Quick Review: 4Ground 15mm MDF Church

Having successfully assembled the 4Ground Terraced Houses I moved on to building their Church yesterday. The kit comes pre-cut on nine pieces of MDF some of which have been painted. The pre-painted version costs £30 while the unpainted kit costs £20. 

As with the Terraced Houses kit it's essential to follow the instructions carefully, only pressing out the pieces you need for each stage. Dry fitting the pieces together helps, as does checking back with the photos to make sure you have things the right way round.

The first stages are easy. You assemble the carcass and then add the exterior cladding as shown below. They recommend PVA glue but I used a clear glue and had no problems.

After the ground floor of the church is assembled you move on to the tower. The tower comes in four sections, each of which are assembled separately. The ground floor of the tower was straightforward but the subsequent levels are assembled differently. Here you glue the exterior walls first and then add in the interior supports. This can get tricky as it's not always obvious which way round the various pieces go, I had to take apart a couple of pieces and redo them to get it right. 

After the tower is completed its time to move on to the two porches and the roof. These were no problem, although I did find them a little fiddly in places. I'd had problems with the roofs on the Terraced House kit but these went together smoothly. The last job is to insert the cills on the windows. Again a bit fiddly but easy to do. The completed model looks good and would grace any wargames table. 

The finished Church with a US 105mm Cannon for scale

The church roof comes off easily so your troops can occupy it to hold off the enemy. The tower comes apart as well and you can place a small base on each level, so it's ideal for artillery spotters or snipers.

The disassembled model

I give this kit a 9/10. As with both kits I think the instructions could be more detailed for certain steps but this is a minor niggle. I will probably buy more kits from 4Ground and have no hesitation in recommending them to other wargamers

Recommended Reading: Sci-Fi & Fantasy

I read a lot and have hundreds of books so this it makes it difficult to recommend specific books when I'm asked. So I usually just suggest people look at specific authors. However I've been asked by one of the Exiles Gaming Group to suggest a book from each of my favourite authors to use as a starting point for getting into their work. So I thought I'd be lazy and post everything here so I can just point people to this post in future.

L. E. Modesitt Jr
I love all her books so where to start? I would suggest looking at the 'Saga of Recluce' books and start by reading the first book she wrote set in this world 'The Magic of Recluce'.

More details on the books can be found on their Wikipedia page.

Elizabeth Moon
It's hard to chose just one one book from all the great series she's written but I think I'll go with 'The Deed of Paksenarrion' mainly because the trilogy is now available in an omnibus edition making it great value.

More info on Elizabeth Moon's books can be found in her Wikipedia entry.

David Eddings
Great fantasy in the classic Tolkien mould. Just have to recommend the Belgariad series and where else to start than with the first book in the series 'Pawn of Prophecy'.

More info on his Wikipedia page.

David Gemmell
I love Gemmell's work and I remember how sad I felt when I heard he'd died. The thought that I wouldn't get the chance to read any more of his great stories really got to me. And that's the important thing to realise about Gemmell's work, he's a storyteller. His books waft you away with tales of adventure and excitement but always there is  an element of sadness which makes his characters so well realised. What would I recommend as a starting point? Again a difficult one but I think I'd have to go with one of the Druss books and again I can recommend an omnibus edition 'Drenai Tales' which contains three Druss books.

More info on his Wikipedia page.

David Weber
A prolific author but for me his stand out work is the Honor Harrington series. And where else to start than with the first book in the series, 'On Basilisk Station'.

Raymond E Feist
Feist has produced many series of books all based around the world of Midkemia and the sorcerer Pug and they're all great reads. But the obvious place to start is with his first book 'Magician'.

More details on his books can be found on his Wikipedia page.

Mike Sheperd
I love his Kris Longknife novels and eagerly await each new release. So again the only place to start is with the first book in the series Mutineer.

More details on his books can be found on his Wikipedia page.

Jack Campbell
A relatively new author for me but when I came across his 'Lost Fleet' series I was hooked. I just loved the premise, the flawed main character and the interesting take on space combat. So where else to start than with the first book in the series 'Dauntless'.

More details on his books can be found on his Wikipedia page.

Mercedes Lackey
Another prolific author who produces great classic fantasy stories. I love the Valdemar series but I'm going to recommend the 'Vows & Honor' trilogy as it makes a good entry into her work. The first book in the trilogy is 'The Oathbound'.

