A couple of announcements

Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog of late; there will be pics of my latest units by the end of the week. Working on 2-3 units at the same time has its advantages, but it has resulted in a delay in posts. However, the next two are now finished, with just the final touches to add to their bases. I am also trying to finish another unit, the last of my 6 militia/Continental regiments, before the middle of next week, which is when I fly out to New Zealand for a short while. This regiment is modelled closely on the Don Troiani painting of Washington in the Philadelphia campaign (see here). In the meantime, I thought it might be worth drawing readers' attention to a couple of things.

First, I was sad to read of Paul Darnell's decision to hang up his hobby boots for a while. Paul makes absolutely first class stuff (his corn-fields often appear in pics for this blog) and the Touching History games at London shows over the past couple of years have been personal favourites of mine. Bt now many readers will know that the latest issue of Paul's Touching History model-making books covers the AWI, the F&IW and the ACW. A few months ago I drove up to Paul's former abode near Chelmsford with a substantial chunk of my AWI collection so that Paul could take some photos for this book. Given that the photos I take for this blog are taken quickly and with very little thought to their composition, I was impressed with how much effort Paul put into each shot - checking the light was just right, trying out slightly different angles etc. The results were excellent and the book generally is highly recommended; not just for the photos of the figures but also for the modelling and terrain-building tips. Given Paul's change of focus away from wargaming, his books are available for a short time now, although I suspect other stockists will still have a few copies at shows. Above is a photo of Paul taking a photo of my figures.

Secondly, an AWI mega-game has been arranged for the first weekend of November at a venue in South Timms, just outside London. Using "British Grenadier!" rules (of course), we will be having a go at Long Island, with a scenario specially developed by those experts in all things 18th century, Eclaireur and Ronan the Librarian. I am hoping that my new militia/scruffy Continental units will see some action, and there may perhaps be a need to paint up some specific regiments. Something I have already discussed with Ronan is how we might be able to ensure that the "look" of the British and American regiments is correct; I suspect we will be seeing more 1768 Warrant uniforms on the table than we did when re-fighting Brandywine and Monmouth a few years back. Between now and November I will be posting further details about the preparation for this game.

Thirdly, it came to my attention today that Perry Miniatures will be releasing black militiamen at the end of July (you can see the greens on the Perry website). Joyous news and a very welcome addition to the range - no more need to scour Foundry's pirates range! This will probably require a slight re-jig of the units I have been painting recently once the new figures are available.