The Weekly Sitrep....Number 48

Complete with nautical niceness - and actually not a bad read this month either! (Not that I buy this very often....)

Saturday just gone saw my 59th birthday arrive and herald what was a very busy weekend. SWMBO and I headed up to Norwich to celebrate my brother in laws's 70th birthday with a grand family Sunday lunch. I say grand intentionally as his four children and their partners (with the sole exception of the New Zealand contingent that were over for a couple of weeks and were represented by his daughter and one of her two children) and a number of grandchildren were also present, as well as a very well behaved dog! As we were also visiting other family the weekend seemed to consist of getting in and out of the car, drinking numberless cups of tea or coffee and saying hello and goodbye. Aside from driving through a part of the city itself we did not get a chance to do anything 'touristy'.

Laurel's stepfather whom we visited on Saturday has at long last realised an lifelong intention to assemble a HO:OO model railway. Needless to say this was of interest and so I passed an hour or so looking at his progress thus far and comparing notes about terrain. He had some quite wonderful card terrain pieces that I was very taken with and I came away with a spare catalogue of the same and plenty of inspiration for scenic ideas. Undeterred by the fact that he and his culinary expert of a wife live in a converted cowshed with but a single bedroom he has set up his railway in a rather ingenious way. The whole thing - about the size of a double bed - is suspended from the bedroom ceiling and can be lowered or raised by the use of a ropes and pulleys on either side. Quite what his wife makes of having the Flying Scotsman and assorted other engines over her head I never did find out....

We arrived home around 5pm yesterday and after the inevitable unpacking and a much needed cup of tea I was able to get back to the 30mm ACW guns. I have taken a slight step back with these although it has not impacted on progress. I was not happy with some of the odd pieces of metal present here and there so I took an emery board and knife to them - not in a massive way - to complete the clean up. They now look far tidier and I was able to repaint the offending areas as well as the wheels. All I need to do now are the wheel rims, some carriage fittings and the gun barrels and they will be ready to varnish. I am torn between drilling out the muzzles and then painting the inside black or just putting a black spot there instead. I will get the carriages finished first and then decide. In any event I am looking to have these completely finished by the weekend when I shall carry out the grand photoshoot.

Wargames Illustrated October 2019 (number 384) is now out and contains a warship sprue from their forthcoming game of Napoleonic naval combat: Black Seas. This is due to be released this month and if the models I have in my possession are anything to go by they alone would justify buying the game. I purchased two copies of the magazine which gave me a sprue with a single frigate and one with  two smaller vessels. They look very nice indeed and the modellers amongst us could really produce something special looking with them.

Now here is a plea. If any readers of this blog routinely buy Wargames Illustrated and have no use for the model please let me know and I would certainly take it off your hands!

Many thanks in advance.