Dan & Rex go to the MOAB 2022 gaming event (short for Mother Of All Battles) in Sydney, Australia and fight it out in 5 games of Bolt Action. A great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones post COVID-19 restrictions in Australia and New Zealand over the past 2 years.

Yes we are back, its been a while since you last heard from us due to the launching of our campaign book. We have lots of plans for the future both podcast and YouTube, you can see all our content here:

• https://www.valhallagames.net/
• https://www.valhallagames.net/youtube
• https://www.valhallagames.net/patreon
• https://www.valhallagames.net/store

​So after visiting Rex ( more info on that in forthcoming blog posts, Podcast and Youtube content !!), on the way out of the country I visited the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. Not only is the building amazing and full of fantastic (if heavily orientated toward the clothes-horse type of ladies & gentleman) shops, but its home to Hobbyco ( a great model and hobby store) that I DID know about, but I found this gem of a store that I DIDNT know existed. Here's a link to the online store, and for those of you in NSW that may want to visit, be aware they are moving premises soon apparently and will update their address accordingly on the site;

http://toysoldiers.com.au/

 And what a store! Beautifully sculpted, painted and classily presented toy soldiers and display scenic pieces, with many of them displayed in dioramas. I was aware of companies such as King and Country and Thomas Gunn that make these, but I was unaware of many of the other brands on display. The scale seems to be pretty consistent at 1:30 scale, described by some toy soldier sites and collectors as ' within the 1:32 scale family', which places them around 54mm and again within the family of size of your old Britains toy soldiers and Matchbox/Airfix 1:32  plastics...oh, and what a joy to see!!! 

  Each is a work of art within itself, basically a small statuette or vignette if a group. the painting of them is excellent, and the price they command is hefty yet strangely tempting...almost like that old Schweppes advertisement; "reassuringly expensive"! Some of the scenic items are scalable such as palm trees etc i noted, as its very hard to find a great palm tree for 28mm.

  I will go on to do a photo dump below- enjoy!

   It did make me wonder though- why will people pay a fortune for these toy soldiers, yet baulk at and attempt to drive down the price of even the most beautifully painted army of miniatures painted to the highest standard...if they were displayed and sold like this in a high end store...would they sell as pieces of art rather than treated with relative contempt by potential purchasers? I have plenty of thoughts on the matter- maybe its a future podcast-or- Youtube vid- worthy subject. Your opinions readers?

So here's an update on where I am up to on my 'Around my wargames room in 80 days' Self challenge...  

In preparing for the MOAB convention in Sydney, I decided my theme would be; whatever will get the most stuff ticked off my list, while including something awesome and historical....AHA!! that'll be British 6th Airborne Div Recce troop in Normandy along with captured Sdkfz 10/4!!! ( See below for historical image). 

Of course, some of this project isn't even ON my list- But time to get it added so I can tick it off!! 

This project has been threatening to become reality with all the random cheap Recce jeeps and commonwealth jeeps I' ve been picking up here and there the past 2 years. Plus, it became reality when I bought a Rubicon Sdkfz 10, and was fortunate enough to win Rubicon's facebook page banner competition for August. When I asked for one of the cheapest kits they make ( the flak 30 that completes the 10/4 construction) , I'm pretty sure they took pity on me as a complete lunatic and immediately succumbed to my suggestion that they might (please!) have airborne crew sprues from a commonwealth jeep available at the factory somewhere...and VOILA!! all the kits and parts required to make this historical build! Thank you so much Rubicon Models, you rock.

Also done in this pic are offensive miniatures' parachute drop containers, some animals for farm terrain dressin.

Note that the winter cam Tiger I tanks were NOT done by me... I picked up these two tanks at a steal on Trade Me. Robert is the name of the gentleman who did these, and he's started up a website selling commission painted miniatures and terrain. Here's his website , go take a look;

https://www.sharpmilitarymodels.com

I might take some pics of them for another post. Anyway, they were getting a shot of matt varnish over the decals when everything else was getting theirs done. 

 Heres the list updated with what i have completed and in progress for those of you who are playing along at home ( or just want to laugh at my folly). Updates are in BOLD;

Tropical FJ for our book's " How to paint tropical Fallschirmjager" video, linked to our you tube page- DONE!!!