More details on her books can be found on her Wikipedia page.

So that's it there's dozens more authors and books I could recommend but this should give you a good starting point. The last thing I'll point out to you is that some publishers now have copies of some of their publications available for free in e-book or pdf format. My particular favourite is the Baen Books Free Library which contains works by some of my favourite authors. It's definitely worth checking out to see if you like an authors work before buying their books.

Quick Review: Old Man's War by John Scalzi

There's nothing I enjoy more than reading a good book while sitting with my feet up in my favourite chair, the warm sun streaming through the windows and great music playing in the background. In fact after I took early retirement just about all I did for the first few months was sit and read my way through my extensive book collection. One time I counted up and I'd read 15 books in seven days!

Although I've always been interested in military history I read very little of it today. Most of my time is spent reading science fiction and fantasy and that leads me onto today's review. I've been doing a lot of painting recently so I've decided to take a break and spend a few days just reading. After a quick perusal of my bookshelves I decided to read Old Man's War by John Scalzi again. I first came across this book while I was browsing through my recommendations on Amazon. What intrigued me was the strap line for the book

"John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army."

How could anybody join the army aged 75? I had to find out so I bought the book and wasn't disappointed.

Humanity finally made it to interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce and there are lots of alien races willing to fight us for them. The war for available real estate has gone on for decades. Earth is quarantined from space 'for their own good' by the Colonial Defence Force (CDF) and  only those of retirement age can join the CDF. The new recruits are taken off Earth to serve two years at the front. No one on Earth knows why the geriatric pensioners are accepted and not fit young men, or how the old are made young enough again to fight. The old go for the chance to be young again and if they survive, they're given a generous homestead on hard-won colony planets, never to return to Earth. John Perry is taking that deal with only the vaguest idea what to expect.

The science is clever and interesting and forms an integral part of the story rather than something that's just included to allow things like space travel to happen. But I'm not going to go into great detail about the book as to do so would spoil many of the surprises it contains. The story itself can be described as many things. It can be called military sci-fi as there is John's training and the many tales of his combat experiences (my favourite is when they have to fight one inch high humanoid aliens). It could be called a love story about about a man and his dead wife who maybe isn't quite as dead as he thought. It could be a story about friendship and death. It could be a morality tale about power-hungry organisations manipulating people for their own short sighted aims. But the book is more than the sum of it's parts. It's funny, touching, exciting and makes you think. Best best of all it's a great read.

It's also part of a three book series the other two books being 'The Ghost Brigades' and 'The Last Colony'. If you enjoy good sci-fi do yourself a favour and get this book you won't be disappointed.

Book Review: Temeraire by Naomi Novik

I came across this book recently while I was browsing the Pendraken forums (which incidently is a great community worth visiting even if you're not into 10mm). It sounded interesting so I bought a copy from Amazon. It arrived a couple of days ago & I enjoyed it so much that I read it through in one sitting. So I thought I'd let you know about it..
It is set in Napoleonic times and is the story of Will Laurence, a Captain in the Royal Navy. The story starts with a battle at sea in which a French frigate is captured and found to be carrying an unusual cargo, a dragon egg. Yes, in this world dragons exist and have done for hundreds if not thousands of years. They are used by all the major powers, although they are not common, and the capture of the egg is a major coup for Britain & Captain Laurence. However the egg hatches while they are at sea and the young dragon bonds with Will meaning he must give up his position as a ship's captain and join the Dragon Corps devoting his life to flying & caring for the dragon.
I won't go into details of the story so as not to spoil it for you but it covers the training of both Will & the dragon, their growing relationship and finally their combat experiences culminating in the usual climactic battle. The main characters are well written & likable, the plot has twists and turns and the use of dragons in combat is interesting & presented in a way I've never seen before. All in all I have no problem in recommending it to you. It is also the first book in a series, which I will also be buying. In case you're interested I've listed the other books in the series below.

Temeraire: The Throne of Jade
Black Powder War
Empire of Ivory
Victory of Eagles
Tongues of Serpents

Rating: 4 Stars
A good but not great book which is an easy and enjoyable read. The innovative use of dragons in combat & some of the plot twists set it apart from the crowd.