This is my residence for this evening ….
A spur of the moment decision to go camping. No room to bring anything faintly hobbyesque. Luckily my IPad has loads of reading material…
Tonight I am having a gander at the up and coming Aliens RPG that I pre ordered…
I am cold an uncomfortable already …wish me luck….
I managed a bit of painting tonight (shock, horror). This was after going to a concert a couple of my kids were in (more on that later).
The bulk of these are standard infantry. They were painted in the Leviadon blue Contrast paint. It is sort of working over the grey primer. They will have the dark grey armour and helmet like the previous ones. The one in green is a Pathfinder sniper. His uniform is camouflaged and his armour etc is a dark green. Their faces are white as I am going down the paint with a wash for the skin tones. Still a very long way to go but at least I am painting again.
As for the concert. It was the end of a week long (we have broken up for the summer) creative project including dance and painting etc. It was all to do with the red necked phalarope.
Which looks like this:
We have a small breeding population on the island of Fetlar (which I knew) and they migrated South (which again I knew) however what I did not know until this project is that they don’t head south to the Med or Africa in fact they head pretty much West then South then west some more until they reach the Pacific Ocean off Peru.
You can read about it a bit more here: https://www.bou.org.uk/red-necked-phalarope-pacific-ocean/
Tomorrow I will endeavour to get some more paint slapped on the miniatures.
And I am back….I would like to say new and improved…but sadly not.
My time as acting deputy head has ended – the six weeks flew by, I came out the other end knackered but a whole lot more confident… so confident in fact that I managed to get a headship in one of the west side schools. The interview was about an hour and a half long, but according to my initial feedback, I wowed the panel and it was a unanimous decision. I then had to do another two and a half days before the end of term. We made it… it was pretty close to a crash landing but that’s a whole other story.
So where do the migraines come in… on Monday I suddenly started having a weird blind spot in my left eye, it was as if someone had placed a sparkly c over my eye. I lost peripheral vision completely. Evidently it was an occular migraine (never even heard of one before) no pain, no yucky feeling, just a weird loss of vision. They last a while then go away, and it did indeed last a while and then after a couple of hours it went away.
As for the drains… hold your noses (luckily I have no sense of smell 😁). I decided to do my regular septic tank header check and it was in fact backed up… luckily a 30m long piece of 40mm plastic water pipe is ideal for shoving into the ‘water’ and with a bit of vigorous hoiking about it generally gets the message and drains into the tank as it should.
And trains…. I have somehow made it to 53 and with my birthday money I purchased Ticket to ride. 3 hours later I emerged victorious….
The kids very kindly got me a couple of pots of Contrast paint for part of my presents from them.
I decided to give it a go on some of my proxy MI. As it was going on (I shoved it over a grey undercoat) I was honestly not that impressed, but when it dried I could see what it was meant to do.
I then decided to have a go over a white undercoat, the only thing I had was an alien plant….
This is the same blue as the infantry, I gave the top a shot with some of the red. The blue works better, I think because there is more detail to sink into. I will carry on messing about with it before I decide whether or not I like it.
Before even opening the pot I printed off a paint holder….
I didn’t want to spill their presents all over the table.
Finally (you will be pleased to know) I managed to finish painting something…
I will try and catch up with whatever everyone else has been up to over the next little while.
‘Twas a long day today, but I did manage to get some painting done.
I redid the feet, tail spike and mandibles in white then added a flesh wash to the feet and tail and red to the mandibles… I am calling these done.
Yes I could spend a few more hours highlighting etc, but to be honest these will do. Once they are varnished they will do the job on the table.
As a total aside, my Facebook feed popped up with a post from ages ago, this is the forerunner of the Algy Lacy comics using our Pulp RPG and Lego miniatures.
Tomorrow I will make a start on more Proxy mobile Infantry…I think!
Well I decided to make a start on the Firefries.
This is them after their initial green wash, I wasn’t sure before I started, but to be honest, I like the way they are looking. Various spot colours to add, but to keep them muted I might actually redcoat parts in white and then use the washes to add the extra colours.
These were undercoated white and painted with Army Painter green wash.
