Family Time

I didn't get a game in today - family time and all that - but I have continued making terrain, and now have 8 bases of a barbed wire and a command post/sentry post/check point/general makeshift military hovel.


Having read Though the Mud and the Blood three or four times, I think I understand the rules.

The one question I have is the take Cover order, as taking cover is implicit in the movement order, so I don't really see why it needs a specific order. I suppose I'll have to nip over to Lardy Island and see if there is an explanation on the forums.

So I guess I'll have to set my mind to making the cards - when I repaint the models in the Dettol bath (reminder to self - the missus wants you to clean all the gunk in the bathroom sink).

Now being a gamer, no sooner does stage one of a new project draw to a close than my mind has turned to the next thing on my to-do list.

To which end I have started flicking through my copy of Uniforms of the Penisula Wars by Chappell and Haythornthwaite. I realise that many people criticise the book on the grounds of accuracy, but I'm not really bothered about such matters, plus I find the book is very inspirational.

All of which means that when the RCW stuff is done, I shall return to painting French Napoleonics.

Oh and speaking of spending time with the family, I was left to look after the kids yesterday. They are lovely kids, and the eldest is genuinely interested in helping daddy with his soldiers. The problem is that they are three and one, so there is not a great deal they can actually do to help. I came up with the cunning plan of breaking out the air drying clay, with the intention of while they made Ben 10 monsters, I could knock out several hundred sandbags. It didn't quite work out that way. They did indeed make a Ben 10 monster, but I managed to make only about 30 sandbags, as I spent a great deal of my time trying to stop the youngest eating the clay, making sure the eldest was using the dentist tools safely, reassuring them that the red sye was not permanent and they wouldn't have red hands for ever and generally parenting rather than actually getting on with any modelling.

Still it was rather fun.

As regards my eldest's interest in soldiers I have agreed to play a little game with him some time. Just a few models and get him to roll some dice, and maybe learn to play the tape measure. I guess it will well and truely test my competative dad tendancies.

I recall my first experience of modelling. I got an Airfix 1/72nd Kittyhawk for Christmas. After some pestering from me and nagging from my mum, my dad agreed to help me make the kit. It was not a happy memory of childhood. We argued all the time, he did everything, the only thing I was allowed to do was to look at the plans and tell him which piece we needed next, and ended with him telling me, "if you don't want my help then do it yourself," before he stormed off to the living room to watch the Mike Yarwood show.

My dad was the genuine competative dad.

I don't believe I am - I don't get the hump when I get beaten at Snap or Frustration, and I am open to the new rules my three year old dreams up half way through the game. However, I am wondering if this laisse faire attitude extends to playing toy soldiers. It certainly doesn't when we play X-men, and Wolverine is jumping up and down on my chest when I am trying to read a book on Napoleonic unforms....

peace:)