The Magnetic Dog

Smallest painting job I've ever done. Finally got hold of a casting to provide Prince Rupert's famous poodle, Boye. After failing dismally to get an HO model railway dog (and I looked at all sorts of upmarket stuff like Preiser and Faller), and being unable to find anything suitable in an overscale range (I drew the line some distance short of investing in a complete 28mm Warlord Games Rupert c/w Boye), I surprised myself by getting, very cheaply and simply, a 15mm dog from Peter Pig to accompany my 20mm prince.

Here he is, then. Rupert won't notice that the dog is underscale, since Rupert almost certainly lives in a 15mm scale house in my version of Civil War England. Since Rupert may not always want to have his dog with him, and - more seriously - since the Rupert figure will frequently be required to represent some other dude who did not have a dog, I have attached steel paper to the general's base and some magnetic sheet to the poodle, and the pooch is detachable (I am opening a book on how long it is before I lose him). The Rupert figure, by the way, is a Tumbling Dice rider on an SHQ horse, the rather idiosyncratic, house standard recipe, very kindly painted for me a little while ago by the mighty Albannach.

In passing, if you wish to see the full, evil glory of Google, try searching for a 15mm miniature poodle.

Right - now to try to get a 20mm ferret for Lord John Byron...

***** Late Edit *****

Following the comment from M. Le Balai Joyeux, below, I dug out the sad cartoon of Boye's demise - he does look a bit black, doesn't he? However, I also append a painting of the same fellow which is attributed to Rupert's sister - who would know, you would think - which must be a vote for a pale colour. Hmmm.

1809 Spaniards - Vaguely Familiar? - El Ducado de Fernan-Nuñez

On his recent visit to Chateau Foy, General Goya was kind enough to bring me an interesting spare figure - you may recognise the early Miniature Figurines (20mm) OPC casting of Murat. Now I don't need a Murat, but for some 18 months or so I have been keeping an eye open for a candidate figure to be this chap - the founder and colonel-in-chief of the Granaderos a Caballo de Fernando VII, who were not horse grenadiers at all, but a regiment of light cavalry. Later in the Guerra de Independencia they changed their title to Husares de Fernando VII, and jazzed up the uniform appropriately. The regiment had an extensive service record during the war  - they were at Ocaña, for example - and there are two plates of the uniform in one of JM Bueno's books.

El Ducado was mentioned in the comments to a post about this regiment, and I stated my intention to paint up a suitable figure to represent him - well, here he is - his uniform is basically that of the Husares, with the addition of the really silly hat. We must assume that he saw Murat during his time in Madrid, and was impressed enough to get an oversized titfer with a rude plume, just like Murat's.

The casting has a vintage, whimsical charm - the horse looks rather like a whippet - built for speed? El Ducado obviously has the wealth, influence and nobility to make an ideal brigadier of cavalry. Convinces me, anyway.

I have a couple more of these old OPC figures - my serving General Picton is one, and the other is the Rowland Hill casting (the one with a map on his knee, if you know this range) - I have intended to paint him up as a general of artillery, but he's still in the queue.

1809 Spaniards - Beremundo

The loneliness of command - under revised house rules, brigade commanders still don't get an ADC

Another senior officer for the Spaniards. This chap is a spare from a stock of Spanish cavalry I've had for a little over two years, waiting patiently in the paint queue. These are some of the figures I commissioned from Hagen - they paint up all right, I think?

This is Colonel Beremundo Ramirez de Arellano of the line cavalry unit Reina, who had the (brief) pleasure of commanding the brigade of cavalry at Uclés (13th Jan 1809).

Since he is a colonel, much of the prep work consisted of carefully filing off his epaulettes - hands are still sore this morning!

1809 Spaniards - More Leaders, and a Possible Outbreak of Creeping Elegance

You know you get a sort of half idea, and you quite like it, and before you know what's happened you find you can't get it out of your head, and you have a new project starting up...?

For example - years ago, I once found that I had acquired a couple of mounted infantry colonels from somewhere, so the next couple of French battalions I painted up had a mounted figure in the command, just to try it, and I liked that a lot. It looked just like the pictures in the old Charles Grant book - splendid. It was really just to use up the spare figures, but I knew almost straight away that eventually I would end up rebasing all my Napoleonic armies and adding mounted colonels throughout. It took ages, but I got there in the end, and now I never think twice about it - it's a house standard.

