Well okay not anywhere near true, I managed loads today, just not Painting miniatures. I would have done some but I was out on the conservatory roof again (and will be on there again tomorrow). My fingers are aching so I decided to give them a rest. As some of you may remember, I had a drip in the roof and it went away, then decided to come back. So today in a fit of either pique or even keenness I got up there and ripped the roofing felt off above the leak to see what the heck was going on.

Once I managed to find the drip from the top I then traced it back up the roof. Sadly this meant I had to take more felt off. So in the end I had removed a third of it (luckily I had enough spare to cover what I took off.

Anyway regarding the Knight, after saying he wouldn’t be green, I am now swinging back the other way and am probably going to do him in shades of it. I kept coming up with ideas and to be honest the ideas looked a bit naff.

The feathers will be a darker green and the trappings brighter with a white bridle and silver of gold fleur de lys on it. This will speed up painting to be sure 😂.

And finally, once again I was in the wrong place at the wrong time!

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/scot-catches-incredible-moment-killer-23253551

Story of my life!

Since writing I hadn’t done anything I thought I had better get my arse into gear and do something, not a lot, but some progress was made…

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Interestingly enough the shield and painted knight were the colours he was in originally …. errr yuk! I seem to be missing my Brettonian shields so I have had to make do with one from my ancient bits box. I actually think it suits the foot sergeant.

The other thing I found was this….

And finally, this made me laugh (or wince perhaps)…

So as a bit of a what have I been up to last year I will start by showing the first and last painted figures from last year.

So having gone back through the posts and media then in 2020 I managed to paint (and complete) the following

6mm Armies: undead, Samurai, Sons of Set, Burmese, Lizardmen, Halflings. I also worked on reducing the 3D builds from 3DAlienWorlds to fit 6mm. It was tricky but I got there in the end.

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15mm: Sengoku Monster Hunter Set for my mate including a 3D printed village…

I also started and finished my 15mm Samurai army to be used in either HOTT or DBM…

I also managed to paint some 28mm stuff, not too much to be honest. The printed Lord of the Rings stuff from ‘The Printing Goes Ever On’ took up most of the time along with the Ill gotten games minis and the Neolithic stuff I printed…

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Now these are the things I finished and not the things I started and for whatever reason gave up on. Most of March and April was done with the Lizardmen which I very quickly fell out of love for.

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I probably spent more time printing than painting this year, an exaggeration but it does feel like I printed more things than painted. still to work on are the roads I printed, my 15mm village and my Hexon tile and my meeple dungeons

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The other thing I managed was a diorama, inspired as I was by Dave, Pat and Eric. I just needed a personal spark and it came funnily enough with the Neolithic gear I printed… I spent a good while looking at the various miniatures I had done and things swam into focus… not a human in sight…

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Now this thing took a lot of my energy but I have kind of got the bug a bit and already have a couple more planned (at least)…

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The first will be a wolf and pups outside a cave, the second is called He’s behind you! Now these are just simple mock ups. I want the wolf to be in a cave among the roots of a tree and the other to be in heavy vegetation.

So where do I see 2021 going… I am really going to try and curtail my purchasing of miniatures, this is two fold, one financial, I am trying not to spend on stuff that will never get done… the Lizardmen army being a case in point, bought, started and then lost all love and belief in the project.

Now I will likely waver, but with the amount of stuff I have to print and the amount of minis I still have to paint then it should keep me in miniatures for a really long while.

Off the top of my head….

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On top of this lot, there are more 6mm Samurai coming from a Kickstarter as well as some dogmen for Flintloque I said I would buy from a mate. As I said this lot was off the top of my head. I was mooching for some bits and pieces and found three Gw boxes of miniatures under the bed. Chaos marauder infantry, Lizardmen temple guard and some empire gunners and swordsmen.

First up to paint will be my ‘Green Knight’ and entourage, they probably won’t be green…. just saying

And finally, in case nobody says it to you today or any other day….

Absolutely nothing to do with stars. These things are sucking the joy out of my life. I can honestly say that if anything was to put me off 40k it is these.

I don’t know why but I can honestly say that the instructions are on one hand really specific and in others it took me ages working out how the arm goes onto the hand, this then has to go on the shoulder correctly to allow the second hand to meet the weapon where it should.

At least there are only three left to go… phew. Then I only have to paint them! In my mind these were going to be built in an evening and then sprayed the next with painting started on the third. Sadly it was not to be.

Regarding Covid, we have just got another 7 cases today taking this to 43 cases with 300 people being told to self isolate and be tested. The thing that really boils my piss is that people have been deliberately giving false names and addresses when they have been out and about.

My worry is we now have New Years Eve to deal with and these 43 cases are before we hit the Christmas Day legal and illegal visiting.

So this evening, I went back to doing a bit more on the Sisters of Battle. Managed to finish one, almost finish the second and make a start on the third.

I saw this brilliant bit from a nature camera… spot the mountain Lion stalking an elk.

I would like to point out that we don’t have these on Shetland, otters, Orca and other whales and dolphins… yes. Mountain Lions and Elk…no.

After watching a cut scene montage of the new Necromunda console game, I kind of got inspired to see about spending my Crimbo money… not at those prices I won’t. So I think I will see what else is out there.

