Salad Days?

Am I regressing to my youth as I approach retirement?  I think I may be.

When I was in my early teens I was a keen modeller spending a large part of my pocket money on at least one Airfix kit a week.  Of course I also had lots of the HO/OO plastic Airfix figures. I had both sides for the American Civil War (ACW) and the Western Desert in WWII.

Book Reviews - Western Desert 1941-42

It's been a while since I posted a book review.  Over four years in fact.  Not that I've stopped reading or buying books.  It's more that I've been reading mainly fiction and the non-fiction books I have read haven't really inspired me.  Until now.

These continue my fascination with the Western Desert during WWII.  My reading list is quite lengthy; so long that that I've reached the point where I'm looking for something a little different.

Status Report

After all that stodgy stuff about L’Art De La Guerre (ADLG) in the last post I thought I’d just write a short piece about my current projects.  The following are all 15 mm:

• TYW artillery.  The three guns are done and the crew will be started next week.
• TYW musketeers. I’m half way through three battlegroups worth of these to bulk out my TYW collection.
• TYW infantry command. These are underway.  Some are destined for generic musketeer elements while the majority are for some Early German Protestant command elements.
• TYW Transylvanians.  I bought samples at Britcon and have nearly finished them all.  It’s been fun getting the colour palette right and I’ve even been edge highlighting blackened armour!
• WWII 8th Army.  Slowly working my way through a largish pile of infantry in batches of 4-8 figures each time.

Having a lot of projects isn’t that novel.  I suspect I have far fewer than many but the main thing is that I’m making progress with all of them.  In the last weeks I have finished and in some cases based:

• Eight bases of TYW musketeers (8 x 3 = 24 infantry).
• One batch of 8th Army (8 infantry).
• One battlegroup of Akinji light horse (8 x 2 = 8 cavalry).
• Three bases of TYW command each with two hand-painted Danish flags.

I think it’s far to say I have got my painting “mojo working”. When I’ve finished the Translyvanians I’ll get my camera out and take some pictures.

Tobruk–William F Buckingham (2008) Update

This post has under gone a significant update following a reply from the publisher.

Read the update ...

Tobruk–William F Buckingham (2008)

This book was meant to form part of my Christmas reading but I gave in and started it early.  In some ways I wish I hadn’t.  I’m just over one third of the way through the book and it’s really annoying me.

Recent Books - WWII Western Desert

Continuing my growing fixation with the Western Desert, I recently completed reading Barrie Pitt's "Crucible of War" trilogy. I read both volumes I & II back to back after I was lent a BCA combined edition by a friend.



I was pleased to get my hands on the first two volumes as I enjoyed reading the final volume

Here's my one sentence review:

• "Wavell's Command" and "Auchinleck's Command" offer a good overview of the first four legs of the Bengahzi Handicap, with an especially clear and detailed account of Churchill & Eden's decision to weaken the Western Desert Force to bolster Greece, however, as before it gets a bit dry (with some tortured use of tense) when dealing with the battles. 8/10

Recent Books - Various

More second hand reading finds:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "The Full Monty" is a whopping 780 pages excluding appendices yet it is extremely well written and can be read at pace as it builds up a fascinating picture of Monty, how he brought about the victory at El Alamein and why he had to do what he did.  9/10. Amazon UK
• "Conquest" fails to overcome the detail that bedevils so much recent medieval history because the narrative gets lost in the endless stream of castles captured and marches made, plus the book is frequently let down by the lack of a good map. 5/10. Amazon UK

Recent Books - Alamein

Here's the latest additions to my library:



Unusually for me these were purchased new and were read one after the other in very short order.  There was a distinct possibility of "desert overdose" but I found both good reads.  Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "Alamein: War Without Hate" offers an engrossing "journalistic narrative" to the whole desert campaign with clear, descriptive maps which I read at real pace.  9/10
  
• "Pendulum Of War: Three Battles at El Alamein " is a tactically detailed account covering just the battles around El Alamein which is very readable and pacey but it occasionally gets bogged down in the complexities of the campaign and sometimes the maps don't really help. 8/10

I'll be keeping these as they will both be re-read at some point in the future.

Recent Books

I've just finished some heavyweight reading.  The two books below cover very different periods but share the same aim of producing readable, narrative history:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "1812" offers a beautifully readable version of the famous campaign of 1812 and thoroughly deserves the plaudits heaped on it by others not least by avoiding the pitfalls so common in military history of this period. 10 /10
• "All Hell Let Loose" is also very readable offering a critical, yet dynamic, overview of such a vast topic apparently with ease bolstered with an excellent selection of very apposite statistics, stories and quotes from all sides. 9/10

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. Postage will be £3.25 within the UK. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Recent Books

I started this year reading books on an old theme: the Western Desert in WWII. As it turned out I read two very different books. Panzer Commander covers far more than war in the desert.