This time it's generals. I have my generals based individually, except for army commanders, who are on a rather larger stand, and have an ADC attached. I have a growing box of attractive staff-type castings waiting to be painted - generals and aides and adjutants and all that - the availability of new figures from Art Miniaturen and elsewhere makes this hard to resist. I like painting generals and ADCs - small jobs, lots of fiddly bits - ideal for short paint sessions, and I am looking at painting up a special new staff group for Marshal Suchet, and I have some more Spanish generals on the bottletops at this very moment, and - O Lord - I've just seen the latest post from History in 1/72. I think I would like to have a little collection of celebrities and other oddballs to grace a suitable occasion. I already have a Spanish division commander who is based with an ADC, which is non-standard but looks pretty good (not least because Goya did the painting...). As of this morning, I am beginning to sense that a new house standard is sliding in from left field. I think I'd really like to move to brigadiers based on their own (as at present), division commanders with a single ADC, and army commanders or other special bods based with 2 supporting staff. Brigadiers will be on the standard 30mm x 45mm bases, division doubles will be on 50 x 50, and I need a new size for the triples - maybe my ECW 60 x 60s would do for that.

Three new Spanish generals - two brigadiers (one in his regimentals) and a
division commander (with the gold lace) - in fact they look a bit shiny - better get
the next coat of varnish matted down a bit.

So - anyway - it looks like a period of progressive rebasing and sorting out (and painting) is coming, to get my staff to the new standard. It doesn't have to happen all at once, of course, but I have some very nice unpainted ADCs just looking for a gig somewhere, and I have some of Jorg Schmaeling's latest Art Miniaturen French generals and aides, itching away in the French Command box. Yes - it feels like a good idea, and it's not too disruptive in the short term. Rebasing generals is a doddle, really. If I order in a supply of pre-cut MDF 50 x 50s from Uncle Tony Barr at ERM then that will get me started.

No rush. Looking forward to it. Creeping Elegance - you know it makes sense.

***** Late Edit *****

Now have the chaps based up, and have added a converted Hinton Hunt ADC to the division commander. ADC is in non-regulation uniform, you're right. Some quick pics in the garden...

This brigadier is dressed as colonel of the Regto de Africa (Antonio Senra)

The Serial Turncoat

Always striving to get ahead...

This chap has been featured on this blog before. I bought him, a good while ago, as part of a job lot on eBay - he was sold as a mounted British infantry officer - apparently an old Hinton Hunt OPC, and I put him away in the spares box for a future refurb.

British officer - as purchased

When I had time, I had a good look at him, decided it would be best to strip and start again, and consigned him to the Nitromors (hand-remover). It shifted the paint, but also shifted his head...

Carrying on heedless

...and it became obvious that in a previous tour of duty he had started life as a Hinton Hunt Austrian general - AN 102 - like this one:

Origins - photo borrowed from The Hinton Hunter 

It seems a pity to waste a useful figure, and his Austrian origins, and consequent lack of epaulettes, suggested a possible conversion to a Spanish general officer. As is the way of these things, the headless horseman has been kicking around my painting desk for three years now, but I am trying to move my Spanish army towards some kind of complete state, and I am always short of generals and staff officers - in particular, I need brigadiers - quite a few of them - and since there are precious few suitable castings around it becomes a very attractive idea to produce some conversions. Not many things look as limp as a complete set of identical officers - a matching battalion is OK - I have plenty of those - but matching officers are not so cool.

Righto then - there was a pequeño uniform for Spanish generals - single breasted, like a French surtout, and I gave my adventurer a head from a miscast Spanish fusilero from my NapoleoN spares, who had a missing foot. Better and better - nothing goes to waste here, if I can avoid it. As always, he will win no prizes for beauty, but he is a unique figure, and I need all the characters I can get for my Spanish army.

Hola! (I think a brigadier would probably say "Hola!" in a suitably deep voice.)

By the way, you will observe that the base of the original figure has been built up with lead sheet, which is a bit serious for my collection - if anyone recognises this fellow - in any of his past personae, please do get in touch!

1809 Spaniards - Better, but Still Digging Furiously

The carpet remains a job in hand, so today's first mission is to clear the decks a bit to get that sorted out.

