Partizan MMXIII - Musings on the Good Old Days

Its that time of year again, when I take a jolly boys outing up the A47 and A17, to the spiritual home of wargaming that is Kelham Hall.

Its a show that holds many fond memories for me, as its the first place I ever got involved in putting on a game, 25mm AWI, Battle of Eutaw Springs, with the old Coltishall Cowards gang. Loads of work went in, and we were rightly pleased with the results, sadly I don't have any pictures of the game :-(

Years go by, and a selection of dubious offerings are put up for the public's perusal, ranging from a really rather good 54mm Vietnam game

A very dodgy 40mm Afghan game, featuring this neat little conversion by me old mate Simon Fairweather

The Mullahwagon!!

We did joint efforts with other dodgy geezas from Yahoo groups like The Mongrels!!

Its a teeny tiny pic, so you don't get scared!!

As time passes, so does the urge to put on the games, club members change, and Yahoo groups go quiet, some of us decide its more fun to have our own figure ranges, and instead of gaming, we start trading instead, mad fools that were were. New companies spring up, and shiny new ranges emerge, producing some of the best figures around for our chosen wargaming periods, and I don't say that lightly, because we did have some bloody impressive stuff on sale.

Pressure trying to juggle a real world job, a family, and a wargames business tells, and one by one the little guys sell up, and disappear.

So these days,  I'm just a punter, my glory days have come, and gone, as like many of us in the hobby, age has caught up with me, and this year I pass the half century mark!!

But, I find myself hankering after those glory days, the impetus to finish off a terrain board, or to scratchbuild that certain building. The pleasure gained in seeing all your efforts come to fruition, on the day, when you put the whole shebang out for the first time, and bask in the relative glow, of all the good comments you get. The camaraderie with you mates, who were bonkers enough to get dragged into it with you.

So I will drive over to Stuart's house at some god forsaken hour on Sunday morning, and cram into his motor, along with Big Chris C, and any other nutters who decide to tag along, and meet up at Kelham, with all the other good friends I have made along the way.

Toy soldiers, you all think, grown men playing with toy soldiers, oh if only you knew what moments of pure pleasure I have had from my toy soldiers.

It is so much more than that!!

See you folks at Partizan, I have a plan, a list and some cash, all of which will go horibly wrong on the day, it always does, and that its half the fun of it.