Wednesday 28 April 2010

York Model Railway Show.

Well it's not wargaming, and yet I do think there are some similarities betwixt the two hobbies, along the lines of terrain, modelling and so on. Trains can play a part in certain wargames, and on some of the model train layouts, you could certainly have a wargame. I wonder how many people do both hobbies?
We went along to this show (Title post is linked) over the weekend of 3rd April 2010, and had a jolly good day out. We got there around midday, as I was suffering from a beer overdose from the night before, and had to park on the muddy field which wasn't great, especially for one of our chums, (lots of mud splatter, revving of engine and spinning of wheels), so lesson learnt to get to these events earlier to be able to park on a good solid tarmac surface instead. Tickets were about £8 each, rather more than a wargames show, and the place seemed busy and happy enough. The food wasn't cheap either, but you get what you pay for, and the steak pie was a big improvement on the usual fayre at these sort of shows.
On walking in, this was the first layout I saw .. see, I do say there is some overlap between the hobbies!

A fine array of 20mm scale tanks and so on, on a WW2 English setting, which made me wonder if this fellow was a gamer too.

This was a huge layout, and the range and skill of the modelling was exceptional. This sort of layout would lend itself to a good skirmish game I thought.
Hobby in a suitcase? A nice touch, the case itself looked old and used, and I could just imagine it being used on an old train journey. Indeed, was a similar one used by Trevor Howard in a Brief Encounter?
This was a wonderful one, very localised in part, whilst giving a larger countryside view also. It must have took an awful lot of time and effort to get it just right.

No, not a model layout, but the actual racecourse itself..
The scale varied from around 25mm, down to this, I think around 2mm, so they could pack in a large area display on a smallish board.

Another picture of that first display, you really had to see this to appreciate it, it was that impressive. All it needed was an opposing army, some rules and dice.
A good day was had, the stalls were busy, and I was amazed at the amount of modelling array there was to buy. Picked up a fair few tips on flocking and blending different ideas into each other, and on general modelling too. I resisted the urge to dip into the model train hobby itself, and restricted my purchases to some paints and a few terrain bits.
Afterwards, we spent an hour or two in nearby York, and I saw this .. a Maybach, so my children told me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maybach). Now, my green Rover 75, parked behind, is a largeish car I thought, but this Maybach thing just dwarfed it. It was huge and massive. And I had to put this picture up, only because I hadn't seen one before. Not that I'd want one of course. Much.
A sift witter, and a welcome to Geordie, Grekwood, Fraxinus, Ubique, Michael, Sgt Steiner, Erwin, Joao, and Prufrock, thankyou all for joining and I hope you enjoy the Blog, apologies for a bit of a lack of posting lately as time has been tight but will improve soon, and I now have a nice backlog of various games to post up, which I will as soon as I can. Thanks for viewing, I do appreciate it.
Regards to all,

Friday 23 April 2010

St George's Day.


Once again, the Flag of England was raised above Peeler Mansions, in celebration of Englands Day. Seems a shame to me that whilst other parts of the UK can have their own day, England seems to get left behind, and that some political types have hijacked both this flag and the Union flag for their own ends, particularly as it's election time at the moment. All that shouting and yarping and arguing on, there's just no need for it really, it's all just hot air, like you get from a volcanic eruption... a nice pleasant gentle discussion is all thats needed, in a good old genteel English way.
Here's a Link to The Royal Society of St George, an admirable and pleasant Society to be a member of.. http://www.royalsocietyofstgeorge.com/index2.htm
A Happy St George's Day to you all, and God Bless England, Harry and St George!
Regards,