Category: Thoughs and Plans

Restarts And Archives…

Right, back to work then!

I took some advice from you lot, and mulled over and combined your varied good ideas.  I then got lost again in the myriad of options that were newly opened to me.  Options I had not considered actually, so after a while, and once I had a wedge of time free, I started to get back to the grindstone and restart this blog thing.

I will keep this post short as I am writing it at midnight after spending 3 hours exporting and importing a whole 4 years of blog posts. Then deleting the older posts from the original site and finding that the media (images) were still there…  They were the files that were clogging up the old site and had to be deleted individually before I managed to free enough storage to get back on line.

Needless to say I now have two blog sites. This one and a shiny new Archive Site that can be accessed from the link on the top of my blog main page.  Please feel free to follow it so you have a link to the older posts but take note it will be bulk updated only once a year to keep this site from clogging up again.

Lets hope this gets me back to blogging semi regularly again…

An Investment, A Fresh New Start Or A Change Of Home? The Decisions That Have Stopped Me In My Tracks…

There comes a point in every life where hard decisions have to be taken.  I am at that point now…

This blog has been part of my hobby life for over 4 years now and I hadn’t realised quite how much it meant to me until I realised that it was time to decide on its future.  Some might have noticed that I haven’t posted anything new in the last few weeks.

There is a reason for this…

My free WordPress plan has reached its 3GB storage capacity and, to continue to post here as before, I would need to upgrade to a new plan. There is a personal plan available that would allow me to add another 2-3 years, at my current posting rate, to the blog. Or do I take a more drastic, but cheaper, option and delete older images and posts to free up space allowing me to continue as before.

Upgrading on the cheapest plan appears to offer another 3GB of storage but that means in 2-3 years I would again need to increase the size of the plan at a further cost. From what I can work out, the cost (with one of the regular WordPress deals) would be about £100 a year (plan+retention of domain fee+domain cost).  I am not sure that I can justify paying that each year for a simple hobby blog…

I also worry that I will not be able to bring myself to delete any of the older images, however poor or unread my earlier posts may have been, as they make up the first chapters in my blogging history.

A decision needs to be made if I want to keep the blog in its normal format.

…………

Or do I start again?  I can leave the current blog ‘as is’, as an archive that I can revisit and reference, and start a whole new blog.

Decisions need to be made…  I would welcome any thoughts or ideas you may have… I know that others have reached this point before me and I now call upon their wisdom.

Not Quite Back On Track After Renovations

I am almost hoping some of you have missed me.  It’s unlikely that many of you really have missed me, but an Englishman should always have hope.

Things around here have been more than a little unsettled, as we have had a batch of renovations in progress over the last 2 months.  Renovations that have gone on a little longer than we had expected or hoped…

No, we have not won the lottery, so please don’t expect a handout :-).  We have been working up to a few things for a year or two now, and just about have our ducks in a row so to speak.  In the end we took the plunge and decided to have it all done in one go. Mistakenly, we thought that it would reduce the stress of workmen being in the house for too long.  As it was, we just added to the stress, at least that’s how it seems to me.  Ho Hum…  Thats life I guess.  We survived and are almost back on track now.

I suspect there is no worse trauma than having a kitchen renovated.  The lack of a sink (or readily available running water) can be slightly disruptive to ones normal routine…

Not to say that the front room being full of kitchen cupboards did much to help either.  We had planned to run a simple temporary kitchen out of our conservatory.  In the end we could only access the kitchen by going out of the front door, around the side gate and back into the house by the rear.  All for a nice cup of tea!

Was it worth it you say?  In the end probably.  This lot should see us to our grave as we have no plans on moving house in the next 30 years. The wife is 10 years older than me so I guess I will at least have it to my self in the end, even if I have to share it for now :-).

I must say it is nice to be able to serve tea without too much fuss.

Sadly the washing up always seems to need doing…  Now I have a way to get back into the shed I might just get to paint something, if I can still remember how it’s done…

Steam Wars – A Game Planned And Some Barges Decked Out

When you come to read this I will have likely already had my first game using these Assault barges in Steam Wars.  I plan to try a full on airborne assault (well, almost fully airborne as I don’t have an airborne transport for any of my steam tanks as yet – Any ideas, on a postcard to the usual address).

