Where have all the model shops gone?

One thing that I discovered during my recent spring clean was that almost all of my modelling and painting consumables were no longer useable. Paint had either dried out or the tops of the paint tins/pots were unable to be opened, and the liquid polystyrene glue had evaporated away. Having just completed HMS Thunderer I wanted to paint her ... so I set off for the local branch of Hobbycraft to buy some supplies.

It was an almost completely wasted journey.

The Crayford branch of Hobbycraft had no liquid polystyrene glue and only a small section of Humbrol enamel paints. They did have some Tamiya and Revell acrylic paints on a small display stand, but my past experience with Tamiya paint has left me unwilling to use it again and the Revell paint seemed rather expensive. There was also a very small selection of Citadel paints on sale, but it seemed to consist of all the colours I would not be able to use. I was left with the feeling that the store was either waiting for new stock to be delivered or it was ceasing to sell these products.

I did manage to buy some Humbrol enamel paints (black and white matt that I use for undercoating my vehicles and figures) and some gloss varnish ... but that was all. I am now left with the prospect of having to visit the Hobbycraft branch in Orpington and/or the branch of Games Workshop at Bluewater to buy what I need.

This set me thinking about the demise of the traditional model shop in the area where I live. I can remember being able to have a choice. There used to be a branch of Beatties in Lewisham as well as independent model shops in Eltham, Welling Models, and Bexley Village. I had a choice of four possible places to buy what I needed within a radius of five miles.

None of them still exists.

There is a specialist model shop in Bexleyheath, but it seems to concentrate on old, rare, and collectible models rather than the more run-of-the-mill stuff that I want to buy. Until recently there was a branch of Modelzone at Bluewater, but that shut when the company closed down.

So where have all the model shops gone? I suspect that part of the answer is commercial – they were just unable to generate sufficient turnover to remain viable in properties which were subject to continually rising rents, service charges, and business rates – and part is due to the changing leisure habits of teenage boys. The latter are far more likely to buy a pair of trainers or a computer game than to buy a model kit. The loss of local model shops can be made up in part by purchasing what you need via the Internet, but recent changes to Royal Mail regulations makes buying modelling paint online much more difficult.

I know that we are unlikely to see a resurgence of the local model shop, but it would help if their 'replacements' either carried a wide enough range of basic items in stock or were allowed to post them to you without worrying about breaking the law.

HMS Thunderer ... again!

I have managed to find a somewhat better drawing of the Lion-class battleship than the one I used when making my (very) approximate model of HMS Thunderer. The following drawing shows the 1939 version of the original design:

She designs particulars were:

• Displacement: 42,550 tons
• Length: 793'
• Beam: 108'
• Draught: 34' 3"
• Propulsion: 4 Parsons steam turbine sets driving 4 shafts (130,000 shp); steam provided by 8 Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers
• Speed: 28.25 knots
• Range: 16,500 nautical miles
• Complement: 1,750
• Armament:
  
  • 3 × 3 16-inch BL Mk II guns
  • 8 × 2 5.25-inch QF Mk I dual purpose guns
  • 9 × 8 and 1 × 4 2-pounder QF anti-aircraft guns
• Armour:
  
  • Belt: 6 to 15 inches
  • Deck: 2.5 to 6 inches
  • Barbettes: 12 to 15 inches
  • Gun turrets: 7 to 15 inches
  • Conning tower: 3 to 4.5 inches
  • Bulkheads: 4 to 12 inches

During the Second World War the design was modified several times, and there was even a proposal to convert the design into a hybrid battleship/aircraft carrier. Had this been done the design would have sacrificed rearmost of the triple 16-inch gun turrets and the superstructure would have been redesigned to provide space for the hangers and flight deck. All this to carry twelve fighters and two torpedo bombers!

My model of HMS Thunderer is supposed to represent her as designed in 1939, but with the addition of two extra 2 x 8 2-pounder anti-aircraft gun mountings, one atop two of the 16-inch turrets. I have also added a couple of extra ship's boats and some wire masts.

The model is now ready to paint, and I hope to do that sometime next week.

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There is one unasked question that I need to answer. Why did I choose to model HMS Thunderer and not the name ship of the class, HMS Lion?

The answer is – in fact – very simple. The previous HMS Thunderer (which was a member of the 1911 Orion-class of battleships) was the last battleship built on the River Thames. She was constructed by Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Learmouth Wharf, Blackwall and fitted out at a specially-built wharf close to Barking Reach Power Station on the River Thames near Dagenham. To this day the wharf is still called Thunderer Jetty.

My family have been long-term supporters of West Ham United Football Club, which was originally set up as Thames Ironworks Football Club. My paternal grandfather was born in Dagenham, and my father's family lived and worked not far from Blackwall. It therefore follows that building a model of the later HMS Thunderer was the natural choice for me to make.

Stormy weather

Until last night the part of London where we live had not been affected by the recent stormy weather that has been doing so much damage in the western and coastal areas of the UK. My wife and I knew that this situation was likely to change overnight as the weather forecasters had predicted wind speeds in the 25mph to 35mph range, with gust of up to 50mph at times.

