2020

 It has long been a self-indulgence of mine to write an extensive post at the end of each year outlining in completely unnecessary detail things, mainly cultural, that I have done. For reasons that I don't need to explain I find that this time around I can't be arsed. A year ago I summed up 2019 by saying that it had been, as I had predicted, worse than 2018. I make no claim that I extended that to forecast a miserable 2020 as well. Still, Trump lost - several times in fact - so it wasn't a complete wash out.

When I looked back at my diary I was rather surprised at how much  I had actually done in the circumstances, although oddly enough I seem to have read fewer books that the previous year. I played nine wargames - none since March 2nd - and traditionalists will be pleased to note that one of them was Sidi Rezegh.

Quite a few two player boardgames have hit the table at the Casa Epictetus. Conscious that I haven't suggested a boardgame in quite a while can I point you towards Targi, which I highly recommend to those whose bubble only includes only one other (*); and it's even better with the expansion.

Of course many people have left us this year. One to whose music I have been listening a lot since he died is John Prine. So let's wrap up the year by listening to him tell us just what he's doing right now:

                                                        “Hope

                                                         Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,

                                                        Whispering 'it will be happier'...”

                                                                      - Tennyson

Peace and love to you all.

* at a time

The Corner Conundrum

 I have come across a new resource for horse and musket siege warfare. Among other things it has some nifty animated diagrams to explain why bastions were needed and why they were the shapes that they were. When it comes to saps though, it would appear that they are drawing on the same source material as everyone else. Duffy is clear that, other than in unusual circumstances, saps only had one side, which still leaves open the question of how to represent the corners. If one was to take the sensible option and simply delineate the trench with suitable rectangles then it would look like this:

If one replaces those with the saps that I have moulded (and you will note that I haven't got round to casting any more) you get this, which looks completely wrong because it is completely wrong:

A more 'correct' layout would be something like this, which isn't remotely aesthetically satisfying:

The problem is, obviously enough, that you can't see the trench. I do have some ideas, the one which I favour the most being to include a tiny model Phil Harding using his trowel to point out the edge line to an even more tiny model Tony Robinson. Failing that, I have one or two other possible solutions in mind, and shall report back.

No idea

 So, that was Christmas. The most exciting thing that happened to me was burning my finger while pulling a cracker; never happened before, all those years, all those crackers.

As for the joke in the cracker:

Q: What do you call a deer with no eyes?

Season's Greetings

Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

            - Maya Angelou

Gut Yontiff to you all.

Here Come Demould - Of The Castings

"And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed)"

- Dr Seuss

So, the mould having sufficiently cured, I used it to make a polyurethane cast. That part of the process wasn't as fraught as I thought it might be. Whilst there is a limited time to mix and pour the combined chemicals - around two minutes - that's actually plenty, and although the chemical reaction is exothermic, nothing got overly hot. The results are most acceptable.

Here's a comparison with the original model:

Production is fairly quick:

Paradoxically, the fact that it has all worked first time has rather disconcerted me. In my mind I was going to have several attempts at getting the mould right and then a few goes at casting before eventually patting myself on the back for having mastered a new craft. Instead I am pondering what to make with this new not-very-skilful skill, not to mention several hundred grammes of resin. In the meantime I am going to do two things: paint one of the castings, and mould and cast something which is shallow compared to its width, just to see how that works.

Here Come Demould - Of The Mould

 "At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results" - Charles Ellwood Yeager

Having left it for more than long enough for the silicone to cure, I start to break off the foamboard from around the outside. It looks reassuringly solid.

Blimey, it is solid. It is also solidly stuck to the tile. I hadn't given a great deal of thought to how I might get it off; fortunately it responds to brute force.

And, to my complete surprise, it looks pretty impressive; lots of detail with not much tidying up to do. So far, so good.

This be madness, yet there is no method in't

 "No matter how cynical you become, it's impossible to keep up." - Lily Tomlin

The sap rises again...perhaps

 "As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or two points." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson could have been speaking directly to wargamers with that sentiment really, except maybe for the bit about vigorous limbs. So, back to saps. The thing about playing a siege game is that one would need lots of saps, lots and lots. I'm not saying that I intend to satisfy that need, but I would quite like to know how I would do so should I ever feel like it. Those of you who followed my previous link to Rod's Wargaming Website may have seen this post in which he uses a rather ingenious trompe-l'œil approach to the problem. It's very creative, but not the way which I wanted to go. Incidentally, whilst he claims to be modelling from Duffy's illustrations he has made his sap two-sided, which I'm not convinced by. I also can't decide if it would make the zig to zag transition easier or harder.

