Question

There are a couple of figures in the Perry Napoleonic French Battalion Command pack whose function I am not sure of. It's not a terribly good photo but hopefully it shows enough - essentially he's wearing a metal helmet with fore and aft plume and carries a halberd with a pennant.

Apart from looking terribly smart can anyone tell me what this chap does? Why are there 2 of them? What colour is his flag? In fact any links would be gratefully received.

Thanks
 

Falklands

Something a bit different to the normal fare of model soldiers..........

In April 1983 I was coming to the end of a Falklands tour and found myself in Port Stanley with a few days spare. So I decided to take a walk out to Moody Brook and to the battlefields beyond and have a look at the ground that the Task Force fought their way through. I took several photos and thought that viewers might like to see some images of the terrain before the Engineer clearance teams tidied everything up.

This was the time when the main road from Stanley to the countryside (or camp as locals called it) was little more than a mud track. I guess that today with the link to Mount Pleasant airfield its a lot easier to negotiate. Minefields were prevalent on both sides so I picked my way along to the western base of Mount Longdon. Immediately striking was the sheer difficulty of the rocky slope that 3 Para fought their way up. I have photos of the positions somewhere but haven't been able to find these so I'll keep looking.

Anyway first photo is of an Argentine recoilless rifle positioned to the eastern side of Longdon. Its arc of fire is facing south and you can see to the left the start of the slope to Tumbledown.

I'm not sure what the feature to the right is. Harriet, Two Sister's or Goat Ridge? You tell me! The gun is positioned to cover the Stanley Road which you can see as a vague line running left to right across the centre of the picture. I estimated the range as 800-1000 metres but it was certainly dominating the ground and the minefields either side. I cannot say how this weapon was used during the battle but there seemed little evidence that it had traversed right (facing west) where the main attack came from.

Moving further along Longdon turns into Wireless Ridge where I found this German made 20mm AA gun. I understand these were used in a ground role - certainly there were a lot of empty cases dotted around. The crew quarters can be seen just above the shield but I guess that grateful British troops were quick to use them once the clearance had been completed. Thats Longdon in the background and you can see how open the ground is to anybody firing at troops advancing off it.

I should say that Longdon was covered in piles of gathered British equipment like cairns dotted along the axis of advance. This was being cleared by the EOD teams. I left the kit alone not only out of prudence but it seemed morally dubious to help yourself - during the battle, yes, several months after, a definite no. I did however find an empty Argentine utility bag just flapping in the wind so I thought, why not?

Coming off Wireless Ridge you arrive at the old barracks at Moody Brook where some kit was being assembled.

There were 12 of these armoured cars and some were subsequently shipped back to the UK as war trophies - I think the HCR have one in their Windsor barracks. Those that weren't found their way as hard targets to the ranges (Observation Rock?) on west Falkland.

So there we are. Hope this may have been of interest. Please feel free to use the photos but credit would be nice!

 

Shocking

Ebay never ceases to amaze. And for once I'm not talking about their commission policy.

I came across something called a static grass applicator which you can buy for £13.95. Essentially its a kitchen sieve which you fill with flock and then put a charge through in order to get the fake grass to stand up when you shake it over the appropriate piece of terrain. I haven't added the link but its in scenery and props if you want to take a look and dare I say it, feel your jaw drop.

Now I know that we modellers can be something of an obsessive lot but this takes a whole packet of biscuits. Good luck to the people trying to sell it but can there be an item more marginal? The best bit for me was that because electricity is involved there is a risk of electric shock. The advert perhaps unsurprisingly does not identify the level of risk to which the user is exposed but if you are willing to take a chance in order to achieve upright grass then you are a braver man than I

Or am I missing something? Is there a market for this sort of device which I have hitherto never seen? I doubt it but please tell me if I am. I love the home made feel of this sort of thing (think Youtube and foam cutters) but the sight of a common sieve bolted to an electrode was an innovation too far. I'm out.

Flesh

I was browsing the Vallejo catalogue last night because I need a resupply. It suddenly struck me how many flesh variants there are. Until recently I used GW's triad which gave a nice, pinkish finish but recently switched to the Panzer Aces set of shadows flesh, flesh base and flesh highlight. It's OK I suppose but in retrospect I only bought it because it's something different.

I've tried the VMC combination of cavalry red, beige red and basic flesh which is alos pretty good but what about all the rest of the colours on display? Light flesh, dark flesh, sunny skintone, medium flesh, flat flesh, basic skintone and there's even a flesh set of half a dozen colours. But apart from the latter set none of these colours seem to hang together. For a start most of them seem too yellow but for example, does anyone use the dark flesh as a base? I would be interested to hear if readers have any suggestions on how these might fit together as triads.

It may be a Vallejo thing. I still don't see how their dark red can be lighter than a red.

A-n-n-o-y-i-n-g

Just a quick query here. I keep getting multiple hits from a site called r-e-f-e-r-e-r. Its a tedious web advert and there are a number of others but none quite as prolific. Does anyone have a way of blocking these?

Drummers

My heart normally sinks when I paint drummers - so many additional bits and pieces and all that lace. So when it comes to French drummers for 1815 then it gets worse. But way beyond this is the Swiss drummer I have just done.

Not only do you have the green, yellow and red on the coat but the facing colour is a rather fetching sky blue. I could also have got some orange of purple in there if I had chosen to put him in a different company. Its a slightly blurry photo but I hope to have him properly based shortly.

Presumably this poor chap was something of a bullet magnet when marching into action so he can have a stand of his own as all his pals edge further away. Is there another uniform with so many different colours?
 

Don Featherstone

I saw the news that Don had passed away at the good old age of 95. Off to the green fields beyond.

I've written elsewhere about my links to him so all I will add here is this. I know that he was very proud of his wartime service with the RTR - his battle dress and beret hung on the back of his study door. I don't know what he experienced but service with a teeth arms unit in North Africa and Italy must surely have had its grim moments. So when he commanded a troop of tanks in a WW2 wargame at the late, great Wessex Wargames Club there must have been some mixed feelings. As his armour approached a small village he declared that even though he could see no little plastic Germans he was going to thoroughly machine gun the place. As a simple teenager the concept of surpressive fire was something I had never even considered. It was a salutory lesson and I thought to myself that here was a small glimpse into the reality of how people, rather than models, actually fight.

So, thanks for all your kindness and wisdom Don.