Mountain fort 2

Got out the glue, foam board, printed card and scissors. Took the fort walls forward. Also spruced up the ruins by removing ancient lichen and covering the plastic hill with static grass. It is moving forward.

On the border: Franco Spanish Pyrenees in the mid eighteenth century.

A day of torrential rain here in the Duchy. Spent part of it finishing off my Spanish Catalan mountain troops and seeing what tabletop scenery sets them off well. I also spent some time looking for images to inspire this brigade level project ( using The Portable Napoleonic Wargame with syw amendments)  as I am a great believer in the power of images to conjure up time and place. Did some work with foam board and packaging to model a mountain fort in conjunction with this old railway scenic folly/ castle. Hopefully finish it over the coming days.Anyway a few photos-

A few new arrivals

These arrived today. They were really well packaged and they are just waiting for restoration.

 The shed seen of the restoration process and County cricket on the radio. The work bench earlier today. They have moved on well this afternoon but need more work. Sadly running out of superglue stopped play.

I was keen to bid for this lot on eBay for a number of reasons. Firstly the Roundheads are opposition for the Cavaliers I restored last week. They need far less intensive work, mainly swords and some limbs reattached. Secondly I am fascinated by the Cherliea depiction of ancient warriors and this lot contained two great examples. Finally I was taken by the WW2 figures useful in my skirmish gaming. One will be that famous Albion general Monty Don ( so called for his pre war career in academia) and another fellow whose arm needs replacing.

A good read

I picked up this book to read recently and am thoroughly enjoying it. I would recommend it.

It is well written and the narrative fairly races along. Much of it was new to me in terms of history. Worth a read definitely.

Sunday

Today saw my youngest becoming twenty three. We celebrated with a bbq in the garden.

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Finished off the Catalans except for painting the bases , looked for some figures unsuccessfully in the lead pile and that was about it hobby wise. Durrells on tv provided a glimpse of warmer climes. Finally an enjoyable article from a toy soldier magazine I came across today about encouraging a new generation in the hobby-

Saturday a studying daughter

Imagine the scene, daughter number one finishing her dissertation in the sitting room ( still days to go) and she finds the room door has stuck completely and will not open. Panic initially but eventually through a baroque sequence of events I managed to open it with hammer and paint scraper. Relief all round but not what a studying daughter needed, not to mention her father.
And onto hobby matters-

I found these in a box today completely forgotten about. Can anyone identify them? 

Main hobby task of the day was fixing 54mm figures onto their new acrylic bases-

Looking forward to seeing how they look outside. Already I am pleased that they look the part on any surface as noticeable in the above photo. This will work well with the winter white cloth and the green one.

In the garden today.

This afternoon I decided to put some paint on some 28mm 18th century Catalan mountain troops. I have the figures for absolute ages and decided today to get them finished as there are just short of twenty of them. The are from America and we’re once part of the London War room’s Spanish range. Interesting figures with an unusual uniform-

Later on I decided it was time to look at these diceless skirmish rules I had bought earlier in the year.

As it was such a lovely day I didn’t get very far with the rules. Has anyone used them and how did you get on?