UPDATE.

 Following my cataract surgery I am long last free of the restrictions on heavy work and lifting. This means I have just been able to cut the grass for the first time this year and  I plan to do some serious tidying up later. The down side is that I am now eligible to do housework too which is due on Thursday my wife tells me !!!!  In addition I have also been able to have an eye test and new glasses are on order. I hope within the next 7 to 10 days to receive these and finally drive my car again after just over 9 weeks of being a passenger only.... I cant wait !!!!!!!

Despite not being able to see well etc we seem to have been out and about frequently this past few weeks. I think my wife has felt sorry for me not being able to drive so has taken me out perhaps more than usual,  we certainly seem to have eaten lunch out a lot recently. Nevertheless I have managed to get some modelling time and have made good progress on the batch of 30 GS wagons as seen below.

Construction is complete and the wheels have been primed, next step is to paint the bodies  olive drab. The horses for these wagons are also made and have received the initial primer and top coat ready for gluing onto the wagons once they are painted. The rest of each horse will be painted once glued on the wagons.

I have also made progress on the infantry battalion. All the painting is complete and all that's left to do is two coats of varnish.

This shelf shows the infantry privates of the battalion some 216 strong.

The photo above shows 18 infantry lieutenants and the medical, heavy weapons and QM privates.

The final photo shows all the officers and NCO's of the battalion with the staff and signals privates.

Now off to the garden.......

UPDATE.

 Apart from not being able to drive, another problem with having my cataracts done is that for six weeks I am not allowed to do any lifting or other heavy work. This includes gardening and grass cutting. At this time of year I, with everyone else, expects to start preparing the garden for the coming summer including cutting the grass which, in my case, is already looking a bit shaggy. However I must leave it to grow out of control and no doubt become infested with an abundance of exotic wildlife !!!!

Another "interesting" activity that is banned for me is housework. However, much like the garden, I have no doubt I will be doing a lot of catching up when the time is right !!!! All that said one positive has arisen in that I have got a good amount of spare time right now, and,  with my new close range vision,  therefore the opportunity to do more modelling. In fact I have done more this past week than for several months.

The batch of field kitchens that had been sitting around since last autumn have finally been completed and issued. I have now started on a batch of GS wagons as seen below.

The bodies are done and next step is to add wheels. The full construction process can be seen on a post under the Construction Techniques label.  In addition I have made a start on an infantry battalion. The soldiers have all been painted in uniform green and the addition of rank insignia is now under way.

Apologies for the strange photo. The soldiers are painted on my "work" shelves and had to be squashed up on my "photo studio" window cill to get them all in. As a matter of interest, this is what 407 screws look like during the painting process. Also note the flag bearers in the bottom left corner. 

The shelves are plywood and were light brown in colour as still seen on the edges however years of processing thousands of screws have changed the colour of the boards to a dirty looking green.

Just out of interest, the latest count of my soldiers shows 63,488 are with my armies at present.

UPDATE.

 Two days ago I had my second cataract operation, on my right eye this time.  Once again quite painless and problem free. Already I can see quite well. Interestingly my regular distance glasses are of no earthly use anymore but my very old reading glasses are giving me tolerable distance vision. However, as planned, reading etc is best without glasses at all.  I now have to wait four weeks before I can visit my optician to get tested for new distance glasses. By the time I get them it will have been at least 8 weeks without driving !!!!  To me that is the worst part of having these procedures...I really miss driving a lot.

The good news is that my wife has cast aside her refusal to drive my car..."too big, too fast and too expensive"... and driven my car a few times over the last couple of weeks as she thinks it bad for the car to be left unused for weeks on end, which is quite right of course. Naturally she drives it just fine as I expected, she is a great driver, and in fact has put her foot down hard once or twice and had a smile on her face when she did, again, as I expected !!!!

My other good news is that I became a grandad for the third time yesterday. A second, so far officially unnamed,  grandson, whom I have labelled Freddie alongside his brother Buster and sister Squirt, much to their Mothers irritation !!!!!!!!! Grandads can have such fun...for example feeding the children chocolate and fizzy pop etc before sending them home !!!!!!! Am I bad ??????

