The Birthday Weekend

For a variety of reasons I have not been anywhere near the blogosphere this weekend - chief of which is simply because I have been too tired. Friday was a particularly draining day; both mentally and physically and so the last couple of days, including my birthday on Saturday, have been spent relatively quietly.

However, there was still the small matter of my birthday on Saturday to celebrate and so the family duly rose to the occasion in its usual inimitable style. The birthday present haul was a very satisfying one with the gifts of interest to readers being a number of Blu-rays including the extended versions of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - over 12 hours of Middle Earth - and also the extended version of The Kingdom of Heaven, the crusader epic by Ridley Scott. As well as various consumables (one can never have too much chocolate in my opinion....) I have also received £75 in vouchers for Waterstones so the library will be receiving some TLC in due course.

As far as the 42mm 1930s/WW2 project goes I was able to make some significant progress although not quite as much as I would have liked. The figures for the first batch of painting have been washed, cleaned up and based in readiness for the first round of treatment. This will be some form of sealer prior to being undercoated. I have more or less settled on the uniform schemes I shall be using and the style of painting I shall be employing. The three forces I shall be creating (the third has yet to be started) will use green, brown and grey respectively as the base colour. The paint style will be 'old toy soldier' as it suits the detail of the models better than anything more detailed. the only debate I am still having is whether or not to do anything with the bases. I am not sure properly textured and flocked versions would be within keeping with the tone of the figures and so plain and unadorned bases will probably be the order of the day. I will wait and see when the figures have been completed before I make a final decision on this one though.

Similarly, I am undecided about vehicles and artillery but I will fall off that particular bridge when I get to it - after the first batch of figures are completed..