I have a couple of ideas, the first of which is resin casting. I've never done it, but quite fancied having a go and so I sent off for a starter kit. When we left the somewhat underwhelming model that I had made it was tacked to part of a bathroom tile. The next step is to make a box around it - I used foamboard - into which silicone will be poured to form the mould. The join between the foamboard and tile is sealed with copious amounts of hot glue.

After that one calculates the weight of silicone required to fill the dimensions of the box, discovers that the starter kit doesn't contain enough to allow one to, as it were, start, and sends off for some more. I have been using a supplier in Norn Iron, which added a day or so to the delivery schedule, although presumably a lot less time than it will in the new year. It arrived yesterday and was mixed (note to self: get a bigger mixing vessel) and poured.

The paper towels represent the places at which the quantities of hot glue were insufficiently copious; another learning point. It has to be left for twenty four hours to cure, which will finish this afternoon. However, I am booked in for some heavy duty social bubbling, so it may well be Monday before I get to demould. Am I confident? No, not at all, but it passes the time.

Floreat Etona

 

"The essence of a class system is not that the privileged are conscious of their privileges, but that the deprived are conscious of their deprivation." - Clive James 

You can donate to UNICEF here.

Pythagoras Day

 It's a Pythagoras Day today (16² + 12² = 20²). There will only be a maximum of two more in my lifetime; I'm getting old.

Pythagoras is best known for demonstrating how to squash a hippopotamus, but, according to Wikipedia, among his lesser known sayings was "Do not take roads travelled by the public". Truly a man ahead of his time.

Much more reliable is the story of him going into a bar mumbling to himself "If a right-angled triangle has a short side X, a long side Y and a hypotenuse Z, then the square of Z must be equal to the square of X plus the square of...the square of...the square of...".

The barman says "Y, the long face".

post eventum sapientibus

 Wargames blogs have been around for years now, and certain customs and practices have arisen. One of these is promising to do things that are not only never done, but which the both the bloggist and his or her readers know that there is little or no intention of doing in the first place. A small example of this is my claim yesterday that I was going to produce a model of the sap as illustrated by Vauban and Duffy. Clearly, I was never going to model the trench part - that would be silly - and I always knew that I would skip the fascines on the top given that they would probably be mostly covered in earth. I possibly half thought that I might add the sandbags, but in the end I didn't; partly CBA and partly because I think they would make the subsequent steps in my plan more difficult. So, what I have actually made is a row of gabions in front of an earth bank. It's pleasant enough, but falls woefully short of what was shown in the plans.

What it did do is give me a chance to get out the hot glue gun, which is far and away my favourite modelling tool. There is possibly some deep Freudian reason for that, but fortunately I have given up introspection for advent.

The gabions are from the Italeri Battlefield Accessory Set, in part because that's what I had to hand, but mainly because they come in half sections. 

You will note that we are back on the really, really crud covered cutting mat today.

Quelle saprise

 The 'Vauban's Wars' rulebook contains the following picture, apparently from a publication by Vauban himself. (My scanner won't work - no doubt a Windows 10 update problem - so photos only.)

It reminded me of something, but, as seems to happen increasingly frequently as I get older, I couldn't remember what. It has now come back to me: it's this from Chapter 6 of Duffy's 'Fire and Stone', which also appears to be from a publication by Vauban, but is slightly different.

Duffy also includes this illustration, which is more obviously a redrawn version.

On the printed page the figure standing guard in the trench is exactly 25mm tall, which is probably not coincidental; the book does after all contain some rudimentary rules for wargaming sieges. I think I shall try to make a model of, loosely, the sap shown in those plans.

No doubt you are all asking yourselves the same question as me: given that saps zigzag forwards towards the enemy, what does the man at the front do when he wants to turn the corner from zig to zag? Perhaps making a model will reveal all.

