Happy ANZAC® Day!

FFS - Gallipoli teddy bears?!!!
From Australia Post catalogue

I'm going to burn in hell for this!

This is a personal post about the 100th anniversary commemorations of the 1915 Gallipoli landings. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I do want to express a little contrariness on this day of secular worship. If I had family directly involved in the campaign I might feel differently, but I don't so only have the perspective of an observer.

The further removed we are from the event, the seemingly more we are turning it into a day of jingoism, especially in this 100th year. While it is important to remember the sacrifice of the soldiers who landed and fought on the Dardenelles as the first blooding of the new nation's army in the War to End All Wars, I believe that too much is invested in this one event. Too many myths have grown up around the event which make investigating the reality all the more difficult as correcting the myths is tantamount to heresy. The fact that the Gallipoli campaign was an unmitigated disaster in an invasion of another sovereign country, and that we were one of several nations involved (and not the biggest player in the event) all seem to be forgotten in the jingoistic remembrance-fest.

I'm not sure how the event is being observed by our NZ cousins, but the way that the event has been commercialised here has also stuck in my throat. The picture above is from a catalogue of tat from the Australia Post catalogue. At least these have the redeeming feature of a certain percentage of the proceedings going to Legacy. Supermarket chain Woolworths got into all sorts of bother with their branded "Fresh in our Memories" campaign , which not only had their logo emblazoned on the images, but riffed on their advertising campaign as the "Fresh Food People". I can't express how strongly I feel that commercialism of this event is plain wrong. I can't understand why you'd want to shell out for this kind of thing in the first place, but obviously there's a market for it. I think it's an extremely cynical cashing in on the emotion that has been manipulated by the whole event.

The remembrance of Gallipoli campaign overshadows the much more significant involvement of the ANZACS on the Western Front, especially in the 1918 counter-attack around Villers-Brettoneux and the Battle of Hamel  which followed.

As a catch all day for remembering the fallen, it dwarfs Remembrance Day but seems to me to lessen the importance of all other wars and the sacrifices of those who served in them. I really think that Remembrance Day is a much more appropriate day and certainly does not have the baggage of jingoistic nationalism that ANZAC Day has accumulated.

I think a much more appropriate way of commemorating the sacrifice of those who served in our name would have been to dedicate a lot more spending to helping the veterans of recent wars than blowing $300 million on the centenary, especially when compared to the $95 million spent on veterans' mental health in the four years up to 2014.

Rant over.

Lest we forget the veterans of all wars and their sacrifice.

Man Flu Alert!

I'm dying!

I'm manfully trying to survive a terrible affliction, but in a family where I am the only one with the XY chromosome combination, I can tell you it's not easy!

Forget ebola, cancer or any of those other headline-grabbing disesases which the WHO, CDC, CSIRO and all those other alphabet soups are throwing money at. What about that real and present danger to mankind (and yes, I mean MAN-kind)? It's real; there's even a website for gorrsake!

The problem with having sick days is that it's wasted being sick! I don't have the ability to concentrate on painting and I'm only barely able to sit here typing. Shortly, I'll have exhausted myself and have to crawl back to bed and moan about how I'm dying to a cruel, heartless, indifferent world.

I have done a bit of painting over the last week, so with my last dying breath I'll upload some photos of my Württembergers. It may very well be the last you'll hear from me..... Koff, sniff, splutter...HAAA-Choooooooo!!

Is This Really 2013?

Warning#1: Another non-wargaming post!

Warning #2: This is my opinion. You do not have to agree with it, but please respect my right to express it.

In 1993 the great Nicky Winmar of  AFL team St. Kilda  lifted his jumper and pointed to his dark skin as a response to racist abuse hurled at him from the Collingwood cheer squad. He was saying to them "I'm black and proud. Your abuse can't change that!"

Nicky Winmar's iconic gesture to the Collingwood crowd in 1993

Fast forward 20 years and in the Indigenous Round of the 2013 season, no less, Sydney Swans captain Adam Goodes was called an "ape" by a teenage girl in the crowd. Yep, another Collingwood supporter.

