FOR SALE: Battle of Waterloo, Revell 1/72 200th Anniversary Set

Well, this a first for me... I'm attempting to sell something via my blog, in addition to other more normal channels.

What I'm selling is a Revell Battle of Waterloo, 1/72 200th Anniversary Set.

Contents: Soft plastics - British Dragoons (complete), Prussian Infantry (Complete), French Guard Grenadiers (several missing). 

Condition: All miniatures are partially under-coated, and the paint is flaking off. 

I was given these in exactly the condition they are in now, by a model making pal. He gave up on them due to failing eyesight. I, on the other hand, have large Nap' white-metal armies in 6mm and 10mm that need painting and basing, so I don't want the distraction of dealing with these. 

I'm hoping any collectors of 20mm Nap' plastics, who might stumble across this post, may perhaps want them? £5 plus postage, or buyer collects.

My apologies for the crappy pics. I had to harvest them from my Gumtree listing for the set, under limited time constraints. I can be reached via this blog. I'd prefer that the buyer collected. But I will post within the UK, if the buyer pays postage.

Film Review: The Longest Day, 1962

An absolute classic, exemplifying the WWII genre film in its most epic old school form. Nicely shot in black and white, which helps it look almost like wartime footage [1]. Also, the fact that all the different protagonists speak in their own proper languages, with subtitles for the audience, make this a properly executed piece of work. 

 

Chaos on Omaha Beach.

Juno Beach.

Action on the Pegasus Bridge.

 Rommel superimposed on the coast.

In a pre CGI production, there are a few clunky moments, most obviously when action is superimposed over a backdrop, as in the pic of Rommel (Werner Hinz), above. But by and large everything is done on the grand scale - see above pics - and extremely well. The French attack on Ouistreham - and this is a rare WWII film in how well it addresses all the different sides, both within the Allied coalition, and their German adversaries - includes a masterful long shot (see pic. below), that looks like it must've been filmed from a tethered ballon, or something similar.

This rather paltry still was the only image of the long aerial shot of the attack on Ouistreham I could easily find.

A truly iconic image. Understated, but powerful.

Wayne supplies some laconic exposition, prior to kick-off.

It's obvious from the credits that the production team canvassed a wide array of expert opinion, in adapting Cornelius Ryan's book of the same name (much as would later happen with another of his books, A Bridge Too Far), and have attempted to show as many threads as possible within the 178 minute time frame. 

We see something of the build-up, and the tensions of anticipation, prior to the landings finally going ahead, including stuff on the important role of the weather. And we also see partisans, Free-French troops, and both American and British special forces and paras, operating behind the lines in advance of the landings. Meanwhile the Germans are beset by chaos, caused by in part by the aforementioned sabotage, plus their own ineptitude, and some plain bad luck. 

Zanuck and Robert Wagner sit and smoke on location.

Sean Connery has a minor comedic role.

Brig. Gen. Teddy Roosevelt (Henry Fonda) goes in with the first wave at Utah.

The cast is incredible, and so stellar it might be in danger of the film collapsing in a supernova of prima-donnas, but actually - perhaps due to the constrictions of what might be long for a standard film, but remains short for telling such a massive story - the many stars don't get to hog the limelight. The number of famous familiar faces is huge. Fortunately they don't distract from the overall narrative arc.

Pvt. John Steele (Red Buttons), deafened by bells at St. Mere Eglise. [2]

Gert Frobe as 'Unteroffizier Kaffeekanne'.

And there are also loads of enjoyable supporting roles, from lesser known actors, who nevertheless contribute to the richness of the film, such as John Steele (played by the fabulously named Red Buttons!), the Yank paratrooper deafened by the church bells of St. Mere Eglise, or the tubby German - Gert 'Goldfinger' Frobe, as 'Unteroffizier "Kaffeekanne"' - who every morning takes food and drink to his kameraden in their bunkers. 

Dead paras, St Mere Eglise.

Lieut. Col. Vandervoort is rattled... 

'Dutch' Schultz (Richard Breymer) atthe crossing of the phantom patrols.

There are too many excellent and memorable moments in this full-fat classic to recount them all. Two of my personal favourites are when F Co. of the 505th U.S. Paras land smack dab in the middle of St. Mere Eglise, and when 'Dutch' Schultz (Breymer), of the 82nd Airborne, hooks up with troops of the 101st Airborne, and they pass within feet a German patrol coming the opposite way, on the other side of a brick wall, only for both patrols to disappear phantom-like into the night.

I'll not be tempted here to go into that rabbit warren of what's historically right or wrong in the movie. Suffice it to say that this is the sort of film that, if seen when young - as I did - can help ignite a passion for military history. And once that bug's got hold, one will be inspired by watching such films to ferret out whatever the truths may be.

Richard Todd plays Maj. Howard at Pegasus Bridge. [3]

Colin Maud (Kenneth More), with mutt 'Churchill'

As good as this is, and personally I think it's great, D-Day really does need the HBO style treatment; a full-on multi-episode telling, to further explore the many threads just touched on here. For one thing, this version stops once the Allies are off the beaches [4]. And these days a film could more accurately depict everything from the epic invasion armada, to the German materiel used to defend (panzers etc are most notable in this film - indeed, it's a central theme - by their total absence.

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NOTES:

[1] Many post-war WWII movies use too much real stock footage from the war. The Longest Day resorts to this trick just two or three times, thankfully. The trained buffs' eye will of course spot these moments. But at least the makers of this movie showed exemplary restraint.

Mitchum makes gormless cigar-chompin' look cool.