Here are my one sentence reviews:

• "Montgomery And Alamein" offers a pro-Montgomery perspective (see others) and is at its best when dealing with Montgomery's early years and the build up to the battle, however it gets a bit dry (with some tortured use of tense) when dealing with the battle itself. 7/10
• "Panzer Commander" is very readable with a relaxed writing style which sparkles when recounting specific events (and anecdotes) fully capturing the triumph of discipline over the desperation and frustration experienced by the officers of the Wehrmacht from 1942 onwards. 9/10

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Recent Books

I've mainly been reading non-fiction for the last few weeks and I finally got round to yet more of the my "to be read sometime" pile. Since June I have read:



Here are my one sentence reviews:

1. "The Longest Siege" reads very well indeed covering the encirclement as well as the siege were the author never spurns an opportunity to praise the fighting prowess of the Australians. 7/10.
2. "Rifles" uses an interesting literary device to provide a wonderful book on the Napoleonic wars painting a vivid picture of how the wars were fought. 9/10.
3. "The Desert Generals" is the revised edition from 1983 were the the author provides further evidence for his devastating 1960 critique of the British campaign in North Africa and Montgomery in particular. 10/10.

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. To arrange this just email me using the contact form in the page footer.

Recent Books

It's been a while since I covered my reading habits mainly because I've been reading novels but here's three history books that I can heartily recommend:



For a change I thought I'd try some one sentence reviews:

1. "Destiny In The Desert" reads really well indeed and provides a very interesting counterpoint to traditional military history accounts and complements Moorehouse's trilogy perfectly. 9/10.
   
2. "Marlborough" takes awhile to get going but once attuned to Holmes' style it's easy to imagine him speaking to you and the book picks up pace. 7/10.
   
3. "Constantinople" is a relaxed narrative account of the siege and the key personalities plus it provides an insight into the importance of the new weapons employed by the Turks and how their logistics shaped the siege. 8/10.

If you want a reading copy then my used copies are yours for the cost of the postage. To arrange this just email me using the link in the "Salute the Flag" section of the page footer.

Silly Season

Once the UK goes on its summer holidays the country enters the silly season for news. However, the silly season usually starts in August so I was surprised when two press releases heralded its early arrival in the wargaming world:

1. Battlefront announced that they were to ban non-Battlefront models from competitions that they organise and sponsor.
2. Slitherine announced their intention to release version 2.0 of Field of Glory as an app for iPad, PC and Mac.

Given that I am enjoying the Northern League's Field of Glory competition and have been thinking about trying FOW these announcements were a double blow.

The common factor is the lack of consumer consideration and the marketing speak used in both announcements. As examples of the latter Battlefront used the deliciously concocted phrase "the FOW Hobby" whilst Slitherine were quoted as "proud to again be leading the charge and continuing the Wargames Revolution".

Flames of War - 8th Army Mortar Platoon

In March I post the test base of my first attempt at some 15 mm WWII figures from Peter Pig. Speedy as ever, I've now finished the whole mortar platoon so it's time to post another photo:



Over size photo. Click for enlarged, "warts and all", photo.

I’ve Joined The Tufty Club

Whilst at Phalanx I decided to buy some painted 15 mm Russian figures from the bring and buy. I bought painted figures because I want to experiment with my basing technique and use some Stilfor tufts as I'd read so much about them.

So I bought 25 figures and some 2 & 4 mm plain spring tufts. After a few hours work this is a sample of what I'd achieved:



Not the best picture in the world but you get the idea. Of course it's never that simple so the rest of this post covers what I leant.

15 mm T34 - Work In Progress

In early February I bought a box of 5 Plastic Soldier Company 15 mm T34s. They looked great and stirred memories of the Airfix kits of my youth. The plan was to use them to see if I could, and enjoyed, painted tanks.

Needless to say they've sat on my shelf until this week when I decided it was time to build and paint a test kit. Here's a work in progress shot. The base isn't quite finished and I need to get some transfers for the turret but otherwise it's done.



Overall I'm pleased with the end result. I aimed for a cartoon representation of a tank that will stand out on the table. As always the build didn't go according to plan.

Flames of War - 8th Army

After years of painting medieval figures for DBx and now FOG I thought I'd try something a bit different. So here we have my first attempt at some 15 mm WWII figures from Peter Pig.


Over size photo. Click for enlarged, "warts and all", photo.


"Life size" photo