British M7 Priest SPG -IN PROGRESS- Being detailed and weathered

5 x D&D Characters- DONE

1x goat, 2 x Cows, 1 mule, 1 German shepherd, teddy bear

2 sheep, 2 Geese, 4 chickens on bases- DONE

FJ and pack mule

Para chaplain and chaplain

5 dak infantry vehicle mounted

1 British airborne morris- IN PROGRESS, basecoated, camo underway 

SIX(!! Yes ive doubled the original number for insanity check purposes) British airborne jeeps ( various patterns & manufacturers)-DONE!

2 Airborne jeep  trailers - IN PROGRESS, basecoated

20 Airborne jeep crew- DONE

 4 x Brit airborne containers DONE

2 parachute canopies on ground DONE

1 skaven engineer

12 skaven stormvermin

10 empire huntsmen

1 empire Hellstorm rocket battery and crew

1 empire musician/bear mascot

5 empire outriders

4 x Luftwaffe tropical ground crew

German marder III gun and crew

German schwimmwagon x 3

Assemble and paint UNIC P107 half track

Lorraine Shlepper 

Repair SS tank rider MG42 DONE

Vampire counts roadshrine

Mussolini and Skorzeny

Greater Demon of Khorne

German Vampire officer

27 Offensive,empress and westwind German Battle of Berlin 'last levy' DONE

Repair ruined keep, broken masonry DONE

3 x SW Landspeeders

Arjac rockfist

Njarl Stormcaller termi and power armour

SW Iron Priest on foot and mounted torso

Murderfang

18 Bloodclaws

SW HQ landraider

SW Rhino

2 x lascannon longfangs

12 plastic FJ

6 westwind FJ with P/Fausts DONE

6 SS pioneers DONE

7Luftwaffe Field Regt 88 crew. DONE

2 x Hungarian infantry

Soviet flag at Reichstag vignette

4 x metal offensive FJ

​So thats it..1 calendar month to go. With me heading over to Rexs place in order for us to to attend MOAB in Sydney, I  will need to make decisions on what to take to continue the challenge from over there. There is a chance that in fact nothing will go with me due to space constraints ( after all...why would i want to miss out on a bargain from the bring and buy at MOAB that i never knew i needed, simply for lack of room in airplane baggage??!!) although I might fit in a few minis and then add them to the list for my troubles! 

Ill update again at the end of october with how I finished up my challenge..wish me luck! If anyone else takes up the challenge in your own 80 day window you choose, we'd be interested to hear and see how youve got on! 

Regards, Dan. 

Wargames illustrated reviewed our book on YouTube. (spoiler alert they liked it).

We are particularly happy with this as WI aren't shy to say what they think, as it should be who wants glowing reviews on everything never pointing out the issues! 

We want the truth and we can handle it.

Both Dan and I subscribe to WI prime and get their magazine in 'e' format and to be honest I often by the paper copy as well. Its a great read, a great wargaming YouTube channel and this video is a well made and very detailed look at The Primosole Bridge campaign book, check it out.

I have been accused before of other thinking and over planning things and yes that is often true. But sometimes I even surprise myself! Someone asked for plans for the Italian foam building I made for Dan and put up on YouTube back in 2020 (here), you know, the good old days before pandemics etc.

I was half way though typing out a reply to say don't be silly no one would be that... [insert your preferred word here] :-) but then I went for a look and found this... (image bellow). To be fair I did "wing it" first then measure and document afterwards so in this instance I didn't over plan, perhaps that why it got finished.

So, on looking around my wargames room's display shelves after unpacking some carry cases full of miniatures I have come to the conclusion that 'out of sight is out of mind' truly is a thing, especially with those wargamers who have a  strong collector's streak!

I have oodles of projects still to be finished, but I'm concentrating on whats sitting on the shelves undercoated , or assembled etc. 

Its a mix of historical ( mostly WW2) stuff, with a good sprinkling of 40k and Warhammer fantasy battle ( not that god awful Age of Sigmar though!) thrown in for good measure! Didn't know I was into other stuff? I  have quite considerable 40k and Fantasy armies actually! I will drop a pic below. 

