Monty on tour - Hobby weekend abroad

Last weekend I had the great pleasure to attend a sublime hobby weekend. A fellow from southern Germany invited a couple of hobby enthusiasts to his home to share a weekend of painting, chatting and gaming with him. This time I had the honour to belong to the group of guest and thus on Friday afternoon I took a train to Stuttgard and gathered with Alex, Thomas, Christian, Michael and another Michael there.

It started with the wonderful and hospitable welcome at Alex's house and then we went to our first painting session. This time I was lucky enough to have Michael at my side who introduced me into painting with oil paints to paint horses quicker than before. The advantage of this kind of colour is that you can manipulate it for a very long time using little pieces of sponge or brushes moistened with turpentine. The horses aren't finished yet but for my taste the technique worked really well and granted a new experience to yours truly.

About 03.00am on Saturday morning we went to bed and took a snatch of sleep. After breakfast then we returned to the painting table. While the horses kept drying I started with my NWF 72nd Highlanders. It's a rather special unit because they wore the Indian Service Dress combined with reddish tartan trews. Most of you might know the pictures of them in the Osprey book about the British Army on Campaign:

Picture from the Maiwand Day Blog

During the whole day I kept working on the twelve scotsmen I brought to Stuttgart and when it came to the tartan I benefited from the advice of my most cherished companions. Those 72nd Highlanders bore the Prince Edward Steward tartan of which a couple of versions exist. I decided to stay to the interpretation given in the book mentioned above and tried to yield a kind of condensed version of it to transport the character of the tartan to 28mm scale. In counsel with my fellows the following test figure was formed:

Poor picture of the highlander from my mobile

Actually I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I have to work on the smothness of the chequer but it gives an idea of the original tartan anyway. With only some minor details to finish this chap seems to be a good start for the unit I presume.

Besides the productive and instructive painting and chat sessions there was plenty of time for playing. Thus I was able to learn about two games I hadn't known before: Frostgrave and Zombicide. On Saturday morning I had the chance to play an introduction game of Frostgrave and have to admit it's a very nice ruleset with complex magic system. A really nice group based fantasy skirmish which is exactly my cup of tea.

The mage leading my warband. A splendid piece from Alex's collection.

One of my thieves grabbing a treasure (miniatures from Alex's collection)

And his fellow provides cover. (Alex's minis as well)

In the evening then the host's daughter joined us for a game of 'Black Blague' the new fantasy incarnation of Zombicide. What more can I say than that it was another highlight on this awesome weekend. The game itself worked very well. It's a really simple set of rules that anyone who is familiar either to wargaming or to board games should master easily. The kicker is that all the player together play against the game itself. Wonderful idea realised very well. And what a splendid group we had! From time to time it was really hard to get away from the zombies but with my fellow players it was fun beyond comparison all the time.

'Black Plague'

We got away scarcely. (painted figures from Michael's collection)

After another nocturnal painting session we collapsed into bed around 02.00am on Sunday morning. Six or seven hours later we rose again, had a kind of free interpretation of English breakfast. Free but nevertheless tasty and a perfect basis for our longish homeward journey. Luckily Christian and Michael gave me a lift so that I didn't have to take the train again. We arrived at my home around 04.30pm and I was happy to find dear and gracious Mrs Monty as well as our two girls well. Although I love my family from the deepest bottom of my heart this weekend was a splendid escape into pure hobby magnificence.

Many, many thanks to Alex for having us and to the other fellows for completing such a perfect weekend !