When I have painted with washes in the past I have used a darker colour for an undercoat and then give them a light coloured dry brush, then paint with the washes.
This time I wanted a quick effect hence the wash straight over the white.
I will try and crack on with these tomorrow night.
Tonight I decided to paint… to be honest I reverted to my childhood and used my fingers… or finger to be more exact.
I have the security and marine contingent completed now (apart from the bases). These will go with the two pilots to give me a full crew.
I was reading my set of four graphic novels/comics and noted that the unarmoured minis above could also act as police officers.
I dirtied up the ship a bit as the only place it could ever possibly be clean is in space…. but once it hits dirt then it will get grimy fast. I started with a brush and it looked like I had painted it on with a brush so out came the finger 🖕(I used that one as I could hold a paintbrush too).
To be honest I don’t know whether I overdid it or didn’t do enough… but you know what, its where it is and I am not going to repaint it as it has taken me long enough to get the brushes out. It still needs a mat varnish cover to hide the shine in the transfers – speaking if transfers I have a packet full of the things from when GW sold them for their 5th edition Brettonians… I could only find one and it was blue and yellow. I actually wanted black and white 😱.
On the painting front, I followed the advice of Tangibleday and got a nice painting light.
It is an Ottlite. It has a white light and us handy for taking with me wherever I am painting. Not the cheapest thing in the world. But works well and is small enough to carry about.
Next up will be the Firefries, I think, as I want something a bit quick to get me motivated again. Just under two weeks left of this job, but I have an interview for another school on 3rd July.
Finally… we got a second hand fridge on Friday as the one we had was too small for 5 of us. So we got it home to find the dimensions weren’t exact… to cut a long story short, after removing all of the cladding in the passageway and chipping stones from the wall it still didn’t fit! Luckily we managed to get it into the porch. The joys of living in a 200 year old Croft house!
Hello lovely people, long time no see… the job front hasn’t settled down any put in a couple of 11 hour days lately, but tonight I rebelled and left at 17.00. We’ll okay to be honest the only person keeping me there is myself. I am doing things in work rather than bringing things home. My main bugbear is finding supply cover, they are elusive beasts the supply teacher, especially in a secondary department on a small island… (which I found out today has 11000 occupied dwellings) 7 Secondary schools chasing one maths teacher. I have been coming home and basically flopping for the evening, but tonight I decided I would get some painting done.
I started on the rescue vessel, got some paint onto that.
I would like some transfers, so might have to have a shot at the transfer paper and see what I can come up with. I decided to make it bright as it is a rescue boat, one day I might actually get round to finishing the designs for the combat ship.
One another front, my 3D printer hasn’t been on since I started this job. I have got so much to print (the last things were the worm/leech things)
I also got some more bits done on the troopers….
Finally In my slob state in the evenings I have been playing Ark on the console and it suddenly dawned on me I had a nice reference for skin tone….
I can never work out where to place the highlights, but I think the above might help…. not that I will be painting any topless blokes anytime soon.
I am going to try to get back into painting at least 30 minutes a day and getting something on my blog more regularly too.
The bugs I built are now sprayed white as I want them to be bright… question is do I do down the speed paint by using a wash (or layers of washes) or do I go for a proper paint job, or yet again try some of that new GW paint… only time will tell.
Till next time (which hopefully won’t be too long).
Just before midnight on an overcast night and this is how dark it is…
The IPad doesn’t do it justice to just how light it still is. We still haven’t hit the longest day yet and it is still possible to read a printed page outdoors in the natural light. Up here they call it the ‘simmer dim’ or to anglicise it.. the ‘summer dim’.
I haven’t been on my blog much which is a bit annoying, the new job is great but I am putting in 10 hours a day at least and tonight I managed to get away at 18.45 after an 08.00 start. So much for teachers starting at 9 and finishing at 3.
I have managed a teeny amount of hobby time, I got a bit more done on my Fleet Rescue Troopers and also managed to put the metal bugs together.
They did not want to be glued, so in the end it was down to the Superglue and bicarbonate…
I am going to try to get them sprayed tomorrow. I was considering painting them mainly in inks, but I shall have a ponder and see what I come up with.
