Book Bargains - If You Hurry

There's been a lot of 'real life' recently and not much time for hobbies, though the painting of Persians continues (very slowly). I hope to make a bit more progress this week - in the meantime, my attention has been drawn to a couple of book bargains that might interest some of you out there.. 

Many will no doubt be aware of the Naval and Military Press - they are currently doing a 'Black Friday' promotion  ( I do so hate the whole Black Friday thing, I have to admit, but hopefully a bargain is a bargain), and a couple of their offers caught my eye: 

Firstly for the 'Toy Soldier' enthusiasts,  this : 

 

The History of Toy Soldiers, by Luigi Toiati.  I'll spare you the seller's hype but it seems it is 600+ pages with hundreds of colour photos, many of the author's own collection. Originally priced at £45, now on offer at £6.99 - N&MP can do some pretty good prices!   I'll add a couple of their  example page images: 

And a much more daunting prospect, but presumably a huge bargain for those interested in the subject, this :  British Warship Recognition - the Richard Perkins Warship Identification Albums. 

 

Seven volumes :  to quote the N&MP,  Richard Perkins tirelessly compiled and diligently drew an epic collection of hand-drawn profile recognition illustrations; he organised and categorised just about every single ship afloat within the Royal Navy between 1860 and 1939 as well as keeping track of their alterations and documenting them along the way.

Theses are on offer for £9.99,  each their original price being £70 each, it seems. So if you are very keen, you can have the lot for about £70 + P&P,  as opposed to £490!  For the real Naval enthusiast, this may be something of a treasure trove.. 

I will admit that I am neither a 'classic toy soldier' nor a naval history buff, so of course I can't vouch for either of these publications, but they do look interesting, and for those that are keen, well, Xmas is coming up.. I can say that I have bought quite a few books from Naval and Military Press, and their service has always been prompt and efficient, I have no complaints about them.  

For these and all the other 'special offers' from N&MP,  this link will take you to the relevant page of their website.  The Black Friday ( ugh!) event runs until the end of November, so a couple of days left at the time of writing ( if you miss the deadline, I have a feeling they will still be available, at only slightly increased prices.. ).   Happy hunting!

I hope to be back soon with some more 'active' hobby stuff,  meanwhile keep well ( and warm, as winter seems to be arriving here in UK ) everyone. 

 

Pressing on: Painting Plastic Persians

In between quite a lot of 'real life' ( including some '1:1 scale terrain' painting ), I have tried to keep on with painting my DBA Persian army to face Alexander's Macedonians,  concentrating mainly on the cavalry so far. I have no completely finished units yet, but maybe enough 'nearly done' to show here. 

So here we are, 'on the bottletops', so to speak . Front row left (green coats) are heavy cavalry with horse-armour, front right (Purple coats)  medium cavalry,   second row two more units of mediums (Blue, and Red).  Back row left is my sole infantry unit so far, some light archers, and back right is two bases worth of light cavalry. 

I've tried to go for a fairly colourful look while keeping a (relatively) limited palette, and taken inspiration from  Osprey  The Persian Army 560-330BC  ( the mediums loosely based on the 'National Cavalry' depicted there), and Phil Barker's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars - in particular for the lighter troops, he thinks they would have simpler dress of natural wool material. He also mentions 'embroidery bands' on trousers and tunic, but I have not been so ambitious with my detail painting! Maybe on the next lot..

Here's another view, rather jumbled-up in the waiting area for further painting - they need a wash of 'soft tone',  then some varnish and finally basing.  Possibly a bit too revealing - don't look too closely! I make no claims to painting talent, and try to 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' ( I am certainly the latter )  but I think they will do at 'table distance'.  A minor success: at the suggestion of my old gaming  comrade Tony I tried doing the horses with a simple coat of 'contrast' paint ( Army Painter Speed Paint ), and I was very pleased with the result of that. 

 

 

When it comes to sources of inspiration, I have one other interesting picture - back in July I went to the British Museum to see an exhibition about ancient Greek and Persian culture, which included this : 

 

This is a modern reconstruction of an Ancient Persian outfit, which if memory serves was that of a member of the Imperial messenger service.  It certainly seems to reinforce the general impression of colourful clothing for those in the Achaemenids employ.  The patterning is interesting, and I think I should probably try to use a bit more of that if possible - I was a bit shy of trying it so far. Next up are the bulk of the Persian infantry and their mercenary Greek Hoplites, and I may need to be a bit more adventurous with the former! 

I'll keep this brief - need to spend some time preparing to participate in one of Jon Freitag's excellent remote games - this time set in the Spanish-American War of the 1890s. I'll be a Spanish commander, trying to hold the Dominica Plantation against assulting Yankees. We'll see how that goes - watch out for a no doubt excellent battle report from Jon!

After that,  it will be back to the Persians - really need to get them finished and actually try a game with them and the Macedonians!  Meanwhile keep well, everyone.