Pulpy Shinies from Bad Squiddo

Bad Squiddo Games has just announce a couple of new releases sculpted by Paul Muller that scream out"Pulp!".  And I'm a sucker for Pulp...
 

These are available at the pre-order price of £7.50 for the pair (normal price £8.00).  They won't be shipped for a fortnight.

As some of you know, Bad Squiddo is very much a one-person shop.  As anyone who has tried to run a business on their own knows, such businesses are even more at the mercy of Real Life than others.  Earlier this year, Annie had to make an unexpected move from Cardiff to Nottingham, finding new premises and shifting stock etc.  This coincided with the planned dispatch of her latest Kickstarter, which was well and truly effed-up.  That led to a backlog of orders, a huge backlog of e-mail (many of them negative).  Given that Annie has moved away from her support network and the part-time staff she had, this all fell on her shoulders: her health has suffered. 

The other problem caused by these backlogs is one of cashflow - fatal to small businesses.  Despite that, Annie made the decision not to release anything from her new releases queue until she could promise dispatch withing a reasonable period.  Annie is a good sort.  If her stuff appeals to you, I urge you to put an order in and help her out.

Recent Reading (and Zombies)

I've went a bit vintage with my reading last week.

Spurred on by the repeat of the TV series featuring Rowan Atkinson as a rather slimline Inspector Maigret, I read My Friend Maigret, one of the Simenon books I've picked up recently.  The Maigret series is one I've always thought I'd want to read but never got around to.  I was surprised by how slight My Friend was*, but I enjoyed it.  And I wasn't at all put off by The Wife saying "I remember reading that at school in French"!

*Perhaps explained by the fact that Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and 28 short stories!

I was struck by the fact that although the book was written in 1949 it didn't mention the war, even  when discussing suspects' backgrounds.  These days any thriller set in the 1940s or '50s isn't considered complete if it doesn't have an ex-POW or a bevy of former SOE or Bletchley types.   In recent TV adaptations of Agatha Christie and the like, the plot is changed to shoe-horn them in.  A reflection of changing perspectives on the period, I suppose.

After that, I've gone even further in time to read M R James' Thirteen Ghost Stories in a rather nice German edition* from the '30s.  James** is another author that I've thought I should read and would probably enjoy; and I am finding that to be the case.  Certainly, some of the TV adaptations have scared the willies out of me in the past!

*Don't get me wrong - it's an English-language edition!
**A medievalist and the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story" - you can see the appeal!

And so on to Zombies...

For some reason I often find myself thinking of the Zombie Apocalypse when walking No 2 Dog.  This is possibly because I try to do it when the streets and paths are deserted* or because of the number of beat-up camper vans we pass**.  Perhaps it because Moley has the right attitude to survive the apocalypse - he'd have no problem decapitating a little old lady (or preferably a zombie labrador).

*No 1 Dog on the other hand prefers to walk during or just after the school run - all the better to find half-eaten slices of toast or chocolate crepes, which are his latest favorite.

** I have this half-intention to post some photos on the blog of vehicles for a British Post-Apocalyse (given the lack of US-style school buses outside Suffolk).

Moley ready to devour something or other

So I've acquired these

#30Days30 Miniatures: Days 5 and 6

Day 5 (Tuesday) was another washout as far as painting went - I just proved too busy doing RL things.

As part compensation, today I offer two figures.

This is the figure I meant to finish yesterday.  He's from Artizan Designs.

Sorry for the quality of this photo

This rather blurry lady (yes, she does have a face!), is one of Copplestone's Female Archaeologists.  Her compatriots will hopefully follow soon.

Day 6

Total minis painted: 7

Days challenge was met: 4

Terrain Tuesday #21

Would you believe that the last Terrain Tuesday was in Dec 2016?   Yes, you probably would.

That's why I don't begrudge spending time off the 30Minis challenge to get my terrain juices flowing [Urgh!].

Last week I popped into Poundland and bought one of their Topiary Balls...

It cost £1.00

It was the work of minutes to strip it to its component parts....

A Sphere of Doom at the ball's core

Said component parts were a reasonably sized pile...

After that it was a matter of getting the hot-glue gun and some spare bases in order to make some scatter terrain.

All in all, a decent result from half-an-hour's work on a day I couldn't face anything more involved.

#30Days30Miniatures: Day 4

Today was one of my bad days and I couldn't face painting.

This isn't a disaster - I get days like this and was prepared for them.   The thing to do is to concentrate on the things I can manage and not focus on the others.

I had already decided that I would have Tuesdays off from the challenge in order to concentrate on terrain.  This week I have merely moved that day forward.  There will be a Terrain Tuesday post tomorrow.

Day 4

Total minis painted: 5

Days challenge was met: 3

#30Days30Miniatures: Day 3

Today, I painted in the morning to take advantage of the summer light on my table.  Sadly, I started too late, and ended up chasing the sunshine, rather as our dogs do when lying on the carpet!

This is 10.30 in the morning

So, I have a completed figure to submit.

This is Lillie Poots from Statuesque Miniatures pulply Statuesque Asylum range.  Like all of their sculpts (and I'd especially recommend the range they've done in conjunction with Pulp Alley), she is a delightful mini and a pleasure to paint.

She's nicely ambiguous, I think.  Not one to eschew cliches, I initially painted her with a Midwich hairstyle, but it looked a little insipid (and I Don't Do Eyes!), nevertheless, she is a girl in a red coat. 

For some reason I put her on a curbside.  At the last minute I considered adding a cat (or a rat), but decided to leave her be.

Day 3

Total minis painted: 5

Days challenge was met: 3