I also had  a great haul on Trade me which is our version of 'gumtree' or other local/national buy and sell page type website...picked up a whole haul of die cast vehicles ( pic shown below) for $11 New Zealand! After looking at the pic i figured I couldn't lose...either the schwimmwagons were the correct size and everything else was about 1:72 or 1:100 scale. or everything else was the correct size ( unlikely!) and they were too big...turned out the first statement was true...and what a match!! see the other pic of the comparison with a completed Rubicon model below-perfect!!! Excuse the grainy photos, as the first was a screenshot from the website and the other was taken just now at night. YUCK ..but you get the idea.

Anyways...im setting myself a challenge; see how much of the stuff on my shelves i can paint around my wargames room  in eighty days. I was going to start this immediately before the army decided to send me away for  the best part of a month, so I only got three days in ( having painted the first model on the list below which was filmed for a video on you tube- check it out), but I'm continuing the challenge from tomorrow minus those 3 days, so 77 days from now means...27th of October. Thats my finish date.

  I know i wont get it all done...as with many of the challenges I set myself I will try to 'shoot for the moon, land among the stars!' and see what i can actually manage!! 

Heres the list of stuff that needs to be painted:

 Tropical  FJ for our book's  " How to paint tropical Fallschirmjager" video, linked to our you tube page- DONE!!!

British  M7 Priest SPG

5 x D&D Characters

1x goat, 2 x Cows, 1 mule, 1 German shepherd, teddy bear

FJ and pack mule

Para chaplain and chaplain

5 dak infantry vehicle mounted

1 British airborne morris 

3 British airborne jeeps ( various patterns & 2 trailers)

12 British airborne vehicle crew.

4 x Brit airborne containers

2 parachute canopies on ground

1 skaven engineer

12 skaven stormvermin

10 empire huntsmen

1 empire Hellstorm rocket battery and crew

1 empire musician/bear mascot

5 empire outriders

4 x Luftwaffe tropical ground crew

German marder III gun and crew

German schwimmwagon x 3 

Assemble and paint UNIC P107 half track

Lorraine Shlepper

Repair SS tank rider MG42

Vampire counts roadshrine

Mussolini and Skorzeny

Greater Demon of Khorne

German Vampire officer

27 Offensive,empress and westwind German Battle of Berlin 'last levy'

Repair ruined keep, broken masonry

3 x SW Landspeeders

Arjac rockfist

Njarl Stormcaller termi and power armour

SW Iron Priest on foot and mounted torso

Murderfang

18 Bloodclaws

SW HQ landraider

SW Rhino

2 x lascannon longfangs

12 plastic FJ

6 westwind FJ with P/Fausts

6 SS pioneers

7Luftwaffe Field Regt 88 crew.

2 x Hungarian infantry

Soviet flag at Reichstag vignette

4 x metal offensive FJ

So thats what im going to be up to everyone...wish me luck, ill post updates as I go.

Talk soon, Dan 

The Valhalla Games web store is now live at this location:

https://www.valhallagames.net/store/

The web site is just out of the shrink wrap so ANY issues at all let us know. Adding freight zones is proving to be troublesome, if your freight zone/country is not listed let us know or if you have any other issues please contact us here.

If your visiting Historicon in Lancaster, PA (United States) this year an want to pickup our book The Battle for Primosole Bridge (without paying freight!). Its available in limited quantities from Sheildwall gaming check them out and have a first-hand look at the book yourself. Check out their other items while you are there.

Thanks Jeff!

 Hi All! Its been so great to get your messages about receiving your books and your initial thoughts. We are very proud and pleased to say they have been overwhelmingly positive!!!

Thanks for your patience with the uploading of the Tropical Fallschirmjäger painting guide, its now uploaded and ready to help you get those FJ ready to fight for Primosole Bridge! Just scan the QR code in the hobby section of your book to take you directly to the video on YouTube, or for those of you still awaiting the mailman, follow the link below to get a headstart on getting your FJ ready;

[Click the image below to view the video]

Speaking of Youtube and other social media- we need your help! We need you to share your thoughts and reviews on 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge' far and wide. Those of you who do YouTube especially - please upload a video and share with us and the wargames community your reviews!!

We Have a limited number of books left, but gauging further demand will allow us to not only assess our next steps with the CURRENT book, but will also help build brand recognition and allow us to bring you future products too!!!

