ACW Ships on the Eastern Front when King George Commands and We Obey....

Pictured above are the first two 'walking beam' ships for my ACW collection. The model in question is my representation of the General Bragg and as with the earlier General Price, I made two copies of her - one for the Union and one for the Confederates. The walking beam assembly comes from Peter Pig and is available in a pack of 8 as a special order. The guns are also from Peter Pig and have proven to be an absolute godsend. In respect of her overall dimensions she is a little on the small size and comes out around 3/8th of an inch too short but having said that, still looks a reasonable model. I had debated on whether or not to add masts to her but decided that it would not be keeping with the standard of the other models and so the temptation was resisted. I will have enough to do with masts when I tackle the Gulf end of the project! Both models have been sealed in readiness for the painting and I am hoping to get the last eight models finished over the next week making fifty in all.

Pictured above are the forty models built thus far - sealed, filled and ready to undercoat and paint (at long last!).

As is usual at this time of year I have also been busy on the boot sale front - my last acquisitions were not reported simply because my PC has been in dry dock - and managed todat to acquire some great books for the collection. Rifles by Mark Urban covers the men of the 95th rifles during the Peninsular War and the Waterloo campaign and is similar in style to Fusiliers (covering the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the American War of Independence). That sits very nicely in my Peninsular War and Waterloo library - best of all it is a pristine hardback first edition. Following on from my recent acquisition of five double disc DVDs featuring ten episodes of Sharpe starring Sean Bean (the weekend my PC went into dry dock) this was a very timely and appropriate purchase!

The episodes covered are:

Sharpe' Battle, Sword, Rifles, Eagle, Mission, Revenge, Regiment, Siege, Company and Enemy and not only were these in mint condition but the whole lot only cost me £5!

I also picked up a copy of War of the Century by Laurence Rees which is the book accompanying the BBC TV series of the same name. I do not recall the TV series and am not expecting this to be anything other than a general history but it should be a good read all the same.

The last of the batch of goodies for today was Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail 1756 to 1815 by Bernard Ireland. This is a large format book that covers exactly what it says on the dustjacket - with some lovely large size colour reproductions of selected ships from the era.This little lot came to a mere £7 and have all been duly assigned to their alloted places on the bookshelf.

So not only has the weather been outstanding over the long weekend, I have also managed to acquire some cheap goodies, seen my grandson, had a barbecue, jetwashed the patio, ate three times my body weight in chocolate, tackled a few other DIY jobs, sealed and filled 40 models, built two more, boxed up fifty books for disposal and tidied my home office.

Phew! I think I will go back to work for rest...;-)