Re-Basing and Life in the Freezer; and off to Partizan

I'll admit there's been a shortage of hobby time in the past couple of weeks, hence not a huge amount to report on;  but the vintage Minifigs 'Great Rebasing' project has plodded on.  I've completed the two battalions of  Grenadiers de France that I showed on their old bases last time - here they are on their new standard,  40x40x2mm MDF bases :

unit with red facings at the front

 

..and one with  yellow facings 

Needing a bit of a change, I then went back to the storage boxes and picked out some Prussians: these were sent for a paddle in a tray of water to loosen up the adhesive on their bases. 

On the left a Garrison unit, and to the right the 41st 'Wied zu Neuwied' Line fusiliers.  The 41st were on simple cardboard bases and quite easily removed after soaking, but the garrison troops (or at least, their adhesive)  were made of sterner stuff , and several would not come off their (aluminium!) bases even after 24 hours in water.   So, on to Plan B, involving a temporary Prussian garrison in the freezer!  

This idea was suggested by commenters on earlier posts, the logic being that Superglue can be weakened by low temperatures. I'm glad to say that after 24 sub-zero hours, the remaining figures were successfully broken off the base. Phew! 

That's about it regarding  recent progress, but there is a 'big event' coming this weekend: the Partizan show at Newark. I'm very much looking forward to this, despite the requirement for quite an early start!  The list of games has plenty of interest - I noted at least four 18th Century ( 7YW, AWI etc ) games, several Ancients games in scales  from 12mm to 60mm(!) plenty of WW2 and a couple bookending  the  Thirty Years War  (  Glasgow Tradeston club with White Mountain and Baccus' 6mm Battle of Lens, 1648 ),  'and many, many more', as the K-Tel dodgy compilation record ads used to say! Plenty of traders too; I am certainly in the market for more MDF bases..   

Plus of course the chance to meet and chat with fellow gamers - I am going to meet my old buddy Dave 'St Cyr' for sure, and hopefully we'll bump into a few others, including readers/commenters of this blog (such as Neil of aufklarungsabteilung. fame) . I'll be looking out for Steve J in his bright orange shirt, and I suspect the redshirts of Postie's Rejects will be out in force.  Also hoping to meet Rob from The Eastern Garrison, who may have some figures for me, fingers crossed..   

'And finally' - a little topical military history trivia. Tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest final, and many will be familiar with  the Eurovision 'theme music' -  

This, it turns out, is a composition by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704). part of the   Te Deum H.146 - and according to Hannah French on BBC Radio 3's  breakfast show this morning, it was composed in celebration of victory at the battle of Steenkerque, 1692.  This of course was a victory for the Duc de Luxembourg's French army over William of Orange's English and their  allies. Little did I know that  every year when the Song Contest starts, we are being given a subtle reminder of a French victory over the Brits... no wonder we seem to get Nul Points so often!  

With that, I'd better get on with route planning and shopping lists etc - hopefully the next post here will contain plenty of pictures of the games at the show. Until then, keep well everyone.