"Firing into the Brown" #70 - Navarre reflagged, Dickens and stuff...

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  just a short one this week as the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer and I have just come back from a few days away in Bath..

...saw this in the flesh (so to speak)..  utterly gorgeous..

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Le Christmas Dickens est finis, mon braves! 😀 A most unusual Dickens being set back in time (slightly) and I have to say I enjoyed it - certainly finished it quick..

Well, this one was an interesting one and no mistake...  set in two parts about 5 years apart, this one is set against the background of the Gordon Riots in 1780 [clicky], an event that I was unaware of until this book...  anyway - the central character is Barnaby, the mentally challenged son of a murderer who had absconded just before his birth leaving him in the loving hands of his impoverished mother. This father keeps popping up, with the assistance of a blind associate they are trying to get money out of her. Elsewhere we have the two Elliot's - senior and junior - one a landlord of the Maypole pub, the other his badly treated son (who runs away to the army and serves in the war of Independence losing an arm at Savannah). We then have Hugh, a somewhat wild and unprincipled man who works for Elliot Senior as an ostler, but who runs away to join the ranks of the Anti Catholic mob as a leader and trusted man. The gentry are represented by The Chester's – the villainous Sir John, Esquire, M.P. (Member of Parliament) and his innocent son Edward and the Haredale's – Mr Geoffrey Haredale (younger brother of murdered Reuben who Barnaby's father killed), and his niece Emma. The stars of the story though are the Varden household, Gabriel the locksmith, his manipulative wife Martha, and his beautiful daughter Dolly and the wonderful (female) servant Miggs (who in my mind resembles Olive Oyl, the beloved of Popeye). Anyway - each has his part to play in the coming riots, some voluntarily, some involuntarily, and some implacably opposed - at the end of the riots some are dead, some injured, and some are miraculously released at the last moment (in the best Dickens way!) - no spoilers, read the book!

8.5

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More time ago than I can possibly remember (well actually it was October 2020, but you get my drift) David in the "Not by Appointment" blog posted one of his lovely flags, this time for the Navarre Regiment [clicky] - and I said then that I would definitely be reflagging my little regiment at the earliest opportunity - and here we are four years later and the job is done! 😏

Old one on the right, brand spanky new one from David's blog on the left - the old one wasn't too bad but the brown is more orange than brown..

While I was doing the standard it also seemed a shame not to rebase them as they were on the thin plastic card bases I used to use, and they had become a little warped..

Rebasing in progress...

...and here they are all resplendent and new.. black edged the flag to blend it in and lose that white paper edge you get otherwise..

Excellent - much better!

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say, but as I'm unlikely to post again until after Christmas - and may be not even until after the New Year if Santa is kind in the way of bottled beers - I would like to wish all my reader a very Happy Christmas, and in the words of the immortal Dave Allen, "Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you." 🎄🎅🤶