UPDATE.

Just a brief note to report that having had cataract surgery at the end of last week I can now just about see enough to read blogs and type this post.  The procedure went well and was totally pain free however I now have quite different levels of vision in each eye which is very disconcerting. I am due to have my other eye done later this week after which I shall not be able to use my glasses at all. However I should have excellent close range vision and be well able to read, watch TV and type or indeed paint and model. Driving will not however be an option. I should be able to get tested for new glasses for long distance around early April ....I will miss driving so much !!!!!!

UPDATE.

 Three and a half weeks ago I tested positive for Covid. Two days later my wife and daughter also tested positive. Within 5 or 6 days they both tested negative but it took me ten days to become negative.

I have to say I have never felt so sick in my life. The symptoms were like those of a cold but a super cold, everything was many more times worse. I am the first to admit that I am not a good patient. I have  been lucky enough to have enjoyed good health, never been ill, never been in hospital, no broken bones and got all my teeth and even a generous supply of hair. Therefore even a normal cold really gets to me.

The first week was spent on the couch watching tv and feeling sorry for myself. The second week I managed to add in a few short local walks although they left me exhausted. The third week I actually started to feel better.  I have now fully recovered, as of today I feel 99% normal, my normal that is !!!!

However I have never felt so unmotivated to do anything. It seems I can only walk, go shopping or watch tv, even reading has been a bit of a chore and blogging or modelling has really been a step too far. Today is the first day I have actually felt interested enough to read some blogs and of course post this note.

I hope that my motivation will now start to recover so I can get back into modelling and blogging as well as develop some enthusiasm maybe even to work in the garden rather than just looking out the window. For sure there are many others who have been far sicker with Covid than me but has anyone been so stripped of enthusiasm or interest in normal activities than me ????? I really feel like I have become a vegetable these past few weeks, only now are a few shoots of interest in life reappearing.

A very unpleasant experience in so many ways.

UPDATE.

 Much as I have tried over the past several weeks I am still finding less time for modelling than I would like. Perhaps over the coming weeks of deepest winter more time will become available.

That said I have at last been able to complete the first set of vehicles for my new Pontoon Bridge capability. The photos show the equipment for a single Pioneer battalion. I have now listed construction of sufficient vehicles to equip another 15 battalions.

I decided to leave the boats and chesses (pallets) unpainted. I have always felt the need to paint everything in my standard olive drab green but on this occasion I think this equipment just looks better in the natural shades of brown.

In addition to the above I have almost completed a batch of 30 field kitchen trailers. All that remains is to paint the wheels and chimneys black.

Finally I refer back to the saga of Humbrol enamel paints as mentioned a while ago. All the evidence I can find suggests that the range is being massively reduced although Humbrol (Hornby) have yet to make a public announcement. However my local retailer says the range is being reduced and the on-line colour charts only show a much reduced range. Interestingly it appears the acrylic range has been increased to include those enamel colours apparently being discontinued.

I have spent the past month  or so buying up those colours that I believe are going out of production but which I use a lot. So far there seems to be no shortage but this will soon change. My advice is if you use Humbrol enamels check the official colour charts and buy up any which you use and which not on the latest charts while you can.

UPDATE.

 Just a brief note to wish all my followers and everyone in blogger land a Happy Christmas with lots of new soldiers and a very prosperous New Year with a huge increase in painting productivity.

UPDATE.

 Yes another update and very soon after the last one !!!!

 I have news to share about Humbrol paints.

One of my blog followers, Joe at FISH TALES blog, mentioned in passing that he had heard that Humbrol may be stopping production of enamel paints. Interesting as Joe is American and had heard about this but I had not here in the UK, home to Humbrol !!!!  Now I have been using these paints for over 50 years and although I have often considered moving to acrylics, being over three quarters of the way through building my armies, now is probably not the time to change.

Although I keep a good stock of paints at all times I knew I would not have sufficient to finish my fourth army so I decided to investigate.