Goodes, another indigenous player, singled her out for security to escort from the ground. He was reportedly "gutted" by the abuse and wasn't present to celebrate their victory over Collingwood, so deeply did he feel the hurt of the abuse.

Adam Goodes nearly as iconic gesture to the Collingwood crowd in 2013

Now for all of you who don't follow Australian Rules Football, this may be news to you, but here in Australia, this latest incident has dominated the headlines and talkback-airwaves over the last week. Not only because of the issue of racism, but in the dignified response by Goodes, not blaming the girl who was too young to know better, and clearly describing the effect of racism on him personally and the Aboriginal community in general. Collingwood president and media personality, Eddie MacGuire, also gained much respect by personally apologising to Goodes straight after the match and making it clear that racism is not to be tolerated in the game and in society generally.

But Eddie undid all his good work by stupidly suggesting that Goodes should be used to promote the musical version of King Kong on his morning radio show yesterday morning!

How a lot of people reacted to Eddie McGuire's brain fail

He has unreservedly apologised and tried to explain that somehow between his brain and his mouth the words got mangled, but has been howled down for making the situation worse. His intentions don't really matter: the effect does.

And that's what has got my goat in all this, especially listening to talkback radio; the lack of empathy about what it means to be an Indigenous Australian and the effect that casual racism has. Ignorant opinions expressed on the radio that "they're all grown-ups and should take it on the chin" just don't take into consideration the ancestral dispossession, disadvantage and despair handed down from generation to generation. People like Goodes, who have made it to the pinnacle of elite sport, have done it despite their aboriginality, not because of it. They are the exceptions to the rule, but still carry the burden of disadvantage. Indigenous Australians constitute 2.4% of the overall population, but are disproportionately represented in the figures of alcohol abuse, unemployment, victims and perpetrators of violence, incarceration (including deaths in custody), mortality in general - the list goes on. Succeeding in the face of all that burden and then copping the sort of crap that's made the attention of the media in the last week, I can totally understand Goodes' saying that he's been cut to the bone. Especially when his abuser was a child who knew no better, and had obviously picked up on what adults around her had taught her.

Eddie's brain fart just topped a week that left me open mouthed with disbelief! (To be fair he has admitted since that what he said was racial vilification, no matter what his intentions were.)

Let's hope that this all translates into a focus on how we as a nation can lift the living standards of our indigenous population from its current abysmal 3rd world level to something approaching the rest of the population.....Hang on; it's an election year. There's no votes in aboriginal affairs. Silly me!

I'm So Proud of Myself....

....for having been indirectly responsible for starting my first flame war on TMP! I've really joined the big time now!

Backstory: Armand, the Arch-linker from Argentina, had put a link to my last book review. My only involvement in the thread was to thank Armand for the link. That's all I thought was going to come of the post, besides sending a few visits to the blog my way.

How wrong I was! It has turned into a curmudgeonly conflict between supporters of Boney and supporters of Old Nosey. I was going to dip my oar in at one stage to reiterate some of the author's main points, because it seems obvious to me neither of the main combatants have read the book (let alone my review!), but never got round to it. Now it's gone beyond a reasonable or sensible disagreement into the realms of online duel! I'm keeping my head below the parapet on this one, but enjoying the spectacle of (mainly) two people blowing intellectual raspberries at each other, neither giving in to the other's point of view. If you'd like to poke the bear with a stick, feel free to contribute to the debate, but I'm staying well away from this one! I have made a vow never to venture an opinion on TMP, as you are more than likely to start a festival of bitch-slapping like this!

Check it out here!

Screwy Stats, or Ruddy Robots!

According to Blogger's internal stats I've recently passed the 100,000 mark. 'Huzzah!' I hear you say! But wait, gentle reader, as I fear that there's something rotten in the state of Denmark, to quote the Bard.

Above is a screen grab of yesterday's stats, and while I haven't been very busy on the blogging front, as there hasn't been much activity in either gaming or painting recently, my stats have been bumping along nicely with an average of around 150 visits a day over the past week. "All very well and good, there Beefy", I hear you say, "What's the problem?"

