BANZAII!!

I rather enjoyed Toys on Tuesday night :)

Got in a game of WWII Battlefront in the run up to the start of the Pacific '44 campaign and even after a month it all came back rather easily.

My Jap Marines took on Charlie's US Marines in a stiff skirmish for a jungle village.
I had entirely infantry, primarily as I'd left the heavy stuff at home, against a mixed USMC force and the result was particuarly bloody.
My numerical superiority was soon felt as were my limited AT resources, so Charlie's Sherman along with my inaccurate artillery became the deciding factor. With infantry to ermm.....burn? I put in several assaults on the tank and eventually a pole charge found a weaks spot.

A very narrow, very costly win. Now I just need to paint the little chaps!

Meanwhile the 'tasche has thickened up nicely. A few more donations coming in, including a couple last night, and the missus has purchased me a beard trimmer as a counter to my intent to keep it until new year.

Otherwise all the effort feels like it'll go to waste....... nothing to do with another month of chin stroking, oh no!

A bit more hobby prep this week. It's all for the roleplay session next week and I want to keep them under wraps for the mo. I'm SO funny!!

Meanwhile I picked up the Decemeber copy of WI today, motivated by Battlefront's Nam project, and the first flick has been impressive. I actually WANT to read just about all of the articles. That hasn't happened in a year or two.

I noticed a little text box mentioning GW's upcoming 20mm WWII release... intruiging!!

Beer and boardgames tomorrow night round at Ian's, which is always a good craic and then a weekend away with the girly being pampered so a bit of both. Not too shabby :)

Like the Murphys..........

........ i'm not bitter!!

Wasps got hammered by Saracens yesterday afternoon in a game of two halves. No...it really was.

The first half was fairly decent given the horribly sodden pitch and featured actual Rugby which, apparantly, has been a scarce commodity at Vicarage Road so far this season.

Plenty of aerial first off, but that seems to be par these days. Our backline was a touch shaky and Sarries picked up a opportunistic try but a try all the same. 13-6 at the break was fine as we were palying a lot more actual Rugby and were well up with territory and possesion.
A few penalties had held us back but we just needed to click.

The second half was 40 minutes of boot and the ref's whistle..... only one side was getting pinged and they weren't wearing black.
A direct quote from the Sarries fan next to me "What exactly have your front row done to piss off the ref so badly?" Whatever that 40 minutes was is wasn't Rugby :(

We kept playing for the full 80 but Sarries bossed the scrum, the line-out and played the ref far better than us. We were trying to play more rugby than we could manage and had no plan B.

22-6.......... i've ALWAYS preferred Guiness.

Still, a good day out with the missus, her bro, the lovely Anna and I got to do some shouting. I've also finally finished painting all of the Clones scavengers, the end is in sight, and it's toys tomorrow night.

Top of the mornin' to ya!!

BlackJack!!

i.e. 20 and 1 combined, of which there were plenty of Tuesday night!

Aaron rolled a few 20s whilst Rob and Charlie rolled a horrific number of 1s. It was immensly amusing for all of us and something of a coup de tat for Mr Christian whp proved immensely capabale all evening. Wonders may never cease.

With a somewhat snappier plot-line the temporarily reduced party picked up thier new contract briefing and plunged headlong into a bar-brawl of chaplin-esque proportions.

Charlie repeatedly blasted the smeg out of the ceiling and then shot Rob point blank whose own efforts seemed to somehow assist the Gammorean brawler beat him to a bloody pulp.

Mr Christian, he who previously hasn't been able to shoot a barn door, became Reno: Unarmed and Dangerous, beating all comers senseless with a stick!
This included an enraged Wookie and then the Gammorean, who at the time was looming execessively large over Charlie, who had somehow managed to ensnare himself in a stun net!

After patching up some serious bruises a spot of surveillence was called for, covering a meet and following on behind.

Aaron bluffed his way into a security station and a natural 20 later had the entire security net at his disposable. Must have been one of those "back doors" from the movies.
The follow involved Rob's scout crashing his speeder bike at the very first opportunity, possibly due to an excessive load of painkiller, at which point Mr C once agian saved the day.

Elvis had left the building!!

This bloke, Stuart Tinner, also rolled a natural 20 hitting the cross-bar with a drop kick from 30 metres in his SOCKS!! This won him £250'000 and a number of admiring cheerleaders.

Well done him!
This was at half time as Saracens took on the Boks at Wembley winning by one point with a 77th minute drop goal. With a 45'000 turn out and a thriller of a game they've pulled off a stunning spectacle.
Begrudging admiration is due, but it still feels wrong!

It's now Friday night, yes it's taken me that long to tap this out, and i've managed to secure a few more hours with the brush tonight. Just a few little bits to get done first so i'll push off.

TTFN :)

Pretty in purple??

Ermm........ NO

Rarely has an England win been greeted with such apathy. That's it for me on the subject, there are plenty of column inches dedicated to the topic elsewhere.

Elsewhere Wasps beat Gloucester AGAIN and Sarries lost :)

On that note it's the tour match against Sprinboks tonight and of the 44 on the team sheets 32 are Boks. That's far far too much Biltong for my taste.
Personally i'll be recording it, as it's roleplay night, and will watch it later in the week having no idea who i'd rather have win.

Meanwhile, i've had the worst of the 'tasche's trimmed away and feel much the leaner for it. I also did the ironing last night to let me spend Thursday and Friday getting some decent time with brush in hand for what seems like ages.

