Our water tank. It is filled from water coming off the woolshed and yard roof.
Greeting loyal readers and fellow maremmas. Now as you all know We live in the countryside. As the locals would say, We live in the “wop wops“. Far, far away from any city amenities, such as water. We rely upon a combination of tank and bore water for our water needs. A 30,000l tank supplies the house with water for everything expect the toilets and outside taps, which come from the bore. The bore also supplies the household needs of two of our neighbours, as well as a number of stock troughs. Over the last week it was apparent that there was a problem with bore water supply. So it was D.I.Y Daddy to the rescue.
Firstly, the suspected leak had to be located. Our property has been in existence for over 150…
Greeting loyal readers and fellow maremmas. Now as you all know it is supposed to be summer here in sunny New Zealand, therefore, hot, sunny and warm. But for some reason this summer seems to have other ideas. Today a weather bomb passed over the country with 154 km (95 miles) winds blowing through Wellington. Accompanied by torrential rain. It certainly was windy here and this morning when mummy went out to feed those pesky chicken she saw a big branch blown off a tree in the paddock.
Daddy looking at the branch.
So sometime this week, daddy with the assistance from Farmer Rae will be cutting down the branch. Yeah more free fire wood.
Off We go. We have heard mention of visitors coming this weekend. As loyal readers know Me and Nellie love having guests to stay. More people to give Us the love…
Continuing my review of 2016 in my corner of the wargaming world.
JULY
I got a present from overseas – an autographed copy of the first new module for Space Opera to come out in a few decades – another great Star Sector Atlas (The Galactic People’s Republic). If you have not seen it I did a review.
Then, as is my want, I went off on a hobby tangent. I unpacked a box full of old GW orcs – some that I had started painting with my son over ten years ago and a whole bunch of second hand ones I had brought at the time. This consumed my hobby time for the next few months for the most part. I decided to base and use them for Kings of War. The first unit was some Boar Boyz that I had pretty much done back in the early to mid-2000s.
AUGUST or perhaps ORCGUST would be more appropriate.
This was the month that we got All Shook Up. New Zealand lived up to it’s reputation for the odd little earth tremor. On November 13th just after midnight we got hit by a 7.5 and a bunch of big aftershocks. A lot of damage but only a few casualties directly related to the quake. We came away with a few things fallen off shelves and about three days later discovered we had a broken water pipe. Being a resourceful country lad I fixed it myself.
Any my lucky last unit of the year was a unit that I am not sure was ever constituted much beyond the planning stages – The Regiment Elisa Napoleon. I made it from Perry plastic French line and Carabineer heads left over from my “Spanish” Cuirassiers (and some from TMPer Virtualscratchbuilder).
This past year I also did a number of product reviews and hopefully will be able to do more in 2017.
Well, that was the hobby year (and a few other things) for me. All in all it was not too bad. What is in store this coming year – well, more Napoleonics of course. I have stacks of metal still sitting there waiting.
War of 1812 Americans and British also need completing. Not to mention the Kings of War Orcs, the toy ship conversions for Pirates and the old Traveller figures. Kings of War Brets and even a horde of Japanese that I think would make a good KoW Kingdom of Men army are on the cards. Of course, all this will probably be out the window and I will start doing ACW or something.
Well 2016 has come and gone. A few dead celebrities in the tail end of the year and everyone and sundry talking about the worst year ever. Guess things like 1347-50 or 1939-45 just don’t stack up. For me it has been a pretty good year. Been surprisingly happy and life has been, for the most part, pretty good. We had no floods or other rural drama. The biggest thing to hit us was the 7.5 quake back in November, and apart from a busted water pipe and a few things off shelves we were sweet.
Blogwise it has been a very good year. Doubled my page views and almost doubled readers. I have made a bunch of ‘net friends’ through here that I would not have otherwise met or known. They gave me lots of encouragement and I thank you guys for your input.
And lastly for March – a decent sized Anglo-Zulu game. Played with Black Powder Rules and four players new to the rule-set.
The game ended with the Zulus realising that they would, in all likelihood, not be able to breach the British defence. They retreated off leaving the field in the possession of the British.
Two more infantry battalions also marched into the storage cabinets. The first was a battalion of Spanish infantry in British uniform. The Colorados were captured in Beunos Aries, imprisoned on hulks in England and finally wiped out at the battle of Medina del Rioseco. The second battalion was one I was particularly happy with. The 42nd Black Watch.
Without a doubt though, the highlight of this month was the reception of my first D&D Miniature. I was really happy how it came out and many people suggested that I should enter it in painting competitions. I did this awesome D&D Invisible Stalker.
