"Oh, The HORROR! The HORROR!!!!"

There was I at a loose-end - what with her ladyship out for the evening and me home early from work unexpectedly ... so I thought "Hmmm maybe just a little bit of figure painting to be done".

Now I have had it up to the back-teeth with painting Orcs & Goblins & Trolls & various assorted monsters for Warband ... so I though I'll just pop into the famous Wargames Cupboard and see if I can root out those Sarmatian 28mm Cavalry I 'know' that are in there somewhere - painted but not yet based. So I can augment my Early Imperial Romans for LaG.

So I switched on the light (which is outside the door) and opened the door ... when the smell hit me ... holy shit ... DAMP!!!

There I was facing a huge slowly collapsing heap of soldiers, terrain and soaking wet boxes. The bloody toilet in the bathroom above had sprung a leak. As Marlon Brando say in that well known film 'Plumbing Apocolypse Now!' ... "Oh the horror! The horror!!!

Looking back it can only have been leaking for a couple of day maximum as I went into the cupboard only on Monday night to put back my LaG Romans after crushing rebellious Roman Govner Steve Price in a LaG Competition practice game ... but the damage is catastrophic. 

Mostly it is the terrain that has taken the brunt of the damage ... boccage never does well in bad weather, let alone a flood. Most of my 28mm armies are ok but a couple of 15mm have suffered from heavier boxes on top crushing the damp boxes they were in at the bottom of the stack. I've lost a load of part painted plaster of paris rivers (another lesson learned there!) and also got a lot of very damp bases I am praying will not curl as they dry (fingers crossed)

The saddest loss will be my snowy forest terrain - the MDF is curling as I watch it ... with pine trees, melted snow and rocks pinging off and being shed in avalanches ... but it is a salutary warning and a lesson learned (the hard way) ... 

1). don't use cowboy plumbers - not matter that they did the work 10 years ago

2). don't stack soldier boxes too high 

3). buy those plastic 'snap' boxes from Staples - sod the cost - as those all survived unscathed and so did their contents

Ah well ... it could have been worse (or could it) ... 

I was planning another clear out over the Xmas hols anyway ...

I also found 2 whole armies I'd forgotten all about ... 

and as Cathy said upon her return "well all those cardboard boxes acted like a sponge and must have soaked all the water and stopped it from going through to the kitchen ... that was lucky" ... (:(

I'll get me coat! (that's be a rain-mac I assume sir? Suits you Sir, suits you!)

Note (Official Sensor): all photographs of this terrible catastrophe have been sensored to protect the sensativities of wargaming viewers ... but have been sent to Aviva in the vain hope that they might be covered under my home contents policy.

All I can say is ... AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!