Stairlift problems

Last year I spent a long time bedridden, sleeping in a hospital bed that had been installed in our conservatory. It was only when I had learnt to walk again that I was allowed to sleep in my proper bed ... but at the time, getting up to the first floor to our bedroom was impossible until we had a stairlift installed.

We had several quotes from various installers, and in the end we opted for one that could fit a stairlift within a matter of days. That was just over a year ago, and until last Friday it had given us no significant problems. However, on Friday I received a phone call from the installers. The remote monitoring system was indicating that the stairlift was developing a fault and that an engineer needed to come to repair it.

One arrived on Saturday morning, and after nearly three hours he was unable to rectify the problem ... which seemed to be a faulty battery, a problem with the charging points, and the stairlift's programming had developed a fault. He therefore arranged for a second, more experienced engineer to pay us a visit on Sunday to sort the problem out.

We had booked the engineer to arrive at 10.00am, but his previous job had taken him longer to solve than expected and he arrived somewhat later that expected. He then spent two hours working on the stairlift before the faults had been identified and cured. He left just before 1.00pm, and we were told not to use the stairlift for at least an hour so that the battery could be fully charged.

I can now use the stairlift to reach the first and second floors of our house, and not being able to do so for the last day and a half has made me realise just how immobile I am at times. I could climb the stairs as far as the first floor with the aid of a walking stick and the banisters, but there's no way I can easily climb the stairs to the second floor ... which is where my accessible shower and toy/wargame room are located. Having a working stairlift again has restored my mobility … and my ability to do some more modelling and wargaming!

The Imperial Japanese Navy … in 1/1200th-scale: The collection continues to grow … with another light cruiser

Another foray on eBay resulted in the purchase of another light cruiser to add to my collection. It was the IJNS Sendai.

(5,278 tons; 35 knots; 7 x 5.5-inch guns; 2 x 3-inch AA guns; 4 x 24-inch torpedo tubes; 48 x mines)

Converting and painting a Faller ruined castle model

Some time ago I bought a Faller HO model of a ruined castle (B-291) via eBay.

Having opened the packaging the kit came in, I realised that with a bit of work, I could use the parts to create two models ... a partially ruined castle that is still in use by the military and a small residential building. The latter began life as the wooden shop attached to the ruin, and its place was taken by a stone building constructed from spare bits and pieces I had in one of my modelling spares boxes.

After constructing the two buildings, they were fixed to MDF bases and then painted using the technique I used on my previous buildings before adding fine cork granules to their bases. The end results looked like this:

Refighting the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914

At Dice of the Hill last Wednesday, four of us refought the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914. We used 1:3000th model ships, vinyl sea mats, and John Hammond's 20-page-long Skytrex WORLD WAR I NAVAL rules that were published in 1973.

The action began with the German East Asia Squadron (comprising the two armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau and the three light cruisers SMS Nürnberg, SMS Dresden and SMS Leipzig, accompanied by the colliers SS Baden, SS Santa Isabel, and SS Seydlitz) approaching the entrance to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands from the southeast. The German commanders (one of whom was me) thought that there was no enemy ships in the harbour, and our plan was to sail in, seize control of Port Stanley, arrest the Governor, and then re-coal our ships from the stockpile that was maintained there for the Royal Navy's use.

The German Far East Squadron.

Little did we know that a strong British squadron (the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible, the armoured cruisers HMS Carnarvon, HMS Cornwall, and HMS Kent, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Macedonia and the light cruisers HMS Bristol and HMS Glasgow) had arrived in the Port Stanley during the previous day.

The British Squadron less HMS Macedonia, which was patrolling the area to the east of the harbour.

Furthermore, the old pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Canopus was moored near the entrance of the harbour to act as a coastal defence battery.

HMS Canopus. She was so placed as to give her 12-inch guns the ability to engage any enemy ships approaching Port Stanley.

Led by the three light cruisers, the German squadron turned northward ...

The German Squadron on a course towards Port Stanley.

