UPDATE.

 I am pleased to report that I have managed a reasonable amount of modelling time over the past few weeks. This is surprising given the time I have spent on building my new bookcase,  (the second part of the construction report will be published in a few days, )  and other chores and social activities. I really have no idea why some weeks are more productive than others.

I have managed to complete update numbers 25 and 26 which have brought my armies to a strength of 56,622. In addition I have added yet another upgrade to the list. Upgrade number 49 covers the increasing of heavy artillery gun crews from 6 to 8.  I decided that heavy guns needed more crew than field artillery and my references agreed with that view.

I must also report that the number of visitors to my blog has now gone over 10,000 and I have a new follower bringing the total to 7.  I know that's not much compared with many of the wargaming/modelling blogs out there but given that mine is about using woodscrews to make model soldiers I am very pleased indeed and grateful to all those who read my stuff.

Finally I must bring readers attention to an amazing YouTube video I recently watched. Some of you may well have seen it already but I strongly recommend it. The video is about the Battle Of Isandlwana but is filmed using plastic model soldiers.  It took the best part of two years to make apparently and I think is really brilliant.

I especially commend this film to Mark at Man of Tin blog, I think it is right up your street Mark. Hope you all enjoy as, not being a child of the digital age, it took me a long time to create this link !!!!!

WOODWORKING PROJECT: PART 1.

I mentioned sometime ago that having almost completed my three armies, I now wanted to build a new display unit to take a fourth army , the construction of which would keep my hobby going for another 5 to 6 years at the least. The problem was , where to locate the new display unit having already exhausted the available wall space in both our spare rooms. Strangely my wife was not keen on having the new unit in either our bedroom, the dining room or even the lounge. 

After much consideration I concluded that the only practical place would be underneath my third display unit which currently sits on a bookcase. My idea was the remove the bookcase and use the space thus available. However, having so many books we could not afford to lose 15 feet of bookshelf. I therefore decided to build a free standing double sided bookcase which could sit in the middle of the room alongside the stereo tower.

The current arrangement is shown below.

The project involves three stages. First I need to build the new bookcase. Second I will build the new display unit and thirdly I will  carefully remove the old bookcase while supporting the existing display unit, fit the new unit underneath and securely attach both together and to the wall.

To build the new bookcase I am using manufactured pine boards that come in 8 by 2 foot panels. These are made up of small strips of timber glued together and planned smooth. Although expensive they save a lot of time in making and finishing my own panels. When building with hardwood I always make my own panels using "biscuit" joints. My first job was to cut all the component parts; a top and bottom, two side panels, two shelves complete with supporting rails and  top and bottom rails. I already had a set of bun feet in stock left over from a previous project. The photo below shows the various parts cut to size including the bun feet  just visible in the top left.

The next step was to attach the rails to the two central shelves. These rails are fixed to the top of the shelves. They serve three purposes. As the bookcase is double sided, they will stop books being pushed back onto the other shelf. They also provide some addition strength to the shelves and lastly, as the bookcase has no back as such, it needs some sideways bracing. The four rails altogether provide this bracing.

The photo below shows the top and bottom panels ready to have the corners and edges rounded over which I do with the router. After that all the pieces were sanded then wiped with a wet sponge and left to dry. This raises the grain so that after another sanding the wood is smooth enough not to require any addition sanding other than a light wipe over with "wet and dry" during final finishing.

The whole structure is assembled using "pocket screw joints" and glue. I find this method gives the strongest joints for units made of panels. I have a jig to make the pockets and use special screws to make the connections. The photo below shows the unit fully assembled with the bun feet also attached.

In order to hide the "pocket screw" holes, I glue lengths of pine doweling into the holes  as can be clearly seen below. I also used a piece of dowel to fill the holes for the screws that hold the feet to the base.

The unit will now be left for a couple of days to allow the glue to fully set up. My next report will show the finishing process.

BOOK REVIEW: THE 40mm BOFORS GUN.

 

My turn to find a book in a National Trust second hand book shop. In fact I found two, the other one will be reviewed later.  This book dates from 1986 and is a very readable account of the famous Bofors gun.

Originally developed in 1936 and still in service today, this gun has been used by just about every nation in the world at some time or other. It was manufactured under license in the war by all the major powers except Germany. However that nation used large numbers of captured guns and ammunition throughout the war with later supplies of ammunition being made in Hungary.

The simple reason for the guns success was and is that a single hit on an aircraft is a virtually certain kill due to the power of the 40mm shell.  As you would expect the book details the development of the gun up to the present day (1985 that is ) and its applications both naval and military. Overall a good history of an important and widely used weapons system.

BOOK REVIEW: THE GUNS THAT WON THE WEST.

My daughter Laura found this book at a National Trust second hand bookshop up north somewhere. Knowing of my interest in Old West guns as evidenced by my purchases earlier this year of air gun replicas of both the  Winchester 73 rifle and Colt 45 pistol, she bought me the book. Thank you Laura.

The subtitle of the book is "Firearms on the American Frontier, 1848 - 1898" and it details all the guns available in the West during that period. It gives great details on the origins of the big manufacturers like Colt, Winchester and Smith And Wesson as well as intricate details of all the weapons. There is even a good general history of the Old West with items on some of the well known characters of the time. Appendix to the main narrative discuss the development of ammunition and the myths and realities of actual gun performance.