It seems that due to a new government regulation, one of the components in all enamel paints has been banned. For reasons difficult to establish this resulted in Humbrol suddenly taking a lot of paint off the market. Again for reasons difficult to determine, Humbrol chose not to make this matter public resulting in a lot of rumours and a shortage of paints in shops.

In the YOUTUBE video I saw it was clear the audience thought  this change has been poorly managed by Humbrol.  The fact remains that their enamel paints will however remain on sale for the foreseeable future.  That said they have taken this opportunity to seriously reduce the range from about 200 to only 80 colours again with little public notice.

Typically over half the colours going out of production are colours I use a lot. I have already placed a large order with an on line supplier for sufficient paints to hopefully see me out !!!! I will also be visiting my local model shop to hoover up what ever he has left too.

Overall I am left with the impression that Humbrol have mismanaged this situation and are now making it worse by dramatically reducing the range.  If you use Humbrol I suggest you check out the new range and buy up quickly any of the soon to be discontinued colours you may need while you still can.

Sometimes I think these smaller specialist British companies almost want to go out of business by the way they operate !!!!

On a happier note I have this week started to build a batch of 25 field kitchen trailers and have prepared the screws to paint up a new infantry battalion. Hopefully I will find the time and inclination to work on these diligently over the coming few weeks.

UPDATE.

It has been over six weeks since I last updated on my activities. However the simple fact is that I have not done a great deal...again !!!!! Ordinary life seems to have continued to get in the way of modelling. I had hoped that with the miserable autumn weather I would get more modelling time but that has not happened, at least not yet anyway.

Having just said that, on reflection I have to admit I have not really tried that hard to get modelling time. If I am being totally honest, I have not actually had that much enthusiasm for modelling recently. I am sure this is a passing phase as I have really enjoyed finally getting the cavalry and heavy artillery battalions finished after so many months of them sitting on the work bench gathering dust. I think it is just a case of getting going again after so many months of modelling inactivity.

Above are the cavalry just finished on the work bases.

And here set up, with the foot elements of the regiment and most of the vehicles, on the display shelf before insertion into the display cabinet.

Here are the soldiers of the heavy artillery battalion on their display shelf. No vehicles or equipment has been built yet for this battalion.

The next vehicle construction project will be a batch of field kitchens. The next battalion to be painted will probably be another infantry unit.

Readers may have noticed that I have started updating and republishing the organisation tables of my armies. These now reflect the several upgrades I have introduced over the past couple of years.

A considerable time ago I realised that my armies lacked a bridge building capability. My initial thought was to create a couple of bridging battalions at army group level but then I decided the best way forward would be to provide the capability within each Pioneer battalion. Ever since I have been searching for some object to represent a pontoon boat. 

Scratch building one or two would be easy but I need 32. I have found a model within the Pendraken range that is the right size but it is a slab sided square shaped pontoon that does not look good in the scale I use. I want an actual rowing boat shape that can be placed upside down on a flat bed wagon. I am coming to the conclusion that I will have to make a master and mould my own. However if any reader has another suggestion please let me know. Size needed is 30 mm long, 13 mm wide and 5 mm high.

 

UPDATE.

Well my 70th birthday is now almost a distant memory.....short term memory loss  being a symptom of advancing age I am told...except I can't recall who said that !!!!!!!

I had a great day anyway. We went to Llandudno on the north coast of Wales for the day. About the closest seaside to us and a round trip of 190 miles...that's the cost of living in the middle of the UK !!!!  That said my car delivered another amazing result of 51 mpg on "A" roads at an average speed of 50 mph.

We parked on the sea front to the right of the photo and walked all the way down to the pier which can be seen as a pale line at the foot of the hill which is called The Great Orme. Walked to the end of the pier, watched some fishermen for a while then back and on into town which is on the left of the photo. As can be seen, the day was perfect, blue sky, flat sea, warm and sunny which for this time of year was unusual. 