Part Two (July to December) tomorrow. I really need to go and do some chores.
I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy the festivities. I also hope that Santa brought you, if not lots of then at least a good selection of toys for Christmas.
Greeting loyal readers and fellow maremmas. Now as you all know We have sheep living here with us here at Chez Jasper. Well, imagine our surprise when daddy came home with a …..
A baby lamb
Now the decision to take a baby lamb, less that 24 hours old away from her mummy is not one that is taken lightly. However, this lamb was one of triplets, with one not surviving, one being very healthy and this one being rejected her mummy. So daddy had to decided to bring her inside. Also, while the sheep have access to shelter in to the wool shed, the weather was deteriorating again so she might not have survived a night outside.
A feeding lamb
After a good feed exploring her enviroment.
Oops as slight accident.
Lambie will need to be feed every four hours for the next few…
This morning while working on a unit of Spanish Line cavalry I wondered how many other regiments of cavalry I had sitting unpainted out in the cupboard in the Woolshed (not counting the one of Spanish Dragoons and Hussars in my study that I am doing over the next month). Thought I would check out exactly what I had and start figuring out some sort of plan to get them painted. Then I began to wonder exactly how many unpainted Napoleonic miniatures I had. Turns out I have quite a lot. Probably only a lead molehill by comparison to some other gamers, but I don’t have to justify your lead mountain to SWMBO – just my own.
I started out looking at just the metals. Turns out I have quite a bit. Boxes and boxes.
I never actually knew that I had four French Cuirassier Regiments (two Front Rank, one Hinchliffe and one Connoisseur), two Carabineer regiments (Hinchliffe and Connoisseur), two Dragoon Regiments (mixture of Hinchliffe and Hinchliffe Foremost), another French Chasseur regiment, a Hussar regiment and two regiments of Polish lancers (mostly Hinchliffe). I found six battalions of Front Rank Bavarians, some Hinchliffe Bavarian cavalry (2 regiments) and at least a couple more divisions of French infantry (various), at least three Guard battalions (Front Rank and Foundry), a few artillery batteries and copious officer and general staff figures. I even found a unit of Scots Greys and a battalion of Foremost Highlanders in charging poses. I knew I had some Connoisseur Zastrow Cuirassiers somewhere and I found them too.
For some reason I have 24 Dutch Belgian Carabiniers. I have no idea how I came by them. I have never even wanted a Dutch-Belgian force. Likewise the dozen or so Dutch Belgians Chasseurs. Maybe I got them second hand so I could use the horses.
Then there are War of 1812 British (Canadian Voltigeurs, Glengarry Light Infantry, three militia battalions, Light Dragoons and officers), Americans (Artillery batteries, Dragoons, Militia, a couple of regular battalions, officers and so forth) and a whole bunch of Indian allies for both sides.
I have not even started on the plastic stuff yet. Lots of Perry, Victrix and Warlord Games boxes. Or the Warhammer stuff (Fantasy Bretonnians, Dwarves, Orcs, High Elves and Space Marines), or the Dixon Samurai army, or finish off the boxes of Wild West/Apaches/7th Cavalry/Pirates, etc etc etc. Hell, I even found a box of Eureka Tekumel miniatures I got about seven years back and promptly forgot about and a box of GDW Traveller miniatures that I had not forgotten about – Imperial Marines, aliens and adventurers.
All I can say is that it is a good thing Winter is Coming.
Enough Scots to make an old school Hinchliffe battalion.
Icecream containers of Napoleonics – Infantry and Saxon Zastrows.
Boxes of Napoleonics
Plastics – lots of plastics. What the hell have I got two boxes of Warlord Games Russians for?
Cuirassier and Cuirassier.
Remounts – a mix of Dixon, Essex, Front Rank, Connoiasseur and Hinhcliffe
The Woolshed is in need of some serious maintenance over the next year or so. I have to replace an outside wall that is slowly coming apart from age. It was constructed out of rough cut timber that was probably milled on site at least a hundred years ago. There are old shearer’s autographs on the walls that go back to the 1920s – reminders that at one stage this was a working woolshed.
But…the outside wall was not the object of my attention this week. Son and I lined a wall with scrap pallet wood to continue the rustic look of the interior. It looks quite good, if not a little rough – which is kind of the look I was going for. Mind you, if I had been going for smooth clean lines it still would have come out rough because I am not one of life’s great carpenters. Other improvements on the long term plans are a septic tank so I can install an inside dunny (there is a longdrop outside), a kitchen and perhaps a shower. This Woolshed is a work in progress but will be New Zealand’s best Man Cave before I retire!
