Off to Derby...

So its that time of year again and the City of Derby beckons.. For me- no longer the show sponsor there have been a few changes. Only 1 van full of toys this year. Floating Jeff no longer drives for me so its just me and Jim the painter in 1 van and a slightly smaller trade stand. 2 van was- due to the price of fuel- becoming unsustainable anyway so changes had to be made. Nevertheless we'll still be taking a "sh*****d"(to quote Slim Pickens) of models to the show including a fair bit of new stuff. As I write this I'm waiting for the pot to reach temperature so I can cast the new aircraft- 2 variants of the Cessna 337, one for Vietnam and the Lynx variant for the Rhodesians. Assuming I get time when I get back I want to get a start on my 15mm Moderns. I have some bits and pieces but not really organised forces. The bits and pieces syndrome is the curse of being in the trade." Oh I'll just get a couple of display units painted" and you end up with lots of half armies. Off the top[ of my head I have Trojan chariots, Polish Winged Hussars Greek Chariots Cairo Janisarries,Some Marlburian Spanish - all of whom have been photographed for the website but have never really grown past that- especially the Poles and the Trojans. At least the Janisaries and Mamelukes have beeen on the table a couple of times.

The Ottoman turks don't quite come under the Bits heading but they are far from a complete army. Again I started with just a couple of display units but they gre a little until they are almost an army but trying to get more done is problematic. I need to do some artillery and some more Spahis. The army is supposed to cover , by careful unit selection, a wide time period from the mid 16th century to about 1800 but the core is 1550-1650 so maybe I'll do some more... Of course that means I'll have to increase another set of bits.. The landsknects Oh Boy.

So here we see 3 pics of my Turks including the assualt of Fort St Elmo during the Siege of Malta- The Knighs are from the Old Glory Wars of Religion range- more bits from the collection - .I do like the look and style of the Ottomans but like many other projects they'll have to get in the queue. Nothing elso now before Derby - a fine show and the Flower pot is a cracking pub! Andy