Barn raising completed.

Well Livery Stables actually but let’s not split hairs. I’m calling this build finished.  Internally I added stalls to give cover and outside I have added some scatter terrain in the shape of straw bales (well a horse gotta eat).

The roof tiles before painting

The roof was covered with home-made shingles (timber tiles if you haven’t come across the term before).  These were cut from cardboard as short strips with some irregularities in the tile lengths to create a nice visual effect.  I used a grey card and then painted it yellow ochre using Windsor and Newton galleria artist's acrylic paint.  Over that I painted a thinned Burnt Umber which I immediately rubbed off with tissue paper.  This darkens the yellow ochre and creates areas where lighter paint shows through, creating a worn creosote effect.  The topmost roof I did more to, but I decided that less is more and didn’t replicate the effect lower down.

And after

I then started on some scatter terrain items.  First up are straw bales.  These are simply blocks of balsa painted yellow ochre with finely chopped sisal string glued all around.  I also intend added sisal ‘straw’ into the stalls inside the stabling.  The stalls themselves are bass wood with matchstick bracing.

A few straw bales around the place add character (and cover)

With the roof off you can see the stalls I added

I have started some extra scatter terrain using DAS airdrying clay.  These will be a pile of loose straw and some bags of grain.  I'm just waiting for the clay to dry and harden at the moment to see if these have come out OK.  I am going to need more 'straw though, so you will have to excuse me as I need to nip off and start trimming sisal string into 28mm straw stems!  

Remembrance Day - I'm remembering a man I never met

It needs a bit of TLC after a century on display

 As far as I know my grandparent's generation came away from the Great War having suffered less personal loss than many of their contemporaries.  In that generation I only know of one combat death; the man who would have been my Great Uncle had he lived, or perhaps is still my Great Uncle despite my never getting to meet him.

That man was Rifleman Tom Hartley service number 26979 of the 1/6th King's (Liverpool) Regiment killed on 30th November 1917 aged just 20.  He has no known grave but is commemorated on panel 4 of the Cambrai Memorial at Louverval.   I have seen only one photograph of him, and he looked shockingly young almost a child in a military uniform.  I do have the bronze plaque issued to his parents after the war which hung on my grandmother's wall until her death when it passed to my mother and then to me.  Not much to remember a life he never got to live.

De Lancy is expanding

The town has added a livery stable courtesy of Warbases’ Cactus Creek buildings range. I also thought an improvement to town sanitation was required so ordered an outhouse as well.

The Livery Stable kit comes as three large MDF sheets and one smaller one, but without any assembly instructions.  The kit includes are some quite thin parts such as window frames and roof supports, so it’s important to use a craft knife to help break these fragile parts from the MDF sheet.  Assembly was fairly straight forward even without an instruction sheet but it’s worth dry fitting all the parts before reaching for the wood glue.  

I started by glueing all of the window frames to the walls as it would have been near impossible later.  I then built the main four walls of the stable (hint make sure to get the hay loft floor in place at the same time) before fitting that assembly to the base.  I then built the roof of the hay lost which was the hardest part of the build as getting the roof panels flush with the supports took a bit of brute force!  This simply sits on top of the hayloft.  I then added the two lower roof panels simply clicking these into place so I can access the interior more easily.  The supports for the roof panels to the outside areas were then placed and the panels clicked in place which essentially completed the build.

To fully complete it I want to cut a hatch in the floor of the hayloft and add stalls on the ground level.  I will also need to create some fencing for a corral and a couple of water troughs.

Now we have somewhere to stable the horses

It’s a lovely MDF kit for the price point.  Not as detailed internally as a Sarissa Precision building but more than good enough for what I need and as I said I can add those details later.  The roof panels don’t have any detail etched into them which I suspect is deliberate to allow a printed paper roof texture of your choice to be used which is my next job.  All in all, £20 well spent.

The outhouse was a much simpler build consisting of four walls, two roof panels and a square former to keep the walls square.  There is also a large circular base that I probably won’t use.  The only slightly tricky bit is getting the two roof panels placed correctly as one has to slightly overlap the other at the apex.  Given that every old west building would have an outhouse (or more for hotels and saloons) I can see that I’m going to making a fair few of these.  For variation I will probably use a couple of other outside buildings from other Warbases ranges.  There is an Eastern European outside toilet and a couple of small sheds that will work.

I’m led to believe that the Cactus Creek range is intended to provide a lower cost option than the competitions offerings.  They meet that objective by offering less details in the model.  To be honest given the number of buildings even a small Old West township will need I can live with that as the trade off on cost.  I’m going to be using some buildings from other ranges alongside these ones, after all we wouldn’t want to start a range war…or would we?

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