The problem, dear reader, is the sources of those stats. Above you'll see that I have received the attentions of an online marketing robot which was banging its head on my blog hoping I'd click the link to find out what it was. Not bloody likely, Jack!

Anyway, I'm a bit leery of Blogger's stats so I won't be celebrating any milestones until my flag counter tells me I've reached the 100 grand mark.

I know others out there have suffered spam robots leaving 'comments' trying to lure suckers to their sites, but so far I seem to have escaped unscathed. Hopefully this isn't the thin end of the wedge!

Rememberance Day

There but for the grace of God go I.

Some say Eric Bogle's song  is mawkish and overly sentimental, but it still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

The fact that we still have troops fighting and dying overseas for a cause that some feel is no longer worth the cost in lives makes it even more relevant.

It LIVES!!!

Yes, la Bricole is back on the air after the server was migrated (whatever that means). It was hors de combat for a good month or so, but is now back for business!

The administrator, Robert, of Serrez la Rangs and West Tokyo Wargamers fame, has managed to resurrect it although cosmetically it hasn't survived unchanged, but full functionality is restored. It was a shame because it's the one wargaming forum that is totally dedicated to the Napoleonic period and has a bunch of keen devotees of the period who are very supportive and full of good advice and encouragement, not to mention good cheer. It was a bit like going cold turkey, not having access to the forum! I was beginning to think that the life-support system had been switched off and the poor old thing was struggling against the odds to come back, but in a remarkable Dr. Who like regeneration, la Bricole lives again!

September progress

Spring is in the air, but the winter lurgi has only recently released its grip on me *cough, splutter*. I'll probably have a seamless transfer from virus to allergy over the next couple of weeks with a month-long sneeze and snot-fest to look forward to. I'll have to start stocking up on the anti-histamines now!

The first swap I participated in with Ben, aka Victorious Secret from Benno's Forum, arrived after a long journey by snail and turtle it seems :-). These dismounted dragoons are the last element required for the naval landing scenario under development.

Not much wargaming or painting as a result of the coughs and sniffles, but what I have done I now present to you!

BTW, thanks to all of you who have signed the online petition to try to save the jobs of colleagues at the University of Melbourne libraries. Unfortunately, as was always likely, the affected staff have been steam-rollered by 'progress' and have lost their jobs after weeks of stress and bad feeling. All the accumulated knowledge and skills these people possesed is now lost to the universtiy community. No one dispusted that the job has changed massively with the increased uptake of so much online content, but to lose so many people to introduce the new service model is still going to place the remaining staff in under a whole lot more pressure to provide existing services.

Jim's Tons-o'-Russians. Below are some of the latest additions

Naval officer - SHQ/Kennington infantry officer painted blue

Rear of same

HaT sailor

Strelets dismounted dragoon from VS's swap

Another Strelets dragoon

Blowing my own trumpet #2

I've passed the 25,000 visitor mark and just cracked 70 followers!

Thanks again, everyone, for coming back time and again and offering your support for my little blog. Knowing there's people out there who enjoy my work is a great spur to keep improving and posting my efforts.

Cheers!

Swapsies

I've participated in a swap of figures with a chap from Benno's Figures forum who goes by the handle of Victorious Secret. I'm giving him some bits and bobs for his current Chasseur a Cheval project and he's sending me some Strelets dismounted dragoons which will come in handy for a scenario I'm planning.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; The inter-web is a wonderful thing!

Check out his brilliant painting style here

It's a small world after all!

I'm a fairly tolerant fellow and believe as Shakespeare had Shylock say "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" ie. that despite physiological and cultural differences, we are all the same. I had an experience on the weekend that confirmed my view, but not exactly in the most positive way!

We are in the middle of a fairly stressful period with our eldest having to have tests and an overnight stay in hospital (it's all good; we're on our way to full health now), and the usual work/life go-go-go rat-race. I was in the middle of running errands on Sunday and was madly trying to find a purveyor of newspapers that still had stocks of the local Murdoch tabloid fish and chip wrapper that is flogging free Harry Potter guff with every issue for a week. After trying the supermarket with no joy, I decided to head down to the local shopping strip around the corner and duly left the car park, turned left around the back of the stationary traffic waiting at the  lights and joined the right hand turn lane (remember, dear reader, we drive on the left in Australia). All this driving occurred at speeds of less than 30kmh. As I approached the end of the queue, braking as I went, a pair of pedestrians stepped out of the stationary traffic on my left, narrowly avoiding being run over as there was no time for me to react. Luckily they stopped their forward progress in the nick of time.