Although not quite as dramatic as Johnathon Freitag's adventures with moose, we too had a wildlife encounter. We bought ice creams in a parlour, I finished mine inside but my wife was still eating hers when we left the shop. Just outside a seagull landed on her head and tried to seize the ice cream cone from her hand. She screamed and I turned in time to see it launch back into the air. Fortunately neither my wife or the ice cream were injured in any way. My wife was more stunned by the sheer weight of the gull on her head than anything else. That it should try to grab the cone was no surprise as that sort of thing happens all the time but to land on her head was a bit extreme but has provided an interesting dinner conversation anecdote !!!!  On the way home we stopped at a favourite local gastro pub for dinner.

As it was a special birthday the "celebrations" continued on Friday. We drove to our local National Trust property for a walk around the 1,000 acre estate. We first visited the estate on my birthday in 1998 so it seemed appropriate to go on Friday. In those early days the estate attracted 20,000 visitors a year, now it has over 400,000 a year. We now tend to visit only in autumn and winter when it is not quite so busy.

This is the house, Attingham, built around 1760. The park has a large deer herd and the rut is on at present. The often means bucks are holed up in the woods but none were seen on this trip. In fact all we saw was a large group grazing far away in the distance.

Another view of the house from the deer park on the way to the woods. Although we have some fine autumn colours in our local trees the park trees are still mostly green however the leaves are falling and carpeted the path in the woods as seen below.

As we neared the river bridge a squirrel ran across the path in front of us, another wildlife encounter !!!!!

Again we had lunch in a nearby pub before heading home. Today we met friends for an "eat all you can" breakfast at a pub outside Dudley where we all used to work together. An early start but a great way to spend the morning.  Tomorrow, Sunday, we are having lunch with my daughter at yet another local pub which will be four days on the trot eating out, almost a record !!!!!  No doubt the bathroom scales will have something to say about that when next visited.

Overall a good and extended birthday which kind of makes up for being so old......well maybe not !!!!!!

UPDATE.

 As  Autumn has now arrived I am hoping for some more modelling time. As mentioned before I have done very little this Summer, there always seems to have been something else to do. That said I have this week just managed to complete the battalion of Heavy Artillery that has been on the bench for at least three or more months. The Cavalry regiment still has some way to go but I have finally started the priming of the horses. Once that's done the top coat can be applied and they will be completed too. I have also managed to draft the next article in my Imagi-Nations series which I hope to publish next week.

Finally for this brief update, I am, at this point in time, less than two days away from Three Score Years and Ten......I really cannot quite grasp that I have become so old.....the inner me is at most only 15 or so....some would say more like 7   !!!!!!  Of course the body says otherwise as does the mirror  and with children in their forties the evidence is overwhelming that I really am old !!!!!!   With the number of meals booked with friends and family over the rest of the week, I think the bathroom scales may well also be sending a message soon !!!!!

No doubt like everyone else reaching this milestone, I wonder where the time has gone. The years seem to be rolling by with greater speed than ever and I still have well over 20,000 screws to paint !!!!!

UPDATE.

 A MOST WELCOME GIFT.

Knowing of my interest in horse drawn logistics,  Mark at Man of Tin blog recently contacted me to offer me a book about British Army horses that was now surplus to his requirements. I gratefully accepted and the book arrived today.

WOW....the book is an original official War Office publication from 1933. I had expected a reprint perhaps rather than such a valuable original. Just a brief thumb though reveals a wealth of information on the British Army's horse management policies and practices that will be so useful to me.

I cannot express my thanks enough to Mark for his generosity and this most welcome addition to my library. Naturally I will publish a full review of the book once I have fully digested it.

Thanks Mark !!!!!

UPDATE.

CAMPAIGN WARGAMES SHOW. 

Following my visit to COLOURS last week I yesterday visited CAMPAIGN at Milton Keynes.

There was quite a difference between the two shows in that CAMPAIGN is in an open square in the middle of the Milton Keynes shopping Centre and was frankly poor in comparison to COlOURS. There were only about 4 or 5 traders although there were a lot of gaming tables. However when I arrived about 1pm not a single game was in progress and many of them had not even set up.

After lunch and some shopping with my wife who came along with me, we returned to the show around 4pm in time to see most of the games either packing up or gone. Overall very disappointing and not worth the 200 mile round trip or the £10 parking charge, that said we did have a very nice lunch.

