Expensive frustrations

Its been a long hard month, full of sick children and their various needs and requirements. I've run a few RM games but not had the energy to do much blogging on that subject. Most of my spare time these days is taken up by my tank project or just vegging out with Battlefield 3. Now I'm down with fever too and I think Mette's getting it as well. Summer always seems to end with an onslaught of illnesses now. I suppose thats the consequence of parenthood.

In the meantime, I've just bought a few more Perry miniatures (four packs of unarmed pikes and a pack of skirmishers) and I'm hoping to find the time to start painting and basing my Sixteenth Century Dutch army (now 128 figures strong). To that end I went online to try (again) to find a book or two which might give some indication of colours, but so far I've not had much luck. On the Lead Adventure Forum some of the guys suggested 'Armies of the Sixteenth Century: The Armies of England, Scotland, Ireland, the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands 1487-1609' by Ian Heath, but pointed out how expensive this book is (it seems to sell every where for £100+. I went online and found a copy in the USA for £27 (inc P&P) and thought myself as proud as Punch... only to discover the day afterwards that the title was misleading and I had bought 'Armies of the Sixteenth Century; 2. The Armies of the Aztec and Inca Empires, other native peoples of the Americas, and the Conquistadores 145-1608', also by Ian Heath. Both books having the exact same cover of course and so leading to my confusion. To say I was disapointed is an understatement. I almost lost my self control and ordered the first book to the tune of £100. I didn't however, as I can't really justify (yet) that level of expenditure on a book that I only need to paint a few figures.
In the meantime, the Aztec book is winging its way across the Atlantic to me. I have no idea whether that purchase will inspire me towards new horizons or simply languish upon a book shelf here in my lair.

With regards to my tank casting project, I have reached a point of extreme difficulty. No one in Denmark seems to know what resin is. I have all the parts and pieces I need to make the master mold, but I can't cast anything because it seems no one in Denmark has ever heard of resin. I shall have to buy from the UK, but I am loath to do so as the postage costs will make the whole project that much more expensive. I bought the starter kit shown above (it cost £60 to get it to Denmark) and I'll use that for my first attempt (it is after all a starter kit), but after that, I hope to track down a supplier in Denmark for all my subsequent models. I'll add some more tank images soon.