Book(let) of the Month

While very little is happening on the figure front (just finishing of Mr Llanfanihangel Penbeddw, President of the Republic of Wales) I thought I'd drop a picture and small description of this small booklet from my shelves.

The Great War Game, published by Britain's to support their range of soldiers. According to James Opie's book 'The Great Book of Britain's' it was put out in 1909, which I believe predates 'Little Wars' by a few years. My copy is a reprint put out in the early 1990s.

The cover is as illustrated, with portraits of 'warlords past and present' showing Wellington, Napoleon, Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener' Von Moltke and the Kaiser. An interesting selection. The title page suggests that it is for 'boys of all ages from 5 to 75 years, the 16 pages of close type include chapters on the Battlefield, the Army, Moving of troops, Time, Ammunition and methods of firing, Killed and wounded, Recruits, Prisoners, Tactics and War correspondents, ending with a description of a battle between the French (Napoleon) and the Russians (Czar), showing that Napoleonic warfare was to the forefront even then even if the troops were of the wrong era.

I was interested in the army make-up, where one corps is made up of two infantry and one cavalry brigades, each brigade of two or three regiments, each regiment of three or four companies (infantry) or three or four squadrons (cavalry) all of ten to twenty men each. To my maths this makes a regiment of between 30 to 80 men, a lot to move around though trays of 12" by 6" are suggested. Although this is impractical today at 54mm it might be feasible in the smaller scales?

My sister and I have nearly sorted my late mother's estate, normal service should be resumed within a couple of months.

Back to normal

Well we've returned from our sojourn in Wales, which lived up to its reputation, as we had three days of the wettest rain for a long time. Sounded like the jungle drums on the caravan roof. MrsJ had expressed a desire to go up Snowdon even though she has a fear of heights. Because of the weather we went by the rack railway. A one hour trip, with 30 minutes at the top before another hour down. Our train was cancelled as we were the only two waiting for it, so we took the free coffee and waited for the next one.

This is MrsJ just outside the summit visitors centre. I couldn't persuade her the last few 30 feet to the top as 'there's no hand rail'. The trip up was memorable, squashed in like sardines and the view shrouded by mist, apart from a few stretches that showed what a good day could have been like.

This was the view from the summit. Believe it or not you're supposed to be able to see other countries from here. All we got was in impenetrable grey blanket.

We came home a couple of days early, so I was able to put finishing touches to my little gaming model of HMS Hotspur, matching the recent HMS Glatton.

She still needs boats (yes, and some bunting), but a couple more of these and I can have a small skirmish.

Book of the month

My wife and I are about to depart for two weeks in Wild Wales, half near Aberystwyth and half near Cardigan, taking the caravan and plenty of reading. Romantic bodice rippers for her, nice sedate murder mysteries for me. Just time to show you this book from my shelves.

Published originally in 1964, I obviously obtained my copy second-hand as it has a dealers sticker and pencilled price (£10) in it. It deals with a lesser aspect of military campaigns, namely the activities and expolits of War Correspondents.
Starting with William Russell and the Crimean War, the various chapters cover the American Civil War, The Franco-Prussian War, the Russo-Turkish War, and various fracas in Oxus, Abyssinia, Ashanti, Zululand, the Sudan, Cuba, Greece, the Boer War, and Russo-Japanese War, ending on the eve of the '14-18 do.
Definitely worth reading, and perhaps a few journalists might appear in your game plans? 

HMS Glatton

You first saw her in embryo back in July, now after various distractions HMS Glatton is finished in all her glory. Although the overall impression is good I'm not too happy with the finish, and the painting could have been neater. I think the model does capture the character of those old ironclads, and now she needs an opponent. HMS Hotspur will be on the slips shortly.

There should be more davits and boats scattered about, but I thought they might get damaged in use, so ignored them. I may put a bit more 'clutter' on the foredeck eventually, as it looks a bit bare as it stands.

Recent Abscence

I have not been putting anything up here lately. This is because my elderly mother had a nasty fall some weeks ago and I've been shuttling back and forth between Ipswich and Boston (some 200 mile round trip) to visit in hospital. All seemed to be going well and we were looking forward to having her home, when she contracted shingles, which suddenly developed into some long named meningitis. A massive stroke followed, and the doctors put her on very strong medication, but after a week of unconsciousness and a hard fight (she was a stubborn old lady, in her way) she passed away.
It is the end of an era for me, the last member of her generation of the family. It was very strange entering her house without her there. I shall miss her.
Now it only remains to get her affairs sorted and eventually get back to normal. Reports will resume soon.

New Yeomanry Uniform Book

I have just received my copy of the new Yeomanry Uniform book from D.P.& G., the last in a four volume set. This one from 1901 to 1914. A review has been sent to the Funny Little Wars yahoo group, but here are a few photos to whet the appetite.

Plenty of scope for new units here.

The Naval Side

As things are a bit quiet at the moment on the troops painting front while I have other concerns I thought I'd put up a picture of an ongoing project. This is a small coast defence ironclad based on HMS Glatton. She is about 4inches long and has a single forward turret. I took the drawing from Oscar Parkes "British Battleships" just tracing it straight off the page. There's just a little more detailing to be done and a Victorian paint job. My intention is to have half a dozen or so of these little vessels for use on the grass with very simple rules, which I'm working on now and again. Once she's finished it may be the turn of HMS Hotspur, fixed turret but moveable gun.

One now for 'Chasseur' - I've managed, after a long search, to get hold of a copy of 'The Black Battlefleet' by Admiral Ballard. A detailed look at all the Royal Navies capital ships from Warrior to the 'Alexandra' of the 1880s. Originally published as a series of articles in The Mariners Mirror in the 1920's, my edition is from1980.

As well as giving details and many photos of the ships, the book has pictures of life aboard, and also includes large sail plans of some of the ships, including sizes of masts and yards. Also included are tables of armament and armour, and machinery data. The latter includes the avarage speed of the ship so any gamer could build any differences into his rules.

It was quite an expense, but will be worth every penny eventually. Strangely enough my copy came from Canada.