Country Roads....

 Lucky for you I am not singing or ruining a famous song, however I bought my country roads several years ago and have never liked them, for one they are a bit stiff and the edges tend to turn up, also having bought them in two batches there is a slight difference in the colour which has also bugged me. I changed all the static grass edges but it didn't help to make them more alike. So, yesterday at B&Q having plucked up the courage to go near the place to get a socket set to fix a leaking tap, overkill perhaps but I didn't want to attack it like the last time with my scissors and screwdriver which almost brought me to the brink of divorce and/or a breakdown, I also got them to mix up a tester pot of an earth colour for £3.

I was a bit wary when I had them all on the table and painted, the colour looked more like a yellow than earth, but once dry I liked it. This morning I drybrushed them with a sand colour, spread grass along the middle of the roads and then added flower clumps here and there. They are now far better and they are all the same.

 

 

The old roads.

I was supposed to be playing War and Conquest today but Mike from Leicester is a football fan and the Euro final has left that high and dry. I usually have Talk Radio on in the background of the PO while I am drawing maps but this week I have been unable to listen due to the constant banging on about football. But you are Scottish and jealous I hear you say, but no, I really do not care one whit about sport of any kind, I really would sit and watch paint dry (on soldiers) instead. Having said that and in preparation for my English passport should Wee Kranky ever get her way above Hadrians Wall, I would like to see a British team win if just for the hell of it.

I continue my detailed reading on the Eastern Front and after the first few months of Operation Barbarossa I am hitching a ride with Army Group South and 1st Panzer Group as it heads for Kiev. I grew up with how brilliant the Germans were at war and how they were cheated of victory in Russia by the madman Hitler. The whole thing has turned 180 degrees now and the more I read the more I realise, as did some Germans, how the whole invasion was basically a one shot weapon, if the Soviets had not been brought to the table by the end of July there was nothing left in the bag, Barbarossa had to succeed or all was kaput. Despite crippling losses which would have had the Western Allies begging for an end the Russians kept going and merely became stronger and stronger, the country itself, with its lack of proper roads, vast distances, mud and dust wore down the panzer and motorised spearheads of the German army. It has also come to light, to me at least, that even the 6th Army as it arrived at Stalingrad was in a shocking state before it was surrounded. The Russians too made mistakes, many of them, but they deserve more appreciation than they get for winning the war. Once I retreat from Moscow with these books I think a closer look at Stalingrad might be on the horizon.

 So, what next, well Deadman's Hand at the club on Tuesday and an ACW game penciled in for the 25th, I hope to organise some Chain of Command games after that. I also need to built or buy some culverts for the Gembloux Gap mini campaign which I need a volunteer for.