"Firing into the Brown" #32 - Thomas Ballard's Regiment of Foote completed, Dickens, beer 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..

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Thomas Ballard's regiment have now been based and flagged..  job done..

Considering that they were the first little metal men to receive the tender ministrations of my paint brush since March the year before last, I'm reasonably happy with these..  the paint brushes hadn't fallen apart, and the paints were still vaguely liquid!

These were painted using my usual technique - black primer, damp brush all over with white, and then start blocking in colours...  rather than normal paint I use inks wherever possible (as they self shade when you have the   black primer/white dampbrush combo). I then apply washes over any normal paints to dirty them down - these guys are supposed to look like they are on campaign, not the parade ground. 

Washes, b.t.w, were venerable bottles of Games Workshop 'flesh wash', 'armour wash', and some newer ones from Vallejo in the form of Umber and Sepia 'Game Wash'.

So there you have them - Thomas Ballard's Regiment - as present at the Battle of Edgehill - painted December 2023 - 24 figures - mostly Peter Pig with a leavening of Steel Fist (officer/drummer/ensign and the kneeling musketeer)

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That time of the year again, my regular reader will know that as Christmas approaches it is my want to read a Charles Dickens book, so it's Dickens time again! 

Here's the 'Christmas Dickens' timeline to date...

• 2013 - "David Copperfield" (9/10)
• 2014 - "Nicholas Nickleby" (exceptional)
• 2015 - "Oliver Twist" (8/10)
• 2016 - "The Old Curiosity Shop" (7/10)
• 2017 - "A Tale of Two Cities" (7/10) and "A Christmas Carol" (9/10)
• 2018 - "Great Expectations" (10/10)
• 2019 - "Bleak House" (8/10)
• 2020 - "Little Dorrit" (retired hurt - no score 😏)
• 2021 - "Our Mutual Friend" (8/10)
• 2022 - "Pickwick Papers" - brilliant... (9/10)
• 2023 - "Dombey and Son" - stay tuned for a review...
  

My top four Dickens novels so far would be "David Copperfield", "Nicholas Nickleby", "Great Expectations" and last year's absolute joy, "Pickwick Papers" - "worst" (it's Dickens for goodness sake, how can there be a worse?), 'least enjoyed', was without a doubt "Little Dorrit" which was mawkish beyond extreme, but of which my opinion seems to be at odds with most other people - I may have to have another go at some point, as Dickens 'only' wrote 15 novels, and I've now read 11 (and a bit) of them...

This years Dickens, however, will be "Dombey and Son", of which I know nothing of the story, so a bit of a voyage of discovery...

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Beer of the week:

..not had the opportunity to try this before but a couple of pints yesterday confirmed my initial view that this is a  lovely pint..  clean tasting, very fresh golden ale brewed with green East Kent Goldings hops as soon as they are picked... kind of a Beaujolais nouveau of the beer world..  I'll give this one a 7/10.. 😀🍻

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...