Touching History

[joroas]

A set of these arrived from EBay today:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Touching-History-issues-1-to-4_W0QQitemZ300252197880QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300252197880&_trkparms=72%3A1090%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

Only £24.99 inc Postage.

A lovely set of magazine style booklets.

[Aaron]

I have number four. You got quite a bargain there! They are great inspiration.

[joroas]

They still have 3 sets...............

[Captain Blood]

I have a couple of these books.
I have mixed feelings about them to be honest.
At first glance they are very attractive and inspirational, but then when you read it a bit more carefully, you see that some of the techniques are not terribly insightful, and a lot more material is repeated from issue to issue...

Sorry. It's very easy to knock - and you really have to hand it to Paul Darnell for trying something different and ambitious. And his mega-big layouts always do look utterly fantastic.

But there are a couple of things that irritate me about these books...
One, why oh why does he always paint his rivers pale blue? Have you ever actually seen a sky blue river?
And two - why does he airbrush out the bases of the figures in all the pics? It's just wrong! We all know they're wargames figures. It's a book about making wargames terrain for wargames figures to fight on. And then the bases are taken out in photo-shop! Just feels a bit inauthentic somehow... 

Anyway, enjoy reading them, and never mind me. At that price for the set, you can't really go wrong... As mentioned in another thread on this topic, had Paul adopted a slightly different pricing model to start with (i.e. more volume at a lower price) I think Touching History would have stood more chance of succeeding. But I've no way of proving it! 

[joroas]

I take what you say as a fair opinion, but there is a lot of nice eye candy there for when I retire and have more time and less money to have a go at.  At that price I was happy.

[Malamute]

I take what you say as a fair opinion, but there is a lot of nice eye candy there for when I retire and have more time and less money to have a go at.  At that price I was happy.

And you get a photo of Matakishi in the Sudan one as well.

[Aaron]

Cap'n Blood, had I bought all four I would probably feel a bit cheated also. I leafed through them at a show and it did seem like there was a lot of repeated material. I could have also wished for a bit more in-depth "how to" material. on the whole though I picked up volume four because I like the F&I / AWI period and I have enough terrain experience to get by with what is presented.

To be totally honest, I probably didn't "need" it at all as I have a ton or reference for period buildings already, but the eye candy was too good to pass up!

[Captain Blood]

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't hate and detest them - there's plenty to admire in them.

I suppose I really feel they were a great idea, and just could have been a bit, well... better really.

I wish they'd been more successful, I really do - but at the original cover price (for what is basically a souped-up magazine) they were never going to fly... 

Shame.

[Aaron]

Understood and I agree completely. I apologize, my use of the word "cheated" was unfortunate.

[joroas]

Well, I suppose I pay £3-4 each for my 3 monthly mags and I rarely find anything I really want to read.............

[Captain Blood]

Yep, I completely agree with you there, which is why I don't buy WI etc any more.

I can't remember now, but I'm pretty sure when Touching History started out, weren't they asking £15 per issue? (Certainly £10, but I have a feeling the cover price may have started out at £15)

Anyway, 'tis all turned to dust now. Nuff said. I wish you many happy hours reading them 

[joroas]

So, I got a bargain, then.  They are nice, they remind me of WI in its heyday..........