Minster Gate Bookshop Revisited

Hello There! The day before I visited Vapnartak 2026, I had a tour around York and revisited the Minster Gate Book Shop again.

Again there was a noticeable change in the stock in the History and Military History sections.

After a while I walked away with the following.

While these subjects are not my usual interests for less than four pounds each I added these to the collection.

I have a few publications on the Roman Army and I had a look through this and felt it would be a useful addition. Also the Towton book was also interesting, especially as we passed the battlefield on the way home.

I originally had a creeping feeling that I had this already but thankfully I was incorrect.

I have a small force of  Resistance, which could be the basis of a good game. I do not have anything specific on this subject so was pleased to find his. Also another couple of additions concerning Normandy. This time from the German and British perspective.

This last item came from an Oxfam shop on the high street. It was hidden behind a number of other books and not easy to find. I already have the first part and this concentrates on the large Capital ships in the Kriegsmarine, some destroyers which were formally from other nations and an errata from volume one.

La Belle Alliance Build Part One

Hello there! I have started revamping some buildings associated with The Battle of Waterloo. I have begun with Napoleons headquarters so that I can judge how best to do this work so that I can progress with the other buildings, Hougoumont and La Haie Sainte. 

I started off with this. I started by stripping the doors and windows and removing the roof and end extension.

This gave me the bare bones of the foam board shell. Here I have added some depth to each end as I had completed the next step below.

I searched the internet for reference material. I found that some representations of this building had made a number of mistakes as there was a few differences to what the building looked like during the battle and after a number of changes had been made.

The sepia illustration above was the most accurate I could find which was contemporary with the battle. I was completed a few months after the battle.

The black and white picture is from Adkins 'The Waterloo Companion' That shows some smaller windows under the eaves which were a later addition. Lastly on the front facing the road the left hand doorway was bricked up. In most models it is a door.

There does not appear to be any detailed pictures of the rear of the building. There is a well and a separate building behind but this is not included in this work.

I obtained some graph paper and started a scale drawing with the reference information I had. I also needed to take into account the dimensions of the foam board model I had to work with and the spacing of the doors and windows to make them look right.

Once that was done I then photocopied the plans and glued them to a sheet of Canson Foamboard. This is a much higher quality foam board than what is available from the likes of Hobbycraft. It is denser and is sandwiched with two sheets of cartridge paper. It is much easier to peel of and leaved a clean area which can be impressed with brick much more easily.

The wider dimensions, between the above plan and the foamcore shell was different. The plan being much wider. I added some further width by cutting some cheaper foamcore board a little smaller than what was already there and glued them to each end. The final ends where cut in Canson foamboard so I could impress a brick end to it later.

This also gave me the final width for the front and back and ensured that it would all fit together with no overlapping.

As you can see above I have started to cut out the doors and windows. This gave me the opportunity top enlarge them, to suit 28mm figures more easily and take into account the thickness of the plasticard which will be the door surrounds.

Next I will fit the doors and windows

Desert Rock Outcrop Part Two

Hello There! The first part of this subject is here. While moving the scenery, that I am making at the moment, I needed some more space so I placed some rock faced ridges together, one on top of the other. A few moments later I noticed that with the modular aspect of the scenery allowed me to add a second tier of ridge line.

I saw this and realised that they 'fitted' together!

From a top view I could not see any problems doing this and they lined up really well.

From the side, The black band on the left is a cut sheet of polystyrene with black tape around the edge to stop any breaking of the edge.

This was a nice surprise and I will try to include this in a back drop for any photography.

 

Scenery Hints and Tips

 Hello There! As I was making the desert scenery I learnt a few tips that I found as I worked through some problems I found.

As I dry brushed the surface of the desert, I brushed off some of the surface, painted sawdust. I saved what came off and kept it in a bag, thinking, 'That might be useful'. Not really knowing how.

During the drying of the tile adhesive sometimes the surface would crack. If this was in the centre of the board I would leave it as it looked realistic. However if it was along the join between the surface and the timber edge of the scenic tile then it would show up the timber surround. This was when I though, 'Well I do not want to get the tile adhesive out again' and fill the gap, as this would take a long time to go hard. I added a layer of PVA glue and embedded these pieces of sawdust into the glue. Overnight this had set and you could not tell the difference to the rest of the scenery. It dry brushed the same as well. 

I am working on scenic tiles for the desert and NW Europe. This means that I may have a number of tiles 'on the go' at the same time. I have repeatedly got them mixed up and forgotten what I had planned! As I glue the timber edging on to the edge of the plywood base I write on the top surface of the base, what it is intended to be. Then I add the base layer of styrene foam this would cover up this instruction, so I copy this onto the base. Why don't I just put it on the base at first? Well I do not have to turn the tiles over to see what they are meant to be all the time, especially when the sides are held down with clamps while the glue dries.

The sides of the tiles are a fixed height. This is 50mm thick. This means that as 50mm thick styrene is put inside the tray then it stands proud of the top edge of the timber edging. I found it very difficult to cut this top layer off before before it was glued into the tray. I cut this top layer off after the glue had set to fix the styrene into the tray. Then I could cut the protruding layer of the styrene off using a handsaw. This allowed me to use the top edge of the timber surround to help guide the saw. I would start cutting from both ends so that the cutting line would be vaguely straight.  

I am making this scenery in a outside location. This means that the temperature can vary greatly. This can delay  glue setting and the tile adhesive going hard. While the thickness of the tile adhesive is not so thick that it would slump before it had set, I found that even after a week, (sometimes). it was still not set. If I had a electric fan heater to warm the room, I would set the scenic tile on end to hasten it setting or drying.

Desert Wadi Part Five

 Hello There! The wadi has now been completed. Part Four can be viewed here.

Here is the completed assembly. This is the first trial assembly, to check if there ae any glaring problems. Fortunately there were a couple of mis alignments but no big problems. Only a couple of places that a quick paint cannot solve.

This is a view of the start of the wadi and one of the straight sections. I wanted a meandering wadi with very irregular walls.

Here is a close up of the origin of the wadi.

The rock faces needed a number of heavy dry brush coats of paint. To make sure I got the finish I wanted. Otherwise the previous shade of paint would lift and mix with the next.

This is one section that has a slope from the top level to the bottom of the wadi. There are two of these as I did not want this scenic feature to be a block to any movement.

Round up of book purchases

Hello there! I have found a few photographs lurking on my camera again. In an effort to clear the camera memory before going abroad later in the year, I have posted them on here.

The first two publications came from E Bay. I have been looking at Sherman tank design and the noticable difference between different marks. I have some 20mm 3D prints to paint. I have removed many of the print lines but the rear engine deck is incorrect and I am considering adding an engine access door(s).

The next, also from e Bay complements the other two Nafziger publications on the infantry and SS units.

These came from a couple of secondhand bookshops in Edinburgh, (below). There are many such places in the city and all well worth a visit.

Rome Versus Carthage

Hello there! Another game, which has been lurking in my camera is the above game, using Epic scale figures from a collection of a wargaming friend.

I did spend part of the game feeling they could easily be mistaken for 15mm figures! It has been a few weeks since I played this game and I cannot remember the rules used but it was a very entertaining night with good company. The game was also well run and the rules were easy to pick up.