Monday, July 2, 2018

New Beginnings

New Beginnings

I have been silent for some time as I have been busy changing my life for the last three years.
For many years I have been thinking and planning to start a business that relates to my wargaming, military modelling and military history hobby. I have tried painting miniatures, manufacturing miniatures and building armies and terrain to sell to fund my hobby. My normal job in construction of course really just funded my lifestyle, my hobby and interests. It was not until 24 months ago after returning to Australia from a holiday in Europe that a plan started to hatch. My wife and I were a little jaded about working 7 till 6pm in the corporate world of Sydney and looking forward we could not see much change in the next ten to fifteen years for us. 

So together we hatched a plan to move to Europe, looking for a different lifestyle and way to earn a living. We looked at what skills we had, and the finances available to start a business in our selected country. We looked at the UK, Germany and France. We settled on France as it offered the best options for us. We started our search for suitable locations throughout Normandy, Mayenne and Brittany.  

We had quite a list of requirements, a city or town that would meet our needs;  it needed to be within 1.5 hours of the Normandy beaches, with ancient, medieval and Renaissance chateaus close by. Good quality restaurants and local produce. Close to a  TGV line to Paris, motorways North, South, East, West and a international airport nearby, and not be too touristy. Amazingly we found such a place, finally we settled on Ville Mayenne, Pays de Loire as it offered the most potential for us, met all of our requirements as is very central.    

The house was the next challenge, we required a house that had at least 6 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms and all the conveniences within walking distance (i.e boulangerie, supermarket, cafes, shops and banks). We then selected a buying agent who gave us four options in Mayenne. I than flew to France to inspect the properties on our list,  two we eliminated early, one a little creepy, the other received an offer before we inspected. This left two properties. We then met with the Mayor to gauge his support for our venture, thankfully he was enthusiastic about our plans and gave us his full support for our enterprise. 

To qualify for a four year entrepreneurial visa, we were required to develop a solid business plan, prove we had invested quite a bit of money in France and had savings to live on while the business  grew to support us. 

We then found our ideal property thankfully our offer was excepted. We become the proud owners of L'Hotel de Herce in March 2018. The house is a "Maison Particular" built circa 1715 with a side carriage way, and a "cour de Honneur" entrance courtyard and private gardens, a 21 room three storey home, with three Grand Salons still with parquetry floors and panelled walls. 

We open as a Chambre de Hote (B & B) in August 2018, with three guest rooms.
The Grand salon on the second floor will become the "Salon de Guerre" (war room), where grand war gaming will be conducted in a gentlemanly manner. We will conduct military history tours of the various battlefields with a 1.5 hours, then return to game them on my table with my miniatures. We have our first event in October 2018, bookings will open very soon.


Book Here



L'Hotel de Herce Mayenne, France


cheers
Matt

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Rembrandt and the Dutch golden age

Last weekend we decided to visit the NSW Art Gallery to celebrate Vanessa and my wedding anniversary. A number of the paintings depicted Naval actions from the Four Days Naval Battle (11-14 June 1666) during the Anglo-Dutch war of 1666-1672. The Dutch artist Willem van de Velde the elder painted a lot of naval scenes, with great detail for wargamers.















cheers
Matt

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Republican Roman command

A little command Of  Publius Licinius Crassus the younger, commander of the legion in the Armorican campaign

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Republican Roman Legion

Finally after two years I have finished basing my republican romans for impetus, these chaps will possibly be sold in my reorganisation of my collection this year, another project off the to do list.


Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Fokker G1 1/72nd

I have been looking for this model for some time and finally picked one up on a second hand stall for $10, now I need to wait for a resin engine detail kit and scratch build the interior and then build the beggar. Vacform kits can be tough so it will possibly take me a month to complete because of the work involved, looking forward to messing up a German picnic with it in the future!






2016 a year of renewal- 2017 back with vigour!

Looking back to 2016, a huge year for me personally, a new job, moved house, renovated, engaged  and then married, a new BMW, then a month in Bavaria Germany for our honeymoon, so wargaming has taken a back seat really, maybe 20 games for the year and very low production off the table.

So far this year, I headed off to Cancon for a bit of a spending spree, first time in three years, planning on attending the Company of dice club on the first Sunday of the month and Cumberland on the second, then possibly Goulburn on the fourth when I can.

However lots planned this year on the painting desk, a simpler list and possibly more realistic, returning to my first passion Napoleonics as my main focus.

1. Dutch 20mm army (started blogging on my ww2 blog for this already)
2. Lewes knights and seargeants 100 of the buggers and more infantry
3. 28mm French Napoleonics several batns of infantry and regiments of cavalry 150 figures
4. Russian Napoleonics brand new army infantry to start with, planned two regiments plus oddments 240 odd figures.
5. 20mm modern, mix of west Germans, Iraqis and Russians.
6. 28mm 5th BC Greeks
7. 20mm waffen SS and Fallschirmjager
8. Saxon Napoleonics using Calpe miniatures
9. Napoleonic Naval 1/1200th
10. 1/1200th Spanish American war fleets ( no idea why, I just like them)
11 28mm Renaissance Italio-French
12. 28mm WOTR

Some commissions being done also
1. Spartans
2. Byzantine
3. Romans
4. Moderns

But try not to do much more than that

Plus other bits and bobs as I travel along.happy gaming and modelling

Cheers
Matt