Odessa Regiment and Hinton Hut Maintenance

Another unit turned out in record time. These are more Der Kriegspieler Napoleoniques recently sent to me by Don W. They only needed a tiny bit of TLC and rebasing to my house style hence their speedy appearance here.

The flag looks huge but that's just the camera angle. The figures are quite small when stood next to Hinton Hunt types but have a certain charm.

The figures are:

21 x DK56 LINE BN 1812-SHAKO, Receiving

1 x DK57 COMMAND GROUP - equivalent to:

1 x RN/11 Officer, charging

1 x RN/12 Colourbearer

1 x RN/13 Drummer

This gives you a better idea of the figure pose.

I should mention that the flag is Don's original work as all I did was touch up any worn paint and then give it two coats of gloss varnish.

What I find interesting is that DK produced a number of different charging type poses whereas Hinton Hunt generally only produced one.

Believe it or not the Hinton Hut is now seven years old. It seems to be standing up remarkably well to the Scottish weather with the exception that I've lost a few roofing felt tiles on three occasions. These gaps have been patched up but I thought it was time to properly replace the more exposed front roof covering.

After seven years and three major storms I've had to carry out a number of patch repairs but as you can see the roof was starting to look a bit sad.

Our house is on a slight hill at the end of a valley and when the wind comes from the northeast it whips up the valley and right against the front left corner of the cabin where it then huffs and puffs.

The leading edge takes the brunt of things but this was the only area with any trace of water damage. Fortunately this is mostly on the overhang and the timber is sound.

When I built the hut I didn't realise quite how exposed the location is so this time I am applying copious amounts of bitumen mastic to help keep the roofing felt tiles stuck down.

I just need to sort out the ridge now - hmm, didn't Napoleon say that once?

Ok El Nino - do your worst!

This week marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Flers Courcellete in 1916. If you haven't read my piece about my great uncle George take a look here.