As previously mentioned it's the next installment of Clones tonight. The aforementioned plan has been hatched and even committed to paper. If only I could be so diligent with learning the rules.

Oh well :)

Roller-coaster of....erm, love??

Wins , losses, sales, purchases, the lurgy and some fairly impressive fireworks, it's been a busy week of sorts.

Jonny 9, Australia 18. England's talisman made an emmensely strong return to international rugby, though behind the soundbites it was a performance of individuals, some better than most, against an actual team.
Shame, strong start but the second half was painful.
Wasps beat Irish though so not all bad, for me at least.

I made my first e-bay sales on Saturday, the last of the Empire army, and they did better than i'd hoped. That's another £120 burning a hole, though i've got plenty on the TOYS plate for the mo.

I did find a US site selling individual Star Wars Clix and i'd loaded up on 15 useful individuals for just over a tenner. Potential postage of £30 pulled me up at a rate of knots. No sale.
A Wasps training shirt with name and number is tempting me severely........ for chrimbo, obviously!
Not a lot of hobby action i'm afraid as the weekend didn't workout as planned. A friday night out on the Coke (cola) and quality time with the missus saw to that!

Unfortunately I've been off work with a virus since yesterday. I must have been bad 'cos I even missed toys at the club last night.
I have at least managed to finish off basing the Star-Clix today and do a few bits of prep today, so back to work tomorrow. Ah well. With the Clones roleplay the next jobs have been offered up and the chaps have decided to pursuse a sabotage contract, with Beastie Boys vid to the fore.

We had a feedback session last time and a little less talk and a little more action has been requested. Elvis and I are more than happy to oblige.

I have a PLAN.......

Touch... Pause.... Engage

Here's Jonny!!

The autumn internationals start tomorrow with a much depleted England line-up taking on the apparantly mis-firing Wallabies at HQ. My day has been built around it!

Only one Wasp, Tim Payne at tight-head, in the line-up but injuries have ravaged us badly. Though this is no excuse for our appaulling defeat to Leeds last Sunday at home, briefly known as knock-on central.
We constantly turned over the ball, went backward in the scrum and lost an appualing number of our own lineouts.

All praise to Leeds who scrapped hard from the start and held on for the win that I can't help feeling that we simply handed over. Following on from the mauling we gave Gloucester the previous week it was like watching a completely different team.
Still, third in the table is still a very good start to the season so far.

Two weeks of the Anglo-Welsh now and then Premiership away to Sarries , to which I have picked up tickets.

Speaking of Sarries, I and many other's I know, including Sarries season ticket holders, have become increasingly worried about the overt Afrikan-isation of a long established British club.
I read an interview with Nigel Wray, the chairman, and fair enough the South African investors are all about finance as is making the club more appealing for South African ex-pats but it just feels wrong!

Am I jealous of their unbeaten Premiership run, of course, but thats not it. They've got there by beating everyone they've played even if only closely and via some dodgy ref decisions. That's rugby, that's sport.
It's the manner of it, the manner of everything. Not what they're doing but how.

A strong, relativley negative, kicking game.
FOUR high profile games at Wembley with a Springbok tour game.
The stated intention to leave Watford for somewhere better.
Agressive marketing and the ability to cut away "dead wood".
The desire to win at all costs and ugly if necessary.
The cheerleader and THAT anthem.

I do however acknowledge the amount of work that Saracens do in the local community with amateur teams, coaching classes and school visits.
All extremely laudable.

All things that other teams have done previously but the collective just comes across as too much.

I can't get away from it becoming a potential loose-loose situation.
If Saracens are put back on thier heals then little has been gained whilst the souls of the club has been put at massive risk.
If Saracens make the top four then well done to them but how many other of the "lesser" teams will employ the same methods. That would surely risk Premiership rugby as a whole, wouldn't it?

Rant ends

Mo-tivation's what you need....

.... if you wanna' be a record breaker...YEAH!!

So, for some bizarre reason, mainly a combination of boredoma and curiosity in all honesty, i've decided to grow a 'tasche for Movember.

Movember is a men's health charity, primarily involved with prostate cancer. I've never grown a full 'tasche before so this should be quite interesting. I'll update my profile photo as a tracker.

The missus was away in Seattle for work last week which gave me the chance to get a head start on it and actually she's been nicely supportive of my good intentions. Well, her fault really for leaving me unsupervised :)

I had Monday as a day off this week, having worked Saturday, and was really quite productive basing and prepping the Japs, Starship Crew and Security Team Zeta. Not a lot of 'tasches involved but I have some green stuff knocking about!

Last night was Clones roleplay round at mine and the chaps completed thier second contract with some aplomb foiling the biker gang's train-jack thusly securing the combat droid and it's errant handler in the process.

Admittedly Charlie did almost die fighting Kid Zero, the gang leader, and now sports some impressive scars, after Rob shot him "accidentally", but overall a good result with cash in the bank.
Zero did save his own skin but i'm sure he'll be back at some point.

I've also been rather impressed with the general quality of the Star-Clix. A quick bleached bone dry-brush and basing them up has produced some good results. 1/4 PP each seems fair and has opened my account for November.

No real hobby time 'til the weekend now. The missus is busy most of the day and can't get round before about four. Terrible, i'll just have to paint toys solidiers and watch Johnno's boys take on the Aussies then. When will she learn.............. :)