"Fusiliers"

Just a quick note that the much-awaitied "Fusiliers" by Mark Urban has been published, in the UK at least. Amazon UK are selling it at half price here. My copy hasn't arrived yet, but a quick flick through a copy at Books Etc showed it to be handsomely-produced, well-illustrated and quite meaty. It essentially traces the 23rd Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) from the start of the war in 1775 to Yorktown in 1781. I imagine it will be similar in format to the same author's "Rifles", about the 95th in the Napoleonic Wars. Definitely something to go to the top of the reading pile (which in my case is a very big pile....). The release of this book gives me an excuse to post up a pic of the Perry 23rd, one of my favourite regiments from my collection.

Painting news: Glover's Marbleheaders are finished save for a bit of basing. I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out, although I would have done a couple of things differently now I've seen the entire regiment together. Also finished at the weekend was my first batch of 30 Beja tribesmen for the Sudan; these are grouped together on large bases as opposed to the single figures I painted back in May. Pics as soon as possible.

For October I am going to take a short break from the AWI; well, at least from painting large regiments. This is for 2 reasons. First, I want to duck and dive between various odd figures. Since the beginning of May I have painted several full battalions in addition to lots of artillery and civilians: Sherburne's Additional, 10th Virginia, Marbleheaders and the 4th, 20th and 21st Regiments (100 figures between them). I find painting larger units becomes tiring after a while and I want to catch up with some discrete packs and additions/amendments to existing units. For example, I painted the Hessian du Corps Regiment a couple of years ago but at 18 figures it is 6 men short of what it needs to be, so I want to paint those extra figures. I also need to repaint the cuffs on my Knyphausen Fusiliers. Then there are some odds and sods I want to paint, such as Conquest's mounted Indians and settlers. Secondly, I want to finish off some non-AWI stuff that's been hanging around for a while - ECW, Sudan and some more French Napoleonic cavalry. So no more Big Battalions for October! Normal AWI service will return in November - I have the 62nd Foot and 2nd New Hampshire pencilled in.