A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day

It is the Feast of Santa Lucia, a much bigger deal in Scandinavia (not to mention the eponymous Caribbean island, where it's the national day) than it is in the UK. As was explained to me by my Swedish colleagues over glögg and lussekatt when I worked in Gothenburg, that's because December 13th was the winter solstice under the Julian calendar and therefore a festival of light was just what they needed. 

Regular readers will know that nothing pleases me more than a debate about the Earth's orbit around the sun, but they are a non-confrontational race of people so I didn't bother to point out the obvious flaw in the Julian calendar theory. Still, it does explain why John Donne started his poem in the way that he did:

 'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,

Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;

         The sun is spent, and now his flasks

         Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;

                The world's whole sap is sunk;

The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,

Whither, as to the bed's feet, life is shrunk,

Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh,

Compar'd with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be

At the next world, that is, at the next spring;

         For I am every dead thing,

         In whom Love wrought new alchemy.

                For his art did express

A quintessence even from nothingness,

From dull privations, and lean emptiness;

He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot

Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,

Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;

         I, by Love's limbec, am the grave

         Of all that's nothing. Oft a flood

                Have we two wept, and so

Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow

To be two chaoses, when we did show

Care to aught else; and often absences

Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death (which word wrongs her)

Of the first nothing the elixir grown;

         Were I a man, that I were one

         I needs must know; I should prefer,

                If I were any beast,

Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest,

And love; all, all some properties invest;

If I an ordinary nothing were,

As shadow, a light and body must be here.

But I am none; nor will my sun renew.

You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun

         At this time to the Goat is run

         To fetch new lust, and give it you,

                Enjoy your summer all;

Since she enjoys her long night's festival,

Let me prepare towards her, and let me call

This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this

Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is.

                                       - John Donne

Mortars - various

 Thanks to everyone for their kind words regarding my latest efforts at CAD design, laser cutting and Polyfilla gap closing. Unusually for these strange times I have some progress to report for a second consecutive day.

I was going to try my hand at scratch building some Gribeauval style siege mortars, in a similar manner to this. But then I came across Speira Miniatures and decided to take the easy option and order some from them instead. They duly arrived from Helsingborg this morning.

They are 3D printed and they can therefore supply them in whatever scale one wants. I obviously went for 1/72 and can confirm that the dimensions are spot on for a 12" Gribeauval mortar, at least according to the Osprey book on the subject. In other words substantially more accurate than I could have made them.

While I was at it I bought some Coehorn style light mortars. These are actually from their ACW range, but van Coehoorn's orginal design wasn't changed overmuch from its first use in 1702 until its final outing in 1915. On top of which, those are 1cm squares that they are sitting on, so one would have to be a pretty enthusiastic rivet counter to spot any difference.

So, a thumbs up from me for Speira Miniatures, excellent products and good service.

One last point: you may, like me, be wondering why my cutting mat appears to be covered in crud in those photographs. I have been to take a look and can confirm that it is, in fact, covered in crud. 

Never Mind The Bulwarks

 Bastions are Go! 

It's the usual story about the spraying, and there's a design fault that means they can't currently be used in straight wall sections, but I think they achieve the objective of vaguely suggesting what they're meant to be.

I shall have to get round the straight wall problem by making some spacer sections to flank them; as if I didn't have enough different bits already.

The cannon are what I propose to use as fortress guns. Those above are from Hat 8311 Napoleonic Naval Cannon and Crew, and the others are from Orion 72001 English Pirates. The Hat ones are a lot better, but waste not want not. I was trying out the 2p pieces as bases, but they are a bit too big. Crew will be individually based so that the guns will serve whoever is defending.

Sappeurs

 Apart from bastions and artillery, on which subjects much has been written and very little actually done, a horse and musket period siege required sappers, engineers etc. When, at the start of the first lockdown, I photographed those elements of my collection never to have seen the table top I ran out of enthusiasm before reaching the French Napoleonic engineers in siege dress.

I have rather a lot of these, which I think is going to come in handy. The opposition to the French will either be Russian or Prussian and I have no idea what the equivalent troops for those armies looked like, or where on earth I'd get some even if I did. The assumption will therefore be that they took their lead from the French and looked pretty much the same.

Three chaps with very unconvincing beards

To stop them from being truly indistinguishable, the French engineer units will each be accompanied by a line infantry sappeur, somewhat incongruously wearing full dress uniform. This is, of course, because I have a number of those and they have never to date seen any action.