Terrain Tuesday #5

So, as I left things at the end of the last Terrain Tuesday, the Lost World trees and Giant Bees were put together.

This week I finally got around to the bases.  My basic method is to apply Vallajo Sandy Paste to a 2p piece, which then is painted craft shop burnt umber and dry brushed with desert brown before flocking.  A handy tip for getting that extra bit of texture is to drop a tray-full of them face down on the carpet before the paste dries.

The bees got a bit of heather for their trouble

I also did a matching movement tray for when I want to have a grove

Some of you may remember that back last September I bought a Wallace and Gromet rocketship in a charity shop.

Well, inspired by another work of genius from Colonel O'Truth, I broke out the British Racing Green.  A little homage to The Master...

I'm not sure if it's finished yet.  In fact, I'm a little tempted to look for a '4472' decal.

Terrain targets for the coming week:-

• Hot glue fun with aquarium plants
• Finish the river
• Dry-brush some resin rocks
• Look at the half-finished buildings in the Pottering Shed

Coming tomorrow: Dr Who Wednesday with news from planet Skaro.

Competition Time!

A bit of a cheek really because I actually want someone to do some free(ish) work for me.

I've recently started two new features on the blog - Terrain Tuesdays and Dr Who Wednesdays.  What these features lack are logos, such as that we know and love for Paint Table Saturdays.

What I'm asking is that you, dear reader, provide me with such logos.

If you want to enter, submit an image or images to me at diplomatist2<AT>gmail<DOT>com.  I will choose my favorites  on 14 Jul.

Prizes (as yet undetermined) will be given!

Don't fancy that?  Well, Jonathan is having a more traditional give-away on his blog.

A Little Heresy

Lady Butler 'The 28th Regt at Quatre Bras"

It's a poor admission to make this week, but I've never really been very interested in the military (as opposed to naval) aspects of the Napoleonic wars.

Lady Butler 'Scotland For Ever!'

Of course as someone interested in British military history (and also in ceremonial), I do have a basic knowledge of the wars.  But for some reason, my military interest starts in the late Victorian period.

Some of this is down to biography.

My relationship with 'history' is a bit of a paradox.  Despite everything that has happened since, I don't have any school qualifications in History.  Fed up of being asked to 'imagine life as a Tudor' I dropped it as a subject aged 14*.  As a result, most of my historical knowledge is self-taught and the result of passing interests.  

*I basically needed my History to be taught in a more old-fashioned way.

A well-worn Waterloo Medal

At about the same time as dropping History, I was devouring the works of C S Forrester and started an interest in British campaign medals.  Perhaps that is what shaped the scope of my military knowledge as the first 'proper' campaign medals weren't issued until the 1830s.  that doesn't really explain it though - the exception was the Waterloo Medal and medals were issued retrospectively for the Napoleonic Wars.  In addition, one of my first contacts in the medal collecting world was the late Tony Mullen - now recognised as the expert on the medals of the Napoleonic Wars.

Then in a twist my degree re-introduced my to formal study of history*.  In my final year I did a course on Church and State in the Modern World, which started with the French Revolution a Masters on C19th church history followed as did a professional archival qualification.

*It also introduced me to The Wife, an archeologist and medieval historian.

Why all this personal history?  I don't know (this blog is stream of consciousness if nothing else!)  I think I'm trying to explain why, despite everyone thinking I'm an historian, I don't consider myself one.  And therefor justify my ignorance!  Or to put it another way, why at one time I could speak at length about Napoleon's relationship with Pius VII or Wellington's views on Catholic Emancipation, I would struggle to name more than a handful of their battles.

This week's anniversaries of Napoleon's defeat provide all the excuse I might need to fill the holes in my knowledge.  That and having five crates of books on the Napoleonic Wars in my spare bedroom!

I shall report back...

Terrain Tuesday #4

As I mentioned in my last Terrain Tuesday post, I've got a new hot-glue gun.  On Wednesday, I sat down to give it a try.*  What a cracking piece of kit!  How had I managed without one so far?

*I'm not very good with technology or with glue.  The combination of the two was a little daunting.  I wanted to try it while The Wife was at Her Mother's in case I destroyed the house.

Within minutes I had a whole grove of my patented garlic trees.

I could paint them up as palm trees, but I quite liked their otherworldly look of them as-is when I had them on the table for my solo Dino Hunt playtest.  Exotic flora.

And for the fauna, a not quite swarm of giant bees.*

*Come on guys, they're giant bees, how many do you want?!

It was only after doing this, that I realised how apposite was the tile I was doing the hot-gluing on...

And now on to my Special Project...

The other week I spotted this book on t'internet* and immediately ordered one.

*There are useful reviews of it here and here.

After spending a couple of hours painstakingly sticking bones together, I left them on the table where they met with a whippet-related accident.  I am now banned from making things out of chicken bones,*

*In case the darling dogges choke on them.

I wasn't intending to do a model of a museum skellyton like in the book, but rather something terrain-y than explorers might come across - possibly even the fabled Dinosaurs' Graveyard.

Dr Who Wednesday #1

As mentioned yesterday, I've been meaning to start a regular posting on Dr Who.  This is to encourage me to tackle the portion of the Lead Mountain that consists of Who figures.*  I suppose I should put together a little Who Wednesday logo.

*From now on this will be the official home to my griping about BTD!

Regular readers may remember that back in January I picked up a bag of cheap plastic figures that had originally come with one of the Dr Who magazines.

There was nice variety, but the end I dicarded all but the Daleks, Weeping Angels, Ood and Silence.  The others either had poor detail or didn't scale

The Silence are big, but I can cope with that - they are quite towering in the show.

Soon after getting them I started to work on them.  Despite horror stories about the plastic, I had no trouble.  And then I ground to a halt.*  I now want to blow the dog hairs off them and get back to work.  Hence Dr Who Wednesdays.

*This was when I dropped out of the painting challenge.

Varying degrees of completion

They won't need much to finish them.  I'm not terribly happy with the Dalek paint scheme.*  I may redo them all in red.

*My attempt at staying true to the dreaded New Paradigm. 

Terrain Tuesday #3

A con of a post this one, but I think I need a marker to say I'm still here and to stop you all from  giving up and going home.

There is a terrain link here though, despite not having done any terrain work since my last Terrain Tuesday update.  This may become clear after some waffle.

The Wife has gone to Stay With Her Mother for a few days, so my weekly visit to Poundland was made not to to one in the 'City', but to the retail park next to the railway station.  That visit didn't yield anything blog-worthy, but it meant that I made my first visit to Hobby Craft, which was eye-opening (they charge more than a pound for a start!).  That resulted in me buying a cheap hot-glue gun.  Hopefully, next week's Terrain Tuesday will show the results!

There are other spin-offs from The Wife Being Away.  It means that I'll be watching some of the Dr Who episodes I've recorded (She only watches the Jon Pertwee episodes).  Hangover allowing* this might mean that I'll be posting one of the the long-expected 'Who Wednesdays' tomorrow.

*I did mention that She was away, didn't I?

Prince Harry KCVO

It's been quite a while since I updated any of my Royals in Medals posts, but I've just done so for Prince Harry.   He's been made KCVO just in time for the Birthday Parade.

Here's a photo of the #KCVO Insignia that The Queen presented to Prince Harry privately at #BuckinghamPalace today pic.twitter.com/u3jlMB5Kio

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) June 4, 2015

More Booty

The charity shops continue to provide an interesting mix of booty.  This week's blog related items include

A Javis landscape mat

Some bees

A dino-posse 

The bees are actually drawing pins, and I think could easily be converted for Lost World purposes.

"Calling Mr Harryhausen!"