Lazy Summer Days

Well things have dried up here for a while. Since June I have failed to do any painting what so ever with my daughter's wedding, World Cup, looking after the gardens and now holidays in a week’s time. Spare time has disappeared.
So I have put every thing on ice and will make a start when I come back.
It’s not to say that I have not started on the Prussians but all I have done with the first batch is painted their trousers and coats. I think by now they have more dust than paint on them. With this year already whizzing by, I must finish them and take some photo’s which never seem to get done. But stay tuned to this channel.

Big disappointment in reading

I know that this is a little late in posting this, but this was a great disappointment to me.
Yep, I am talking about the June 2010 issue of Wargames Illustrated. Yes I know that two more issues have since been printed but I have just got round to reading the magazine.
This one was called Europe in Turmoil- The Napoleonic Wars. When I first learnt that Wargames Illustrated was going to do one on Napoleonic Wars with a free Osprey book, at last, I really could not wait for the magazine to come out. I had seen some of the other issues before and they looked really good.
So when the time finally arrived, I rushed out to my local newsagent with £4 in my hand and brought a copy. Although I did have a quick flick through I left it for a while before reading it.
The Issue held 123 pages which for £4 is good value for money, but when I started reading I realised that It was not a good buy.
First off we had six pages of “A German Officer in the age of Napoleon”. The Odyssey of Wilhelm Von Dornberg about his roll in the wars changing sides all the way through the wars to send up on the English and allied army at Waterloo.
Then can six pages of “Old Soldiers Never Die” A scenario using Republic to Empire set of rules.
This was followed by another six pages of “Creating a Kingdom-Westphalia”. A history lesson about how the German states in 1807 were made into one.
Battle of Leipzig 16-19th Oct 1813 came next in the book a total of ten pages wargaming the battle with report from America.
Then a article about Victrix models and the history behind the French Grenadiers, followed by two pages of how to paint them.
We then came along with two pages of the Project Hougoumont. A restoration project which needs 6.5 million to stop it falling down, and to get it up and running as a museum.
So by the time I had read through the Napoleonic pages first there was not much there to get my heart racing. The other thing that I learn was how the 28mm figures have grown in popularity over the last year and a bit. (I’ll keep to my 20mm ones)
But after all that I was glad that I got my free? Osprey’s Men-at-arms book 153 Napoleon’s Guard Infantry (1) as I do not have it in my collection. That in itself was a great read.