New Plans

I've placed an entry on my other blog, Tales from the Grand Duchy of Humperstein, concerning plans for an 18th century project (if you can't beat em, join em) if you feel like checking it out.

I was planning on doing a cut and paste job onto the 18thC page, but can't work out how to do it. How do I make entries into a second page of a blog? I can't find an entry point. Probably looking in the wrong place, can anyone help? Thanks

Spring is here!

Officially it is Spring here in the UK. Unofficially the weather is still undecided. We get days of beautiful sun followed by days when it tries to snow, all of them perishing cold. (It has been 3 degrees in my shed overnight lately). This is a photo of MrsJ admiring the gardens and cascade at Chatsworth House last weekend. When we went up there with the caravan on the thursday it was beautiful, we woke the following morning to this! As we'd pre-booked our tickets we drove across the hills from Newark to Chatsworth and back. Satu
rday we came back home, thankfully dual carriageway main road all the way, rather than stay up there the rest of the weekend.

Anyway, this post was originally to point you towards an update on my other blog, thegrandduchyofhumperstein.blogspot.  so please visit and comment. Suggestions welcome.

Military Figure Auction

As someone who has occasionaly sent stuff to this auction house, I get regular notifications of their next auctions. For those who like to indulge in some browsing I post a link to the one they will be holding on Friday March 22nd. This is a 'Military and Civilian Figures' sale, and includes various makes and types of toy soldiers and civilians in both metal and plastic, Airfix kits, waterline ship models, and books and ephemera. The last are usually sold in batches, so you have to possibly decide if you want a duplicate of something you already have in order to get a title you want. I do not comment on the estimates, but from past experience they are pretty accurate though some lots don't sell.

www.vectis.co.uk/Page/Auctions.aspx?/A

For those who have enquired, I am now feeling much nearer to normal now. Painting has reccomenced, I've been looking at the lead mountain (though not touching) and planning future aquisitions, while trying to sort out the various dynasties involved in the Heptarchy project. Things are looking up.

Little People

While browsing today I found this site, couldn't resist showing you this picture from it. I mailed the site details to my daughter and she liked the 'footprint in the snow' picture best! No accounting for taste. Visit and be amused.    little-people.blogspot.com

Book of the Month - Funcken

I can't seem to shake of this blessed chest infection I've had since January, but hope the better weather will help. So not a lot of model or painting activity going on. Meantime, here is another book from my shelves. This one is a little known member of the Funcken catalogue, I don't know if it ever appeared in an English edition.

The title is 'Les Soldats de la Revolution Francaise' and was published in 1988 by Casterman. It's not the usual format, being more of a landscape format than portrait, but we still get the illustrations on the right page, with text on the left.

 

 

 

French Line troops - in Tarleton helmets



 

 

                                                                     Semaphore tower

                                                                   and the Airforce

There are also some full page pictures of revolutionary unit flags of the time, and a small section on the loyalist 'enemies of the revolution'.Unfortunately the book needs rudimentary french and a good french-english dictionary, so isn't ideal bedtime reading.

please excuse the quality of pictures, I seem to have a glare from somewhere.

Book of the Month

For various reasons I've got very little done this month. My schedule for January is already three weeks behind! So, for lack of anything else, here is another volume from my bookshelf.

Covenant With Death, by John Harris, originally published in 1961, is one of my favourite items of fiction from WW1 (along with the African Queen and Brown on Resolution). This novel covers the story of what is basically a 'Pals' batallion from the north of England, following it from the early days of the war, through recruitment and training, initial actions in the Middle East, and finally to the first day of the Somme. The last chapter, concerns the few survivors of the day returning and the welcoming officers realising how few there are coming back. I've allways thought this book would make an ideal TV series as a centenary project for the BBC (but perhaps Blackadder did it better?)

Now a technical query for you expert bloggers out there. I'm hoping to add some extras, and would like to include the 'labels' I see on other blogs. Question is, once I get the gadget up and running do the headings come up automatically, or do I break entries down as I put them on?

Book of the Month

The Vanished Army by Tim Carew, initially published back in 1964. This covers the British Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium in 1914, and is a marvelous portrait of the end of the old regular army told in a very readable fashion from stories of the ordinary privates called back from reserve to those of the people at the top. It covers the period from a pre-war overview of the army, through mobilisation and deployment in France, ending in November 1914. Thoroughly reccommended if you can get hold of a copy.