While I can recommend COLOURS I cannot do the same for CAMPAIGN based on what I saw, or more rightly, did not see !!!!  I think that concludes my visits to wargame shows certainly for this year. Will I go again next year.....I really do not know yet.

On another note, my post about COLOURS last week has had not a single view by any reader, am I wasting my time writing posts, of course not as I do it for my own pleasure and if others like it great, if not, so be it.

UPDATE.

COLOURS WARGAMES SHOW. 

Yesterday I attended my first ever wargames show at Newbury. 

The round trip was 270 miles almost all of which was on motorway or dual carriageway but amazingly my car delivered 49.1 mpg, I guess having 9 gears helped along with the extraordinary technology in the vehicle but still a great result from a big heavy petrol car with a larger than average engine.

I spent a good couple of hours going around the huge number of trade stands and inspected the wargames closely. My conclusion is that I am not a wargamer.... the games were interesting but not to my taste. I did like the trade stands and spent a lot of time checking out the many books on offer. However I found nothing to buy.

Steve Johnson, in his report on the show, said that it was more like a trade show with some wargames tacked on and I agree with that assessment. Nevertheless I am pleased I went and I am currently planning to visit the CAMPAIGN show in Milton Keynes next week.

On the modelling front, once again I have virtually nothing to report. Since my last update all I have done is complete the arm of service and rank insignia of a cavalry regiment and a heavy artillery battalion, maybe two hours of work at most. The long summer and continuing reasonable weather have left little time for modelling. I am almost looking forward to the nights drawing in with rain and cold so I can get back into painting and building my armies.

UPDATE.

 Since my last update a few weeks ago I regret to say I have done no modelling whatsoever !!!!! So what have I been up to...well as usual, I really can not say !!!! Going out on day trips, shopping, gardening and other essential chores have occupied most of my time. I guess it is just that time of year.

However I do have one thing to report. Readers may recall my purchase of a couple of new air guns last year. These have been great fun and have been used in the garden as they are only about 60% of the maximum power allowed in this country. That said I have often wished for a full power rifle.  Such a gun is not safe in the garden and the nearest ranges, over 25 miles in opposite directions, are expensive and one is only open at weekends.

However recently a new small range opened only 10 minutes from home and it is very inexpensive. So early last week I visited said range and found it to be perfect for me. In addition, being only small, I could book the whole thing for a couple of hours for only £5. Here was something to think seriously about !!!!

Perhaps not surprisingly by the end of last week I was the proud owner of a brand new air gun !!!! 

The gun is an AIR ARMS (British made) S510TR Tactical with an ELEMENT scope. My existing guns are all traditional wood stock etc so the tactical look appealed as something different. The gun is as powerful as is allowed under British gun laws and is a PCP powered 10 shot repeater.

Yesterday I took it to the range for the first time. The gunshop who sold it to me fitted the scope and zeroed it in at 10 meters on their inhouse range. On my range I started shooting at 30 meters and after only a few minor tweeks of the scope, found myself shooting very tight groups  to 40 meters. The gun is superb quality. The scope is good too but a bit unforgiving in respect of you have to look very squarely down the sight to get an clear view. However after an hour or so I got the hang of it. I had a great couple of hours and fired over 100 pellets.

The shooting shed, plenty of space for up to four shooters but each booking is exclusive which suits me. At least I know I will not get shot in the rear when I go mess with the targets !!!!

There are actually a wide variety of targets down range but most cannot been seen in this photo. I was shooting at those furthest away, around 40 meters.

I am sure many will not see the appeal of this or any gun but it amuses me and I am in the fortunate position of being able to indulge myself to some extent. In fact I have already booked the range again for Wednesday afternoon!!!!

UPDATE.

 So the UK heatwave commences. 

This morning at 9.30am the temperature was 74 in the garden, at 10.30am it was 84 and now at noon it is 90 with the hottest part of the day still 3 or 4 hours away so looks like the forecast was right that we could have record breaking heat today and tomorrow.

I have decided to stay at home for the next couple of days. The house is shut up with windows closed and curtains and blinds drawn. I intend to spend the time doing the long overdue painting of my new cavalry regiment.