... and were surprised when heavy artillery engaged them from the shore! (It was actually HMS Canopus who fired at and hit SMS Nürnberg. Because they could not see HMS Canopus, the Germans assumed that the British has installed a coastal defence battery on the islands,)

The German Squadron comes under fire.

Despite being under fire, the German squadron continued to sail towards Port Stanley.

At the same time, HMS Kent (who had been ordered to keep her boilers lit so that she could relieve HMS Macedonia) set sail to engage the enemy whilst the rest of the squadron lit their boilers and prepared to leave harbour as soon as they had sufficient steam up.

The British Squadron prepare to leave Port Stanley harbour.

At this point the action began to become intense ... hence the lack of photographs!

HMS Kent and HMS Canopus engaged the Germans, and despite the German light cruisers being ordered to turn away, SMS Nürnberg was repeatedly hit and eventually sank.

The German Squadron comes under heavy fire. By this point the German light cruisers had been ordered to turn away and make their escape so that they could become independent commerce raiders.

By this stage in the battle, the leading British battlecruiser was leaving the entrance of Port Stanley's harbour and had opened fire of SMS Scharnhorst. At the same time, HMS Canopus hit SMS Gneisenau and both German armoured cruisers had begun to suffer significant damage.

SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau are hit and damaged by shells from several British warships.

My fellow German commander and I decided that our best course of action was to sail SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau towards the entrance of Port Stanley to engage the British ships at close range in the hope that we could seriously damage or even sink one or both of the battlecruisers.

The British Squadron making its way out of Port Stanley harbour.

As it was, we had run out of time and had to pack up and go home ... and the final outcome remained unclear. That said, the two remaining German light cruisers had got away and would be able to raid British maritime supply lines ... and there was always a chance that in sacrificing their two armoured cruisers, the Germans might be remove one or more British heavy units from frontline service.

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It was interesting to see the number of regular Dice on the Hill attendees who paid a visit to the battle whilst is was being fought, and we hope to make these sort of wargames a regular part of the group's activities. Probably not every week, but possibly every month or so.

Even more model buildings

Bouyed up by my recent success, I decided to paint and base some more model buildings. I started with a 15mm resin farm barn that I bought some time ago on eBay. (It was sold as being manufactured by Hovels ... but I am not absolutely sure that it is.)

I then painted two model buildings that I bought during out last visit to Tallinn in Estonia.

I used the same technique that I had used on my previous batch of buildings although I did use white rather than beige as the main colour used to dry brush the buildings.

Note: The left-hand model is based on a real building in Tallinn, the bar/restaurant Peppersack.

I am now looking around for even more buildings to paint.

The Imperial Japanese Navy … in 1/1200th-scale: The collection continues to grow … as does the rest of my model ship collection

My collection of Imperial Japanese Navy warships continues to grow. The latest additions are:

IJNS Uranami, IJNS Asagari, IJNS Shirayuki, and IJNS Hatsuyuki (all Fubuki-class destroyer), as well as a Natsushimo-class destroyer (although I’m not sure that the listing is correct as it looks like it is yet another Fubuki-class destroyer to me!), …

(2,090 tons; 38 knots; 6 x 5-inch guns; 18 depth charges; 9 x 24-inch torpedo tubes)

…a Kaba-class destroyer, …

(850 tons; 30 knots; 1 x 4.7-inch gun; 3 x 3-inch guns; 4 x 18-inch torpedo tubes)

… and a Chikuma-class light cruiser.

(5,000 tons; 26 knots; 8 x 6-inch guns; 4 x 3-inch guns; 3 x 18-inch torpedo tubes)

The latter pair of ships were out of service by December 1941. The Kaba-class destroyers served during World War I but were scrapped in the early 1930s. The three Chikuma-class light cruisers were either scrapped before World War II or were retained in secondary roles and didn’t see active service.

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I was also able to add a model of the pre-dreadnought USS Idaho which was sold to Greece before World War I and became the Kilkis. She had become a static training ship by 1939 and was sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft in the Salamis Naval Base on 23rd April 1941 during the German invasion of Greece.

