New Additions to the Library

Another uniform book - I own two others from the series - and something for the naval part of the library (which is probably the largest part!).

Following on from the book element of my Cavalier haul - three titles devoted to the late republican era of Ancient Rome - I have added two further titles to the library. One of these will come as no surprise but the other will need a little explanation.

I have absolutely no knowledge of the Sino French naval war other than a cursory look at the Wikipedia page! I was really pleased to add this to the collection because the others by the same author are outstanding! The only niggle is that the series are large sized softbacks - I would have happily paid extra for a hardback version - but I can certainly live with that as the detail contained therein is outstanding! Am I going to start building ships for this conflict? The answer is a no, simply because even if I wanted to such an undertaking would so far down the list it would have kangaroos bouncing over it….

The uniform book I have owned before but for the life of me I cannot recall what happened to it. I have a vague notion it may have disappeared around the same time as several other titles whilst we were having some work done on the house. A box of books went missing from the man cave and I have a feeling this may have been among them. At the time I was looking at various 19th century options and that was the part of the library that took the biggest hit. 

The book is a lovely, colour-plate filled large format book featuring loads of uniform details for the conflicts covered. I should point out the mention of Boer Wars also includes the Zulu war although I have plenty of material for that particular campaign.I also own the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars titles from the same series. I am no expert on the accuracy of the military uniforms depicted but the details contained therein certainly look the part and will be sufficient for my needs. 

As a reluctant figure painter you could be forgiven for wondering why I have bothered adding this to the library. Well, to begin with I have the Mike’s Models Colonial collection to do something with - a lot of the British stuff for the Zulu War is painted but needs touching up here and there along with rebasing - as well as some possible 1880s Madasahatta style action. Both of these are a fair way down the batting order though as the book will be the main focus for the rest of the year in all probability.

Great to have a copy of the book back in the collection though.