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!

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.

Ye gods I am knackered, buggered and other words to mean extremely tired. Last time I felt this tired was when my eldest had reflux as a baby and we didn’t sleep for 12 weeks. Thankfully my holidays start tomorrow… schools in Scotland are going back into lockdown for kids returning on 18th January. Staff are in so it’s going to be online learning for the time we get back.

Tonight I managed to get my Totoro printed for my daughter, problem is the feet fell off and liquid resin went everywhere… okay a total exaggeration there, some resin dribbled out. I then washed and cured it only to find that the dribble bits meant that the feet wouldn’t go back on. It took me about 20 minutes in my zonked state to realise what the problem was. Thankfully it is sorted. I will get a photo tomorrow. (In case you were wondering Totoro is a cuddly character from an animated film by Studio Ghibli). My daughter loves it so I printed one for a Christmas gift. I just have to paint it now.

I also got some wolves and puppies printed off, this will be for my next diorama. Somehow something weird happened on the howling wolf…

As you can see his back end is totally missing.i have printed two of these already and had absolutely no problems, so I haven’t a clue what is going on.

The other wolves will be in the front of a cave….

Now to be honest I think I am going to redo this lot again as the details are a bit soft. I will have a play around, not too much as I only have about 150ml of resin left. (Time to order some more methinks) right now I am printing off a few elves to see what they look like… hopefully I haven’t just reprinted the ones I started with! I am now having that creeping doubt that Iforgot to delete the file from the card!

I probably won’t get too much done tomorrow night as I will be running about wildly shouting Freedom, think Home Alone when he realises that he has made his family disappear!

Tonight I managed to get a smidge more done on my 15mm Japanese villagers…

I also got the last two French cavalry printed as well as another elf (well actually the dismounted version from yesterday)…

I am not sure what happened to the right hand horse, but it looks a bit weird.

Tomorrow I hope to have some dogs printed, the elf I printed today has lost half of his bow, but the cannibals seem ok.

Tonight I have managed to get the French cavalry finished, the last of them is curing in the light as I type this.

Now that these are done then I can print some of the things that I want to do, this is in no way a complaint as I said I would do them for my mate, but as the officer was on his own then I managed to squeeze in a mounted elf. I got the dismounted version done with the French cavalry too…

On the plate now are some of the cannibals for my Neolithic games.

Oooh the other thing is that this post is on my 500th day of posting in a row.