(14.465 tons; 17 knots; 4 x 12-inch guns; 8 x 8-inch guns; 8 x 7-inch guns; 12 x 3-inch guns; 6 x 3-pounder QF guns; 2 x 1-pounder QF-guns; 2 x 21-inch torpedo tubes)

Some more model buildings

Once I had the bit between my teeth, I decided to paint and base some more model buildings. I found two 15mm resin buildings that I bought some time ago on eBay. They were described as being made by Hovels, but I have no idea if they were.

I used the same technique that I had used on my previous batch of buildings, and they ended up looking like this:

I am now looking around for some more buildings to paint.

The Imperial Japanese Navy … in 1/1200th-scale: Some resin aircraft carriers

Before I bought a metal model of the Japanese aircraft carrier IJNS Kaga online, I had already ordered a 3D printed resin model. It – and a model of the IJNS Akagi – were recently delivered.

IJNS Kaga

(38,200 tons; 28 knots; 10 x 7.9-inch guns; 16 x 5-inch AA guns; 22 x 25mm AA guns; 90 aircraft)

IJNS Akagi

(41,300 tons; 31.5 knots; 6 x 7.9-inch guns; 16 x 5-inch AA guns; 28 x 25mm AA guns; 91 aircraft)

I have yet to paint these models, but hope to do so soon.

I am still thinking a lot about my future wargaming ... and I have been keeping myself busy whilst I do so

Last month, I mentioned that I had been doing a lot of thinking about my future wargaming and that I had been considering several ideas and possible strategies. That process is still ongoing, although my ideas are beginning to crystallize.

In the meantime, I have been trying to use my time constructively. Rather than paint figures, and spurred on by the success of my repaint of the resin model of Tallinn's famous Viru Gate, I decided to paint some model buildings that I constructed whilst I was bedridden last year.

I used the same basic technique (and colours) that I used on the model of the Viru Gate. In other words, all the models were given a dark grey undercoat (Humbrol No.67) and the majority were then dry brushed with beige (Revell No.314). The roof tiles were repainted using carmine red (Revell No.36) and dry brushed with a 3:1 mixture of carmine red and beige. The details were then picked out in a number of other colours. Once they were finished, each building was mounted on a 3mm-thick MDF base that was flocked with fine cork granules.

The resulting buildings looked like this:

I was so impressed by the end results that I have actually bought another example of Faller's 1965-vintage 'Old town block' model (Code number B-924) to build and paint.

REINSTATED!

My Amazon KPD account has been reinstated and all my books are back and on sale again!

Thanks to everyone for their support and advice … and particularly to Graham Evans, who pointed me in the right direction when it came to communicating with Amazon KPD.

At 12.20pm I was sent the following email by Amazon KPD:

Hello,

Thank you for your email concerning the status of your account.

After reviewing your response, we have reinstated your account and you may submit titles for possible publication.

To ensure the account remains in good standing, take the following actions:

• Review your catalog and unpublish any titles that do not comply with the Content Guidelines: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672390
• Review your catalog and unpublish any titles where you do not have the necessary publishing rights
• Ensure that future titles comply with our Content Guidelines and that you hold the necessary publishing rights.

As a reminder, finding additional violations of our Content Guidelines may negatively impact your account status. You can find our Terms and Conditions here: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200627430

If you have questions or believe you've received this email in error, please reply to this message.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP

SNEH

Amazon Content Review Team

It would appear that my ‘evidence’ was sufficient enough to prove that I had not published anything that I did not have the right to publish ... BUT in future I will be even more stringent when I check articles that have been contributed to the next (and subsequent) compendia.

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As an aside, I did give some thought as to the title of this blog post. I was unsure what the opposite of ‘terminated’ might be … and toyed with ‘ex-terminated’ … but decided that word had far too many Dalek/alien intelligence connotations. I settled for ‘reinstated’ instead … but I still think that ‘ex-terminated’ might have been more apposite.