Tuesday 24 December 2013

Joining the 100k Club & Happy Xmas

 
 
Hi Folks
 
Its Christmas Eve and I have hit the 100k hit target on the Shed Wars blog !
 
 
 
 
I would like to thank every single reader and follower for making this happen and may I take this opportunity to wish you all well in the coming festive season.
 
 
Have a Happy and Safe Christmas
 
 
Eric the Shed


Wednesday 18 December 2013

A special post

Apologies for lack of posts on the blog but things have been rather manic at work but as a special treat I have to share this with you all....

A rather good you tube video

If you are under 18 I take no responsibility...(no sex or nudity)

cheers

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Shed Wars goes all Blue Peter...really cheap but very effective dice trays

On a number of occasions I have seen other gamers use dice trays and I thought that's cool I'll ask for one for Xmas. However when I looked at the prices I said what ! - £16 inc postage for some wood and felt - I reckon I could make one for half the price.

Hows about two for £6?

Read on

First up I needed a wall that could surround the tray - I searched for wooden circles, discs etc but nothing worked. By chance I came across the term wooden washers and this directed me to a custom car site for music nuts. A moment of inspiration hit me - speaker housings.

A quick search on ebay revealed these two babies for a grand total of £6.97

ebay site for speaker housing

A few days later they turned up.



Today. Now Ive been going a bit stir crazy so I thought what the heck lets build these now. Fifteen minutes later the bases were cut from scrap 10mm mdf  (it was cold in the shed) and some off cuts of felt  were procured from a failed gaming mat.

MDF Base cut


Measuring inside felt - be sure to cut extra so excess sits inside housing


Glue felt (pva) to base






Screw down the speakers bases and jobs done  - total elapsed time 25minutes


 
Finished article - less than £3.50
 


And before anybody asks - yes  they do work - the dice don't jump out, always roll ones etc..

I might one day paint the bases...maybe I should make up some with Shed Wars branding?

cheers

and thanks for reading

Eric

Friday 6 December 2013

Shed Wars 2nd Birthday !


Gosh doesn’t time fly, it only seems like yesterday that I decided to set up the Shed Wars blog to record for posterity my wargaming hobby (or is it an addiction?). Well today the blog celebrates its second birthday and quite a lot has actually happened.
 
Lets start with the stats.... last year I reported that I had achieved 25,000 hits and that I had almost 80 followers. This had been achieved on the back of just over 50 posts. I set myself the goals of trebling the number of hits to 75,000 and doubling the number of followers. Could this be achieved?

Well I am delighted to report that I have achieved both goals. I am delighted to report that my follower count has risen to over 180 and that I am in touching distance of achieving 100,000 hits. With a bit of luck this figure could be achieved by Christmas ! Not too sure if this is a momentous number in the grand scheme of things but I am quite chuffed. There seems to be a habit of awarding prizes when these milestones are achieved so not to be outdone I will come up with some kind of prize when this magical number has been achieved – watch this space !

Of particular note was the month of October when I achieved 10,000 hits in one month. I was rather pleased but to do so again might be a tall order. Average daily rates seem to have settled around 200 hits per day.

So my ambitions for 2014  - lets push the boat out...

#1 – increase the number of followers again from 180 to 300. If you are reading this for the first time or drop by on a regular basis please do tick the follow box – you will do my ego a load of good. In return I promise to follow your blog !

#2 – push the total number of hits to 200,000 – ie another 100,000 - this means I need to average c300 hits per day – this I believe is achievable by adding more relevant content, adding links to previous posts, posting more on other forums etc

This is a good time to reflect on what has been achieved during the year...in no particular order

·         I attended all the major shows in the year – Salute, SELWG, Warfare, Colours & Cavalier

·         I hosted games at Matakishi’s Teaparty and Blam 2013

·         I have met a load more folks as a result of these.

·         We have continued to play games across the year in the shed – a particular highlight being the big Pirate game

·         At the beginning of 2013 I finished the Pirate terrain, figures and ships – more games to follow

·         The next big project is coming to the end of its build – The Tales of Shedwood – Nottingham the Medieval city is built and we are playtesting the rules

·         Saga has become a big feature of the shed with its ease of set up and furious play

·         I have spent too much money

·         Big terrain items have been completed, castles, cliffs, coastlines, bridges and palm tree forests....

 

Its all been good fun and based on the comments received (over 600 this year) it mostly appears to be of interest.

Unfortunately Basil the Wargaming Hamster passed away earlier this year but his memory will live long in this written record. If our cat has her way she might become the next furry sponsor of Shed Wars!

So what about 2014.

The great thing about this hobby is the diversity of activity within the hobby, whether it be modelling, painting, terrain building, research, blogging and even playing. All these have their place and I get equal enjoyment from most. Which is a good thing as I love to arrive at an idea and then work my way towards the end goal. Over the last two years I have focussed on three big projects – the French Indian Wars, Pirates and Robin Hood. All of these have focussed on the 28mm scale and can deliver big visual heroic games. There are transferable elements for each across terrain and figures which has made life easier. But the real question is what next?

At this moment in time I am mulling over several ideas – including Pulp, a very British Civil War, Fantasy Dungeon settings or Space Opera....or maybe I just do them all. I do know that I want to build an Arctic terrain board complete with Ice flows, snowfields, crevasses and pine forests – but for what period ?

Lets see what the new year brings

Once again thank you to all those who do follow, a thank you to those that read but don’t follow and thank you to all those in the hobby that make it so interesting

 
Happy second birthday Shed Wars – its been fun

 

 

 

Monday 2 December 2013

Stalling for time - Nottingham Market

 
First up a big apology for so few posts recently. Things have been manic over the last few weeks and what with the colder weather I have got very little done in the shed.
 
 
I have however finished the market for Nottingham. Originally intended to build my own and you can see from the picture below Id even made a start on the basic frames.
 
However this was going to take too long and a chance discovery at Warfare in Reading found the following stalls from SHQ miniatures. A link can be found at the end of the blog.
 

 

So the Market stalls sit proudly in the town square...but it all still looks a little bare...



So a few trade goods were added...again it all looks a bit empty...what do we need people..!!

The following photos were taken with the camera phone and if anything they are better for close ups than my Nikon
...

what you see here are about 25% of my medieval city civilians - more will be posted soon

















The Stalls were purchased from  these guys for £5 each...

SHQ Miniatures

I could only get one at the show but they posted the other three immediately after the show and they arrived four days later.