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Two Drummers Drumming

I was a bit busy off gallivanting yesterday

I did manage a bit of painting last night.

The second drummer is nearly up to the level of the first one. I must of had a shake doing his strap over the shoulder though. The first one needs a highlight on the flesh etc. Some of the dark blue and red also went onto some of the civilians.

Early on in the day we explored a broch in the north of the island. This was an Iron Age structure somewhat tumbled down after 2000 years of wind, rain and theft for building houses.

The base of the wall can be seen in the foreground, this would be heightened with peat. It is thought to be defensive, the site itself is sitting on an islet in a loch. The wall covers the causeway from side to side. You can see the causeway in this photo.

Further buildings are on the far side of the tower. You can just about make them out near the water’s edge.

This is the kind of size it would have been:

We also had a mooch about some crofting period click mills.

They were close to the edge of some of the tallest cliffs on Shetland.

This one has access to the sea through a subterranean tunnel. Well access if you don’t mind a 90m climb to the rocks below.

We found the grave with an interesting epitaph. We had heard about it but never seen it.

The afternoon was spent in one of the local shows where one of my daughter’s cockerel won third place in the bantam class.

All in all a very busy day!

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Dormez Vou? Oui!

Well okay not exactly sleeping.

I made a teeny bit of progress last night. They have a base coat of Cadian fleshtone.

I will give them a highlight of Kislev flesh tonight.

The reason for lack of painting…a new game

Now for the disclaimer…. funnily enough I would never shoot an animal in real life. I have in the past, what people may call vermin. I didn’t enjoy it, but to be truthful I did enjoy the bit right up to where I pulled the trigger.

I now stalk the odd otter, seal or other wild beastie with a camera. As I only have an 80×200 zoom on it I have to get pretty close.

I have enjoyed what I have played so far. There is 50 square miles to mess about in. I enjoy the tracking a particular animal down. Yesterday it took me half an hour of real time to track a wild boar. Up hill and down valley. The wind was always in his favour, hence the time it took. When I eventually caught up with him the game glitched and he was running about in a weird pattern. He was one lucky pig!

The worst bit is seeing how many animals I spooked. It breaks it down into scent, sight and sound. Based on those scores there were a lot more animals about than I had even seen.

the game itself is beautiful.

I snaffled these from the game’s website. The PS4 version probably isn’t as high definition as these but it is pretty close.

I shall carry on exploring the countryside in Central Europe. I should be able to find a bison and bear.

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Painting Para’s Rudely Interrupted

Working on the Americans. Base colours all just about done and the uniform wash applied. Next onto the highlights and washes for the rest. WW2 uniforms are so boring to paint after doing the Napoleonic uniforms. But as they say, a change is as good as a rest.

Sadly however I wasn’t feeling too good and shortly after this photo was taken I had to rush off to the bathroom as Spewmagedon occurred!

Yesterday was a bit more productive…. I repapered the kitchen.

Quite handy for reference when painting dry stone walls.

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On the way home

Final leg of the journey home

I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘S’.

Ten hours to go before we get into port.

Gaming plans when I get back.

Finish:

Airborne heavy weapons and 28mm werewolves

Make a start on any of my other stuff (too many to name here).

My little boy pinched some of my reading material.

He reckons the 40mm Tactical Grenade Launcher is the best for taking down xenomorphs.

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Off on Vacation

To paraphrase the song from Bed-knobs and broomsticks

lovely, bobbing along

Bobbing along on the surface of the beautiful briny sea

What a chance to get a better peep

At the plants and creatures of the deep

Two hours into a 12 hour ferry crossing. Reading material is at hand…

Tomorrow is a 200 mile drive then a week of mooching around Northumberland.

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Mice in SPAAAACE…the final frontier

Well that’s them just about Finished.

A commander, squad of marines an a Heavy weapons squad.

These were quite a nice, fun set to paint up. If I had a criticism, it would be the mouse fur is a bit flat. Now a super artist would be able to paint the fur in, sadly I am not that man.

I could have painted up the flamethrower pipe a different colour (and still might) as I couldn’t think of a suitable colour.

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Random grumpiness and Starship Troopers

Sadly not Sarah Brightman and Hot Gossip

This hobby is a bit weird I have decided. Well okay the hobby is okay, I think it is me that is the weird one.

A couple of months ago I decided I needed some Airbrush paint so I poddled off to Amazon. I needed to spend £20 for free delivery. 5 x17ml pots of paint came in a lot less than this so I ordered a DVD. Starship Troopers ‘Traitor of Mars” I really enjoyed it so I bought all DVD’s that I could. All three live action ones, two CGI animated ones and the the whole of the Roughnecks series. Great fun…

Next thing is I want to game Starship Troopers. My mate has bought me the role play game for my Birthday. Off I went to find something suitable….That is when I hit the problem. Mongoose no longer provide the minis, yeah you can get them on eBay, if you fancy taking on a second mortgage.

I have Aliens, Predators and Colonial Marines….. I have space Marines and Genestealers and other Tyranid nastiness….. can I find anything suitable in any easy and straightforward manner…..No.

Everything suitable I have found that would work in my mind is either in the states or are in 6/10mm. Rebel Minis or Khurasan would work. Lovely miniatures but the cost of getting them here is rather expensive before getting clobbered by VAT and import duties.

Some awesome ones in 6mm but 6mm is a bit teeny when role playing. Pendraken do a Big Jawed bug which would work with 15mm minis.

Alternative armies have some Flesharon troops in 15mm.

Problem with 15mm is that all of my suitable terrain or maps is for 28mm.

Why am I weird then. I seem to either get interested in something just as everyone else is getting out of it, or I get out of it just as it becomes popular with everyone else.

I am seriously now considering making the bugs as card ones and the troopers as minis. Might stop me grumbling about not being able to get what I want.

A quick edit…

Problem solved….ish… not quite sure how to make the bug 😱

I must get some minis painted tomorrow as I am off for a weeks vacation on Sunday night. Off back to my old stamping grounds in Northumberland. Sadly I haven’t got much painted of late as I have been attempting to get various jobs done as my mate is coming over to animal sit.

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Mice in space…now with colour

I gave these a base coat of white with the airbrush. Then, as they were going to be purple, I mixed up my own airbrush paint. This was a little scary as it was a first, but it seemed to work. I ended up doing a few coats to get a really deep purple.