The Painting Table - October 2022

I have managed to clear some space on the table this month! The 3mm 1980’s Soviet support vehicles are finally based and textured so that’s got them out of the way. I also finished a 28mm Foundry old west figure. This is a civilian who can flesh out town scenarios. He is checking a fob watch so could be waiting for a stagecoach or could be the town doctor wondering why his next patient is late. I also finished one base of ten 6mm cavalry. These are Irregular Miniatures’ Celts but I’m going to add them to my Dacian forces.

O8 3mm Soviet  SA-9 Gaskin armed BRDM 2

More 3mm - Soviet AT3-B Sagger armed BRDM 2

Dacian Light Cavalry

28mm Foundry civilian

On the Modelling end of the table, well actually a different table in a different room but you get my drift, I have completed the Sheriff’s office scratch build by adding the fencing. That build has been a longer job than anticipated and it’s MDF kits for me from here on in.

Rear of the block house scratch build

Next up for finishing are those long-suffering Hun horse archers that have been clamouring for some attention for the last few months.

Ukranian Guests - an update

Our Ukranian visitors are still with us, but it seems that they are planning to move on to Canada in the near future.  Or at least we have been asked to take Mum to London for an appointment at the Canadian High Commission.  I did a bit of research to make sure it wasn't going to be a wasted trip (as it's a long drive from Elenderil Towers) and it seems that appointments are only issued if an application to travel to Canada has been made.  So, it seems that it's being seriously considered.  Mum hadn't told us that she was making plans to move on and only last week was asking the local council about housing grants.  It actually makes a lot of sense as her adult son has either just moved there with his job or is about to move there.

This lack of sharing information has been a common theme for the time she has been with us.  We get told what she thinks we need to know.  From what I have read this is common as Ukrainians are very private people.  Still, it would be nice to have a bit more warning other than a Thursday evening chat on the lines of:

"I need you to take me to London on Monday"

"Really, why is that?"

" I must go to the embassy for a visa, I have an appointment at 12:45"

Being charitable I'm going to assume that she has no idea about how long it will take to drive from Humberside to Outer London and then travel onwards by tube to Charing Cross (I'm not going into Central London by car what with congestion charges and parking costs).  Things are not helped by the fact that we are never sure that she understands the processes and procedures for these things.  I would also need a second person to travel with me and Mrs E can't do so on Monday.  

Another interesting thing we have learned about Ukrainian culture is that they are loud and sound aggressive when having even a friendly conversation.  Even her nine-year-old son is like that, shouts of Nyet when he doesn't like what mum is saying at a volume that would have me reaching for earplugs if I was in the room with him!

There is also an interesting view on rules!  Apparently, we have far too many rules on things like medicines and medical appointments, driving rules, schools, road safety... the list goes on.  In Ukraine there is always a way around the rules we have been told (Which seems to be code for 'a way for me to get what I want straight away or not be stopped from doing what I want').  An example being that her son was recently prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection.  The British ones were not strong enough, so she was going to take those for her cough and buy a new supply from Ukraine for her son.  It came as a bit of shock to be told that unapproved medicines were unlikely to get through customs!

Talk about different strokes for different folks!

The Painting Table - September 2022

 It's been more of a modelling table for the last month rather than a painting table.  I finished the Old West General Store scratch build and then started onto the County Sheriff's office.  That isn't quite finished though.  I have everything glued together except the fencing around the exercise yard and an external stairway and I need to paint in the window on the front door.  My first attempt at the roof and parapet didn’t look right so I had to do it over.  The original roof was based on a sheet of card which didn’t sit flush to the top of the side walls.  I redid it using a foam sheet which I sat inside the parapet edges which looks much better and was actually easier to build.  Instead of having to plank the roof with individual lengths of bass wood I could scribe the foam sheet with a plank pattern.

