So tonight was an unintentional night off. The kids were wanting to make bread, so I gave them the table and went and had a long soak in the bath 😂

After the rain and snow we now have 70mph winds as standard, gusting higher…The problem with up here is sometimes you cannot tell how windy it is as there are no trees or bushes to show you.

So we spent a lot of today working on moving the electrics so that they are in the new conservatory, there was a bit of swearing but not a huge amount, which was a pleasant change.

On the upside we did find some rather funky 70’s wallpaper…

Today we have had apocalyptic rain, with a nice breeze and as such it hasn’t been the best of days. So this evening my good lady sorted out the stables as everywhere is flooded and the stream in the field has totally burst it’s banks. With having the cold in the field we thought it better that they came in.

So in said wind and rain we got them in, we’ll sort of got them in. The two older ones went in and the colt panicked and legged it into the darkness. Thankfully we got him in the end but by then I was having a sense of humour failure, torches failed we fell over, fell in puddles etc. But thankfully they are all in the yard now.

I really, really couldn’t be bothered tonight so I decided to give things a miss.

So this is the kind of flooding I am talking about…

This is the main road North/South road at Tingwall…

Got back late tonight so I never really had much time to get anything done. This afternoon I did manage to get a teeny bit more done on the trees. I added some more flock to the trees, both the dark and a lighter one to add some highlights….

The next question I have for those more knowledgeable is how the flippin’ heck do I seal the flock on. Choices I have here are spray varnish or a PVA water mix. Any help greatly appreciated.

This could easily describe me and the weather, but sadly it is my diorama piece. I am sure it will dry eventually, by then it may look like a banana, but only time will tell. I actually haven’t got anything done this evening as I was helping kids with homework after having dinner and doing the horse. I have been thinking about what I am going to do with the diorama though.

Where the rhino are is going to be churned up as if they have been at it a long time. I really wish that there was a dead wolf in this set, but sadly not. So yeah a muddy bit surrounding the calf and the rest as rough grass. Now I don’t have a good static grassamator so I am going to have to use clumps I think. I might have some practice with the one I have this weekend. I have loads and loads of static grass from 2mm up to 6mm so I am sure that I should be able to do something with it.

So we have had a lot more Orca sightings over the last week or two, this is the reason why. This lot are having pups at this time of year and so with the thought of an easy meal they have returned. I took this photo a while ago (opposite the local Tesco in Lerwick).

This lot have their pups in June….

I have been meaning to write a blog post on seals for ages, and have never seemed to have got around to it.

Hopefully tomorrow will see some progress on the groundwork.

Today we went to the cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It was the first time any of us had seen it on the big screen. The normal 160 people was down to 40 for social distancing. The last time I saw it that empty was for a rerun of Casablanca.

We also eventually got round to sorting out my daughter’s Birthday Takeaway. She eventually settled for the chip shop after running through thoughts of going for Indian, Chinese or Nepalese.

I then unfortunately went down the YouTube rabbit hole and didn’t really get as much done as I wanted. To be brutally honest I couldn’t really be bothered to do anything, but pushed myself to get the goats progressed a bit.

I was hoping to get some flock on the bases but the brown took ages to dry, so I will get that done tomorrow.

I managed to throw a bit of paint onto the maids and Witch King too

Hopefully I can get them finished tomorrow too.

The wind up here is rather strong at the minute so no Ferries either inter island or to the mainland. Hopefully we won’t have had any panic buying as I need to go shopping tomorrow.

On the conservatory front I managed to stop the drip the other day only to have it return today… as you can imagine I am now getting a bit miffed about this.

Tonight I decided to mess around with the mammoth I started painting yesterday. I wasn’t happy with it as it was too dark. So I got some canvas coloured paint and dry brushed over the dark colours… to be honest I think I am going to leave it as is…

When I say leave it as it is, I will put a ways on it to blend it in, but I actually like the effect.

I also found some cattle and a spearman that had somehow been missed when I sprayed the rest. I glued these onto bases ready for the next time I need to spray something.

It was a pleasant afternoon so we met with our friends for a socially distanced walk…

Well that is my leave over with, back to work tomorrow, I have decided that I would much rather be a gentleman of means and leisure!

I managed various bits and bobs this evening first off, my mammoth from last night had a failure on the supports under his trunk, rather than redo him, I just added some Greenstuff to make it more trunk like on the bottom…

I also decided that my 6mm Irregular Samurai had been sat in their semi finished state too so they got some more paint added to them and then finally for this evening I eventually got around to sticking my Lizardmen cavalry onto some bases.

I also tried the presupported miniatures today and they came out fine…

For some reason the calf lying down does not seem to have cured as well as the rest. I will shove him under a lamp or outside tomorrow if it is fine. I am printing another mammoth off overnight. We shall see what he looks like in the morning.

And finally, we are rearranging my daughters room. She wants her built in bed moving and lowering… o for safe keeping she put her pride and joy on the table for safe keeping… I am convinced it was moving!

Today I got nothing painted, I intended to get something done, but the holes in the bases were annoying me so I spent a good while looking for my magnets and or some Greenstuff. The magnets were found first.

I also got the printer to co-operate eventually and managed to print some wolves and some chickens along with a hunter that I evidently forgot about…

As you can see, I ran out of Green resin and moved onto the grey, which, to be honest, I much prefer.

When the Kickstarter arrived it was unsupported and I was doing it all myself, somehow I missed a message to say that everything is now pre supported. I must have dropped it into the archive by accident on the tablet. Printing these should be a bit easier now (that is if the printer co-operates). It should avoid a wolf with half a tail or a goat with half a chin.

I am printing another mammoth right now. It should be ready by tomorrow morning.

Weather has been torrential rain today so nothing got undercoated, there is more of the same due tomorrow with strong winds too. My conservatory still has a bloody leak too. I am now at my wits end trying to work out where the heck it is coming from. That’s the problem with water, it can come from just about anywhere!

Today my horse returned to the yard for the winter and all was going well until I was opening the ramp to let him out and the gas support went leaving me with a very heavy door heading floorwards at speed. Luckily I lost my grip on it, not before the thing yanked my wrist, elbow and shoulder and twisted me in the process… Therefore painting was a little uncomfortable this evening so I didn’t push things. I did manage to get the hunters finished as well as a random high class lady.

To be honest the lady could really do with being binned, due to me not printing at the correct resolution, but it will do 🥴.

I also managed to get the goats done. I decided to base them on some Flames of War bases that I had lying around (same with the cow). These were thin enough to appeal to my OCD as all the rest were far to thick.

Oh yeah, while I remember… I did a thing!

Evidently I seem to have a thing for goats at the minute!…min hindsight I could have just shrunk the ones I have…whoops.

Men of Bronze came and I have had a quick look at it, I will have a proper read to see if I will give it a go.