Now, these pedestrians were obviously of North Asian decent, most probably Chinese, and there is a stereotype in the west of the Chinese being inscrutable. Let me tell you that the following exchange explodes the myth and shows unequivocally that they are just like us, although not in the way that I'd anticipated.

I threw my hands up in exasperation and shook my head at the stupid risk this gentleman and his lady companion were taking when there was a perfectly usable and, more importantly, safe pedestrian crossing not 15 paces from where they tried their real-life version of Frogger. The gentleman in question took my gestures to be an affront to his manhood and proceeded to berate me as he scuttled across the road. I wound down my window and tried to show him the illogical nature of his abuse by pointing out the aforementioned pedestrian crossing and advised him to use it next time. This advice caused the gentleman to elevate his distressed state and then threaten me with violence, but suggested that his lady companion was the only reason I was currently not suffering his righteous anger. I again advised him to use the pedestrian crossing, slightly more forcefully this time. He again told me that I was lucky not be suffering personal injury at his hand at which I again repeated my desire that he use the copulating crossing and then compared his visage to the male sexual organ. He again yelled invective in my direction while his face steadily grew redder. By this time the lights had changed and I sailed off around the corner, cheerily waving goodbye with the finger between my index and ring fingers.

The point of all this is that despite our radically different cultural backgrounds (not to mention our attitude to road rules) we both reacted to the surge of adrenalin brought about by our sudden, unexpected brush with danger by imitating a couple of silverbacks putting on a display of aggression without ever actually coming to blows. Admittedly I was in the safety of my car and he was safely on the other side of the road, so it probably never was going to amount to anything, but the point is we both still reacted incredibly similarly, if poorly, to the situation we found ourselves in. Don't you love humanity?

Anyway, my choice of zen meditation to cope with the vagaries of the world is painting figures. My butterfly-like span of attention has seen me embark on a new project, viz.updating my French cavalry to be more appropriate for the Peninsula War. I currently have a squadron of hussars painted as the 5th, but while they are appropriate for the 1809 Danube campaign, they're not appropriate for the Peninsula. I've now started a new squadron using the same Italeri figures, but painting them in the colours of the 2nd, who were present at Albuera and other battles. I am next planning to paint the glorious Zvezda Polish lancers as the Vistula lancers, the other famous Albuera cavalry unit.

Apologies for the quality of the photos. I couldn't seem to get a compromise between focus and light.

Elite squadron figure head conversion using a head from HaT's Voltiguer set 8218

Officer figure. Some sources show red belts and sabretache, but I went with white belts and black sabretache.

Trooper

She's a Valley Girl, fer sure, fer sure!

Nothing to do with wargaming, but a trip down memory lane!

Junior Rosbif #1 has arrived at that stage of adolescence when she's differentiating herself from the boring adults. The first manifestation of this is her language. It seems to be descending into a lot of 'stuff' and 'like' and 'totally' and 'OhmaGod!' etc. It's like listening to some sort of adolescent jackpot when all of the are linked together in the same sentence!

I started quoting 'Valley Girl' by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa back to her, which totally amazed her because, like most adolescents, everything's shiny new and no-one else has done anything interesting before them. Listening to it on YouTube was a complete revelation.

We now have a shared language thanks to this song. I now present 'Valley Girl' by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa to you, and if you don't like it you can say 'gag me with a spoon!'

Bloody Friday 13th!

Blogger went bung yesterday and my last posting disappeared with all your comments! Grrrrrrrr!

Not happy, Jan!

I've re-posted it (luckily it was still there in draft). Feel free to add your comments again if you can be bothered.

Blowing my own trumpet

toot, toot!

