So in the sort of Words of the Proclaimers
“I will walk 500 steps and I will walk 500 more just to be the man who falls down at your door.
I managed just under one thousand steps today. Most of it has been spent feeling crap in bed.
I reckon I will still be here tomorrow if my wife is anything to go by. In fact the whole family is under the weather.
I couldn’t even be bothered to watch YouTube. Well I started watching It and kind of woke up to various Christmas crafting videos.
So today is my bone density scan day. Arrived early for the appointment… I would like to say that the waiting area is crap. Good job I am not getting a body temperature scan… every time I move, this happens….
The seats are uncomfortable so I keep shuffling. There is no heating in this bit and the outdoor temperature is really chilly.
They have a mobile scanner up and this doorway is the closest to the truck. I shouldn’t really complain as it is free.
Sadly I managed to agitate my poly myalgia today. Basically the track needed re levelling. Basically it was time for its biannual digger visit. Even though I was sat in said digger I still managed to set everything aching. I therefore managed no painting this evening.
This evening I realised that I couldn’t get any more files onto my first external hard drive as it was full. This prompted me to have a bit of a sort out. Seemed I had multiple identical files on the drive. This actually took a lot longer than I thought it would.
I have noticed something of late to do with my Mini Factory. I follow a few designers, by a few I mean twenty odd. A while ago I got a free month of a designer’s Tribe (basically Patreon on MMF), this has happened a few more times. Actually for the last two I didn’t bother as they didn’t interest me. This week one of the ones I follow was offering 50% off. I got the same from another one last week too. It may be a coincidence, but I will now keep an eye on it
Finally… I still haven’t printed anything. Still painting the stuff I already have.
I carried on trying to get the bloody battens up. The wall beat the drill bit and basically finished it off, but luckily for me I had some wall plugs and screws that meant the last one went up.
This evening I pretty much spent downloading my miniatures from my tribes and Patreon. Not going to print any, but I will have them ready to go when I want them.
Well I went to add the last three supports for the cladding and it all went pear shaped. First one went on fine, second one wouldn’t due to a. Finding only mortar between the stones and b. It was being a b*stard. I think one of the thunderbolts was bent. I eventually won, but it finished me off for the day. Hopefully the last one will go on without a fight, but I have my doubts.
The joys of a stone house built in at least the 1700’s. To be fair it has probably been rebuilt and altered a lot since then… never mind probably I know it has as my front door used to be the way into the Byrne.
One day I will discuss this further 🙂
Well as you know, I said that I had written to The Army Painter for the Geek club and that they were total dudes as they had sent the kids some Speedpaints 2.0. The kids wrote thank you letters and Peder sent us a message back . He also said he would pop us some more paint.
The kids were actually doing a happy dance when we opened the package with this lot in…
So as far as the Geek Club and I are concerned the team at Army Painter have ascended from total dudes to absolute awesome dudes of awesomeness.
So once again I want to just share their awesomeness. We aren’t YouTube influencers. We are a little school club. To these few kids they have made a huge impact.
This morning I was off to my Union Branch meeting. Well I thought I had better show willing as I have changed unions. I came home replaces a few more bits of floorboards and sliced some shields for the Knights.
After lunch my good lady and I hurtled off to the South end of the island to visit Jarlshof. This is a Historic Environment Scotland site. It shows that a settlement has been there since the Neolithic…some 4000 years.
The name Jarlshof was basically made up by Sir Walter Scott. He had visited Shetland around about 1814. His book ‘The Pirate’ has a location, which was basically the ruined 16th Century Manor house, which he named… you guessed it Jarlshof…the house of the Jarl.
In reality in 1814 the only bits to be seen was the ruin. In the late 1800’s a massive storm rolled in and eroded the sea front and voilà…dwellings appeared from under the sand.
On ‘Out and About in Shetland’ I am uploading a number of videos… they are taking FOR EVERRRR!
So as you know a while a go I wrote a post about the kids in the Geek Club writing to companies that I have spent a lot of money in and they basically ignored the kids.
Anyway before the summer I wrote to The Army Painter on behalf of the kids. I got a nice email back saying I should apply for a sponsorship (I cannot remember the full name). It said give as many details as I could, which I did. Basically five kids in my little school club. It said on the form that they have loads of such requests and to be honest I really thought we were maybe a bit small.
After the summer break I got an email from Peder saying they were going to send us some paints and some brushes. They duly arrived and the kids loved them. Obviously as a teacher you never miss an opportunity to get kids writing. Today we got a lovely email from Peder thanking us for the lovely letters and addressed all of the kids by name. He even said he was sending us some more paint. So according to me and the Geek Club, Peder is a totally Top bloke and The Army Painter are a totally Top Company.
I just wanted to share a positive story…
I am really happy with the Speedpaints 2.0 and after getting the set for my birthday I am probably going to try the metallics and some other colours have caught my eye.
Here is my Speedpaint knight from a couple of weeks ago.
So as you may or may not know, I have horses and used to do reenactment riding… here I am….
So as you might understand I sort of know one end of a horse from the other. So I was a bit perturbed when I got sent this picture of one of GW’s mounted blokeys from the Cities of Sigmar range. The lad who sent it was all excited about it… my first thought was WTF is that. Now I know it is fantasy, and I know it technically may not be a horse but seriously that head!
I actually wondered if it was an optical illusion, but if it is it affects all of the range and also from different angles…It also has super long legs. Disclaimer here… the rest of the miniature is really nice… I just don’t get what went so wrong with the Shetland Pony head on the Shire horse body… GW horses, although stylized were pretty good from what I remember. Second Disclaimer… if I tried this it wouldn’t look like a horse, but I am not trying to sell things.
This evening I printed off a horse and rider from Highland Miniatures…
This is one of the Knights I painted earlier on…
And a couple more
Appropriately sized heads.
So was I ever going to buy into Cities of Sigmar… nope… this is not GW bashing … well okay it technically is, but the foot soldiers and even the dogs are really nice, it is actually just the mounts that I have an issue with.
I really want somebody to come on and say woah Steve, they ain’t horses they are the lesser headed Quaga as bred by Sigmar himself. If they do I will happily apologise.
I recognise the skill in what someone produced, I really just wish they had looked at a photograph of a horse in Gothic Plate.
Bogenwald 