Mid/late February reading....

I spent today reading the beginning of Twilight of the Hellenistic World.  It's set in the Alexandrian Successor states in the late 3rd/early 2nd century BCE.  I'm reading about the different Greek city states and their various alliances.  It seems Macedonia would play different factions off in the quest for predominance on the Achean mainland.  Sparta and Athens were still two large players.  There were others.  Rome put an end to all this when it consolidated its holdings in the eastern Med against the crumpling Greek states.

I'm just getting into the internal politics.  This had been going on since the death of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE.  Right now, the author is just covering mainland Greece.  There were other parts of the Successor's empire.  I think this was the time of mercenaries, too.  I'm only 50 pages into the book, so I'm not a point where I can really comment.  Other than it's interesting stuff... 

Late February reading: part II and other musings

For my nonfiction, I started an ebook called Twilight of the Hellenistic World on my NOOK.  It's by Pen & Sword Publishing.  It looks interesting.  The Alexandrian Successors have been an interest of mine for a long time.  I can't justify the cost in lead and time in order to game with them.  I had 28mm Bronze age Greeks and Trojans.  I got rid of those figures during the move...

I have a retired friend I regularly game.  He isn't in good health.  I noticed he and I game a lot together.  I don't know what I'll do when he finally passes.  My friend Don has gotten me into all sorts of periods.  I'll be able to game with others on the weekend.  However, Don is someone I can get together on a regular basis and roll dice with. 

He loves 28mm Romans.  He loves 30mm WH40K.  Don loves 28mm British Colonials.  Don's vision is getting to point he can't see.  I don't know when his doctors will fix his cataracts.  Don and I talked about gaming 28mm Ancients.  No one else would bother. 

When I moved, I made a concerted effort to downsize.  So the 28mm ancients went.  Now, Don has the figures.  But he literally has no room in his house.  I have room and a place to finally game.  And books on ancient Greeks and Romans.

The 30mm Warmachine figures have been assembled and bagged.  I'll be working on 15mm SYW Reichsarmee. 

I have the following in the painting queue:

15mm SYW Saxons
18mm SYW Prussians
28mm Masai Warriors
28mm Colonial German Marines
30mm Warmachine Rhulic dwarfs
30mm Warmachine Steelhead Company mercenaries

Afterward, it's:

28mm Sudanese Mahdists
28mm Viet Cong
28mm ARVN infantry
28mm 1960s US Marines
28mm 1860s French Foreign Legion
28mm 1860s Mexican infantry

I got rid of a lot.  However, I have nothing to sell in a local used gaming auction (love the irony when I had the stuff to sell, but no room to store it).

Looking at my nonfiction reading queue, I have the following books:

History of Ancient Egypt:  Vol. II by John Romer
Finland at War:  The Winter War 1939-40
The Coldest Winter, America in the Korean War
Such Men as These
The Last Stand of Fox Company
Marine Sniper, 93 Confirmed Kills
The Tunnels of Cu Chi
Six Silent Men
Sunrise at Midnight
They Marched into Sunlight
The Battle of the River Platte
From Eden to Armageddon
Conquer or Die!
Devil of a Whipping:  The Battle of Cowpens
The Road to Guilford Courthouse
 Chief Joseph and the Indian Wars
Armies of the War of the Pacific, 1879-1883:  Chili, Bolivia, and Peru
The Defeat of Rome

That's what I remember.  It's a lot.  I'll post reviews as I get through the books.  But, it's an eclectic mix of stuff.  Outside of my 28mm Vietnam, I'm not going to be doing anything else with it....
        

Photos of 30mm Steelhead Company Mercenaries

                                          30mm Stealhead Heavy Cavalry.

                                         30mm Steelhead Heavy Infantry with polearms.

                                          30mm Steelhead Riflemen.

Assembled WM Steelhead infantry tonight...

I spent several hours assembling Warmachine Steelhead Company infantry.  I put together about thirty figure before dealing with all the dried Ca+ superglue on my hands.  I put together two boxes of Steelhead Halberdiers and one box of Steelhead riflemen. 

A couple notes on the Steelhead halberdiers: 

1)  It took me a while to figure out how to assemble the figures.  Once I knew what to do, it was easy putting together the second box.  The Steelhead heavy infantry have lots of parts.  It takes a while to assemble a figure.  I did everything in assembly line fashion.  Knowing what I know now, I bust everything into their individual components, remove flash, and pre-fit the joint where I'm going to glue the figures. 

2)  I'm not going to get another box of Steelhead heavy infantry.  It's too much of a pain to assemble.  The new plastic kits are coming out.  They might be easier than the metal kit.

Notes on the Steelhead Riflemen:

1)  These figures were easy to assemble.  Most were one pose.  Or add guns to the standing figures.  They all had backpack accessories to be added like the Rhulic dwarves. I could have up to two Steelhead riflemen units in my Merc army.  I'm just going to have one for now...

The last thing I have to assemble is a Steelhead Cavalry unit.  I pulled everything out of its box tonight.  Looks like a pain to assemble.  However, I was warned about Privateer Press's kits.  Mainly have been pains to assemble compared to GW models...

Here are some photos of projects I worked on this weekend:

                                          WIP, 18mm Fantasy orc football team for Glenn Wilson.  Completed.

                                          WIP, 15mm SYW Reichsarmee infantry brigade No. 2, 14FEB16.

Mid-February 2016 reading...

I started Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie last week.  I'm at page 107.  The narrator is an AI turned female human named Breq who wants revenge for losing her command, the Justice of Toren.  She's also part of the Radch empire that rules human space.

Problem is, Radch uses genderless speech.  The only way I can figure out whether someone is male/female is when Breq talks in another language with gender pronouns.  That makes Ancillary Justice different and a challenge to comprehend.  I'll see what I think of Leckie's use of generless speech when I get done with the book.

Also, the review for Masters of the Art:  A Fighting Marine's Memoir of Vietnam by Ronald E. Winter is now posted on my blog...

Blake

Review of Masters of the Art by Ronald E. Winter

Author:  Ronald E. Winter.
Title:  Masters of the Art:  A Fighting Marine's Memoir of Vietnam.
Publisher:  Presidio Press.
Copyright:  1989, 2005.
Pages:  262.
Price:  $7.99 (US).

Overview and Impressions:
Author, Ronald E. Winter, talks about his time as an electronics technician and helicopter door gunner on a CH-46 Sea Knight medium helicopter in 1968-1969 during the height of the Vietnam War.  He was stationed in the north of the country near Ke Sahn and the DMZ.  Winter saw lots of action and lost a few friends.

The author talked about his time at Paris Island and how his Marine Corps instructors prepared him for Vietnam.  Winters enlisted in 1966.  He didn't see any action until May 1968.  The air crews were tight-knit.  Their loss hurt his unit particularly hard.  The time they spent training for Vietnam in North Carolina during 1967 eventually paid off.

However, the author didn't around to describing his combat experience until halfway through Masters of the Art.  His accounts are riveting and harrowing.  The later part of the books is Winter's coming to terms with Vietnam.  Recommended.