Sprinkles Boutique is go!.

Just a very quick update to point you fine people in the direction of my new Stuff I don't need anymore page . Feel free to have a gander, as stated on the page its not about trying to make a ton of cash but to move on minis i have always told myself i will find a use for but never have that others will actually use.

Also i had a fun few hours playing a game set up and run by Sprinkling three: the Revenge!. He used all his own minis and came up with the rules himself. It was loads of fun and very encouraging to see him getting so stuck in to it!. Heres the only photo i remembered to take:

 Anyway, thats it for now.....



....'till next time...

Well thats just ruddy spivving!!

  Hello all, just a quickie to let you know i have listed some more stuff on ebay, so if you are looking for a project to keep your self busy over this period of ...errr....oddness why not have a punt?. But before i show the lots its time for....

I,ve been on a bit of a 90's noise binge of late....

 You can find the following lots here on my ebay page (of  doom), please peruse at your convenience.

 30 Years war 1:72 Swedish cavalry. Most are Revell but i think the odd one or two may be Mars knock offs as i brought them in a job lot.

 Some Zvesda and Imex 1:72 Vikings.

 HaT 1:72 Gallic warriors.

A random mix of HaT 1:72 el Cid bits, some converted for fantasy gaming.

 I also have some Dark Alliance and Caesar fantasy stuff i could be persuaded to part with if you ask nicely.

 While i am in full on spiv mode i thought i would point you in the direction of the fantastic Silver Rain art studios facebook Art work page, its run by the Amazing Mrs Sprinks as a showcase for her work, much of which is for sale (commission work has been mentioned), Stuff like this:

Pop over for a browse and drop her a like or two if you are so compelled.

......'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......

Baby steps to a brighter tomorrow!!!

 Just a quick update to let you know what i have been busying my child like brain with when im not babbling on here. There have been several Y.E.P (Yay, Evidence of Progress) moments over the past week:

 Y.E.P #1:  I have been thinking about my new fast play pike and shotteeee(ish) system and have made some progress in putting the rules together. The test games have been positive and i have gone down the 'simple is always better than 10000000000 rules to simulate the same thing' route which is going well, but i am attempting to leave enough 'meat' on the bone of rule (which is not a thing i know before anyone starts :-)) to add character to the troops and shires without loosing the core of 'good tactics over spammy list gaming*....god i hate spammy list gaming!).

Y.E.P#2: I have almost finished basing up my first shire force:

A little pic of the Fossestershire force as it stands, i had to do them first as i already had the troops to do the curmudgeonly old bastards (they are stuck in the past so i had a good excuse to use up some medieval bits for the militia troops). Mr Philotep made the suggestion of using flags which got the ol' brain (such as it is) ticking over. Paint was a no go considering how small the flags would be and an experiment with sharpies left rather a lot to be desired!. So in the end i went with the old standby of tape. The flags are strictly table top standard but they work ok for what i'm after.

Y.E.P#3: The recent ebay haul has payed for the following:

 A big thank you to all who had a cheeky bid on my sales page (more delightful bargins finishing Monday if your interested) and Mr Otep who relieved me of a large quantity of El Cid goodness (thank you sir!). This gives me all of the basic troops i have been needing to sort out the Shires (and a few other bits too).

 So, all good at the mo, onwards to basing Crivenshire methinks!.

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




* Spammy gaming: Pouring over army lists looking for rules loopholes and combinations of troop types that will give any advantage in a game with no regard for game balance, your opponents fun or the tone and flavor of the force you are picking.

Dragging Olde Albilande into the future!!

 I mentioned in an earlier post that i was going to move the setting i'm working on into a kind of mock 17th century setting. This has given me plenty to ponder over the last few weeks, some things i am set on:

     - The mappe will not change.
     - The campaign will continue as if nothing has changed, all events will still have happened!.
     - The protagonists will remain, no shire will be harmed by the process of change (well                            Fossestershire wont bloody like it)!.