In the meantime I shifted my painting/carpet-soiling operations into the dining room, and now have the first battalion of Granaderos Provinciales - complete apart from the flag, which should follow in a day or so. The flag, since I mentioned it, is going to be a bit of a flight of fancy - units of granaderos of the line were normally assembled on campaign from the grenadier companies in a division, which means that, as provisional entities, they did not have flags unless someone lent them one. Not so for the Provinciales - the grenadier companies were supplied by the Provincial Militia units of a particular - erm, province, I guess - but they were then given a permanent identity and treated as a distinct regiment. Thus they had a flag, I understand.

These chaps, then, are the 3rd "Division" of Provincial Grenadiers - namely those of Andalucia (other "divisions" were for Galicia, and New and Old Castille). As grenadiers they manage to avoid categorisation as militia in my rules (with all the potentially disastrous implications that would bring), and count as bog-standard line infantry. They are not without a certain prestige, in fact the colonel at the Battle of Ucles would be Pedro Giron, who later was C-in-C of one of the main Spanish field armies. They will form part of the Reserve division of the Army of La Mancha - in company with various guard battalions and the very attractive Irlanda.

Granaderos Provinciales de Andalucia - short of a flag

...and, of course, they have to look good when retreating - note minimalist flammes

Their flag will be some fairly generic coronela - if anyone knows better, please feel free to shout. I'll provide a more official picture when the flag is issued and the chaps are ready for action.

The other such battalion is partly complete - thus far they have their command finished, and the rest of the chaps are undercoated and have had the white paint done (lots of white paint) - they can go back in the Really Useful Box for a respite period, while we sort out the domestic collateral damage.

Oh yes - figures are Falcata castings - the rank and file laboriously (and grumpily) fettled and cleaned up prior to painting - they came out OK, I think - the mounted officer is a conversion involving a Kennington Frenchman and other bits, and the standard bearer is by NapoleoN.

Paint Accident - a small vote of thanks to Citadel

In-Between

One of my battalions of Spanish grenadiers has reached the stage of painting muskets. Since my brand new pot of Foundry Musket Stock Brown is thin and horrid (is it just me?), no matter what kind of stirring procedures I use, I resorted to an old pot of Citadel Scorched Brown. This is one of the Citadel pots from what I call their "in-between" period - i.e. after the old hexagonal pots which I used to like very much, and before the current pots, which have a captive plastic cap which will lock into an open position. The In-Betweens had a captive round cap, but it had no locking mechanism, and they absolutely refuse to stay open in a position that you can use for (let us say, for example) painting.

For in-betweens on which I have relied in the past, I have tended to cut the lid free, so that it may be removed, complete with paint sample, and used as a little palette. Thus what happened today is all my own fault.

I can claim nothing, really, beyond my own ineptitude, but there are certain, ergonomically unhelpful devices which can encourage my ineptitude to blossom, and - you guessed it - my wrestling with one of these stupid cut caps resulted in its popping off at some speed, and applying a spot of Scorched Brown to the living room carpet, just in front of my painting bureau. To my recollection, this is the first such paint accident I have had in many decades of model painting - and we are talking here of periods which included frequent removal of Humbrol enamel tinlet-lids with a screwdriver. I guess I should be grateful that my luck held for so long.

Having exhausted my supply of more easily-remembered terms of appropriate profanity, I have now committed all sorts of effort and cleaning materials to the scene of the accident. It is water-based paint, there was very little spilled, and the carpet is a light brown/beige colour anyway, so I am confident that it should come up pretty well - if necessary, I am sure that the Contesse's trusty steam cleaner, or even a little professional help, will get things back to normal. Thus I am currently in a period of cooling-down, while the rescue scene dries out a little, ready for the next phase. This has not helped painting progress at all, of course.

Normally, you will realise, I bear no malice to anyone - well, maybe there are a very few exceptions, come to think of it, but generally life is too short to bear grudges. Today, though, I should like to single out Citadel paints for special mention. I sincerely wish that the hero who designed the pre-locking, in-between period cap for their paint pots might have one of his splendid caps inserted, rectally - ideally, to a position just below his tonsils.

1809 Spaniards - First Batch of Granaderos Provinciales - Command

I've split my batch of 46 figures, for two battalions of Granaderos Provinciales, into three sub-batches. First lot (completed this afternoon) comprises the command for the two battalions - 10 figures in all - they will not win any beauty contests, but they will do the job. Mostly Falcata castings - the ensigns are NapoleoN, and the colonels are assembled from bits of this, bits of that. Once again I am faintly bemused that Falcata always gave officers two epaulettes - I suspect they did not understand the rank distinctions. No matter. Everyone is at least a major - the Spanish army was clearly a big deal. Especially my Spanish army.