We are just so unprepared for this sort of heat in the UK. With a previous record high of 101 and forecasts of 104 or even more over the next couple of days, chaos is expected. Apparently only half our roads are surfaced with heat resistant tarmac so we can expect some sticky roads with the railways expecting rail buckling. Of course no one here has AC in the house, only shopping centres and large stores have AC.

Even the cat has decided that sleeping all day in the flower beds, which is her normal practice in summer, is not a good idea today and has taken refuge in the spare room.

At least the heat is expected to break down by Wednesday with rain maybe on Thursday....can't wait !!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS.  At 2pm my garden thermometer is showing 99 degrees in the shade. 

TUESDAY...day 2 of the heatwave.... Temperature in my garden is 93 at 11am  !!!!!

UPDATE.

 It is a month since I last updated on my modelling activities. At that time I reported that I had just started making the first regiment of cavalry for my new army. Well in the past several weeks I have only managed to finish building the regiment, the only painting done has been the priming of the flags !!!!

I have in simple truth done very little modelling for a while now. There always seems to be something else to do or somewhere to go at this time of year, especially if it involves going out in my new car which I just love to drive. Amazingly in the month I have had it I have managed some 46 mpg which for a big heavy petrol car is fantastic. That said it will cruise at 50 mph on only 1000 rpm. It must be all that technology !!!! Anyway as usual I struggle to actually recall exactly what I have been doing but I feel I have been very busy !!!!

Anyway the cavalry regiment has been built and it took quite some time. With the upgrades in troop numbers since the last full unit I made it has become quite the task to make 109 mounted soldiers.

The next job will be painting, which is also time consuming. I have also made a start on a battalion of heavy artillery but these soldiers have only had a single coat of uniform colour so far. However while taking the screws for this unit from my stock I realised I was running short of treated screws. Readers may recall that much of the screw stock I bought a few years ago was zinc plated. It is not possible to paint over that zinc coating so it has to be removed.  So yesterday I "cooked" up some 1600 screws. Although I have discussed this process previously I realised I had not provided photos so here goes.

This is the product used as purchased in Wilkinsons for £1.50. Vastly better than the pickling vinegar I used to use and a lot less smelly !!!!

 

The picture above shows the full set up. An old towel covers the working space with two ice cream tubs half full of tap water and my wooden stirrer.

The contents of the pack of crystals are equally shared between the two tubs and stirred until the crystals dissolve. The screws are then added at a rate of four boxes, 800 screws, per tub. Note the shiny silver colour of the screws straight from the box. A quick stir and then they are left for 30 minutes.

After half an hour this is the result. Two tubs with a half inch thick topping of foam. Clearly the result of off gassing by the crystals as they dissolve the zinc. I give each tub another good stir and leave for another half hour. There is little smell but I opt to carry out this activity in my workshop with the door open, just in case.

The next step is to use my dedicated sieve, not from the kitchen !!!!!! to pour the solution down the drain.  A secondary benefit is that this will clean the drain !!!! I then use the hose to wash the screws thoroughly. Note the change in screw colour to gray from previous photos above.

After washing I tip the screws onto the old towel and spread them out. I then use a hot air gun to dry them off. This always results in another change in colour to reddish brown as flash rusting takes place. This is fine as this gives a much better key for painting.

After a good blast of hot air, and allowing a little time for the screws to cool down as they get very hot, they are re-boxed ready for use. This process can also be used to age modern woodworking hardware, all that is required is the addition of a good dose of WD 40 instead of the hot air gun. That drives off the water and retains the "raw" old fashioned gray steel colour by stopping the flash rusting.

UPDATE.

 FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BLOG.

My first post to this blog was on 29 June 2018. Over the subsequent four years  I have achieved the following:

Posted 333 articles.

Received 369 comments.

Had 18076 hits on the site.

Secured 13 very welcomed followers.

Although not impressive figures compared to many other blogs, I think I have done remarkably well given the very niche nature of my subject.  Woodscrew soldiers were never going to command a lot of interest especially as I am not a wargamer although I am interested in the subject.