   What i have been mostly thinking about is how the shires armies will look in the field. Now as a part of the same (until recently) united nation it is fair to say the shires forces would have been part of a royal army and therefore fit the pattern (more or less) decided on by the powers that be acting on behalf of the crown. This says to me that the basic troop types for each force will be almost (but maybe not quite) the same.
As its the (not) 17th century the main troops will be pike or musket armed soldiers. In olde Albilande the royal generals have spent time 'encouraging' each shire to raise a trained professional core of these troops to be called on if and when. These will be the spine of a field army (known as 'regulars'). Along side these troops various unpaid militia regiments exist, which will be organized and sponsored by the local lord or merchants in some capacity and the quality of their training and equipment will depend on their sponsors generosity. Some of these groups sport armour with the sponsors logo on or that have had their naming rights bought and paid for by merchants in order to ensure a fresh supply of lead shot!. It is therefore not uncommon to see regiments like The Olde undercrackers scrumpy irregulars or the Nightingales night soil removal experts musketeers for example!.

The march of the much feared 'fwffwykinnes reusable nappiee system irregular company'!!.

Some mini ideas would be:

Red Box Landsknechts with heavy pike.

And their Spanish pike and bills

Revells amazing 30 years war troops

A call to arms great ECW range

Anything but Mars 30 years war range really:

God, please....

.....make....it.....

....stop!!!

(all pictures taken from Plastic soldier review, which is great!)

  The upper class still put their faith in polished plate and a powerful warhorse betwixt their legs!. The nobles still clad themselves in a full suit of armour and ride as heavy cavalry. They tend to band together on the battle field to 'give the unwashed what for!'. Most armies of a reasonable size will feature a unit of either mounted or dismounted knights.

'WHAT HO JOHNNY COMMONER, FANCY A TASTE O' ME LANCE...NO WAIT LET ME  REPHRASE THAT!'

  The cannon will also be in mass effect across battlefields as an extremely desirable war time accessory, all armies will have some amount of them on display.

'Ere, you eyin' up me gun???!!!'

Skirmishers will be in use, either trained regulars or lowly irregulars or even one of the few elite ranger divisions (such as the Crivenshire Royal Storm Badger corpes or the Fossestershire Roughland penetration Company). These troops will normally be missile troops armed with muskets, crossbows or even hunting bows.

 Where the differences will come in is in the specialists and odd troops native to the shires for which they fight, from mercenary companies to stream tanks, political activist collectives to unsanctioned wizards to grumpy old codger cults they will hopefully bring some colour and character to the field.

   Which is cool because i have most of what i need to do this and i have started basing the minis already!. But i still have to get some bits and bobs....which brings me on to my ebay sales page i'm using to fund the project. Now most of the lots will end Sunday afternoon, at which point i will be posting the next round of lots, here's a sneaky peek for you lovely people:

 Lodsa Normans!

 Lodsa Macedonians

Loadsa Sea People

Even Ratskin Scouts!.

Have a browse tomorrow if you fancy a bargin!

 All thats left is to welcome AKI to the wonky wold of Wronghammerness. AKI produces the rather brilliant Too much Lead which is well worth a peruse at your leisure. Welcome sir!.

....Anyway, 'till next time....

Sprinks independent Traders!

Theres been a whole lot of thinking going on around these parts, which normally spells either work or trouble for yours truly (or both!). I have been pondering this new setting and stuff for a while. One of the rules i imposed on myself when i went through what i'm referring to as The Changination was no new minis would be procured to build the new lands nations. This is o.k. and all as far as it goes but when i started it i had in mind some late medieval style forces, im a fan of the pikeee and shottttteee era (i think thats how you spell it) and would like to move the forces into the early to mid 17th century. Along these kinda lines:

(image from Art of Warre)

(image from Quora)

(image from honour and the sword)

So most forces would be based around pike blocks and musketeers with artillery support. I will add militia forces for interest and i want the nobility to still trust in plate armour and horse barding in the face of these advances. With this in mind i need to get hold of some new minis!!. Stuff like:

(all images from the most holy text of Plastic soldier review)

I already have some of what i need but will have to get more to make this happen....so whats a pillock to do?. Well, as i am not spending out on new minis i thought i would sell off some now unsuitable bits and bobs to fund it. To this end i have dipped my toe into the vortex like black hole of all things consumerist that is Ebay to try to raise the cash (you can see my sales page here. For now i have listed some lots to see how things go but if all goes to plan i will be putting more lots on in the near future (whispers of Hat El Cid Spanish, Caesar sea people and Revell Normans carry on the breeze....). Feel free to pop over for a browse if you have 5 mins to kill.

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