UPDATE.

 The past couple of weeks have been very exciting for me because Ion Dowman of the Archduke Piccolo blog decided to wargame a scenario from my Imagi-Nations series. After considerable correspondence we agreed an approach and he has now fought two battles from the campaign outlined in Part 44 of my posts. The battle reports are on Ion's blog and readers are recommended to have a look at these exciting and well written reports. 

Apart from narrating the history of the Union in my articles, I have consistently tried to provide wargaming scenarios ranging from Cavalry actions to infantry skirmishes as well as major battles and campaigns. To see someone actually using these scenarios is very pleasing to me.

Apart from the fun of seeing my ideas actually played out I have received some additional visitors to my blog. So welcome to my new followers, I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy my efforts. In that regard this post is the 300th since I started the blog in June 2018.

On the modelling front I have at last completed the final mounted upgrade.

This upgrade provided corporals for Horse Artillery Regiments and the mounted squadrons of the Field Police battalions. I now have a total of 2,226 mounted soldiers. Of course most are in the 18 Cavalry Regiments but Horse Artillery Regiments and Field Police battalions account for 264 of the total.

 As a reminder of what one of my Cavalry Regiments looks like, below is a photo of the 9th. Based on my Imagi-Nations articles this is from a scene during the fighting in Ukraine when Union Cavalry were raiding the Russian lines of communications. To protect the railways, the Russians had built a series of blockhouses. In this particular case Union Horse Artillery have taken a block house under fire and 9th Cavalry stands ready to ride down any escaping Russians. Once the Russian position has been destroyed, the Union Cavalry Brigade can ride on to attack the railway.

If anyone else wishes to utilise my Imagi-Nations articles for a wargame please let me know, I will do all I can to assist.

BOOK REVIEW: WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER.

 

My mother in law was giving this book to a charity shop before my wife spotted it in a box and thought I might be interested which of course I was.

William Pitt the elder was quite an influential person in his day but his son was even more so. He dominated Parliament for most of his adult life after becoming Prime Minister at only 24, a feat never likely to be repeated.  Clearly a highly intelligent workaholic and indeed almost certainly an alcoholic 

too, this man literally worked himself to death at the age of 47.

He led the nation through some of the most turbulent times as the Industrial Revolution impacted the lives of so many people, often not in a good way, and of course during the first half of the war with France.  Even out of office his policy of prosecuting the war with France by subsidising continental allies was continued by his successors.

Like many other great public figures,  Pitt was a very clever and complex man with significant personality flaws who possessed the ability to induce hatred among his enemies and adulation in his supporters. He lived for politics only and one can only wonder what he may have achieved if he had taken more care of his health.

Well researched and well written, if somewhat heavy at times, this is a good book on an extraordinary person. If you are interested in the man, the politics of the time or the political response to the French Revolution and the early years of the war , this is the book for you.

WOODWORKING PROJECT. PART 6.

 This is the final part of this series of posts. Following completion of the construction process, the next task was to cut the 85 shelves. These are made from the same quarter inch (6mm) melamine faced MDF as the back panel. Each shelf is about 12 by 6 inch (300mm by 150mm). Once cut the leading edge is faced with a strip of black insulating tape to hide the "raw" edge. I have investigated the use of solid plastic edging but the cost is quite prohibitive so £1 for a single roll of tape is a bargain and also easily replaceable if damaged at any time. That said it is also a very time consuming and fiddly task.

Having made the shelves the next step was to manhandle the unit upstairs and install it underneath the existing unit which had been propped up on a couple of temporary legs since the bookcase that originally supported it had been removed. This task called for reinforcements and my youngest daughter Laraine was drafted together with my wife. My all female task force performed very well and while they held the original unit, I removed the temporary legs and put the new unit in place. The old unit was gently lowered about half an inch, lined up and the two units screwed together.

I then attached the units to the wall at the top with rubber connectors. This will allow the units to sink into the carpet over the next few months without pulling the fixings out of the wall. After say Christmas I will remove those temporary fixings and put in something more substantial. The shelves were then wiped clean and installed as seen above.

To help with the settlement issue, and to provide a better storage solution, I then loaded the shelves with boxes of unpainted screws. These will of course be removed, treated and painted over time as the new army is constructed. The final element was the new doors which were delivered yesterday and installed.

The photo above shows the whole unit. Once I have finished upgrading the existing armies, maybe in the new year, I will commence construction of my new 4th army which should take me 5 or 6 years at least to complete. I hope this series of articles has been of interest.

UPDATE.

