More for India.

 So I am finally able to show some finished figures. All of which will be going into various "Indian" projects. All of these figures are Old Glory 25 or indeed 28mm (Yes Dudes they are the same thing for most people unless you have 3mm angst!). They come from various ranges - Indian Mutiny, North West Frontier, Crusades and Renaissance Persians.

Persian High command. These will, of course end up as Mughals.

A lovely mob. Models from the Cursade and the Indian Mutiny range . Old Glory 28mm.

Pathan Command. Lots of variants in this one- even the same bodies have head variants.

A smaller mob. These from the Old Glory Indian Mutiny range 

Another shot of the Pathan Command. The chaps with Sniders and Martini- Henry  will be for the 1897 Pathan Revolt. The chaps with Jezzails will become part of a Rohilla mercenary band for the 18th century.

So the assorted India project move on - slowly but they move. Quite chuffed at how many Old Glory models I can use to get into the earlier parts of British India . Next up are a bundle more Sikh Goracharra cavalry. 

Catching up on my Reading 6

 I don't often buy books on Naval matters but over the years I have amassed a small number of volumes about  messing about in boats- and not only by Kenneth Graham either.

 I have A.T.Mahn's Influence of Sea Power Upon History - a  portentous and now dated but still useful volume about warfare in the Age of Sail.plus a small collection of WW1 and WW2 naval books - probably less than 20 volumes all told. So when doing the supermarket chore the other week I was surprised to find Max Hastings' book OPERATION  PEDESTAL concerning the Allied 1942 attempt to get supplies through to Malta 

Now Hastings can read and write  but sometimes is a bit right wing for my taste but this one is a good un. He spares no one in the story of cock up and courage occasional cowardice and sheer bloody mindedness that was the four day battle to get supplies through to beleaguered Malta - which was only a bare few weeks from starvation . Operation Pedestal has been treated as one of those  British successes against adversity by the nationalist propagandists of WW2 and up to a point so it was but it was also a collection of balls ups- by both sides which turned- for the Axis a victory- which they trumpeted into a mere losing draw. Losses for the British were heavy- including a carrier sunk, an Admiral doing a runner  and only 5  merchant ships actually reaching their destination. Yet it was enough. Just- to enable Malta to survive . Of course if the prize was worth the cost is another matter but that does not stop the story being something of an epic in itself. Well worth purchasing especially if you can get it cheaper than list -which I did.  Nice one Max.

Complications .....

I am finding out that there is more to publishing a book than writing the thing. Currently  going through the final proof before the book goes off to the printers. Checking the 8 pages of colour plates and the captions to the Black and white illustrations and the maps and battle plans is quite a bit more arduous than I imagined when I started. Not that I begrudge such duty - far from it  but it does not half make your back ache poring over the screen for such a comparatively long period of time without a break.

 Still , no worries it is getting done.

 However what with that and getting the usual crop of orders out- not to mention a bundle of back orders  it means that other stuff- such as figure painting has been almost entirely absent for the last week or so .

 Hence no new pics in this post

 well perhaps just this one ...... 

In Helions Autumn schedule.