Tuesday 22 February 2022

Painting and building demon

 No club this week, I have been recruited to cook a 'birthday' dinner for my wife and her friends, I am no Cumbrian Chef like club member Julian but I can turn out a decent Polla alla Marsala with the best of them.

The 11th Dragoons and Languedoc Dragoons have now been added to my Seven Year War cavalry squadrons so that is all the cavalry finished, I managed them in record time which surprised me as I do not like painting horses. I did cheat with these guys and they are both 'black horse' squadrons. I am now moving on the last of the infantry battalions, I eventually got my full order after the Royal Mail lost the first one and the second contained only British, so well done North Star. 

The 11th

Languedoc

With the inclement weather this weekend and the Met Office running out of alphabet soup to name the storms, we got one of them every ten years when I was young. I decided to build up the kits I got as Christmas presents. They are all from Rubicon, the SdKfz 7 and little Dingo are very nice, the Dingo is resin and is so good you would think it was a plastic kit, the 8.8cm is again a beautiful kit but for me a bit complex. The Dingo is of course for the British in NW Europe while the other two will be for pre 1942 and finished in panzer grey this is my second Acht Acht and I want this one to be on the carriage as if having to open fire in a crises.



I have not waxed lyrical about entertainment for a while, the reason is quite simple, I have seen nothing which has inspired me for a long, time, I am at that point where you dig out your old box sets for something decent and pre-trigger warnings. I am painting to the superb 'In The Thick Of It' at the moment and contemplating watching Seinfeld, Frasier or Rising Damp for the umpteenth time. I did see several recommendations for Netflix's 'Midnight Mass', it was hailed as a first rate shocker and a terrifying watch, who nowadays really finds vampires scary (I'm not van Helsing but it's looking like the undead from here). I now play Woke Bingo with everything I watch and as the first episode ended I had only one box left on the card, twenty minutes in to the second episode, BINGO! We rented the supposedly brilliant 'Boiling Point' with the excellent Stephen Graham in it last night, Stephen now owes me £4.49. I can't say too much apart from I felt I was watching the old Play for Today. I will say that over the hour and a half the restaurant with 100 covers actually cooked one pan of duck fillets in the kitchen, the rest must have been brought in the back door by Just Eat. The first half was punctuated by shouts of "Nut allergy table 13" so guess what happens........ I have just finished watching 'The White Lotus' by recommendation, I am still unsure of whether I enjoyed it or not although it did provide several belly laughs, there is a warning of nudity, I closed my eyes twice!




I am getting through my pile of books with only two (Holland's Brothers in Arms and Helion's take on Bosworth) left now that I have started the last novel in The Expanse series. I have some Christmas money left on Amazon and feel the need for a decent book on the fall of France in 1940. Just yesterday I received the third volume in Helion's Italian Wars series dealing with the battle of Pavia, I am not a big fan of the artwork but it serves it's purpose and the information on banners, flags and heraldry at the rear is first class.

I should be back at the club next week where I promised I would take on Jimi's upgunned British army at Bolt Action, his poor Airborne suffered the last time we met so he will be out for revenge, my Intelligence has revealed the presence of a Churchill with a howitzer which should see a run out, what will I take to counter it, we will see.

17 comments:

  1. Good work on the painting front and an all-around good catch-up. "Woke Bingo"; I like the sound of that. I imagine the game must be much easier to score a win in the States. Heck, one commercial is capable of getting a win, here. We have watched a few things of late on Amazon including Reacher.

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    1. Woke Bingo is very much alive here Jonathan in fact I doubt you would find it difficult to play in any Western country, and kudos on the commercial side, that's an expansion I think. We are almost done watching Reacher, amazed that he travels without even a toothbrush and how lucky is he that he finds clothes that fit perfect, even if only a T-shirt.

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  2. Nice toys and lovely kits George! I’ve basically given up with telly apart from ploughing through lots of fab Stargate SG-1. Audible is my new friend 😎
    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Thank's Matt, I keep promising to find good podcasts but YouTube keeps me going for now.

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  3. Productive times there George! Fine additions to the collections!

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    1. Thanks David, the painting will have to wait but not too long.

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  4. George great looking additions to the collections, I’m a fairly new visitor to your blog not sure where I picked it up from possibly David, or Phil or Jonathan. Anyway having seen your reference to Cumbria and scanned through some back posts I realise you are actually not so far away. May I ask which is the club you attend. I live in Penrith soon to retire (August lucky me) and keen to expand my historical gaming opponents within a reasonable distance, Whilst Penrith is lovely it isn’t the epicentre of wargaming in the UK. If you are interested in what I game I have a blog wargamesinthedungeon if you follow Jonathan F you will have seen my AWI collection in action quite a bit. Anyway enough rambling, would be good to catch up sometime if nothing else to talk wargaming. If you don’t fancy the blog then you can email me at thecrumps007 at btinternet dot com. Matt πŸ™‚

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    1. I live in Warton 48 minutes from you according to Google. The club is in Lancaster and meets on a Tuesday night, I retire end of September. I’ll drop you a line tomorrow, got visitors tonight.

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    2. Thanks George no rush, Lancaster may be a little too far for club evenings but 48 mins given the ease of the M6 may provide some opportunities. I’ll await your message πŸ™‚

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  5. Grand additions to the SYW collection. Can you send that 88 this way I get an awful lot of crisesπŸ™‚

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  6. An hour of my life lost on Episode 1 of "The White Lotus". Thanks a bunch!

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    1. The jury was and is still out on that one Jeremy. No refunds given.

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  7. Nice work on the dragoons, and those Rubicon kits look lovely. May I be cheeky, and ask what it is about painting horses you dislike? I've heard this from others, and I wonder if there's a consistant factor, or if it varies from one person to another.

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    1. Your question made me think. In my case I look on the horses as simply an add on to the figures and not the most important one, something to be done quickly and then move on to the main event. Now I have seen some beautiful horses on tables but I simply do not have the patience. I now prime with black then choose the top colour, some kind of brown usually, and drybrush the whole thing until I am happy, I then add black to tail, main and lower legs, then white on the forehead and legs where appropriate, this is quick and from wargaming range, adequate.

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