View of the exercise yard end (Fencing not yet erected)

Front and roof area

Overview of the interior

The astute viewer will have spotted a couple of 'features', no stairs to the roof inside the building and no gates on the jail cells.  There are three hatches in the roof one for each cell and a ladder will be stored up there.  I'm going with an external wooden stair way to access the roof for reasons of playability.  The overview shows a front office accessed off the sidewalk, a rear office with a door to the cell area and a living area come bunkroom.  The corridor to the front of the cells would act as a drunk tank (this is a friendly jail only the real nasty types get chucked in a cell).

The jail also features ‘granny grating’ cell walls and window gratings.  I think that worked well.  I’m going to use the same material to make some snake rail fences for 2mm ACW games. Output during September and early October suffered as we had a weekend away and because of George’s declining health.  Hopefully next month will actually see some figures painted.

In other news, the figures on the painting table haven’t changed although they may have moved around a bit!  There are currently Hun light cavalry, Pictish cavalry, Late Roman infantry, Byzantine infantry (using Sassanid figures from Baccus) and an assortment of Dark Age command figures in 6mm and the Old West figures in 28mm awaiting my painting attention.  I also have Soviet light armoured vehicles in 3mm to finish basing.  It’s a good thing I don’t overstretch myself!

When events overtake you!

And they certainly have done that, with a vengeance.  There is no way to sugar coat the thing, George died on the 3rd of October.  We knew he was ill, and his arthritis had progressed despite all the best efforts of the vet.  Worse though was the tumour in his mouth.  That had grown to the point where he bit it every time he ate, and it was in danger of falling back and blocking his airway.  He was fine in himself wanting to go for walks and to come upstairs to sleep with us.  It was just that his joints were so sore that he struggled to do it.  I could watch him screw up the courage to climb or descend the stairs and walks required regular stops and sit downs.  I carried him up and down when it was too much for him.  Yet we never heard a whimper or a squeal from him.  We bought him a dog trailer that could be used as a dog pram so we could take him to the park and let him have a short walk there before wheeling him home again.  He only got to use it half a dozen times.

We took him to the vet thinking he would have some treatment options to offer, but when he examined him, he told us it was time to make the hard choice.  We were given the chance to take him home and return the next day, but we knew we wouldn't be able to handle that, and more importantly it would have upset George.  So, he was put to sleep that day after we had sat with him for a last time.  Mrs E and I were allowed to stay with him to the end which was mercifully fast.  We were both in bits and cried all the way home.  I collected his ashes this afternoon which had me in bits again.  Our other dog, Barney, seems to be coping better than we are although he keeps looking in all the places where George used to lie.  He even put two dog biscuits on the sleeping mat George used and has refused to eat the second one, almost like it is there for George.

He was the dog we didn't plan to have.  He was a rescue from Spain who came over to a family in Lancashire at same time Barney came to us.  The original adopters found he was too much for them to cope with and demanded that he be taken back off them with immediate effect.  The charity asked us to foster him while they found a kennels to board him in pending a new adopter.  Within a couple of hours of him turning up on our doorstep we knew we wanted to keep him.  Brittanys are a handful but if you stay firm (but kind) they respond really well to training.  At heart they want to please their humans and this was very true of George.  Indoors they are snuggle monsters while outdoors the hunting instinct takes over and they become rugged individualists!  All that said he was a pleasure to have around, a real dog's dog, the only dog I have ever known to actually bury bones and dig holes.  He made dens in the shrubs around the edge of the lawn and even stole cushions to take out to put in them.  Every evening a 6.50pm we would be barked at if we were not already getting collars and leads on for walkies.  He was a dog that liked things to happen on his timetable.

I never thought losing a pet could be so traumatic, made worse by the fact that he was only nine.  In normal circumstances he might have lived to be anything up to seventeen or eighteen, in fact we worried that he might outlive Mrs E and I or at least still be active when we no longer were!   He has left a very large cheeky Brittany shaped hole in our family, and it is all a bit raw at the moment.  

RIP George Dog - April 2013 - October 2022