Well, I intended to get various bits and bobs done tonight. I was sat here eating a shortcrust mince pie and suddenly realised that it was 21.45. I still need a bath and sort out for work tomorrow.

Therefore, there will be no painting or anything tonight… hopefully tomorrow will be more productive!

So my little parcel arrived today and built my MDF paint rack from the outpost…

Here it is sitting on my shelf, now this was worse than IKEA furniture to out together as although it was meant to be friction fit,

The back had a bit of a problem as the tab if it was in the top vertically stover the hole…

In the end I had to sit it in at a jaunty angle so that I could get the top row of paint in where the support was.

To be honest though, I have gone and bought a new one as it will sit beside this one … well for £7.95 it seemed a good price and it will hold 24 paints neatly.

This evening I went for 6, 15 and 28mm miniatures.

I worked on my Italian Wars, I did some work on the Sengoku Monsters and bones and the I sort of finished my Flintloque Guerrillas…I realised after taking the photo that there were a couple of bits that needed doing.

Although the flu has gone, the cough persists intermittently… trouble I am having now is insomnia. I think my body got used to maps all day and coughing all night… it now thinks this is the norm.

Hopefully it will settle soon as I am back to work on Wednesday and Teaching on Thursday.

As I got on with the undercoating yesterday I managed to make a start on these nasty beasties…

There are three poses out of the thirteen miniatures. I need to get the hair redone in some of them.

I decidedto splash some cash and save myself a job…

The 2.2 litre boxes fit perfectly and were on offer so I grabbed a few.

Today we moved things around in the lounge, my painting station changed walls, not to mention getting a bit of a tidy up in the process.

With a family film and other bits and bobs then I never got any painting done. I did order myself a paint rack to go on the top of the station. I am storing the Army Painter inside at the minute and it is taking up a lot of room inside. I went for a rack that will only hold 24 bottles but that will be enough for my mettalics and washes and the odd other bottle.

I still have the MDF boxes to make to sit on the lower shelves, this is more to make it look  tidy than for necessity. It also stops the kittens trashing whatever is on there.

I did have to do a bit of rehashing to make the desk light sit nearby to allow the lid to close without having to remove the light each time. Unfortunately the light has a clamp base that means it can only sit on a horizontal surface.

I have also started thinking about consolidating what I have. Actually getting a good old piece if cash for Christmas made me get all excited about a new project here or there, but then I sat and thought about everything I have sitting around already in either a physical sense or else in an electronic form. Or in some cases still to be downloaded or arrive in the post.

My Starship Troopers stuff has already got a buyer in the new year. I bought it three years ago and it us still sitting there as grey plastic…some of the boxes still have cellophane on.

As you can see I am trying to be a bit of a grown up, let’s see how long it lasts.

Topiary is the art of clipping evergreen trees and shrubs into symmetrical shapes to create ornamental garden features. Topiary clipping is as old as gardening itself dating back to ancient Egypt.

I, however, decided to let my Bush grow wild…no trimming allowed…I did make some a bit bigger or smaller to increase variety.

I would have got a lot further but we stopped for family game time. I did however get a first coat on the cave after thus photo was taken. I am doing these for my mate.

I haven’t forgotten my 6mm Italian wars stuff, I just needed to ease my way back into painting.

I must have overdone it as I slept for 14 hours straight last night so I took things a bit easier today.

I spent a lot of itjust chilling and also slicing some stuff for the printer…. I did find my Catalucian Guerillas who will become part of my Silver Bayonet force…

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas.

My main present was the Ironclads kickstarter which drops mid January. So I got a funky Mr Grumpy mug and some fudge so that I had something to open today. The kids got me a nice selection of Contrast paints.

The kids enjoyed their presents and my wife loved her fishy stitch markers…

She also liked her bag and new wool that I got her.

I hope you got some cool things too. Having an early night tonight as I am a bit popped again.