Lets see those reviews everyone! Thanks in advance for all your help.

Kind Regards, Dan and Rex

The last QR code video for 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge' campaign book is nearly complete, just a final image and then editing. Won't be long now, get you paint brushes ready for Dan's tropical Fallschirmjäger paint guide including; general workflow, paint colours and tips.

Speaking of exciting new books, I received my copy of Wargaming Campaigns by wargame royalty Henry Hyde today what a massive amount of content and I'm massively excited about as I have plans to run a huge campaign some time in my life. 

This book makes a great bookend to Henry's other book The Wargaming Compendium which is one of the first books I read when getting into wargaming.
Dan and I will be reading though and reviewing this. So look forward to that (but at 526 pages it may take a while!).
Available now at Pen & Sword

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Wargaming-Campaigns-Hardback/p/14601

We are pleased to report that The Battle for Primosole Bridge campaign book has been shipped to all backers and pre-order customers (excluding 5 people who haven't got their address to me yet).

Thanks to our logistics partners War and Peace Games Australia the process was smooth and quick. A HUGE thanks to Ian and Sean for their help with that. 

If your buying wargames products, in Australasia please check them out at https://www.warandpeacegames.com.au/.

You should receive your shipping email with tracking information direct from Australia Post in the next couple of days.

Dan and I are extremely happy with the final result, and we think you will be too. We have shot a video of a flick through of the book but what would be the fun in that, we are going to keep you in suspense a few days longer. Once we see reports of sightings of the book 'in the wild' we will release some video to whet your appetite for those shipping to destinations further afield.

Dan literally gets out of his foxhole and in less than 24 hours back in the real world he is bulking up on steak, and well... good to see you have your priorities right...

As you should be aware The Battle for Primosole Bridge book is in print production right now. 'Shipping day' (to you) is planned for 29 June and the printers have confirmed that they are on target to have the bulk delivery to us in time for that.

Its time to collect addresses for all backers and pre-orders. We have deliberately not collected addresses before now so that we didn't have to deal with address changes but now is the time when we need to collect your information and collate everything for an efficient shipping process.

To enable this, we would appreciate it if you could reply to this survey ASAP with your details. Remember if you have ordered two books they will be sent to the same address. 

Thanks again and we are excited to nearly have to book on its way to you.

Rex and Dan

Kickstarter surveys have been sent, pre-order emails requesting the same should be sent tonight.

 Something to play after the book goes to print tomorrow

Hi Everyone!

Rex and I hope this update finds you well. Just a quick update for now; we have entered what we hope will be the final week of the books preparation for sending to the printers! That's right – at the end of this week 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge' will be sent to the printers for review by them, the production of the proof copy, then then print run itself!!! Based on current estimates we are perfectly on [revised] target for 'shipping by the end of June'.

We will provide another update after the proof is approved by us and the printing has started. Shortly after that we will ask for delivery address details. We have left collecting delivery address details until now so that there would not be any address changes, ensuring that we post your book to the correct location.

For now, here is a photo of the last photo ever to be taken for 'The Battle for Primosole Bridge'...

Talk soon with another update, we are excited and we hope that you are too.

Dan and Rex

Hi everyone, what a busy period it's been since the last update!

Rex has moved heaven and earth to get the remaining photography pretty close to being done for the book. A few 'whites' (the popular type of shot you see in publications that have just the figure, vehicle etc on a white/transparent background) remain for a couple of places in the book, then photography is all done!

For many of the photos of a full or 'deeper' table set up we needed to capture (there's a LOT of these!), Rex used a process where he 'stacked' differently - focussed shots on top of each other... a hugely time-consuming process that entailed the taking of over 1600 photographs! But the results are worth it we believe, and we feel confident, after looking at the end result, that you will think so too when you hold the book in your hand and see how good they are!

Secretly up to now, we have engaged the services of a professional artist to assist with the creation of the scenario maps for the book. We have now received the final artwork and WOW! what a result! This is another part of the book we can't wait for you to see!

To whet your appetite, Rex has done a video of the new fully sculpted Primosole Bridge table and will be releasing it in the near future which will get you excited for the book and give you some ideas for your table at home. It's fantastic- when I saw it first and it allowed me to take in the board for the first time I was astonished at just how great it was.