Overall this is a serious text book on the subject and will appeal to anyone interested in guns of the American west including the Civil War period. It also serves as a quite good outline history of the half century when the Wild West actually existed. A good book, thank you Laura.

UPDATE.

 I was repeatedly told that when I retired early, at only 50, I would struggle to keep myself occupied. Well that has proven to be very wide of the truth. In fact I have always been very busy. I have no idea how I ever found time to go to work especially in the summer. The past couple of weeks has once again proven this to be the case. 

I have now finished the installation etc of the new window cill. It looks great and the joints have disappeared under the paint. However I have now been informed that there is a lot of work to be done in the garden especially now that the wet weather seems to be passing, ( we hope anyway !!!) In addition I have a number of other jobs to do including repainting the other window cills, all of which must be done before I can get on with building the new bookcase. 

When I start on a construction project like building a new piece of furniture etc I like to have a clear run without having to think about other jobs still outstanding. This means the construction of the new bookcase will not start till this coming weekend at best. In addition our social life seems to be picking up again as the country reopens. I am not sure this is a good thing with the virus still rampant but as we are double jabbed and will still wear masks in all crowded settings and be careful generally I guess we should go with the flow.

This means a bit of shopping today with a nice lunch out so another day lost to work , what a shame !!!! I find that the only thing I can settle to when I have an odd couple of hours or less is a bit of modelling and in fact it has only been a few odd hours here and there that I have been able to devote to modelling these past couple of weeks. With this in mind I have completed upgrades 22, 23, and 24 which have added another 360 soldiers to the colours. I am now half way through the planned upgrades.

Speaking of colours reminds me to report on my visit to a new model shop that has opened in our county town market hall. It is now the only outlet within 35 miles that sells Humbrol paints. I bought a number of tins and had a chat with the owner. I am pleased he has been able to open the shop only a month or so ago when model shops seem to be disappearing everywhere. He is now the only such shop I know of between Wolverhampton and Chester. Although a very small shop he is well stocked and says he can get anything within a couple of days. I will put that to the test !!!

Well guess I need to get ready to go to lunch, its a hard life !!!!!

BOOK REVIEW: A GREAT FEAT OF IMPROVISATION.

Logistics And The British Expeditionary Force In France 1939-1940.

The publication by Helion of this book in the past month was brought to my attention by Mark at the Man of Tin blog as he knows of my great interest in logistics. I immediately ordered a copy and am now on their mailing list, thanks Mark.

The book is by Clem Maginniss who, as a ex-British Army logistician,  is fast becoming the premiere military logistics author of today. The book tells the story of the BEF from the declaration of war until the evacuation at Dunkirk from the logistics perspective.

There is no doubt that logistics is given short shrift in most military histories yet it is so true that "amateurs study tactics and professionals study logistics". This book seeks to redress the balance and  for this campaign certainly does exactly that. It tells the full story of the build up of the BEF during the phoney war, reminds us that at the time the BEF was the only fully motorised army in the world and outlines the extraordinary work needed to support what had became a force of over 400,000 by May 1940.

The research that has gone into this book is fantastic, there is so much detail that, just like the authors previous work, "An Unappreciated Field Of Endeavour", which covers British Army logistics in the First World War, this book will surely become the standard text on the subject.  However, great as this book is, it suffers from the same flaw as the previous work. That is the sheer amount of footnotes. These are so huge they often consume half of each page in the book and occasionally the whole page !!!!! While it is great to have so much information, it makes reading the book hard work. One is constantly loosing the thread because before turning the page you tend to read the lengthy notes and forget the main story !!!!!. 

There must be a better way of delivering these valuable footnotes without making the book so hard to read. Having said all that , this is a great book and highly recommended to anyone who wants to be a "professional".

BOOK REVIEW: MORTAR GUNNER ON THE EASTERN FRONT.

The original of this book was published in 2008 with the English version coming in 2019. This is volume 1,  volume 2 is also available. I purchased this book in The Works at £7 a few weeks ago. On looking at Amazon for volume 2, I found both volumes available at over £20 each. Today on Amazon, volume 1 is now only £7 but volume 2 is still £18 !!!!!!!

This is the war memoir of a German mortar gunner who served with Grossdeutschland from his enlistment at 18 in 1941 through to the end of the war. His survival is almost a miracle given the bitter fighting and numerous ordeals he went through during those years. After the war he became a veterinarian and lived till 2017.

The book is well illustrated with many of the authors own photographs not previously published and offers a very good insight to life as a German soldier both in combat but also out of the line. In fact there is just a bit more about that side of things than the fighting which probably speaks to his strongest memories. There is much to interest everyone from details of the Opel Blitz truck, the weapons, rations etc as well as a soldiers view of the battles he  endured. For example it is hard to grasp from this book that Operation Citadel was a defeat for the Germans. Of course this is due to the very limited view the author, or indeed any ordinary soldier, would have of a large battle.

I will certainly buy volume 2 although I may just wait to see if The Works get it in later in the year before using Amazon !!!!  Overall a very good book and well recommended.