I have tried to expand the appeal of the blog by including endless book reviews and writing about my Imagi-Nations. These activities have definitely helped expand my audience but by far and away the biggest impact on the blog was the decision by Archduke Piccolo to wargame a campaign from my Imagi-Nations series. The resulting posts he did on the battles were hugely popular and many readers crossed referenced to my blog which led to a doubling of my followers.

This all proves that well written battle reports create the most interest. As I do not wargame I will never appeal to that audience but that's ok. I write primarily for my pleasure and amusement, if that interests others so much the better but if not so be it.

Anyway, a big thank you to the following:

Ian Dury for encouraging me to start blogging.

Mark at Man of Tin, my first follower and supporter

Steve J at Wargaming Addict and Joe of Fish Tales for regularly commenting

Ion at Archduke Piccolo for his enthusiasm for my Imagi-Nations 

and of course my family who now know for sure that, having well over 60,000 painted screw soldiers, I am "not all there" !!!!

UPDATE.

 There has been great excitement in my little world over the past few days !!!!  

Back at the beginning of February I reported that I had been engaged in the process of buying a new car with delivery expected at the beginning of May. Well that timescale came and went, repeatedly !!!! However , at long last, after  20 weeks, almost 5 months, I at last took delivery of my new car yesterday !!!!! and I am very pleased with it.

However the major problem over the past months has been the total lack of reliable information from either the dealer or the manufacturer's customer services. In fact I learned more about what was happening from online forums. Eventually  last Tuesday the manufacturer's customer services told me the car had been delivered to the dealer the day before. When I called the dealer they didn't even know the car had arrived !!!! 

The lesson is not to buy a new car via a factory order at this time. Only buy what dealers have in stock...unless you have the patience of a saint...which I don't !!!!

Anyway, I have it now. The level of technology in the car is almost scary....it will take me  months to figure it all out but that seems to be the norm nowadays. That said it drives like a dream and looks stunning which are the most important things of course.

On the modelling front I have not been very active recently, too many social activities and of course gardening chores. I have managed to complete a batch of 40 house bodied headquarters wagons as shown below, note the rolled up awnings on the roofs,  together with yet another infantry battalion. The next construction task is a regiment of cavalry which I have just started.

UPDATE.

It has been several weeks since I last gave an update. I seem to have been very busy although as usual I really struggle to remember everything I have been up to !!!!

I have been engaged in some substantial work in the front garden. We decided to remove the brick pavers at the side and front of the house. These had been down many years and we have been experiencing puddles at various places when we get heavy rain. Clearly the water was no longer draining away properly. Anyway the pavers were dug up over the course of several days and taken to the local tip. (15 trips altogether but still a lot cheaper than hiring a skip !!!!)  The ground was levelled and a number of soakaways were dug and filled with broken bricks. The whole lot was then covered in a little over a ton of small gravel.

In addition a couple of small conifer trees were dug up and the small flower beds in the front were also removed and gravelled over. The end result is a much tidier and nicer looking front and side and hopefully the elimination of the puddling issue. The whole exercise involved the hardest work I have done for some years but to my surprise I suffered little which at my age was somewhat of a bonus !!!!

On the modelling front I have continued to build vehicles and paint soldiers for my new fourth army. I have now added some 2500 soldiers towards the new army since starting last year.  Currently in hand is a batch of 40 house bodied command wagons as shown below. Construction is complete and painting is about to start. 

I am also currently working on a cavalry regiment and yet another infantry battalion.

Readers may have noticed I have started reviewing books about Vietnam recently. It has been some time since I read any books about that war and I wanted a change of subject. As I have another four books yet to review I hope readers will continue to find the reviews interesting.

Lastly, I have noticed that some of the blogs I follow have not had new posts for some time. There has been discussion that some blog authors are not getting the feedback to encourage them to write as regularly as before. I have certainly noticed a drop off in the number of "hits" I am getting since the start of the year. Maybe it is about society opening up and people having more to do with their time now the pandemic is fading away rather than a loss of interest generally.  Any thoughts ???