WARGAMES; I Understand Now!

I misspent some of my early youth playing with (NO! Building) model railways in various damp cellars in and around Coventry, but still, as an adult, found it difficult to understand grown men and women (the ratio being something like infinity to one) re-enacting historic battles with toy (NO! Model) soldiers, chariots and tanks. Until yesterday (yesterday being Thursday 5th April 2018) that is. My transformation happened in a wooden workshop, otherwise called a man-shed (all males should have one), adjacent to a house idyllically-set on a hillside overlooking one of my previous matrimonial homes. Philip Mackie, better known as Eyeball of Devizes, the respected PR consultant, is its enthusiastic occupant and it was he who explained how you can constructively re-play (say) The Battle of Roundway Down even though its result is a matter of historical fact. 

Like most games of chance, from family cribbage to twenty-four-seven Las Vegas, it's all down to a roll of the dice.  I won't explain; it's too complicated, you wouldn't understand.

But just like model railways, it seems that the joy for model wargamers is not so much in the running (operating) of it, but in its preparation -- its building, painting, accessorising, collecting. Philip showed me how:

 From a selection of what appeared to be several thousand pots of paint, he very carefully manipulated a 000 brush, retouching, for me, one he'd made earlier. Apparently one buys the basic casting, these days in pewter, which is then painted in the team colours, with extra-fine detailing requiring the extra-powerful magnifiers: 

......and then there's the scenery. Grasses, bushes, trees, fences and even bridges add to the picture, all bought in litte packets, selected, plucked, fitted and coloured, accurately and lovingly.

Thanks, Philip; I'll be back.