Xmas goodies

 I don't usually get tons of wargaming stuff for Christmas as I prefer to buy things myself, but I do generally put a few gaming related  items on my Christmas list.

This year I got this lot.

Regular readers will recall my outing with 'Battle' earlier this year, and now that the PDFs of the original Meccano magazine articles have vanished off the interweb, I thought I'd better get the modern reprint which includes the missing magazine articles and some other bits including a lawn game and (yet another) attempt to refight 'Reconnaisance in Force'. 

You can never have too many Dominion books, so we here have the WW1 version. I have lots of WW1 stuff so it will be interesting to see how some of these play out.

And while we are at it, why not the RCW? Like some of the other Dominion books, it covers a period I know little about but I can easily press-gang my existing figures to take part. Might be an excuse to deploy my armoured train too. 

I got a replacement WW2 para beret after we had an unfortunate infestation of moths. They seemed especially fond of my maroon beret as well as my Tam o'Shanter (bespoke made at hideous cost for a re-enactment event). I'm not too worried about replacing the Tam as I can cut off the bobble and sew it onto my GS cap, but I like my beret so got a new one.

This is one of the Soldier of Fortue repros, which go under the moniker of 'Kay Canvas'. They make tons of repro 37 pattern webbing too, now that the original stuff is virtually unobtainable. I just need to transfer my South Staffs cap badge and all will be tickety boo.

I also got a proper RAF forage cap after the embarrassment of having to wear my Luftwaffe cap backwards  in the recent 633 squadron game. This is also a lovely repro and identical to my fathers, which I use to wear when I was a kid (he had a whole kitbag full of his old uniforms).

It even has the little hooks so you can secure the side flaps to the ventilation holes. I just need to get a Kings Crown RAF cap badge now.

Finally I felt I'd been letting our US colleagues down too. I've only got a Jeep Cap and a repro US  mountain forces cap having sold my M1 helmet some time ago (it was a post war Bundeswehr one and got sold with all my other Bundy gear). I wanted a US side cap with officers piping rather than the inevitable Para ones, and the only officers one I could find was in twill, but it is rather natty. Very Eisenhower I think.  I just need a badge for this one too, torn between Major or Colonel.

While many of the films are pretty ropey, I'm a big fan of the Star Wars universe in general and the multiple Marvel comics series covering the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader, and his enduring adventures.

 For fans of the big D, I'm currently playing the computer game 'Star Wars Outlaws', and the main protagonist is  a complete clone of Vaders' rogue/thief/hacker sidekick, Dr Aphra. Highly recommended and I don't know why they didn't just call 'Kay Vess' Dr Aphra instead, maybe some IP thing. Anyway, I digress.

Christmas crackers often deliver useful stuff, and in this case, yet another tiny set of playing cards. Very handy for all sorts of gaming uses. I haven't checking through to see how many jokers it has in it though.

So, a decent haul, I'm pleased with that lot.