based campaign taking up too much space in my already ragged noggin that is currently called

 Hopefully i will be detailing the ideas and background that will go into this whole silly undertaking next time out, but until then here is something that almost made Radio Wronghammer this time out:

.......'till next time......