Home alone... Painting... AWI limber finished!

For a couple of days my dear family has left me home alone and has been staying at the sea where we spent our holiday two weeks ago. The three girl has been staying with my parents in law who are spending their holiday there now. An experience I didn't want to share...

Anyway this gave me the chance to turn our comfortable living room into a painting studio:

Although I love my family from the deepest bottom of my heart it has been four wonderful days playing the old bachelor. Actually I kept things like eating as basic as possible and enjoyed my freedom as excessive as appropriate.

Thus I managed to finish a couple of workpieces, start some new and got a lot of stuff done. First for a limber for my AWI British...

... although I haven't managed to paint the unlimbered version of the gun until now.

The set is from the Perry Miniatures's wonderful AWI range. It comes as you see it here with two horses, a kind of limber, a 6pdr gun and a driver. It's a nice detailed kit without too much trumpery.

Unfortunately the set doesn't come with ropes for the team otherwise that presents the chance to make them yourself. For these I used 0.35mm wire of which I twisted a couple of threads. This gives a nicely structured, flexible and durable rope. Sooner or later I'll try this with the six horse limber teams I have for my Napoleonic British...

Anyway during the next days I'll show you a Dark Age pit house I finished and a pair of peelers I started recently as a small recovery from soldiers.

Going home... by train.

Finally my week at the seaside is over and I'm going home. Wonderful Mrs Monty and the girls will stay a couple of further days here with my parents in law who'll arrive this afternoon but somehow I'm not willing to share this hellish experience. Anyway thus I'm able to make two new experiences: Using ny cellphone to write a blog post and taking a five hour journey by train.

The first one is rather uncomfortable but the second one started well. I'm prepared with some food dear Mrs Monty gave me and Brendan Simms's book about the 2nd KGL rifles at La Hay Sainte. Additionally we're on time momentarily and so I'm optimistic for my further journey.

Visiting the German Navy Museum...

A awesome week of holiday is coming to its end. It had special moments with my family and extraordinary day trips with wonderful Mrs Monty and our two girls. But one of the highlights was without any doubt our trip to the German Navy Museum in Wilhelmshaven which we took yesterday. Its most exciting exhibit is the destroyer Mölders (D 186) that has an interesting circular route which is leading the visitors to more or less all different parts of the ship.

Of course this was our venue:

Bridge, superstructure and bow gun turret. A gentle 127mm artillery piece inside.

Launch installation for anti-aircraft missiles as well as anti-ship missiles (Harpoon).

The combat information center.

The radio room.

Besides the Mölders there are two other ships which can be visited inside and outside. One is the minehunter Weilheim from which I didn't take photos because it was raining temporarily and later I forgot to. The other one is type 205 submarine U 10 which was on duty from 1967 until 1993:

U 10

Besides those there are a couple of other ships which cannot be entered and a lot of other items belonging to German Navy warships. Most of the from more or less modern ships from after WW2:

Twin mounted 40mm L/70 Breda 1958/II AA gun used on different frigate, destroyer and replenishment ship classes

RBU-6000 depth*charge launcher used by the Sowjet Navy and GDR Volksmarine

100mm L/50 gun turret used on Köln class frigates and Hamburg class destroyers

Type 131.423 small torpedo-speedboat on duty from 1976 until 1989

Besides those exhibits there's memorial for the soldiers of the 2nd 'Matrosendivision' (Seamen's Division) on the area of the Navy Museum. It was built even before WW1 on another place but was transferred to this new site in 1960. It bears the names of seamen who lost their lives on duty on several ocasions between 1878 and 1911:

Inside the museum's building there's a permanent exhibition covering the history of the German Navy from the 1600s until WW2. Unfortunately space is very limited there and the history of Germany's navy isn't by far as excessive as that of other Nation it's a rather small collection. The exhibits are nice never the less but not too numerous:

Großadmiral Alfred von Tirpitz - Father of Imperial Germany's armament

Uniform of a general-adjutant to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Very nice are the model ships that are exhibited everywhere. They are all 1:100 scale which is around 15mm wargaming scale. On the one hand that gives an excellent size comparison and on the other hand it made me think of 15mm land sea scenarios with those models...

Heavy cruiser Scharnhorst, 1907 - 1914

Battleship Bismarck, 1940 - 1941

Really large models there...

U 139 'Kapitänleutnant Schwieger', 1918

Currently there's a special exhibition about SMS Emden which is well known for its heroic landing party which was lost on the Cocos Islands while the ship itself was sunk in a naval battle by HMAS Sydney on 9th November 1914. However those men made there way back home with simplest means and against all odds.

1:100 scale model

Replica of SMS Emden's bell. The original is in the Australian War Museum in Canbarra.

This was only a small selection of the interesting things the museum has to offer. To my mind 11.50€ is a rather fair admission fee. For navy enthusiasts it's a place to visit without any doubt but even more peaceful minds will find something worth visiting. This time wonderful Mrs Monty wished to go there and give good old Mölders a closer look.

Anyway tomorrow I'll head home with a couple of bees in the bonnet. After this day in Wilhelmshaven the idea of 1/1200 naval battles is floating around my head. Maybe this becomes the next side side side project...

On holiday !

Meanwhile nearly half the year has passed and thus it's time for our annual family holiday. For the last year before Viktoria enters school we're able to set our holiday outside school holidays which makes booking easier as well as cheaper.

Anyway this granted us a couple of days by the sea and since we're enjoying the questionable luxury of free Wi-Fi access I'm able to give some proves of life:

Viktoria and me inspecting the beach... No invasion this time.  ;-)

Because with every bag dear Mrs Monty packed 'for the kids' the trunk of our car seemed to downsize I decided to travel light. So I didn't take paint and brushes along but a small case with a couple of Perry plastics, a hobby knife and such stuff. Maybe I'll find the time to prepare those chaps to represent some of the heroes of Waterloo.

Although the weather was rather tough today I'm looking forward to the next days. Although Anna's ill with a cough again this time off should help me get away from all the worries and recharge the batteries. At special request of dear Mrs Monty we'll visit the German Navy museum in Wilhelmshaven again and will take the chance to visit the destroyer Mölders and a couple of other vessels again. However I'll try to get some other news shared later this week.

Long time... No see... Back to business and AWI.

With horror and regret I realised that my last sign of life was a month ago. Honestly I have no excuse for that other than ongoing problem with finding hobby time. Some pleasant and unpleasant incidents ate up my time and my time to prepare and write articles for this humble blog was even shorter than my painting time.

Anyway this weekend I how much I missed the connection to the bloggosphere and that I should wade into blogging again as soon as possible.

Thus let me start with the command figures I previewed lately:

Those two figures are part of an older Wargames Foundry set from their wonderful AWI range (here). Actually those men are meant to Cornwallis and Clinton but for me they'll serve as more or less versatile generals as divisional HQ for our AWI games. Both are splendid sculpts by Alan Perry with characterful faces and awesome details. Although he made those pieces of art a couple of years ago they are still splendid and stand every comparison to his latest work. In comparison to the newer ranges (e. g. the Perry Miniatures AWI range or Front Rank) the figures especially the horses are notably smaller. For me that is no problem as long as I don't have them side by side on one and the same vignette or unit.

The chickens and the circular base are by Warbases. They are from Diane's and Martin's expanding range of animals and serve very well to make such vignettes more vivid and less monotonous.

I hope you like my first presentation after this rather long absence. Although my family and me are on holiday next week I'll prepare a some material I collected during the last weeks to stay present.