My little blog now has 50 followers, has broken the 15,000 total visitor mark and has broken the 1,000 visitor mark for the 3 nations my most regular visitors hail from; Australia, the USA and the UK. The stats for other western European countries and Canada are very healthy, and even Poland and Russia are strong. Unexpected, yet steady, stat growth is coming from quarters like South America and places like the Philippines and Taiwan.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the inter-web is a wonderful place. Thanks for visiting!

10,000 visits!

According to the Flagcounter app I've cracked the ten grand visitor mark! (Although, the blog's internal stats say I've still got about 1,500 to go. Go figure!) Whatever the true mark, I'm very pleased with the numbers who've found my creation diverting enough to visit and re-visit. So thanks to all my readers and all of you who've left comments. It makes it all worth while to know that you're enjoying my work.

Special thanks go to the chaps in NWA's Napoleonics group who give me lots of positive feedback every week; to regular visitors, especially Señor Pardo, who's been a real mine of information on the Spanish army and very encouraging of my work; and to the friendly mob at the La Bricole forum, who are just as enthusiastic about all things Napoleonic as I am.

Let the sledging begin!

The sledging, or trash talk, begins now!

Again, I am playing the non-French in my second January Napoleonic big-bash at Tim's. Last year I played the Prince of Orange in the Quatre Bras sector of the Battle of Ligny / Quatre Bras. While our sector couldn't hold the crossroad, we managed to pull out after giving the French a bloody nose, while on the Ligny side, the Prussians gave the Emperor curry and kept the field after seeing him off for an overall Allied victory.

I attribute this allied victory not to my contribution on the field, which didn't amount to much, but to my bringing a bottle of very special wine designed to bolster the morale of the non-French types. I am planning to bring another couple bottles to the great 2011 Aspern-Essling weekend.

I am speaking, of course, of (ironically) a French wine by the name of Arrogant Frog!

Thanks to Alanus, Dux Homunculorm for his beer 'n' wargames posting. Maybe we could come up with a broader food 'n' booze idea after the Aspern weekend?

I'll have to try and find some Austrian gewurtztramminer, as well, in anticipation of an Austrian victory!

Now to put the finishing touches on the dyke so that it's ready for the weekend.

Isn't the web wonderful?

I've recently had 2 experiences associated with this blog that show how small the world is becoming.

Previously, if I'd found information that I wanted to share, I'd only be able to let people I know personally. Now I put it on the blog and anyone anywhere can see it. After my last posting, one of my regular visitors, Rafa Pardo, contacted me and offered to share his knowledge of Spanish uniforms with me. This morning I find in my email inbox 4 emails with associated attachments from the other side of the world from a man I have not met in person. Even 10 years ago this probably would not have been possible. Muchas gracias, Rafa!

The second experience concerns one of my book reviews. Checking the latest comments last week, I noticed the latest concerned a post I'd made several weeks ago. It turned out that the author of one of the books I'd reviewed had found my review and posted his thanks. I'd never contemplated the possibility that this would happen when I started this blog!

It truly is a small world!

The Ides of March

My head has just stopped spinning! In the best traditions of the Roman Senate, or (more appropriately for this blog) the Terror of the French Revolution, the ruling Australian Labor Party has fallen on it's leader of less than 3 years and torn him down in less than 24 hours to replace him with Australia's first female PM. This is also the first time a leader has been brought down by his own party before the end of his first term in office.

Not only that, Australia has been sent packing from the World Cup even though it won its last game against Serbia.

So far not a great day in the field of Australian politics or sport!

Back to the really important stuff; I'm in the middle of reading 'Salamanca 1812' by Rory Muir (which I'll review in due course) and realised that if I'm making a British Peninsula brigade, at least 2 battalions should be of Portuguese line and/or cacadores. So, I've put in for an order with SHQ for a couple of battalions' worth of geezers, as Quinny calls them. That'll make a change in painting red coats, white cross-belts, red coats, white crossbelts....

That said, I've nearly finished my last line battalion for the moment and am about to start on my rifles. I also have dead Brits to do as well. As you can see, I'm spoiled for choice!

A friend once said he was told by a wise old man (well, a trader at a convention) "If you've finished collecting and you don't have a pile of unpainted figures, then you're probably dead" By that standard, I'm going to live forever!

