Risk Taking

When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?

Well I am getting to the age where I no longer bounce like I used to but as I often joke “I sometimes wonder how I am still alive!”

As a younger individual I did many daft things that could have finished me off.

But I suppose one of the biggest ‘risks’ was to move from Northumberland to the Shetland Islands. My wife and I and our 16 week old made the change. I started work on 17th April 2006. Basically 20 years ago.

Was it easy, no, did I struggle, yes. I moved from a school of 40 odd staff to me and a part time admin. From a class of 34 to a whole school of 12.

I basically lost my family and friends, my hobbies -reenactment and my social life again based around the reenactment world. The other huge miss was my in work support network.  That was a massive hit, I remember one day having a bit of a wobble and saying I wanted to go home.  Our house hadn’t sold yet, so my wife said we could easily return, by home I meant my old school.

So to answer the question…when was the last time I took a risk, April 17th 2006. I suppose that was the biggest risk we ever took. We made a vow that day that no matter what was thrown at us we would remain.

Was it hard? Yes! Was it worth it? Again Yes! Did we make the right choice in staying here? Most definitely.

This is the view from my front gate…

There are other benefits to being at 60 degrees North.

Big Thinks, Being Thunk!

Well I was browsing a certain Social Media Platform at 06:00… Thanks Dog!

And in one of the groups someone posted a picture about when they started D&D they were skint so made their terrain out of cardboard, glue and Sharpies.

Now this got me thinking. When did the shift from dry wipe mats and Chinagraph pencils to a table full of terrain for one session.

Now cards on the table here, I never got into D&D. I was more MERP. And to be honest pretty much have avoided it since.

I have some old starter boxes, the one I could find straight off was Dragon Mountain. An AD&D Dungeon, comprising maps, Cardboard miniatures etc. This was published by TSR in 1993. I picked mine up cheap of Facebook a few years ago. I actually bought it for the maps.

Yes I am a bit of a sucker for a good map.

So 1993 we seem to be moving away from draw your own to printed maps for the adventures. So when was the shift to full terrain boards or 2.5 instead of 3D.

The problem is I went into wargaming so therefore terrain became an integral part.

Some people still go for theatre of the mind, so no terrain needed at all. Maybe a picture to help people get into the zone.

I would hazard a guess that YouTube has a part to play in tables full of buildings etc, but maybe I am wrong.

So does anyone know? I am sure I don’t as in reality people differ.

Militia, Pastels and Cannons

Well this evening I worked on the militia a bit more. Nearly all of the white has gone. I have been tending to rush these as I want them out of the way. By rushing I mean when I can actually get round to painting them.  Having them sitting there glued to pennies and undercoated is not exactly speedy work…

My cannons and crew got the Italian Wars arrived yesterday, just forgot to mention it 

The Alternative Armies free gift this month is a war droid, which I will probably have a use for. I also purchased the Venetian ambassador, not because I believe that Venice will be the next release, but because he was the only character set I didn’t have. I have one heavy, a light and an organ gun for the Florentine forces.

And Finally I rattled out another Pastel piece this morning while drinking my coffee.

Tried something the same, but different in the execution. These are super fast, probably 10 minutes or less from start to finish. Well if nothing else it keeps me quiet for a little while.

There is one colour oil pastel that I will have to replace soon. Can you guess which colour?

So up to Episode five of Shogun and really enjoying it.

Pastels, Painting and Shogun

Well this evening I did a bit more painting on the militia…

I didn’t get too much done, but they pretty much started off white so at least progress has been made.

I also managed to get a couple more pastel pieces done…

Whilst painting I started watching Shotgun. I am actually enjoying it. I can vaguely remember the original from the late 70’s. I thought it would be naff and it isn’t. So yey to Shogun!

Oil Pastels in Aberdeen

So I had to go to Aberdeen for 5 nights for train the trainer training. My first thought was taking some minis and paints down, but after watching my case being loaded I am glad I didn’t. Instead I took my oil pastels and tried to do something every night… Since Monday night I have achieved my goal…

I decided to keep going on the same idea rather than trying something new each evening. The first was on off white/grey paper, After which I changed to black. I will keep practicing on this style as I like doing it. My blending is definitely improving, not there yet, but getting there.

The last one was this evening. I decided to try a different approach to the swirling ripple effect.

I will work on it more tomorrow..

Painting with Cramp

Well actually I was painting with em…paints. the cramp was a side effect!

It kept happening!

But at least I got more done on the militia…

I would have liked to have got them finished but wasn’t to be.

The other 14 got slapped with Speedpaints too.

Saturday Art

Well I have been a bit knackered the last few days. I have been training people for four days last week. Friday night I was just buggered. Two days of 7 hours with the people plus getting in early and getting out later meant I really couldn’t be arsed to do anything.

This morning I felt the itch to be artistic but didn’t fancy any miniatures. So instead I hauled out the soft pastels and had a play around.

On the first one I drew around a penny on masking tape to give me the circle, the second one was more free from 😜. AKA scribbled.

The one thing I must do is check the lighter colours are clean before scribbling. I messed up the water a bit whilst trying to clean up the more orange one. It may get hit with white, I am yet to decide. It will definitely have some birds.

I am not worrying too much,  I am just chilling and making a bloody mess of the kitchen table! 😂

I evidently got carried away and did another one

Still need to work on the blending at the base of the hills. But at least you can see what it is meant to be.

Woohoo Painting

Yes I actually got around to putting a paintbrush to some miniatures this evening.

Sixteen Militia part done. These are very rough and ready but look okay at a distance of about three metres.

I will hopefully carry on tomorrow evening. That will leave another fourteen at the white stage. I actually can’t remember who the manufacture is. Part of me thinks Blue Moon as they come in packs of thirty.

I also got my Florentine troops undercoated. They will be next up I think.

Cannons, Crayons and Crap

Well this evening I eventually got around to sticking my Florentine Cannon onto a 40mm base. It turns out Wargames Atlantic do them so got this done.

I found a couple of random cannons in a bag, got all excited built them then realised they were at least 20mm ones. So back to printing a couple.

I also had another bash at my soft pastels…

Not happy with the black, but only third attempt at using them so getting there.

And Finally more stuff got shoved into the shed…

Come to think of it, there won’t be any printing happening in there any time soon! Bugger!