Battleground Wargames Show 2014.

This weekend is the Battleground Wargames Show at the Queens Campus in Stockton on Tees.
Based at a new venue by the river Tees, I am really looking forward to the show. I know the gents at Pendraken Miniatures have been working hard to make it a success.
 I will be taking down Cesare's expanded army to hopefully inspire some punter to try the period.
I have copied the floor map of the show. I will be at table D, and look forward to chewing the fat with anyone who decides to drop by.
It should be a very good show, which deserves a lot of support.

Gilder Burgundians.

 I have now completed the re basing of the crossbowmen that I bought from Tony Runkee of Hinchliffe fame. These figures once belonged to the late great Peter Gilder and are well over thirty years old. I love them. I couldnt bring myself to replace the Burgundian banner painted by Tony, somehow it would be sacrilegious and somehow the naivety of the banner adds to the unit for me.

 I did however put them on new bases to make them fit in with my armies. I shall use them as French mercenaries for my Italian wars. I may even showcase these at the show at Stockton at the end of this month. No doubt someone will point out the fact that they are decked out as Burgundians, but hey ho.

Pro Gloria needs your support.

Now this is something that I have never done before, and its not on my bucket list either, but I have pledged some of my hard earned cash to support Pro Gloria's campaign to produce plastic 28mm landsknechts.
 I would ask that one pops over to their site and peruse the quality of the plastic figures on offer.
 This could be the chance to fill your army at lowish cost with beautiful figures.
 I must confess I dont need anymore landsknechts, and certainly Cesare did not use them in his army, but any renaissance wargamer always needs some of these chaps.
 So give it a go and support a great opportunity.
 Talking of Cesare, the wargames show at Stockton on Tees is getting nearer, and I intend to put on my armies of Cesare et al. at the show.
I have been kicking around a what if scenario and I hope I can find the time to put it together before the show arrives.
 Anyway I would love to meet and talk to any renaissance wargamer and actually anyone in general so make the effort and introduce yourself to me at the show.
 On another note, Pete of Pete's Flags kindly loaned me the first series of a German television series called THE BORGIA.
 So guess what its about? This production was made at about the same time as the Borgias, and one can now buy the second series.
 The series is actually in English and although not as sumptuous as the British version, this is a very good drama, which has focused more on the politics and story around Pope Alexander. It is also pretty graphic in both the violence and the sex, so really a win win situation.
 I have a feeling that as Cesare comes more to the fore the battle scenes may prove interesting. This can be purchased on both Amazon and E Bay, give it a punt, you will not be disappointed.
    On another note. I started this blog to record my rebuilding of my 28mm army of Cesare Borgia which I sold back in the 1980's. This was one of a number of big 28mm renaissance armies that John Reidy and I had back then. John had introduced me to the beauty of the renaissance and it just spiraled from there.
 John like me sold off his wonderful armies and changed scales. Unlike me he has never returned to the scale.
 Anyway the one army that I wished he had never sold was his wonderful Ottoman Turkish army circa 1500AD.
 Made up in the main of the wonderful Hinchliffe range, with some really good Minifig Janissaries it was the one army that I wish I could have bought but never did.
 Well that has now changed and through John I was able to trace the last owner and negotiate the sale to me.Having now seen the figures some twenty odd years on, I can say it was as good as I remember, actually it may have been better than I remember. So my next side project is to re base the whole army to fit in with Blackpowder and my Italians, add a few units and get it used.
 I cant wait to use the army asit was always a tough nut to break.