I have been a busy bee today and this evening. We have rearranged the kitchen, removing the counter I added in and replacing it with a table. The counter will be recycled and will end up in the conservatory.

This evening I was downloading STL’s for a mate who wants me to print some WW2 French cavalry for him. I tried to sort out some of the things I have too, not to mention trying to contact both Kickstarter and Patreon owners to work out how the heck to get my files.

I had a jolly good play on War Thunder too. Tested out my Christmas presents to make sure they are compatible with the PS4 and they are. So they are going away until Santa arrives.

Tonight I decided to get some more paint on the traveller from ‘the Printing Goes Ever On’ Patreon…

Now, having a look at him he seems to be going shiny like the rhino and wolves on the diorama. The difference between these and other ones is that these were undercoated with a brush then dry brushed white. Part of me is wondering if it is having an effect on the Contrast Paint. Either that or the Contrast is going a bit weird. Maybe it just needs a bloody good shake, more than I shake it normally I mean.

Not a huge amount achieved because I spent ages looking for his bag. In the end I took everything out of the box one by one and then returned them in the same manner, I then spent ten minutes hunting around on the floor, still nothing. Then at the point of believing that I had totally imagined Printing the thing, I turned around and there it was on the above tile on the windowsill. My daughter had moved it in case it got lost!

Tomorrow I am going to be moving the FDM printer in with the resin printer as it is warmer in the bottom shed.

Tonight we didn’t eat until gone 20.00 so by time I had a bath etc I mooched around looking at various miniatures that I have.

So I have a long list of unfinished projects, first off I must get This diorama actually finished and then get on with the various 6mm armies that I have, thence onto the 15mm stuff, then printed LOTR stuff, all in all I am going to be a busy bee over the next few months.

I never got anything painted this evening as I was downloading various Patreon and Kickstarter STL’s. Something I should have done a while ago as I have totally forgotten all of my passwords and in fact how to get hold of things… I have downloaded some more Neolithic stuff and will get some more as there are some nice hunting scenes available.

It was a lovely still morning today, so that meant a nice sunrise…

I did a smidge more work on him tonight, mainly going over the metallics again and then adding a wash to the gold, before adding highlights.

Hopefully I can get him finished tomorrow night.

Today my life has been full of vampires (or vampyres). I decided to paint one, my daughter decided to draw a comic featuring one and my audio book is the 5th Elephant and lady Margolotta has just made an appearance…

I have had this mini for years and he is my Vampire leader from Mordheim…

There is still a very long way to go, but I am getting there.

I really do fancy playing Mordheim again, I have plenty of fantasy miniatures and all of the rule books, so it should be easy enough to do. The only thing I don’t have much of is terrain. Definitely something to ponder over the winter.

This was shared with me today and is probably the reason why I decided to start painting a vampire.

I decided to do a little diorama with the seated character, I will need a corner of a tavern, I have some ideas, so we shall see where they take me.

On The Covid front, Shetland has now shut down our border, no one is allowed on or off the island unless it is for essential travel.

Another late one tonight and I made the conscious choice not to do anything. It was a long day, so I thought I would read some rules or a book or even a magazine… I got them out flicked through them then put them away again.

Hopefully I will feel enthused when I return from work tomorrow 🤞

A big thank you to everyone for their support in my mojolessness!

My Mojo seems to have left the building, really cannot be bothered to do anything recently.

I must give myself a shake and a stern talking to. And get back into it…

Love this… we are doing rounding in school 😂

So I came home at 18.45 tonight so by time we had a meal etc I didn’t have time to do anything, okay not entirely true, I managed some time on War Thunder, I just couldn’t be bothered to get anything out.

When I got home I found a parcel on the table, and more terrain stuff from Geek Gaming was inside the box.

I was sent a really interesting story by my wife today, rather than type it all out again I have copied and pasted it for your perusal.

• In about 1700 Mary’s parents were shearing their corn at their croft of Stutaft near Baltasound, Unst, and Mary was lying in her shawl close by, at the side of the rig. After they had shorn a certain number of sheaves they proceeded to set them up in stooks. In so doing they moved a short distance from their infant who was fast asleep. To their horror a sea-eagle or erne, swooped down, clutched the bairn in the shawl in its talons, and flew off to the south.
  With some neighbours, they followed the flight of the eagle, which on reaching Colvadale, altered course for the Blue-Banks of Fetlar. The men went on to the south-east corner of Unst where at Ramnagio they procured a boat and went to Fetlar, landing at Colbinstoft. On informing the inhabitants there of their mission, they were informed that the eagle had her eyrie at Busta-Pund, at the East Neaps. A number of Fetlar men now joined them and went with ropes to the top of the cliffs above the eyrie situated under an overhang on the cliff face.
  Among the Fetlar men was a 12 year old boy, the son of Nicol Peterson of Crosbister, his name owing to the patronymic surnames in use, being Robert Nicolson. He volunteered to make the descent on the rope to the nest and was lowered over the cliff. To his amazement on reaching the nest, he found the child fast asleep along with two eaglets in the nest. He carefully disentangled the shawl from the nest, and was hauled up the cliff with his precious bundle to the safety of the cliff top and the crowd of men waiting there. Amongst the profuse congratulations extended to young Robert for his courageous deed was one from an elderly Unst man who said that he would maybe get her for a wife yet.
  Several years later some men from Fetlar had occasion to go to Unst and Robert taking the opportunity to go with them made a visit to the home of the young woman whom he had carried up the cliff face of Busta-Pund as an infant. The meeting proved to fulfil the old man’s prophecy for it ended as a good fairy tale should with the marriage of Robert Nicolson and Mary Anderson. They settled for a short time at Fetlar, but later moved their home to Kirkabister, on the north side of Mid Yell Voe where they raised their family.
  
  Abridged from:- Shetland Life, August 1981 page 14, by Robert L. Johnson.

Sea Eagles were common on Shetland, as were peregrine falcons (the best being found on the island of Fair Isle). Neither have survived into the 20th century. We do however still get visiting birds that cause twitchers the length and breadth of the UK to flock to our little island. In fact we had a rare warbler or something in our Kale Yard (the name of the planting area outside a Croft house). We only knew about it when half a dozen blokes with giant lenses on their camera’s turned up tromping down the track.

Out of interest we have had a flamingos on Shetland in 2013 a flock was seen on Strand Loch in Tingwall (the place I showed flooded last week)…

These were wild birds (we have had escaped/lost ones before). The people that know these things worked out that they probably came from India or Pakistan due to the wind speed and direction.

So we had bits and pieces to do today and I never had the urge to paint anything, I actually got as far as rescuing some miniatures out of the shed and even got the paints out, but err that was about as far as it got…

I did however stick some 6mm Samurai onto sticks!

This is about a quarter of what I need to do… so my plan is to get them done (as in Finished) in the Christmas holidays. Wish me luck!