We received the massive shipment of your free sprues from Wargames Atlantic, and they are sitting patiently for when it comes time to send out your books to you.

We just wanted to say we have really appreciated your patience and kind words of reassurance after our delay in fulfilment until end of June primarily due to freight issues. It has been really heart-warming, thank you.

We have made every attempt to reward you for your patience and wanted to share with you that the book has now grown in size to over 100 pages!

Thanks everyone, talk again soon.

Regards,

Dan & Rex

We hope this update finds you safe and well wherever you are.

Rex has done amazing work on the (Now finished!) additional table for the book...we can reveal now that Rex has made an additional table for the initial assault on the bridge and which also stars in many of the detailed close up shots in other scenarios within the book.

I think it looks amazing, and Rex has really outdone himself yet again- you are in for a treat! That means you are going to see TWO versions of Primosole Bridge in the book- one representative and one closer to scale. The first photos from this new board are REALLY impressive!!

The Hobby section has now been expanded greatly from what was first envisaged also, with extra detail being invested into the detail of how to build terrain for the campaign and how to build up an impressive table layout for your games and/or photography of them in progress!

Wargames Atlantic have informed us that the free plastic Italian sprues are also winging their way in freight to us ready for inclusion with your book!! Thanks WA!

Now for the not so good news; The transit time of the final shipment of miniatures to Rex for photography was grossly outside our timeframes we had planned. Previous shipments for the book under the same shipping constraints have taken approx. A week, with 10 days maximum. This shipment took almost FIVE WEEKS.

Added to this, the printers have asked for an additional editing/production process for our images prior to printing. Rex has been working on our existing images night and day, but still has some yet outstanding. It also means additional work on the final photographs too.

The fact the final photography has been delayed almost a month, and now there is additional work for each of those photos has really damaged our print and dispatch schedule.

We had planned to be dispatching the book before end of April, but for these reasons we need to push this date back. We do not want to have any further issues that mean we need to do this again, however, and so we would rather make a bigger correction now and ensure we are within this new timeframe.

To that end, we now have had to push back the forecasted dispatch date to no later than the end of June.

We are sorry for the delays and hope you can understand given the delays above. We are working hard behind the scenes to make this book have the WOW factor, and are disappointed that events have conspired to foil us with the finish line so close.  

Thank you to all of you who have been in touch with us with excited news of your hobby progress in preparation for the book, such as having printed off your free STLs and progress on new armies for the campaign...your enthusiasm is also inspiring to us! 

Talk soon! Dan & Rex, Valhalla Games.

Well, here we are...arriving at the first of our 'final times'...the last time we do a particular activity in prep for the books production ...

STLs have been sent within emails to all the Kickstarter backers (if you didn't get the email let us know at: https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/contact), along with the contact details for WOW Buildings in case there are technical questions or other queries regarding the files.

STLs for the pre-order customers should be sent in the next 24 hours

The Final wargames Atlantic sprue numbers have gone to them for production and supply of the sprues to us.

In other news; while continuing his work on the (currently unrevealed) realistic scale battle board that will provide photos for the book ( and hopefully a board with which to attend some wargames shows/events sometime in our future!) Rex decided he needed some blockhouses and barricades. Having designed them for 3D printing, Rex has decided decided to share them here with you..... for free!;

https://www.valhallagames.net/index.php/barricades-and-blockhouses

So follow the link and print some off ( or get someone to do it for you and buy them a beer!) and get yourself set up for your scenarios when you receive your book!

In the 'background' but very much at the forefront of our minds and driving our timelines, we've been refreshing our quotes and checking lead-time with the printers.

Spread the word: pre-orders still open ( despite the free STL and sprue deal having finished due to our deadlines for those suppliers-apologies!), so if you want a copy, reach out and we will let you know how you can  place your order.!

There's a couple of weeks of hard work and immersion in the written content for the book as final editing is ongoing. Following that we have final photography and working through further logistical demands. Thanks for staying there with us in this journey- some of this stuff isn't the sexy/glamourous/exciting news to show and tell you about...BUT it is essential work to add polish to this production, and we hope in some small way you enjoy hearing about this in order to feel informed and reassured of the professional work going into the book.

Thank you and we will update you again in a couple of weeks time with another update! 

Regards, 

Dan and Rex