Big Lee's multi quid give away...

Blimey, 2 million views so Big Lee is celebrating with a give away [clicky]..  got to be in it to win it, I am now ..  

Lest you be wondering, his blog is very good, and I'm a follower irrespective of the spondoolicks he's handing out...

American Civil War baggage options expand...

Spotted this on the Newline Designs web site, and as Newline are my manufacturer of choice for the American Civil war project my interest was definitely piqued... 

They have it listed as a general service wagon under their 20mm Colonial listings, but I'm thinking it would fit very nicely with those wagons I bought previously [clicky] from Britannia..

You could use the seated figures from the ACW artillery limber as wagon teamsters...   food for thought indeed... £6.50 to you, sir...

Mechanizing the British Household Cavalry...

Spotted this on TMP [clicky] and thought - "that looks interesting"..

From the blurb...

"'Everything Worked Like Clockwork…' The Mechanization of British Regular and Household Cavalry 1918-1942 The mechanization of British and Household Cavalry regiments took place between the two World Wars and on into 1942. This book describes the process by which many horsed cavalrymen were re-trained to operate and fight in Armored (sic) Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) and the experiences of some of the men and regiments involved. Extensive use has been made of regimental and War Office archives, and particularly from the Imperial War Museum's sound archives – the oral testimonies of soldiers who had experienced this huge change. A small number of veterans are, or were, still living and were interviewed by the author for this work."

So I went looking for it to buy, and found (as increasingly it seems to these days) that it started off as a doctoral thesis, and is available to download (free) here [clicky]

AWI re-basing project - redux..

Crack on, crack on... 

Apologies for the quality of these poor pictures - camera phone - but another 24 bases completed - this time British/Hessians..

Serried ranks of Minifigs wonderful'ness....

From this point forwards we are getting into newer troops that I may have savaged with a paint brush myself - being newer it may be a quicker job to touch up the base rather than complete replacement - we shall see...

Maps, maps...

..glorious maps...

It is a well known fact that show any average wargamer a map and he automatically goes into campaign mode..  imagining his armies sweeping, Stonewall'like, round the flank of the enemy..  marching through mountain passes, transported on railways/river, and the like..and that's just the effect when they see a London tube map.. 

Imagine what they'd do if they saw this little lot then [clicky]...

Fill yer boots... my thanks Paul/Thistlebarrow [clicky] for the lead, and for the web owner (Malcolm McCallum) for making them available for free use to one and all..

"The Night Manager" - a review..

First off then I should be precise and say that this is a review of the book rather than the recent BBC series based on the book (and the stress is important as we shall see)... I'll also fess up (as our American friends are want to say) and admit that I've not been a fan of  Le Carre's written output up until now (give away..  ) but his books do make extraordinarily good films..

This is the first book of his that I've read that I actually enjoyed - usually I end up putting them down as his writing style is very dense; you have to pay attention while you read otherwise you miss important clues to the story - in the past I've always thought he was being overly clever, but I'll admit I enjoyed this...

Without wanting to give away the story I'll also say I enjoyed the slight differences and dissimilarities between the book and the TV series because they aren't the same story - I'd say the TV series was about 80%+ faithful to the book - and in the book Le Carre indicates he didn't have much to do with the TV series but my assesmnet was he was broadly happy with it...

So why did I read it? Basically because I enjoyed the TV series immensely - it was more Bond than Bond to be honest.. the character of Dickie Roper (the main protagonist and played by Hugh Laurie who is a damn fine actor) is the best depiction of a Bond villain I've seen possibly since Blofeld...  as for Hiddlestone if he doesn't get the Bond bag there's no justice in the world...  ah, and then there's Elizabeth Debicki (the love interest - Roper's mistress), she was enough to make me pick the book up on her own... ()

Throw in two of the best character actors currently working (Olivia Coleman and Tom Hollander) and there's a sure fire recipe for success..  that worked on multiple levels..

So how did the book measure up? Very well actually - it is a subtly different story, and the ending is completely different, but the major players are all present and I could see the actors from the BBC series in my minds eye when I was reading..  how was it in comparison the TV series? I give the TV series 9, and the book 8..  well worth reading - but be warned , it's a biggy!