That's the fiddly bit done - next I have to divide the rank and file into two separate "factory" batches - very few colours required - I reckon (after the undercoat) I'll need white, red, flesh, black, musket brown, linen slings, gunmetal, brass, silver, green for bases. The end. Oh yes - plus a bit of yellow for touching in the flammes on one battalion.

Going OK. I'll keep working away at them - short sessions. Plenty of music - today was Compay Segundo (he of Buena Vista Social Club fame) and Saint-Saens' violin concertos, plus some vintage Chet Atkins.

Eclectic to a fault, moi.

1809 Spaniards - ILLIGITIMI NON CARBURUNDUM

[A tale of success - albeit slow and not very spectacular, but we have to embrace these things when they come along.]

In among the boxes of unpainted figures, there are always a few that I worry about. In my 1809 Spanish army project there are a couple of boxes containing the figures for two battalions of grenadiers, and they have bugged me for a while now. I am going to need these figures - I have nothing else to fall back on unless I move to plastics - but I bought them as part of a big job lot, a while ago, and the previous owner unloaded them cheaply because he just gave up on the poor-quality castings. I knew this when I bought them, but when I saw them I was disappointed by just how bad they were.

Falcata's white metal 1/72 Spanish grenadiers. Lovely, elegant original sculpts - Tomas Castaños at his best, but the moulds started to deteriorate very quickly and the standard of casting (and sometimes the quality of the metal) often leaves a lot to be desired. So for a while I have had 50-odd marching grenadiers which needed a lot of rescue work - in particular the right lower legs had to be recarved from a very unpromising jagged blob of alloy. It astonishes me that Falcata dared to sell stuff like this - they weren't cheap, either. Maybe their eventual disappearance had something to do with an unprofessional approach?

[I shall certainly find a horse's head in my bed tomorrow.]

Off and on, at odd times over a period of a couple of years, I have worked away at these boys, always with a faint dread that I, too, would eventually just give up on them. The work is fiddly, sore on the fingers, slow and often exasperating, but - you know what? - in some weird way it is quite satisfying. To produce a figure, against the odds, which will probably paint up satisfactorily is a small triumph, given the sloppy original manufacture and my lack of any particular skill in this area. You have to get into the right frame of mind - plenty of coffee (but not too much!), plenty of relaxing music, good lighting, and enough time to get on with the job for a couple of undisturbed hours. Oh - and lining the completed figures up is fine to check progress, but avoid constantly checking and rechecking how many are still to go...

It's actually rather nostalgic. It takes me right back to the early 1970s, grinding away to make something of a newly-arrived parcel of late-period Hinton Hunt castings - I can recall ACW zouaves (advancing), Napoleonic highlanders (advancing) and any amount of Napoleonic Portuguese (also advancing) for which I had to drill away big blocks and shark-fins of spare metal where the moulds had broken.

Last night I completed the prep work for the second battalion, at long last - we are ready for undercoating. The command figures were almost an anticlimax - far too easy - just as in the earlier Hinton Hunt episode, the moulds for the officers and drummers had less wear and the castings were much cleaner. OK - they are now on the official green bottle tops. There is no immediate hurry, given the time it has taken already, but I'm quite looking forward to painting them. Apart from the dreaded embroidered flammes on the hats, this is a simple uniform - these guys will be humble granaderos provinciales, so no fancy piping or anything - these are just white with plain red facings. Thus I propose to set these up as a single batch of 46 figures - no doubt I shall regret this decision at some point, but - once again - the important thing is to get your head right before you start. Plenty of time - plenty of 2-hour shifts. Yes. Sounds good.

I'll worry, just a little, about the flammes...

A Pain in the Oxide

This may not be a common problem, but it has been a bit of a nuisance for me, and I may have found an answer.

I use quite a lot of these...

This is a 250ml sample tin of interior housepaint - that's (like) wall paint - from Dulux's excellent colour-mixing service. The hardware shop in our village has the special machine, and sells this stuff - which is a remarkable stroke of luck, as anyone who has seen our village will testify. These sample tins cost just a few quid each, and I use this paint for my (Old School, boring) figure bases and my tabletop and I use lots of shades for scenery and buildings. It's great stuff - cheap enough to slap on or dry-brush, and I've never had problems with it.

