Northern League - 2019 Review

It’s that time again. Time to review the state of the Northern League; the wargames competition scene in the North of England. I'm sad to say that this year I did not participate in any of the rounds. Perhaps next year. Who knows?

Compared to 2018, the key features are the continued growth of Art de la Guerre (ADLG) and the complete absence of Field of Glory (FOG). Most importantly the average number of players has risen for the second year in succession and is now at its highest since 2015.

For those of you who'd like even more data there's always the national picture provided by Tim Porter.

Painter's Miscellany #3

Adding Sand To Bases
The short version is simple: sprinkle don't dunk and use two thin layers.

To hide figures bases I use the tried and tested method of sand and PVA glue.  I used to just shake the glue coated base in my pot of sand.  However I stopped doing this after a disastrous run of using too much glue: the bases came out with far too much sand on them.

The cause of this was a slightly thinner brand of PVA.  The excess glue wicked through the sand in the pot by capillary action creating a far thicker layer than I'd planned.  Worse still, when dry the surface was much smoother and didn't dry brush well at all.

I needed a method that provided more control.

15 mm Italian Wars Artillery

I've just completed another mini-project.  This time it's a couple of artillery pieces for my Italian Wars army.  When I saw these figures I was struck by how characterful they were so they've jumped a good few places in the painting queue.

ANCMED Rises From The Ashes

Following the decline of Yahoo! Groups many wargaming mailing lists have moved to Groups.io.   I have followed four or five as they made the transition.  The system seems very user friendly with lots of new features.

Having said that one list, ancmed, was somewhat abandoned: the owners thought the list had run its course over the last twenty years.  I thought it still had something to offer so, with the Yahoo! list owner's permission, I have set up a new group called, wait for it, ANCMED.