It was therefore no surprise when we awoke this morning to discover that some damage has occurred during the night. One of our garden dustbins was on the driveway, having been blown over the side fence from our back garden. The wooden side gate into our back garden was open, and the bolt and catch that hold it in place proved not to be strong enough to keep it shut in the prevailing wind. (I tried bolting the gate ... but the wind flexed the gate so much that the bolt just popped out of its hole.) An old Christmas tree that I planted many years ago is now at a very odd angle, and it would appear that its roots have become loose due to the recent heavy rain.

The worst damage has been done to our wooden fence. Several of the panels are coming loose, and one of the posts appears to have broken at the point where it goes into the soil. This probably happened when one of our neighbour's fence panels hit it ... just before it flew across our garden and landed in the middle of our lawn! I have managed to move this errant fence panel into a position alongside the garden shed that is sheltered from the worst of the wind ... but getting it there was 'interesting'! (The wind is still quite strong, and trying to pick up and move a 6' x 6' wooden fence panel was quite difficult. Moving it can be likened to trying to trying to dance around a dance floor with one's large maiden aunt when both of you want to go in different directions at the same time and both of you want to lead. Difficult ... but not impossible!)

I will need to do some repairs once the weather improves ... which will probably be in a few day's time. In the meantime I intend to stay indoors and keep warm.

A brief aside: Due to the flooding that has taken place in various parts of the UK recently, the topic of unsolicited cold-calls has changed. No longer do we get asked if we have claimed for PPI compensation or whether we have had an accident recently; now we get asked if we have adequate flood insurance. In answer to one of these calls my wife said that we did not need it. The caller was most insistent that we should have flood insurance, to which my wife replied something along the lines that if we needed flood insurance, then she hoped that a second Ark had been built.

We live 300' above sea level on top of one of the highest points around London.

HMS Thunderer

During the recent spring clean of my toy/wargames room I found some unmade Revell 1:1200th-scale models of HMS King George V and USS Iowa ... and decided that by combining the turrets from one with the hull and superstructure of the other I could produce a reasonable look-alike model of a Lion-class battleship. Thus was born HMS Thunderer.

The Lion-class battleships were the follow-on design to the King George V-class, and were basically a slightly enlarged version of the earlier design. They were armed with nine 16-inch guns in place of the ten 14-inch guns carried by the King George V-class and had a transom stern that was intended to improve the class's hull efficiency.

An interesting new book

Despite the current bad weather, Amazon managed to deliver a copy of the newly published HITLER'S BLITZKRIEG ENEMIES 1940: DENMARK, NORWAY, NETHERLANDS, & BELGIUM this morning.

The book was written by Nigel Thomas, illustrated by Johnny Shumate, and published by Osprey as part of their MEN-AT-ARMS series (No.493) (ISBN 978 1 78200 596 4).

Because the armies of the countries featured in this book were overwhelmed by the invading Germans, their histories, units, formations, and uniforms are little-known to most people with an interest in the Second World War. This book goes some way to filling that gap, and I am looking forward to reading it in detail later this week.

Stage three is complete ... and the spring clean is almost over!

I have just finished the third stage of the spring clean of my toy/wargames room ... and the process is almost complete. All that remains for me to do is to label the draws on the units under the stack of REALLY USEFUL BOXES and then to label the boxes themselves.

The room now looks like this:

For the first time in as long as I can remember, things that are used together are stored together ... which is a great advance for me!

The table (it is actually two tables pushed together) is currently set up to be 4 foot x 3 foot, but as each of the two tabletops is folded over I can set them up to provide a 6 foot x 4 foot playing area ... and still have just enough room to walk around it. That said, I can only remember using the tables in the larger configuration once since I bought them. As I have seen a gate leg table on sale that will give me a 4 foot x 3 foot tabletop and that also has storage space for the spare chairs when they are not needed, I am wondering if something like that may well be a better table for my future wargaming needs.

It is certainly something for me to think about over the next few weeks.

The Royal Irish Artillery

Finding the Pay Lists and Muster Rolls of the Royal Irish Artillery yesterday during our visit to the National Archives piqued my interest, so this morning I did some further research.

Until 1801 the British Army was split into two establishments, the English and Irish Establishments. (The Scottish Establishment had disappeared in 1707 as a result of the Acts of Union when the English and Scottish Establishments were combined.) As a result of the 1800 Act of Union and the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the English and Irish Establishments were amalgamated in 1801, and the Royal Irish Artillery became part of the Royal Artillery.

The Royal Irish Artillery had been created in 1755 as the Artillery Company of Ireland, and had been renamed in 1760. By 1801 it had twenty-one companies, one of which was an Invalid Company. Four of the companies were on service in the West Indies, and these became Lindsay's, Unett's, Stawell Benson's, and Waller's Companies of the 7th Battalion. They were joined in the 7th Battalion by Thornhill's and Jackson's Companies which were on service in Ireland. (Both companies were stationed in Dublin in April 1801 and were then moved to Cork and Londonderry respectively from June onwards.) Young's Invalid Company (which was in Dublin) became part of the Royal Artillery Invalid Battalion.