Except one - for colours such as the Crested Moss #1 base shade, I use smallish amounts, very frequently - a 250ml can would not look at a complete repaint job for the battleboards, obviously, but it will keep me going for a year-or-more's worth of bases and touch-ups. There is the rub, brothers - the metal lid gradually distorts with repeated opening until it is no longer a good fit, and - worse - the inside of the lid rusts, and flakes of rust contaminate the paint. You can't lift off or just stir in the rust flakes and ignore them - if any rust finishes up near the finished surface you will get a brown stain - don't you worry about that.

Typically, for my most frequently-used colours, I throw away about 40% of a tin. Given how cheap the paint is (by Foundry or Vallejo standards) this is not a big problem, but it certainly is a problem at 4pm on a Sunday when you find you are not able to complete the quick basing session you had hoped to squeeze in before dinner. Not so fast, old boy - it's down to the jolly old village hardware store for you tomorrow.

OK - enough griping. I have thought for a while of transferring some of my more frequently-used Dulux "scenery shades" into plastic pots, and have kept an eye open for such a thing. The Contesse spotted these online - a pack of 5 x 250ml clear plastic pots, with watertight, plastic screw-tops (or 10, or 20 - OCD heaven...) will set me back about a pound each, including postage.

One pound is less than the value of the paint I throw away, and then there's the convenience of being able to see the colour, so I can remember what Spring Breeze #3 looks like without putting a daub on the lid. Also, if I take a bit of care keeping the lid clean, I should do away with the poor seal problem. In a spirit of helpful camaraderie I draw these pots to your attention. If you have been using them for years, please just smile patiently and move on.

1809 Spaniards - Latest Group Photo

I've promised myself I'd do this for a while. In any case, I need to get photos of individual finished units to get my Napoleonic Catalogue back up to date (yes, I am sad enough to keep one of these!), and the 1809 army has now grown to the point where it can be photographed on its own, without any walk-on extras to swell the spectacle.

From this end, groups are Vanguard, 1st Divn, 2nd Divn, Reserve, Cavalry
and Irregulars

...and here we're looking back the other way

For anyone who has not come across this army before, it has to be explained that I already have a reasonably sized 1812-vintage Spanish nationalist army, but I gradually acquired enough bicorned castings to consider building a separate one for 1809. This army is based (approximately) on the OOB for the period around the Battles of Ucles and Ocaña - the original plan was to have a representation of the Vanguard, First and Reserve Divisions from the historical original, with appropriate cavalry, artillery and engineering services to make a well-rounded wargames army. It soon dawned on me that I could also add in a Second Division consisting of "New" (post 1808) Regiments, simply by drafting all the round-hatted volunteer units from the 1812 army, plus the guerilleros.

Anyway, the army is now shaping up nicely - I am astounded that the inflow of apparently obsolete metal figures continues to trickle on,  so that I now have more than enough for my intended forces - there is some danger of the Grand Plan expanding again, so I shall watch for that temptation. It is useful to go through this photography exercise - it summarises progress to date, gives me a stock check on what is still to be done, and it is - after all - fun.

Vanguard (still short of a battalion of grenadiers and two of light infantry) and
First Division on the right (short of one battalion of lights)

Current state of the Vanguard - 2 bns of La Corona, 1 each of Murcia and
Cantabria, the 1. Voluntarios de Cataluña and the Provinciales de Jaen

Second Division - 8 assorted round-hatted "new" regiments - including 3 of
light infantry - plus the Provinciales of Granada

Reserve Division (short of 2 bns of the Royal Guard, 2 of grenadiers and 1 of
lights) and cavalry (only the light cavalry is present - 4 units of heavier cavalry
still to be painted, any time soon...)

Current state of the Reserve - 1 bn each of the Walloon Guards, Irlanda,
Provinciales of Cordoba and 2 bns of Ordenes Militares

Light cavalry - leading unit is the Husares de Extremadura (formerly the
Husares de Maria Luisa)

These are the guerilleros - irregulars or armed civilians - they do not normally
appear with the field army, but are useful in a variety of situations - in siege
situations troops like these may serve on the walls alongside the regulars

Figures from Falcata, SHQ/Kennington, Qualiticast, even the odd HaT!

