The Luxury of Familiarity and a Visit to Navwar

Due to the acquisition of my new netbook this weekend and sundry other domestic duties the ACW models have taken rather a back seat but this evening I should back in harness on the four models I currently have underway. My construction technique for these models is now so well established that I know pretty much how much time most aspects will take so having some time out is not really a major problem. They should be ready for the end of the week with little difficulty. The overall plan for completing the construction of the models and the painting is still in place and I want to seriously try to get all the models built, painted and based by the end of April and am hoping to make use of the bank holidays to apply the finishing touches. As long as I can get a good run at the task then it should not present any major difficulties. Painting the casemate ironclads - both the Confederate and the Union City class gunboats - should be straightforward enough although the myriad of side wheel vessels will be less so. The trick will be to pitch the paint job at the level of detail of the model so copious amounts of washes and drybrushing and agonising over particular shades will probably not be the way to go. Having said that, I want the armour to look like armour without having to paint is solely in metallic paint. That will be a bridge I will happily fall off when I get eventually get to it! Next Friday sees my grandson's first birthday and whilst I argued that buying him the complete Oman's History of the Peninsular War as a present would be a good idea SWMBO unsurprisingly took a dim view of this. We are heading over to the family abode on Saturday for a visit with birthday presents and much oohing and ahhing at the little fella - he is now up and about and in need of constant supervision (rather like his granddad I suspect!) but, I have been given permission to slope off for an hour as the family abode is a mere 5 minute walk from the Navwar shop in Seven Kings. I have in mind a number of acquisitions - mainly as replacements in a more usable scale for my former WW2 collection of Axis and Allies: War at Sea models. Despite my fondness for the Mediterranean the first part will probably be replacing the North Atlantic kit i.e. the Home Fleet and the Kreigsmarine.