Well I am a bit pooped this evening. This being back to work is a bit tiring 😂.
The doctor and occupational health did warn me that it would be likely. I have gone from doing sod all and seeing nobody for about a year and suddenly am in an office working 15 hours per week over three days.
So instead of having a bit of a snooze I went for another painting…
I am still peeved about the bleed under the tape. Time for a different type I think.
Not very original, but it is that time of year when the Northern Lights Appear.
Time for more purples and green banding on the next one.
Well I decided to make a little card for a lovely ex colleague who got me a new job card and sent me some lovely things when I was ill… Out came the water colours…
Sadly two minutes after this photo was taken I put the card down in a small puddle of water that hadn’t been there two minutes earlier.
I also grabbed some more vehicles off the printer…
There is a truck printing right now and another waiting to be put under the UV lamps.
Finally a big box arrived… Full of Alien Goodies…
Now these miniatures are a lot smaller than the Prodos ones, I will have to see how they compare with a ‘Glorious Day in the Corps’. As I already have a Ripley in a loader miniature from them I should be able to compare.
Some of you may remember I already did the first Kickstarter but we hardly played it and as this is the updated rules I felt it would be okay to replace them.
I did the same with the One Ring RPG. But in that case I had played the original for about four or five years and loved it, new it inside out. When I got the new one I was confused as the rules in some place had minor tweaks and in other places totally different. So when I started playing with the kids I reverted back to what I believe to have the best artwork at the very least.
I am a bit knackered today otherwise I would have had a good old read of the Alien Stuff.
This evening I faffed around a bit too much so I only managed to have a watch of some Five Leagues play through’s and worked a bit on the map.
I think it might be a bit big. Each hex is about 5 miles across. The towns etc are not to scale. Git a full day at work tomorrow so not sure how much I will achieve tomorrow evening.
So as I said yesterday I had drawn a bit of a sketch map which is going to come in really handy. Now some of the settlements are going to move and I need to get the terrain sorted as well…
I also fleshed out the characters, they now have their weapons and equipment.
I had a bit of a problem with the mystic, trying to choose his/her spells
I was trying to work out the type they would be. The rules say choose two, roll for the next three. I flipped these to give me a starting point..
I rolled:
Fog… Basically a three inch fog patch appears on the table blocking line of sight.
Shield… A protection spell against ranged attacks.
Infuse… Gives the target a counter attack ability.
I decided that he would be some form of hedge wizard as opposed to a battle wizard.
Because of this I chose Shadows and Barrier.
Shadows allows an ally to move 4 inches and avoid terrain, including walls.
Barrier, does what it says on the tin, it will put a 4 inch wall of fire on the table. I am going to change it to something like thorns.
The final thing I rolled was to find the background story for the leader. Turns out he has a loyal follower, as one of them is a former soldier it all fitted in nicely.
Tomorrow I find the rest of the miniatures.
The other thing I did was to get the stuff off the printer…
So two cruisers, an ambulance and a coroner’s van. Oh and some Team Yankee stuff in the background.
Well this evening I flitted around like some forgetful moth and achieved very little. Didn’t help that I was knackered.
I managed to sort out the 1:100 scale 80’s emergency service vehicles I printed …I have a feeling that they are a bit on the large side. So the next thing I did was try and work out how big a T72 is… Down the rabbit hole I went.
I had a bit of a fiddle with my troops for Five Leagues and this is what I rolled up ..
I was going to type these out, but really couldn’t be bothered.
Percival is second from the right or possibly left. I haven’t quite decided.
His livery is going to be the black and red with the silver boar. My shields got a bit damp and are looking worse for wear.
Tomorrow I will write up their stats and as I have drawn a new blank map it will be handy for the game.
Cor, look at me. Three posts in three days… Today I got a package in the post.
Well I wanted a few extra bits and bobs to bulk out the Traitor’s Toll types and also to make a force for Five Leagues from the Borderlands.
So I went for a sprue of Foot Knights, one of Foot Sergeants and another of Peasants. The Fourth sprue is extra weapons for the Sergeants. Mainly pole arms and pointy sticks.
As I was kicked off the Console I decided to build a selection of the knights…
One of these will become the leader of the Borderlands forces. When I rolled up the troops one of them had a full set of armour.
The only sort of issue I have with these is that the guards set are in plate armour while these are in mail.
Back into work for four hours tomorrow. I will try and do the foot sergeants when I get back.
Well today I did another painting, had a go at some hills…
I then decided to start making some of the Wargames Atlantic miniatures…
These did make me swear a bit as although they are meant to be multi part/pose they were annoyingly fiddly and didn’t quite go together as well as I would have liked.
