Preparation for our Verdun participation game at the Partizan show on 1 June is currently well under way at Roundwood Towers. In between painting the last few French figures for the game, I've being doing some reading, and re-reading.
I've had the French machine guns for the game sitting in a box file for some time. I've been painting a Hotchkiss machine gun and a captured MG08, brought into service by the French against its former owners. I've also been wanting to finish off a few additional French junior leaders for some time. They're now all about 50% as you can see from the photos on this post. I generally don't enjoy this stage of painting as the figures look very much half done - dark, grubby and blending all too realistically into their bases as they await highlighting and detailing. I'm hoping to get them finished on Saturday morning.
On my morning commute I've been re-reading Ian Ousby's excellent "The Road to Verdun", which out of all of the books I've read about Verdun perhaps best captures the mental horror of the battle for the French soldiers and nation. Michel Goya's "La Chair et L'Acier" is an excellent read, although my French is not really good enough to read it at any speed. I'm translating rather than reading in any real sense of the word.
"La Chair et L'Acier" is, nevertheless, a very good read in any language, and after Partizan is over I'll post a full review here.
Next up, a tour through Paris, and some handouts for the Operation Gericht game at Partizan. Hope you can join me for that! On les Aura!
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