Where does all the time go???

As the title of the post suggests any spare time I have at the moment is scarce, working full time and looking after my daughters who are both under the age of 6 along with all the other complications thrown at you by life really doesn't leave you much time to play with and as a result my hobby of wargaming has taken a step to the side, hence the inactivity in recent weeks on my blog. So to update I have tried to where possible to at least to fit a game in here and there and recently I managed to grab a couple of hours so I could attend the local Durham Wargames show, which was a welcome break. Unfortunately I haven't  got around to any figure painting, so last night when my oldest daughter said I should do some figure painting as it had been a long time since I had,so I made a point of setting up the painting station , slapped the iPod on and got to work on some of my mantic walking dead figures which have been sat in their boxes now for a number of weeks, which I'm glad I did as it helps takes your mind off other issues and it was nice to see the figures although it was just the basic colours applied, starting to take shape. I've also just borrowed and started reading the first of Bernard Cornwalls series following the life of a certain Nathianiel Starbuck through the American civil war on the recommendation of a work colleague (who surprised me by his interest in the subject) , also I'm well into the third compendium of the walking dead series which I am really enjoying. I have also sold a few things off on eBay recently , I said fair well to my Deadmans hand 15mm collection and also decided to sell my 15mm WW2 American army (I have a large Russian force and German so the eastern front theatre of the war is what I'm going to concentrate on) with both sales going to pastures new abroad. So hopefully I will start getting a few more games in the upcoming weeks as its certainly part of the hobby I miss. I have uploaded  a few photos of the last game my dad and I played which was a WW2 break through scenario a number of weeks ago, i played a German SS force which had the difficult task of stopping the large Russian battlegroup from breaking through the hastley erected defensive lines. Despite some stubborn resistance from my German command group they eventually broke as the weight in Russian orders and numbers and eventually told. The game however confirmed again that the decision to convert to the Iron Cross rule system was a correct one as it was a very enjoyable and laid back game, and despite not using them for a while the game flowed really well with only a couple of mistakes been made throughout the game. Hopefully it won't be to long before I post again 😄

The game set up, I thought the terrain looked really nice

SS platoon and support gun in the form of a Pak 40 defend the stonewall

The Russian higher command group delivering the battle orders

The main German defence line running along the hedgerow in the table centre 

A Russian recce  plane scouting tne German defence line

A Stug III becomes the victim of two flanking T34-76 tanks

The last line of the German defense comes under heavy fire as mortar shells rain onto the defending Infantry as the supporting Panzer IV H is knocked out by tne advancing T34s

The first of the Russian infantry squads break through the German lines 

The German HQ realises the day is lost and order the immediate retreat of its command group  

The victorious Russian comand group advance towards the German held town a few miles down the road,despite suffering casualties and losing a number of its armour in the battle,  it's another foot into the heartland of Germany for the Red Hammer....