The heads don’t always fit the neck and there are huge hands that don’t seem to have an opposite partner. Maybe I should have checked out the assembly guides on the website.
So my phased return is 12 hours this week, based over 3 days. Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Next week I am up to 15 hours so I am trying to get some hobby stuff in when I can.
Well hello you fabulous people. I am back, sort of.
It’s been a long journey and it looks like the shitty part is over. I have now quit as Head Teacher (Principal) and have just started in a new role as a trainer for the council. I started a phased return 2 days ago.
So What have I been up to. Well mainly I have been playing Ark on the PS4. So much so that they made me a server admin. I have managed to do some actual creative stuff too. Made a nice deer skull out of foam …
IÂ also started up the French and Indian Wars again. This time with the British forces….
I have decided to run the Silver Bayonet in 15mm so for me the setting will be along the Ohio River…
Somehow last week I got persuaded into a mini campaign based around Red Dawn… I am invading America with some Russians.
I reckon he put something in my coffee, latest period I am interested in is the 60’s in the Nam.
So I have now purchased Soviet paratroopers and am 3D printing (or about to start) 1980’s vehicles and buildings.
I have also had a go at Watercolour again…
What else… Oh yeah I went to Claymore again and came back with Guards of Traitor’s Toll. Haven’t done anything with them yet.
I also recently bought Five leagues from the borderlands and ordered some spare sprues from Wargames Atlantic to make a force for that. The models will complement the Traitor Toll stuff nicely.
One of the biggest issues I had with being off work was I refused to go out the valley. I am now going back to the club on a Thursday night. So although an uphill struggle I am managing it.
Hopefully I will start posting more regularly now.
Well I am still alive and kicking, but a bit feeble on the kicking side.
Still off work and down to half pay now. I was improving but have now hit some kind of plateau. On the upside I am not regressing, on the down side I am not improving in terms of the fatigue. As I am 59 retirement is becoming a possibility. I just have to do the sums. So what have I been up to.
Well not much to be honest. Mainly spending my days on the console as it is keeping me sane.
I have managed a bit of building and painting…
I love the horse, but dislike the rider.
My Imperial forces for the Italian Wars are slowly getting there…
Managed to get a map of Northern Italy from the Game ‘All is Lost, Save Honour’ made some buildings and defences too…
One day I may actually get to use them.
Writing is still a bit of a chore, but I will try and be a bit more regular with my posts.
Until next time look after yourselves.
I am hoping to get to Claymore with my son again this year. I better be able to as it cost a bloody fortune.
Well hello good people, I used to be a regular (ish) poster on this blog…okay not the 900 days straight of daily blogging I managed a couple of years ago, but was usually posting something.
My last post was basically four months ago. It stated I wasn’t feeling too good and had been signed off work with a chest infection… Not to add a spoiler too early, but I am still off with what the Doctor is calling post viral fatigue.
So I did my two weeks, wasn’t getting any better, so had another, then another. Then round about Christmas I went into freefall. I started forgetting things and had the worst brain fog. I then started forgetting people’s names and it turned out later people just ceased to exist in my brain. All in all it was a bit of a scary time for me and more importantly it really affected my family. I got scared and because I got scared I got angry. They put me in for an MRI on my brain, but it turned out my Folate levels had gone into freefall and I was super low. They gave me folic acid to counter this. Evidently some research has been done around Folate and COVID. So it looks like I have Long COVID, but the doctor no longer calls it that…it is now post viral fatigue, well technically it is. Still waiting for the MRI results.
Another offshoot of my malaise was my balance was totally shot. I kept wobbling all over the place. This has definitely improved, but I still have episodes of wobblyness. I still go over backwards when I stand and close my eyes.
Slowly getting there, still get tired if I do too much. I walk the dog and it was the case I couldn’t do the 200m track. I can now do 500m each way. The other day I pushed it and went an extra hundred meters and buggered myself for the rest of the day and into the next.
As you can imagine all of this made a bit of a crimp in my painting… I am managing a bit here and there. Over the last month and a half I have managed to get this lot done…
Basically a week’s worth from when I was feeling better.
I also started drawing maps to help with both the boredom and get my fine motor skills back…
Guess the place on the bottom one.
My eldest is trying to make money for a trip south so I made some necklaces for them…
They now have fifteen frogs sitting on lilly pads and one with fish in. I ended up doing a pile of poison arrow frogs to show up better on the leaves.
There is now a light at the end of the tunnel. To be honest, it has properly done my head in, I honestly think if I had broken my femur I would have coped better, at least I could point to it and say “It’s that.”
One day I will take the cellophane off my Christmas present and actually open the mystery box I got from Warlord Games.
I just want to say a big thank you to the people that checked up on me.
Bogenwald 