New Books From My Best Friend

Thanks Amazon.

The holidays are drawing to a close and on the hobby front not much is happening. I have read as far as the Battle of Marango in the Campaigns of Napoleon and I am finding out a lot that I had absolutely no idea about.  As I have mentioned previously, my book knowledge about things Napoleonic is pretty pathetic but one of the great things about being of so little knowledge is the constant discoveries one makes. I am interested in the various sieges of Mantua so now I am eyeing some books on my new friend Amazon.com which I might purchase. Speaking of books, I rediscovered a couple of interesting books which have been sitting up at my mum's house for the last 25 years. Here they are....

The first is a book called Tales of Waterloo by Maxwell. My edition is an 1854 version published by Bentley. I picked it up from a 2nd hand store in the '90s.  The prose is very dated and to be honest I couldn't actually read it! The next book is The Road to Waterloo. This is a disparate set of essays published under a pretty misleading title - again from the early '90s. I will take these back home on Sunday to reunite them with my small but burgeoning Napoleonic library.

So today - packing/cleaning and getting ready to migrate the family back home again. In the coming month I plan to finish my baggage train and get some more static grass from the US. After that...I am gaing to start a 1800-1805 army to fight all the way up to Austerlitz. This is going to be fun!

O\h\zounds! I can't read my way through such writing!

Nice photos in this book - but overall not the best reading.

Christmas Shenanigans

Christmas barbie. Not sure whether this should grace the title page of this blog. It was a bloody good cigar.

Wandered into an Oamaru second hand shop after doing our annual bike ride from Wianakarua(?) and found this bad boy.

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am replete both in terms of presents and food. In the lead up to Christmas I got my amazing present from the wonderful chaps at Amazon.com. A 1966 edition of The Campaigns of Napoleon by Chandler. The book was in mint condition but missing a dust jacket. I am not sure whether it originally came with one but I don't mind. Already I have devoured the first Italian campaign and am getting into the more heavy readings about the strategies of the Corps de Armee .

In terms of the hobby, I have been plugging away at basing my little artillery park. I can watch the kids play badminton outside while I am in the sun porch. I am still awaiting restocks of the 6 team limbers but in the meantime I have plenty to keep me busy. Now that I have received my first present from Amazon I consider myself a little hooked. Last night I ordered these... They should arrive during my first week back at work. That should cheer me up a little.

 Gotta love summer holidays...

Santa is going to be good to me this year.

I have always wanted my own copy of David Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon but I have never really thought about actually getting a copy from Amazon. Well yesterday that all changed. I managed to track down a copy of the book from the United States and for the all up cost of about $150 US a copy is winging its way to me even as I write this missive. Yesterday my static grass arrived from the States as well so I am pretty well set up hobby wise for the coming summer holidays.

Can't wait to lie on the beach and work my way through Mr. Chandler's masterpiece!!!!!

Just in time!

Just as I finished my really fun group of wagon train figures my next set of figures arrived from Aussie. Now I have enough figures to work on until the end of the month.  I finally tracked down a company which makes static grass in the US so I am awaiting three tubs of "Summer". All in all this has been a pretty cool month on the painting front. I am just hanging out for the 6 horse limber stocks to fill up again with Hat's E26 release.

In the meantime here are some of the sets minus their static grass. I am soooooo happy with these figures from Hat.  They really add some serious eye candy to my French army. My pièce de résistance has been the coal in the field forge. I got some modelling grit which had been lying around in a box under the house for a few years and dipped very watered-down enamel paint onto it. It ended up looking quite coal-ish.  Pretty basic stuff but I am pretty chuffed by the results

You might just about be able to see the coal in the forge at the front!

I've got to go buy a Christmas tree so that I can wrap up my two boxes of French Infantry and stick them under. They will be such a surprise to unwrap on Christmas day!

Replenishing Santa's Sack!

French Baggage Wagon x2
French Ammunition Caisson x3

French Wurst Wagon x2

On their way from Adelaide even as I write this. I was going to buy 6x 6 horse limbers but it looks like there are none in the southern hemisphere. From following Hat's website it seems that E26 are restocks so with any luck I should be able to pick them up in the New Year.

This weekend since I am not working, I intend to base the light ambulances at least. Fun fun fun at my painting table!

Saturday night at the painting table

I can't say that it was exactly a night at the painting table but in was an enjoyable hour. The kids went to bed and the wife disappeared into the lounge leaving me to my wagon fabrication yard. I base painted the horses and painted the first coat of green onto the field forges. They look so cool even in their unfinished state so they are sure to get even better once I get a fresh draught of horses in from Adelaide.

As I have mentioned before I have really been enjoying this brew as I paint. It is a fantastic lager

The brewer deserves a medal for this lager and the dude who thought of the name... well I don't know what to do with him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work in progress. All my projects are works in progress and seldom ever get finished.