The trumpet calls us to the breach!

I think I have mentioned that I'm trundling through our film library. I've fallen happily on Branagh's Henry V, which is something of a surprise, given how unhappily I was smothered by Shakespeare's seeming tedium in school. Perhaps you presume I was bored by those tedious classroom readings when disinterested teenagers stumble through forgotten and unknown words. In fairness, who doesn't blink the first time they read floccinaucinihilipilification? No, that was not all. We had a few school trips to unedifying plays, too. I do not damn all plays as worthless. Some foolish opinion I read on IMDB the other day said they were good for nothing other than training actors for the screen. Anyway, this is a very pleasant business, although I have just sat in mute bafflement through a scene of McEwan and Thompson addressing one another almost solely in French rather too swiftly for my mind to comprehend, so distanced is it from the days of GCSE French.

On the wargaming front, I have two avenues of progress to report. First, I have been at work still on those 1/72 ACW chaps, Confederate and Union both. The Rebels have received a varied appearance, perhaps too much so. You may judge below. They've had a variety of colours and then a variety of washes served on them. Still none is yet finished, but much is done on about 85 models, half for either side, so conflict may soon be joined to restore the Union or, if you're so inclined, fight for the Bonny Blue Flag. I think Westerns as a child inclined me much toward the Union: dark blue jackets and pale blue trousers: why it's John Wayne in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon! Of course, one later on picks up rather more details - that whole reprehensible slavery business, for instance.

Second, and on a lighter note, I've also been at work on Arachnids. Years and years ago, I invested in the Starship Troopers game, but owing to an accident never got anywhere with the assembly. Two problems presented themselves: I lacked both superglue and the will to invest in it, the plastic being no lover of polystyrene cement. Next, I sat down with a friend to poke at the box, and he attempted to help me. Unfortunately, we had opposite approaches to these things. He detached everything from the sprues for ease of assembly. My face was a picture of horror when I saw it. I didn't and don't attach blame to him for doing it. Everyone has their different way of doing things. Because mine's different, the poor models ended up living in my attic until just the other day. Very little has gone missing from the monsters: just the lower jaw of an Arachnid. Nineteen of the twenty in the set are whole, though.

I did undercoat everything in black years ago, which was a silly idea. I couldn't paint yellow atop it, and gave up. Given everything was falling apart because poly cement was ineffective on that plastic, this was probably for the best! So tomorrow I shall venture forth and fetch myself some yellow paint from Halford's, so I can just paint the black and red atop it. Much more sensible a plan! Until then, dear readers, have a gander!