Hopefully I will get caught up with the backlog of followed blogs and get to see what people have been up to.
It is that time of year when I take a bit of time to contemplate on an awesome period of time I spent with some truly remarkable ladies and gentlemen. These Ladies and gentlemen were members of the Normandy Veteran’s Association.
I was doing my undergraduate dissertation and decided it would be on oral testimonies. So having an interest in WW2 and a local branch of the NVA I decided to put the two together.
I spent a couple of afternoon sessions with them which I will always remember with a great fondness as they took a kid into their midst and told me their tales, some had us roaring and laughing and others had us all in tears, the memory of the latter has me snivelling a bit as I type this.
Let us take a gentleman called Geordie to his friends, a nickname no doubt from his location of Newcastle (my neck of the woods as a youth).
His tale unfolded like this.
” I had to land on a beach called Mike Green, so I looked over the side as I came in and saw smoke everywhere, This navy guy shouts good luck lads and drops the ramp. Some bugger started shooting at us so I lowped (leapt) over the side hit the water and waded ashore. I legged it up the beach and hoyed myself down and started shooting at Germans. All of a sudden this medic appears and shouts ‘Howay son you goin’ home!’ ‘Bugger off said I, I am shootin German’s!’ He then said that with bullets whistling around his ears knelt up to prove the point. The medic pushed him back down and said look at your leg you daft bugger. He looked down and could see his thigh bone. As he had gone over the side he had caught himself a whallop on a metal tank trap. As he said himself, after seeing his leg he felt a little queer and agreed that off the beach was a good idea. At this point another veteran pipes up.. have you got a hole in your leg? Well Bugger me – so do I. At which point both gentlemen dropped their trousers and compared their war wounds. The second gentleman was “shot at by some bugger with a 37mm AT gun” that missed him, ricocheted off a cobblestone and came straight up his leg. These two had known each other for years and had never shared the information.
Another one promised his mother that he wouldn’t get shot so spent his first night in France asleep in a metal dustbin.
One mentioned a cock up of them almost landing on Omaha, but an admiralty barge came out full of wounded and ordered them to bugger off, turn about and head to their own bloody beach. He said he looked over the side and saw all this muck and shite flying into the air and thought ‘oh my god, what is going to happen here!’
Another gentleman landed with the paratroopers at Ranville. They met up at Pegasus bridge and was there to watch Lovett’s commando’s marching along the river, piper out front and all in their soft hats. The German’s started shooting at them and they tried to give cover fire. At 14.30 the first tanks reached them. They had been ordered to take and hold the crossroads a couple of miles beyond the town. His CO requested they stay as Jerry were preparing for a counterattack. The tanks refused and pushed on. He said there were three loud bangs in the distance and three columns of smoke. As he said himself ‘ A German Anti tank gun got them, knocked the three out and we couldn’t do a bloody thing to help them at all. Hopeless!’ Same gentleman explained that they were all in Stirling Bombers to jump out of as a way to confuse the enemy.
Another was somewhat miffed that his unit had been attached to the Canadians and had fought alongside them for the duration of the campaign and that The Canadian’s got all the credit.
The one thing that stuck in my mind was that there was no animosity towards the enemy even to people who had lost close friends. As one veteran of the 49th Division said of the Germans. ‘They were good…. bloody good fighters and we had a lot of respect for them as soldiers.’
A well known photo next…
Evidently the guy on the left of the photo facing the camera is a Shetlander… how bizarre is that.
Finally a photo of a photocopy of a photo…one of my relations in France.
The new job has been somewhat hectic and tiring for that matter. It has been all go, week two of six has commenced. This being a bit zonked has caused a bit of a lull in the hobbying.
However I have managed a smidge of painting, the troopers now have faces and visors as well as armour.
I also managed to get some more bugs. You will only find these in the animated series of the Roughnecks and definitely not in the film or book for that matter.
These were another find on eBay. Still sealed, but based on the lack of colour that they have been sat in the sunlight for a good while. It was rather a nice rainbow tonight, the stream is the one where the otter visits. It normally scent marks under the bridge.
I need to get the trail cameras set up again and see what they can capture.
Bogenwald 