Apart from the missing units noted (still to be painted), I still need quite a few more generals and staff figures, there is at least one more company of foot artillery to come and I haven't started on the engineers and zapadores yet.

It is going rather well, though! Thanks - once again, very much - to everyone who has helped with supplies of figures and painting services - it wouldn't have happened without you!

This week's version of the target OOB is thus (units marked * are still to be painted)

Vanguard
1 & 3/La Corona (IR #5)
1/Murcia (IR #19)
1/Cantabria (IR #21)
Converged grenadier bn*
1. Vols de Cataluña (light)
Bn de Campo Mayor* (light)
Prov de Jaen

1st Divn
1 & 3/Reina (IR #2)
1 & 3/Africa (IR #6)
1 & 3/Burgos (IR #18)
Converged grenadier bn
Vols de Valencia* (light)
Prov de Ciudad Real

2nd Divn
8 bns of "new" infantry (borrowed from 1812, incl 3 light)
Prov de Granada

Reserve
1 & 2/Guardias Reales Españoles*
1/Guardias Walones
Granaderos Provinciales de Andalucia*
1 & 3/Ordenes Militares (IR #31)
1/Irlanda (IR #36)
Granaderos del General*
Vols de Gerona* (light)
Prov de Cordoba

Cavalry
Principe*
España*
Montesa*
Dragones de Pavia*
Husares de Extremadura
Husares Españoles (to be replaced with better figures...)
Cazadores de Olivencia
Cazadores "Vols de España"
Granaderos a Caballo Fernando VII

Foot Artillery - 4 companies (1 still to be painted)

Garrison artillery*
Engineers, Sappers etc*

Partidas, Irregulars

1809 Spaniards - Flagging Effort?

Today I have attached flags to the 5 recent new(ish) battalions of my 1809 Spanish army which were waiting for them. Another small step for mankind - pleased with them, actually.

From left, front row: 1/Cantabria; 1 & 2/Ordenes Militares, all marching into the customary stiff breeze

Back row: 1 & 2/La Corona.

All the rank and file are NapoleoN figures, while the command are a mixture of NapoleoN and Falcata, with a few conversions thrown in.

Good - they are now safely put away in the boxes, ready to fight. I feel an urge to set up a more complete group picture of the state of the Spanish army in the near future. I'll do this.

As for the next painting batches, I am giving some thought to doing two battalions of the Guardias Reales. This will probably break down into two batches - a fussy one with all the command, and then a factory one for the rank and file. This will be the second guard presence in the Reserve Division - I already have the Guardias Walones - the uniform is very similar, but the Reales will be rather scruffier, partly because I shall be the painting service (!) and partly because they will be in blue overalls rather than those dashing high gaiters.

French Siege Train: More Gunners

Thanks for positive reaction to the painted SHQ siege artillerymen from last week. I quite enjoyed the "factory" process of painting up the first lot of gunners for the Siege Train, so was happy to bash on ahead this week and get the rest of them done. It went well enough (though my current favourite brush seems to be moulting), and I got them finished quite quickly.

Two batteries of howitzers and two of Gribeauval mortars, to add to the siege cannons

I have to confess to a faint unease about this little project - I'm happy to have made such good progress (eventually), but there is something about it which maybe says something about me which I don't really care for. Online, one sees all sorts of projects which are beautiful, or which make use of rare and glorious figures, or which represent the height of the figure-painter's art for us to relish. This is none of these things - it is just BIG. Having decided to do it, I have gone about it (relentlessly?) and got it finished - it's kind of industrial. Never mind - I guess it's a personal style or something.

All right then - let's have a look at what's in this box now...

...all right, that's the whole lot

That's the guns ready for the French siege train, then - I may paint a couple of water buckets or ammo chests to make the bases more interesting, and I have some officers and some digging soldiers to paint - all looking quite promising. Another major gap in the Napoleonic siege effort is I still have to obtain some of the special MDF buttresses to enable guns to stand on my Vauban walls - it's in hand - the drawings exist, I just have to meet Michael from Supreme Littleness for a coffee next week and we are back on track.

Good. I'll tidy the brushes away until after Christmas.

Separate Topic - more pottery buildings.

I have obtained a couple more buildings for my ECW town...

On the right, The Priory, Lavenham, on the left a rather odd church...

...it's flat-backed! What in model railway circles I believe we used to call
low relief - this is a church to stick in the distance, against the edge of the table.