Making Chilli Jam (again) and some terrain builds

As it is now officially the run up to Christmas I made a batch of Sweet Chilli Jam over the weekend using the recipe I posted here  https://elenderilsblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/chilli-jam.html.  It has come out nicely and one pot has already been eaten!  

In other news Mrs E and I have had our annual flu jabs and the booster Covid jab this week.  I felt a bit under the weather the following day but nothing too extreme and no unexpected side effects such as a constant need to tell Amazon what I'm thinking of buying next!.  Sadly the expected wi-fi boost from the first two jabs never materialised either.  I blame the quality of conspiracy theorists we get now a days!

Its a new product to me but I like it so far

I have started on making some extra river sections using the gasket rubber I purchased a couple of months ago.  I'm glad to report that some of the smell has worn off that so my painting table no longer smells like a tyre fitting shop (I was actually starting to like it which is a bit worrying).  The stuff is really easy to work with.  It cuts using scissors, takes glue well and still flexes after the first coat of spray paint.  I used good old UHU clear glue along the edges and then sprinkled fine sand over it to show where the banks are.  I then primed it with a new spray paint I bought at Hobbycraft - Montana cans Gold NC acrylic in 'sand'.  It sprays well and seems to work at least as well as Humbrol rattle cans but is in a bigger can, although more expensive so it evens out.  It seems easier to obtain the shades I need than the Humbrol range which always seem to be out of stock.  Oddly they don't come with a snap on top though.  All the cans are this gold colour with the actual shade being shown on the domed bit below the nozzle.  

First stage completed now to paint in the wet stuff

I need to sit down and paint in the water and then give it a coat of high gloss varnish, dry brush the banks in a grass green and brown mix and add a few clumps of foliage to finish them, but like everything else post retirement I never seem to have enough time!  I really need to knuckle down and stop wasting time on important jobs around the house!  I also found a supply of high density foam in 5mm thick sheets which is perfect for making hills for 2mm gaming, so once those pesky important jobs are done I will be testing the spray paint on that prior to hill raising.

More on the 2mm ECW project

I am making progress on this, again!  My handwritten amendments on the last printed version are being added to the MS Word version and I have learned how dynamic cross links are meant to work in Word.  I say supposed to work as I haven't actually tried that out yet but will be doing so in the next few days once all the amendments are done.

The exciting part is that an initial version has gone out for playtesting with the Jolly Broom Man doing the initial honours.  So far he hasn't said he never wants to see them ever again which is a positive and he has been able to play a game just from the written rules, so what I have written must be partially intelligible!  JBM has asked a couple or ten questions to clarify some points which is, of course, the whole point of play testing.

The last technical issue I am wrestling with in the game mechanics is calculating the extent of dead ground behind hills when observers and observed are at different heights and distances to an intervening hill.  I hate trigonometry and consider that it has no place in a set of rules so I'm working out a fudge to give some kind of approximation to the real answer.  I could suggest the use of laser pointers, periscopes or mobile phone cameras but I suspect it would create arguments about the accurate placement of whatever tool is used.  I may go for the low tech solution of a piece of string as a testing device yet!

Other than that, unless JBM spots any mayor issues, the rules are about there which will allow me to reduce the deficit in the 2021 to do list.  On that topic I really need to start painting again before I forget which end of the paint brush to use!