 Some readers will recall in my last update I lamented the demise of my trusty tin of very old silver paint. Following that post my wife flippantly suggested I put some nail varnish cleaner into the paint. Well thought I, that's an idea. The active ingredient of nail varnish cleaner being acetone it might work and I have nothing to lose. I have some pure acetone in the workshop so I tipped away most of the "thinners" liquid in the top of the tin and replaced it with an equal amount of acetone. Hey presto, the paint mixed up perfectly. Now a week later, I have reopened the tin, mixed it easily and used it very successfully. The only slight issue is that it dries even quicker than before but that is not a problem as I only paint very small areas mainly rank insignia.

So my very old tin of paint has come back from the dead. Now another thought occurs to me. I use Humbrol paints and a long term issue with some of the gloss paints especially red, is that after a short time they turn to jelly. No amount of thinners seems to solve the problem so that tin gets thrown out and another is purchased. I have seen this problem raised by other modelers too. I now wonder if acetone would work. I will try it and report back just as soon as another tin goes to jelly. Pure acetone can be purchased in chemist shops although many do not carry it, if you want some just shop around.

On the modelling front, once again I have made only limited progress over the past couple of weeks due to social commitments and working on my new modelling unit. However the final upgrade batch of mounted troops now only requires the horses to be painted to be complete.  In addition upgrade number 38 has been finished this morning and I am working on upgrade 39 this afternoon.

On another matter I have been engaged  recently in a substantial correspondence with Ion of the Archduke Piccolo blog. Ion has decided to wargame a campaign based on scenarios in my Imagi-Nations Part 44 post. I am delighted he has decided to do this and have been providing background information and offering insights into the strategic thinking of the combatants. The first battle has been fought and I have seen the initial battle report. Ion plans to publish the reports on his excellent blog in the coming days and weeks. I strongly recommend reading his reports which are always very exciting.

BOOK REVIEW: MARKED FOR DEATH.

THE FIRST WAR IN THE AIR.

 Trawling through my library for a new book to read I came across this book. I must admit I have no recollection of ever reading it or even when I may have bought it, in fact it was a totally new book to me !!!!! Clearly old age must be creeping up on me and impacting my memory at the very least....now where was I .....oh yes.

This book discusses the air war from 1914 to 1918 in a very interesting way. It does not go into much detail about planes, pilots or battles etc but in a loose chronological way covers  major topics like "why biplanes", "making the flying man", "how they lived", "parachutes and fatalism", and of course many other matters. This means the book is very readable, exciting and interesting more like a novel than a history book. 

The simple message that comes across clearly is that early aviators, especially those in the various military's, were true pioneers and generally lived short lives and met violent unpleasant deaths. The wonder for us is that there were so many of them willing to take unbelievable risks just to advance knowledge of flying and serve their countries at the same time. The author reminds us that it is impossible today to fully understand the attitudes of 100 years ago  just as much as they would not understand much of our beliefs today.

Overall an excellent book and very well written on a fascinating subject, but still a puzzle why I have not read this before now !!!!!!

WOODWORKING PROJECT. PART 5.

The next task was to apply stain to the unit and then two coats of lacquer with a very light sanding between coats. The result is shown below.

 Having completed the woodworking aspects of the build I next turned to fitting out. The first task was to install the 170 shelf supports.  This material comes in 2 metre lengths and had to be cut up in 170 equal lengths on the mitre saw. Each piece then required two holes for screws. The pile of supports is shown below.

 

The task of fitting these supports is laborious. It actually took about six hours. As I am right handed it is only practical to do the right hand side of each upright, unless you have universal joints in the elbows or can grow a third hand of course. Therefore once all the right side supports are done, the whole unit had to be turned around  and the rest fitted through the open back. I learned the hard way not to fit the back panel first !!!!

The method of fitting the supports involves using a spacer that I made for a previous unit, its much easier than measuring for each and every support. The spacer is clamped in position, the support offered up and pilot holes drilled into the wood. Two screws are then installed. I use half inch roundhead screws which are not readily available. The standard size is three eighths but I find these are just a bit too long. Sometimes the screws meet with those installed on the other side of the timber. The half inch screws only overlap by three millimetres so just push past each other. The longer three eighths screws overlap by over  six millimetres and can be hard to drive in satisfactorily. The spacer can be seen in the photo below.

Finally all 170 shelf supports were fitted and the back panel was cut to size and pinned into the groove around the back edges of the unit. It is also pinned to the backs of the central uprights. The very last job was to cut and glue in the door tracks and the unit was finished as seen below.