Almost completed 50th Foot. The light-bob to go, then dipping and basing left.

My next project; Revell's rifles, 95th and 5/60th

Lancier Bleu dead British (post 1812 uniforms, but who cares?)

The campaign continues this week with our new subject, Pete, continuing his effort to repulse the invasion from the west, while elsewhere other nations come to blows. Meanwhile the culprit who has been conducting piratical operations in disguise still has not been exposed!

Queen's birthday and WIP

Today the run into work was a dream as people started their long weekend early and the weather was kind. Thank you Your Majesty! So, let's celebrate the birthday of the head of state, who also happens to be the head of state of a bunch of other countries, some of whom happen to belong to trade groups that are economic rivals of ours; no conflict of interest there, of course.

What will happen when Australia inevitably, sooner or later, becomes a republic? Knowing our perverse affection for celebrating the underdog and heroic failure, it'll probably be some lame event like Burke & Wills day, celebrating a couple of mad Victorian era explorers who, woefully unprepared and after a comedy of errors, perished in the desert of central Australia. Hurrah!

Our national day, Australia Day, celebrates the first settlers arriving in Botany Bay in 1788; a bunch of convicts expelled from the mother country and marooned on the other side of the world. Hurrah!

Our unofficial national day which is gaining in popularity and growing national mythology is ANZAC day, which celebrates the 1915 landing of Australian and New Zealand (but also British, Indian and French) troops on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. That campaign was a balls-up from the start, with no detailed maps and therefore no idea of the terrain they were landing on which turned out to be sheer cliffs or steep bluffs riddled with narrow gullies, while further up the peninsula there was wide open spaces. Not only that, but with a bit of drive amongst the higher command the troops could have been off the beach and up the cliffs before the Turks could reinforce the high ground. But no; they spent the whole campaign more or less stuck on the beaches. When the inevitable was admitted, all troops were withdrawn with nothing to show, but a lot of useless deaths. Hurrah!

We could celebrate more successful, but less glamorous campaigns like General Monash's brilliant 1918 Battle of Hamel, in which he was one of the first generals anywhere to pioneer combined arms attacks utilizing infantry, artillery, tanks and airpower to achieve a breakthrough in the trench stalemate. Another interesting aside was the fact that it was the first time Americans fought in an offensive action on the Western Front and the first time (and probably last) they fought under foreign command. The 4th of July was selected as the start date for the battle in honour of the new allies.

We could also (and should, what's more) celebrate the New Guinea campaign of 1942/43 which showed how we could defend ourselves and not just fight in other countries' wars.

We also should find some way of commemorating other conflicts since 1918 without being dominated by the mythology of ANZAC day, especially as the death toll steadily mounts among Australians serving in Afghanistan, whatever one thinks of the validity of our being involved in that conflict. We can't make the same mistakes as we did during the Vietnam war.

Enough ranting; Below are some pictures of what's on the workbench at the moment. Too much, it seems! I'm steadily getting through my latest British Line battalion, painted up as the 50th Foot. I'll most likely then go onto my Revell rifles, painting them as the 95th and the 5/60th, then the Call to Arms foot artillery, Italeri horse artillery, light dragoons and hussars. In between, for a change of scenery, I might start my Spanish line troops, or keep converting my remaining French line infantry in greatcoats and paint my dead for morale markers

HaT line as 50th Foot. Kennington/SHQ officer

French head conversions; Metal bonnet de police and bare, bandaged head from Lancier Bleu and shako from Italeri line troops (naff poses and inaccurate uniforms, but great heads for conversions)

Dead Frenchies from Lancier Bleu. Also have British line, Highlanders, and Spanish. They also come with a few separate metal muskets, which may be useful for future conversions

Metal Kennington/SHQ early Spanish line troops

Later Spanish line. HaT production, a bit more lumpen, but should paint up OK

As you can see, my work space is not as neat as some of the others I've seen on blogs. A few of them resemble the USS Enterprise flight deck! I'm not that organised yet and probably never will be, which is probably why it's taking so long to complete my British project (that and the fact I work full time and have a family!)