Friday 28 April 2017

A Book Of Character and a Unexpected Delivery.


The other week I was in Carlisle and visited the very good second-hand bookshop near the museum . Whilst perusing the military section I came across the above book , 'The Thirty Years War' by C. V. Wedgewood . Now I had tried to read 'Europe's Tragedy' a recent book on the Thirty Years War and it had defeated me - so full of information and a bit long winded , so I wondered if this book would be any better ? .


It was a first edition , published in 1938 and it was priced at £10 - so I bought it . The author Cicely Veronica Wedgewood was quite a character and used her initials when publishing books to disguise the fact she was a woman in a then male dominated field of history,  the book gets good reviews ( I think it's still in print) So I'm going to start reading it whilst on holiday .


This morning the postman dropped off a parcel - which was a surprise as I didn't have anything on order . It turned out to be a box of Mars 1/72nd TYW artillery which I had placed on a back order months ago and they had obviously just become available .


A sight to gladden the heart or furrow the brow - depending upon your opinions of plastic figures . The figures didn't have much flash but the gun wheels were a swine to clean up . The are sold as ' 'Swedish Leather Guns ' but can be made up using either a double barrel light gun or a larger 'Culvern' type barrel .


I decided to make three of the guns as the lighter version and one as the larger and here we see them ready for spraying a black undercoat . Hopefully I will get started painting them next week .





12 comments:

  1. You should enjoy the book, and those Mars kits just get better.

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    1. The book is looking good , the guns were very fiddly to put together but look nice now , Tony

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  2. A timely book find!

    Isn't it a treat to get an unexpected delivery of toy soldiers, even when the secret santa was actually yourself?

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    1. Think they had been on order for about three month , a very pleasant surprise,Tony

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  3. Oh I am disgusted Tony. That is a find indeed and a first edition too! Well done Sir! She writes beautifully.

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    1. It seems easier to get into than the other one ,strange not many books on the TYW in English , Tony

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  4. Nothing like a good History Book to enlighten the mind. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Yes I sadly know very little about this conflict,Tony

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  5. I read that book aged about 18 and was spellbound; it seemed like a fairytale, so far removed from our own time. And yet it really happened, and I found it completely fascinating. Dame Veronica writes beautifully, too. Very envious of your first edition! I hope it inspires you.

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