The next and last post will cover actual installation of the new unit and making of the shelves themselves.

UPDATE.

 Over the past couple of weeks most of my free time has been spent on the woodworking project about which I will do another update over the next few days. On the modelling front I have only managed to complete one more upgrade, number 37, which means the armies have reached 58,239 strong.

The final mounted upgrade has progressed a bit in that the soldiers have been mounted on their horses and painted. The next task is to under coat and top coat the horses as seen below.

When I first started modelling back in the early sixties, limited pocket money meant I used any paint I could lay hands on. This included a pot of heat proof silver paint I found under the kitchen sink. In fact I have continued to use that silver paint right up to the present day !!!! Yes that paint has lasted almost 60 years !!!!! and it is still only half empty. I have noticed however over the past month or so that the paint was settling out very quickly during use and becoming harder and harder to stir back to life. I regret to say I think this old faithful has now finally reached the end of its life.

I have sourced a new pot of Humbrol silver paint and have retired this old pot. However, being a bit sentimental , I cannot quite bring myself to part with that old pot of paint, at least not yet. I have put it into the back of the cupboard for the time being. I think it remarkable that a pot of paint could last quite so long, it has given very good service for so many years.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 44

THE CHINESE MOVE SOUTH.

 Since its defeat by the UNION in 1870 and the loss of its southern territories the Chinese government had used every means to rebuild their army in order to recover the lost land and defeat the hated UNION. With Chinese industry only able to produce simple small arms and old fashioned muzzle loading artillery the government had sought to purchase modern weapons from other countries. This proved  impossible with no European country being either able or willing to supply weapons. The Germans and Russians, past suppliers of weapons to China, were heavily engaged on building up their own armies and neither Britain or France had any enthusiasm for a rearmed China. However by 1888 the Chinese army had at last been rearmed, although not to modern standards, and many thousands of soldiers had been recruited and given various levels of training.

 The attacks by Germany and Russia on the UNION had come as a surprise to the Chinese and they had watched carefully as the UNION fought for its life. As the battle raged with Germany the Chinese decided now was as good a time as ever to recover their lost territory. The UNION army was fully deployed against Germany and Russia and could have no troops left to defend southern China and in any case would they bother to defend a vast tract of empty land that clearly they had no intention of colonising anyway. The decision made, the Chinese army began the long trek towards Harbin to concentrate for a move south. 

Over the following months the Chinese army moved slowly south from Harbin towards the border with the UNION. The Chinese were well aware that UNION cavalry patrolled the empty spaces of southern China. However they were confident that those patrols did not venture more than a hundred miles or more north of the border especially now as UNION forces were so heavily engaged fighting Germany and Russia there could be few spare troops available for such activities. By the summer of 1889 the Chinese army had advanced to within 120 miles of the border. The railway south from Harbin was being rebuilt and settlers from all over China were being encouraged to repopulate the vast spaces of the south.

On 26th June a UNION cavalry patrol, at the end of its loop through the empty lands of southern China , had spotted a dust cloud a few miles north. On investigation the UNION patrol was astonished to find large numbers of Chinese troops camped with signs of heavy movement further north. The Chinese were clearly returning to their southern lands, and in force. The patrol immediately reported its findings to Command and continued to monitor the Chinese.

By this time China had realised that the UNION had triumphed over Germany and Russia and was fearful of the UNION reaction to discovery of their move south. However they felt that with the huge army they now possessed and with the UNION probably exhausted after the wars with Germany and Russia they could perhaps withstand a battle with the UNION army sufficient to negotiate some sort of peace that would enable them to recover their lost lands. It all depended on defeating any UNION force sent against them so as to give them a position of strength from which to negotiate.

The discovery of the Chinese advance was very unwelcome news to the UNION government. The armies were exhausted and still in positions in Germany and Ukraine. The only UNION troops near China were units of 10th Reserve army. There were three infantry brigades, the cavalry brigade and the army command brigade either on the border or in Denver. These troops were ordered to concentrate on the border and then to move into China and engage the Chinese. Their instructions were to hold the Chinese advance until reinforcements arrived from the UNION armies still in the German Rhineland. 

On 7th July the units of 10th Reserve army,  totaling about 55,000 strong, crossed the border into China and advanced north. A few days later on 11th July the UNION forces were drawn up ready for battle only a few miles south of the advancing Chinese. The Chinese now knew for sure they had been discovered and determined to inflict the heaviest possible defeat on the UNION forces in front of them so as to achieve the strong negotiating position they thought they would need to secure the return of their southern lands.