The remaining companies were disbanded and the personnel were discharged, transferred to existing companies within the Royal Artillery, or used to form four new companies within the 7th Battalion. These new companies were Pritchard's, O'Brien's, Gilbert's, and Viney's Companies.

Most of this information was garnered from the copy of BATTERY RECORDS OF THE ROYAL ARTILLERY 1716-1859 by Lieutenant Colonel M E S Laws OBE, MC, RA (Retd) that we own. It was published in 1952 by the Royal Artillery Institute, and is a very impressive piece of research and a 'bible' for anyone undertaking research into the history of the Royal Artillery.

A visit to the National Archives

For a bit of a change from the recent bout of spring cleaning and sorting out at home, my wife and I paid a visit to the National Archives, Kew, today. It is only 19.2 miles door-to-door ... and took us ninety minutes to drive there this morning and – thanks to an accident on a main road that our route had to cross – nearly two hours to drive home. (Our overall average speed for the journey was 10.9 mph.) By normal driving speeds in London, that is not too bad … but to put it in context I can drive from our home to Dover (a distance of 69.6 miles) in seventy-six minutes at an average speed of 54.9 mph.

The purpose of our visit to the National Archives was to continue our search for William Richardson, my wife's several times grandfather. Richardson joined the Royal Artillery as a drummer in July 1785 and ended up as a sergeant major when he retired in March 1824 after thirty-nine years of service. We have been trying to reconstruct his career using the monthly Royal Artillery Pay Lists and Muster Rolls. My wife started at the end of his career and has been working backwards ... and I started with his enlistment and worked forward.

Although most of the records are in very good condition considering how old they are, sometimes we come across some that are in need of conservation ... and today was one such occasion. I opened one box that contained six month's worth of bound Pay Lists and Muster Rolls ... and was confronted by a pile of crumbling documents that were tied together with thin, waxed twine. I did not bother to even try to look at them any further and immediately returned the box to a member of staff. I also notified the onsite document conservators using the computerised document damage reporting system.

The state of these documents was in direct contrast to one of the others I consulted today. This was a bound copy of Pay Lists and Muster Rolls for the Royal Irish Artillery. (Yes, such an organisation did exist!) The documents were bound together in a vellum-covered book that had a gold embossed Royal Crest on the cover. It was very impressive and looked almost brand new ... and most of the pages were blank!

It was a very pleasant change to be doing some historical research using original documents ... and with a bit of luck my wife and I will be doing more in the near future.

White Eagle, Red Star

Amongst the books that I found during the first stage of the spring cleaning of my toy/wargames room was a copy of WHITE EAGLE, RED STAR.

The book tells the story of the Russo-Polish War of 1919-20, and was written by Norman Davies in 1972. My paperback copy was published by Pimlico (which is part of Random House) in 2003 (ISBN 0 7126 0694 7).

My interest in this little-known war stems from an article I read in a magazine many years ago, but it has recently been reinvigorated by several events. The first of these was my purchase of the DVD of the film BATTLE OF WARSAW.


The second was my participation in a re-fight of the Battle of Ivangorod. Although this was not a battle from the Russo-Polish War it was fought over the same part of Europe and showed yet again that large-scale battles can be fought on a tabletop.

The third was Ross Macfarlane's recent Russian Civil War battle report. Again this might not have been set during the Russo-Polish War ... but it could easily have been.

I am now re-reading WHITE EAGLE, RED STAR ... and who knows where that will lead.

Stage two of the spring clean is now underway

I managed to get stage two of the spring clean of my toy/wargames room underway this afternoon, and despite a minor detour that involve doing some work in our home office, it is progressing somewhat better than expected.

The detour arose as a result of no longer needing a number of wooden storage boxes that I had previously used in my toy/wargames room. As these storage boxes matched ones that were already in use in our home office, it made sense to move them into the home office and use them to replace the plastic crates that we had been using. This took my wife and I about an hour, but it was worth the effort as the home office now looks much better and tidier ... so the spring clean of my toy/wargames room has directly led to the home office also being given a spring clean.

The home office that my wife and I share.

I did run into one minor problem this afternoon. I discovered that I had a mix of two sizes of larger REALLY USEFUL BOXES (21 litre and 18 litre) when I thought that I only had one size. This meant repacking stuff from one size of box to another so that related items could be stacked together in the same pile. This was not essential ... but as I was trying to rationalise the storage in my toy/wargames room, it made sense and was not too time-consuming.

I have continued to find things that I had forgotten I had. Amongst these was a 3 feet x 4 feet piece of green felt marked with a 3-inch grid. The corners of each grid square are marked with a small '+', and  this makes the grid much less intrusive than it would have been if the grid had been marked on the felt with lines.

Perhaps I might be able to use this newly-found felt cloth in a forthcoming tabletop battle to 'celebrate' the completion of my spring cleaning.