Moving on apace - 2mm ACW and a little rock music

 Or should that be moving on at the double quick time?

Rebasing from card to MDF is now completed (phew) with the exception of the artillery which is a minor task by comparison.  So I have moved onto adding new infantry brigade bases with the ultimate aim of having the right number of bases to field both sides for Gettysburg (Yes, I know that my megalomania is showing again!).  I have settled into a simple production line system working in batches.  This means I cut a lot of matchsticks to length, move onto assembling that batch, then basing them and last is adding the flags.

Tiny flags you don't have to be nuts but...

The trickiest part of the process is the last, the flags, one for each Confederate unit but two for each Federal one, so either four or eight on each base as I'm doing four regiments per brigade base. I have made them way over sized as I need to be able to handle them and after all the work printing cutting, shaping and gluing it's nice for them to be noticeable. It does make a real difference to the bases though as it makes them come 'alive'. So far so cheap (other than the cost of bases) but before long I will have to bite the bullet and spend money on extra bases and those items where I use Irregular Miniature castings! It's still not a huge outlay though compared to even 6mm projects.

The flags add some movement to the static lines of troops

To help with the tedium of multiple repeats of a single process I have fired up Spotify on the PC and have been working through the back catalogues of some bands I haven't listened to for a while (in some cases for a VERY long while) and catching up on stuff I missed first time around.  I was an early convert to 'art rock' in the1970's and that brought me to the band 'Deaf School'.  I was lucky enough to see them live in  back in 1976 touring their first album which incidentally is a real gem.  It's a quirky mix of rock, cabaret and glam rock stylings with some clever lyrics.  I am currently listening to some of their later albums that I missed out on when they reformed after a long break.  Coincidentally their original drummer was born in my home town a couple of years before I was.

This is the first album and its a cracking listen

I also have found my Father's wartime photo albums from his time on HMS Chaser (a US built escort carrier).  He served from 1942 to the end of the war in the Far East. So a new project is born scanning the prints to obtain digital versions that I can make available to anyone who is interested.  More on that in due course.