More loot and a late Christmas present

Hello again.

I have finally taken delivery of a present I bought myself, ostensibly for Christmas last year, on the basis that it might have been published by then. Five months later (about a month or so ago now), I finally took delivery!

 

 



 I have been a fan of these "Wargaming in History" books since the first one came out a few years back and have bought most of them to date. This is the second covering the Seven Weeks' War of 1866 and, on first browse, seems to be every bit as good as the first volume, which dealt with the early battles. Perhaps I will review it properly once I have actually read it!

This era is one I am seriously looking to get into, being the owner of several hundred Austrian figures in 15mm, roughly 30% of the relevant infantry being in the Kittel tunic (more 1859) and the rest in the greatcoat so synonymous with 1866. I also have a couple of hundred Prussians too. On top of that, I made a serious investment in 10mm ACW last year and treated myself to some 10mm Crimean War Russians earlier this. Why the small scale? Well, my table size for games has shrunk by half as changes in the family home have eaten into space, so smaller figures is the way to go for me at the moment. I WILL do this at some time...

A small snapshot of just one of the fine photo/ map pages.

The book is chock-full of great photos (hence the high cost of these books) and good maps clearly showing table layouts for playing games. These layouts are also used to show the movement of the troops during the game recreations covered in the book.

 

 

Finally, as I reach the "end" of my French & Indian Wars project (famous last words, as I do have plans to buy a few units of regulars for both sides as I have something in mind...), I thought I would add some terrain to my sundry collections. All the above was bought at a model railway show for less than £20. I have also been collecting lollipop sticks of a particular type for a while now, namely round ones rather than the usual flat variety, to use as log cabin walls. A recent article by Diane Sutherland in Miniature Wargames showed how to do it, so a few settler cabins for the FIW are not far away(I hope).

 

And that is about it for now. Painting time is very limited at present due to a change in my work hours to straight days whilst work undergoes some major changes, but I have at last managed to finish more Rangers and some Militia for the FIW, so will show them soon.

 

I have also just undercoated some Viking archers, which I hope to have ready for the Wyrley Retinue outing to the Barrage Show in Stafford on 9th July - just four weeks today! We will be showing our "Storri's Trek 2: The Rath of Cahan" game again, but always change something between outings to try and freshen things up and give the paying public something else to see should they have seen the game in a previous incarnation.

 

G