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.