[2] I've tried to refrain from nit-picking over the facts of history. But I feel I ought to mention that although Steele did get caught on the church tower - an accident that probably saved his life - he wasn't actually deafened by the church bells.

[3] Todd was himself present at Pegasus Bridge, during the Overlord operations, as a Captain.

[4] Well, more specifically, when Brig. Gen. Cota (Robert Mitchum) and co. finally get off the Omaha beaches.

And to round off this post, some images of some of the Germans:

Oberst. Josef Priller (Heinz Reincke) pilots one of two Me 108 'Taifun' used in the film.

Hans Christian Blech as Maj. Pluskat, an artillery commander...

... who, in this film at least, is the first German to spot the invasion armada.

Rundstedt (Paul Hartmann) and Blumentritt (Curt Jürgens).

Book Review: Warships of the Napoleonic Era - Robert Gardiner

A sumptuous coffee-table feast of images and info from the high tide of the age of sail.

This large format hardback is, like the ships it celebrates and describes, a thing of great beauty.

The book is subtitled Design, Development and Deployment, and one of the chief features it boasts, bearing a clear and direct relation to this rather analytical sounding terminology, is an extensive use of Admiralty 'Draughts'.

These crisp, clean drawings, beautifully done, and very nicely reproduced here, form an extensive and comprehensive record of predominantly British naval vessels. Thanks to British dominance at sea, however, and the numerous captured boats the Navy acquired as a result of this situation, this record actually extends to cover many vessels of foreign origin.   

The shipworks of John Perry, Blackwall Yard, 1784. [1]

As a Francophile, in terms of my modelling, figure-collecting and gaming, in this era at least, it was disappointing that there wasn't more on the French Navy. But, given Britain's hegemony at sea in this period, and the avowed centrality of the Admiralty draughts to this particular account of the era, that's not so surprising. And the French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian and American Navies are all covered, albeit in much less comprehensive fashion.

In the British section, which accounts for fully two-thirds of the approximately 150 pages of the book, the vessels are treated in several sections, according to the British 'ratings' system, starting with the biggest 'first rate' ships, and working down to the smallest vessels, such as rowed gunboats. 

A set of four Nicholas Pocock maritime prints. [2]

Recurrent themes include how the various classes of fighting vessels evolved, and what uses the different navies made of their various boats. These themes are dealt with pretty comprehensively for the British navy, and more cursorily for the fleets of other nations. But taken as a whole the coverage is very informative, especially for a newcomer to this area of the Napoleonic Wars, such as myself.

From one perspective the Anglo-centrism is good, as it helps avoid undue repetition, and perhaps even makes the book a leaner and yet richer experience. This latter point was brought home to me when I saw another Seaforth title today (Seaforth are the maritime imprint of Pen & Sword, and the publishers of this edition), at Topping Books, of Ely, that dealt exclusively with French naval vessels of roughly the same period, but is more a compendium of info, and is much less richly illustrated.

The Atlanta, a 16-gun sloop, from the National Maritime Museum's extensive model collection, a (different) photograph of which can be seen in the book.

Numerous models are shown, and I absolutely love these. In fact I love them so much I'm considering purchasing several more titles, ranging from another by Gardiner (if memory serves it's a history of British frigates, told via models), to the even more plush (and correspondingly more pricey) 17th & 18th Century Model Ships from the Kriegstein Collection.

I've also been inspired to plan some trips, one - very soon, I hope - to the National Maritime Museum, at Greenwich, and another - when time and funds allow - to the Musée Marine in Paris. The former has what may be the worlds largest collection of fine naval models, mostly British, naturally (as they were commissioned for the Admiralty, in relation to their ship-building programme), whilst the latter has a fabulous collection of models of French craft, commissioned by Napoleon himself. 

Nelson's 1801 attack on Copenhagen. [4]

One major area of naval concern, for both Britain and France, related to French plans to invade our islands. This is covered, as are numerous other sub-topics, in small supplementary double-page spreads. Other areas addressed include such topics as Speed and Length, Quantity versus Quality, and  Experiments and Innovation, amongst others.

There's also a pair of double-page spreads that, combined, make a four-page spread of one of the Admiralty Draughts - the 74-gun Warrior - allowing a closer inspection. These Draughts are terrific, conveying both beauty and information. I can imagine scratch-builders loving these. I have to confess, landlubber that I am, I mainly admire them aesthetically, and find them hard to decipher, technically.

The Capture of the French Guillaume Tell by HMS Foudroyant, off Malta, 1804. [5]

One area where maritime books and other similar stuff on this period regularly falls down, e.g. the Rod Langton Dutch Gunboat model of my previous posts, is the lack of a glossary. Nautical and naval terminology is very specialist, and this book seems to assume prior knowledge on that score.

Still, despite the Anglo-centric bias, and the lack of a glossary, this is a terrifically beautiful and highly informative volume. I paid the full £45 RRP when I bought it at a Wargames show, but I don't regret it!

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NOTES:

[1] The largest privately owned ship-works in Europe at the time.

[2] The lower left of this set of four Pocock prints is one of many wonderful artworks reproduced in the book. The image is a rare example of British sea-power worsted, depicting the USS Constitution defeating HMS Java, in 1812.

[3] Described as 'naive but detailed', a cropped version of this image appears in a sub-section of this book that looks at the Invasion scares. The full image benefits from a textual key that augments the visual components.

[4] I found this pic when 'googling' Nelson's 1801 attack on Copenhagen. The image I was after was an oil by Nicholas Pocock. I'm not even 100% sure if this watercolour depicts the same action or not!?

[5] The full painting, by Thomas Luny, a cropped version of which adorns this books cover.