The Throne Room
Today I decided that I needed a workbench. It was raining so mowing the lawns did not appeal at all. I didn’t want to spend any money on this workbench, so used scrap wood that was in the wood pile in the old stock yards (the same source as the pallet wood). I didn’t have any decent timber for the bench top so what I have done is temporary until I can source some more 2″(50mm) thick timber at a good rate – which for me means free. Oh yeah – I didn’t have any actual plans – it probably shows.
I need a workbench for a number of projects that I want to get underway this year. I rationalised it to Mrs Woolshedwargmer as a place that I can repair the mower. However, I really want to have a decent work bench to start making some terrain tiles – something I have wanted to do for years and finally decided that 2016 is going to be the Year of the Wargame Table. I also want a space where I can restore an old motorcycle that we may come into possession of in the not too distant future – an old James Captain from the 1950s.
The only problem is that now that I demonstrated my ability to make a workbench that didn’t wobble, SWMBO has ordered some garden furniture – that she want me to make tomorrow. What about “Terrain Tiles” doesn’t she understand?
The vertical studs were not true, which meant every few layes of boards had to be remeasured.
I have to say that this year has been the slowest year in ages for me when it came to the painting of miniatures, gaming and modelling. There have been precious few miniatures posts. Saying that though, 2015 has been a good year for blog views.
It has, however, been a difficult year for me and my family. My personal Black Dog made a major reappearance and made life difficult for everyone closely associated with me. Needless to say I have a lot of bridge mending to do and I am not talking about 28mm scale ones.
It was not a good period for my miniatures either. I actually had finished painting two battalions of French Old Guard and ended up throwing them in the rubbish in a fit of depression. My homemade Conflix-like village was also consumed in the fire. To top it off I also missed the big Waterloo 200th refight, although I am happy to say that my troops did fight in it.
The psycho was strong in me this year. Anyway, enough of that malarkey. On with the review.
After that things just sort of died off until I got involved with the Anzac Chunuk Bair Diorama. That was the highlight of my modelling/painting year, without a doubt. I had a great time working with the Perry’s, the guys from Weta and all my wargaming comrades from around New Zealand who were involved. I get a real kick knowing that I painted some of the cool figures in this most impressive diorama. It was a privilege to work on it.
I started making some terrain – just simple stone walls. Got a lot of comments about them – people seemed to like them.
I only had two games this year. One was another Waterloo refight at the annual NapCon Convention. It was somewhat sad as the day before the convention the wargaming community said farewell to Nick Garden who tragically died way too young. I had met him at a few conventions and we got to know each other a bit better sitting next to each other at Weta Workshops when we were painting and retouching miniatures for the Anzac diorama. While I was not one of his mates, he was a gaming comrade and will be missed in the years ahead in New Zealand wargaming circles.
British Guards at Hougemeont
My command for this battle
A very cool British rocket troop in action.
The fantastic Hougemont model.
The other battle was a small Black Powder Peninsular affair played at home with a friend. Here’s hoping for way more gaming this year.
As far as the Woolshed itself goes – well this has been an eventful year. In June we had a pretty good flood. We were cut off from the rest of the world for four days before a digger got through the slips on our road. The river peaked at 12m above normal. Daughter got helicoptered out and back to school which was an adventure for her. We were OK, but some of the neighbouring properties were pretty badly hit.
In January my sister who lives in Australia brought Dad’s ashes home to be buried as per his wishes alongside comrades in the veteran’s section of the Tauranga Cemetery. The old bugger had two funerals as it turns out – one in Australia for family there and one here in New Zealand.
Later in the year I also discovered a giant rat’s nest behind some cabinets and decided to rebuild the wall in my Woolshed study.
On a really nice note, we had a wedding at the Woolshed. A young couple who transformed the place and had a wonderful day.
There were more than a few teenage parties in the Woolshed this year. No real problems except for a car taking out twenty metres of fence in my right-of-way.
I did get to do a lot of spring cleaning this year. Got rid of a lot of old crap and rearranged things. The place is much more manageable now.
And of course, Mrs Woolshedwargamer kept me supplied with rations while I worked.
One thing about living in the country is that life goes on with a rhythm that goes on whether you want it to or not. This year I lost a ewe and her lambs. She prolapsed and I tried to cut the lambs out to save them but they only lived 45 minutes. The good old girl fed us one way or another though. I really should get a butcher’s block instead of using the dining room table. The dogs seem to like it though. Some pics from our country life.
Our water tank. It is filled from water coming off the woolshed and yard roof. 