Okay this is me having a bit of a major melt down here. As some of you know I live on Shetland an island between Norway and Scotland and as such living on an island we were allowed to be tier three of the Covid Lockdown rules. All mainland areas were tier four. We had had no cases at all in the last month and then guess what?

Yep some absolute nob head decided to have a party and we have now gone from Zero cases to sixteen and then today another ten with a further one hundred and twenty people needing to be contact traced and told to self isolate.

What the effing hell is wrong with people, it honestly beggars belief. The main place was Brae, but unfortunately this has now spread out west and into Lerwick. All visits to all care homes are now banned, various restaurants have had staff off now because the people on the trace list have been there… and finally the one that really takes the cake. A visitor from the mainland rocks up to Shetland and tests positive, so instead of being a good boy he decides to get pissed and to make matters worse he then takes his car for a spin and put it in the ditch and ends up in Accident and Emergency. He has since been arrested…

The dog has lost its pocket money for the year as her £2 stolen bar of chocolate cost us £212.67. Luckily it is nearly payday!

So to calm myself down, please find some relaxing sea photos from yesterday’s abortive beach visit.. please note the small boy in one of them!

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The wave that got him came up to the rocks to the right of the picture!

Well this is how far I got tonight on the Sisters of Battle…

The more astute of you will realise that they are pretty much the same.

My eldest got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and they have found a family game. We spent about three hours playing together. The idea is that we can all use an electronic device and answer questions or take part in other games.

The best one was Quip It where you have to make silly answers to questions… the best one was name a magazine where a nude centrefold would not be appropriate… we ended up with Lego Magazine, which had us in hoots!

As today was such a lovely day, we went to a beach about a 20 minute drive away. So it took us 45 minutes to get the kids in the car, 20 minutes to get there, 5 minutes or so to get down to the beach and three minutes before my son misjudged the speed of an incoming wave and got extremely wet (photos tomorrow) so back home we came. What was a bit unusual was a couple with their little one watched the whole incident and then proceeded to have a photo shoot. Needless to say they got wet too!

Well that was a bit of an interesting Christmas Day. Pressies opened here, some yummy 85% dark chocolate to my good lady and I, smarties and coins for the kids, then off to in-laws for lunch and more presents. As the dog is a sneak we checked the room for any Chocs lying around and found nothing.

We came back two hours later to find she had somehow found our dark chocolate and ate the 60g bar. So a phone call to the emergency vet and as we had got back pretty quickly then we were in with a chance. We took her over and after a quick injection of an emetic she threw up all 80 grams of it and is now as right as rain.

The Vet said that although the darker chocolate is more toxic, it has less fat so that it lasts longer in the stomach. The other good thing is that we feed her once a day in the evening, so the only thing was the chocolate in her stomach.

So all in all a bit of an eventful afternoon.

Most of my pressies were to help me on the console to win at War Thunder. I am saving up to buy a Jagdpanther 😂. The fandoms I have been playing of late have the tactical acumen of a stunned kitten. I generally get blown up trying to cover their suicidal attacks or because of their suicidal attacks they have left my flanks and rear open to nasties.

I did get a couple of good books from my in-laws…

I do like this one from the Great War book…

So anyway, I hope you have all had, are having, or are going to have a Great Christmas.

I am going to try my luck with my Low tier tanks then off to bed I go. Haven’t got a bloody clue what day

Okay not exactly the most festive of things 🥴, but as I dropped my mates present off today before the big day tomorrow, he asked me if I would make his box of battle sisters over the Christmas break.

I said I would and here they are in all their rather militaristic glory…

To be honest they would nearly make me want to play 40k (but not enough to jump in). We will probably be using them in the 40k RPG that he has.

So I just checked with NORAD and Santa is. He has evidently just left Rome in Italy…

I am now going to give you my Top five Christmas Musical pieces…

1. Gaudete – Steeleye Span: https://youtu.be/tKT5_TlQ4GM

2 Il Dulci Jubilo – Mike Oldfield: https://youtu.be/VCvz7uflMIU

3. I Believe in Father Christmas – Greg Lake: https://youtu.be/yfY4b1NszpY

4. Oh Holy Night – various: https://youtu.be/qrUB9AEnnEc

5. Mary’s Boy Child – Boney M: https://youtu.be/cmm1gt_2SkQ

I could quite easily compile a list of Twenty, but haven’t the time. I heard ‘oh Holy Night’ coming out of Durham Cathedral one dark, snowy winter’s night and it was one of the most magical sounds I think I have ever heard. I sneaked into the back to listen to them…it was amazing, sent shivers down my spine then and still does every time I hear it.

So let me know your top five. Fairy Tale of New York was almost there, but Boney M knocked them off the list (perhaps controversially).

So as I finish this off. I just want to wish you all a very merry Christmas however you celebrate it.

Yes I got the elves off the print bed today and they seem okay. A mounted female and a guard of some type.

I also have decided to have a bash at a GW Grail Knight over the festive period. Don’t ask me why, when I have poop loads to paint already

And finally, for reasons know only to myself, or actually I don’t know why… I am having a go at printing a moose… the type with antlers not the Scottish small timid thing.