When I started building these Barges I guessed that I would get six or so figures onboard if I also wanted a deck gun in place.  I can actually get two units of five marines, or ratings, onboard while still having room for a deck gun (I need to get hold of a few more crewmen that can be based on little 15-20mm round bases so as to not take up too much room.

The Oxford can take a much larger complement of marines.  Here she is, loaded with two units of six heavy boarders, as well as a large deck gun and a five man command squad.  Even will this lot onboard she could take another one or two units.

The second Barge matches the original with ten men and deck gun.

The main assault force totals 37 men (7 units of 5 or 6 men) and their three deck guns.

To support them, I have also allocated my two Gyrocopters to the force. One is tasked with eliminating armoured ground targets with its bombs, the other is tasked with providing close air support, as I know Coronasan will be bringing along plenty of fighter planes.

Finally the force is completed with the inclusion of an armoured scout car.  Fast moving, and tasked with  providing a level of mobile cover for the infantry when they make their initial assaults.  It also supplies, not only a light antitank gun, but also an additional AA capable machine gun to the force.

A fairly small force, due to the cost of my airborne carriers, I am hoping that their increased flexibility might make up for my lack of armoured vehicles.

We shall see how I fare…

A Not Very Merry Xmas But A Happy New Year

Its late afternoon on New Years Day and life seems to have finally settled back to an almost normal pace and stress level…  Now that I have said it out loud, as it were, I am likely to have tempted the fates, so watch this space for the next thing that hits the proverbial fan…

I was getting back to an almost semi regular posting schedule back at the start of December and foolishly thought that I might make it to the start of the new year with a list of completed bits and bobs. Albeit smaller projects and items…

Then my Daughter gave birth to my first grandchild. I can’t say for sure that I know exactly where the last 3 weeks have gone…  A healthy little girl popped out to meet us and sadly due to a complication just after her birth then spent her first 3 weeks of life (including her first Xmas) in various intensive care units and special care baby units. Until Sunday, when my Daughter finally managed to bring her home.

I cannot praise highly enough, the care and attention afforded to us all over the time she was under the care of the excellent midwives and nurses.

A real life little fighter (and she also comes pre-painted, so shouldn’t take up too much of my valuable hobby time…). Now, time to get back to the simpler things in life. Like trying to find where my plastic glue has gone from a locked shed after 3 weeks of being untouched.

It lives…

It happens every year! The summer lull in hobby activity seems to be a global thing.  The number of posts that start in September or October with the words…  I’m still alive, or…  sorry for the lack of posts, always makes me smile and realise I am not alone.

So…

Sorry but I am back and sadly I’m not dead yet… therefore prepare your self for even more rubbish being shouted from the insides of a garden shed (as long as the good lady lets me go out there every so often!)

I have to say that this year it seems to have been that much harder to get back into the routine of posting than usual…  Why? Well I am glad you asked…

D I bloody Y…  She who commands the back door keys wanted to get some spring cleaning and DIY done this year, so talked me into a late summer project involving a whole lot of white and magnolia paint.  The hallway, stairway (not to heaven) and landing changed over the course of a week from chocolate brown to good ol’ maggi (5 coats later it finally looks ok).

As a softener she did take us away for a week beforehand.  Budapest and Prague, two cities that I would be happy to return to but I think I walked up every bell tower in each town just so she who knows best could be photographed from the top (she’s down there in the square somewhere while I’m panting and collapsing at the top of 300 stairs…)

when my vision finally cleared I have to say both cities are perfect if you like your gothic architecture.

The photographer is an amateur but the sunsets are magnificent.

You get plenty of dirt after a few hundred years, they need a new window cleaner methinks…

Prague’s famous spires.

A clock that gathers 2000 spectators when it chimes (we arrived on the day it opened after 6 weeks of renovations).

Both cities have picturesque but very wet rivers.

Since getting back and finishing the DIY I have managed to get a few games in…  Plain old Bolt Action.

And a game of Konflict ’47 (Bolt Action with robots and lasers…)

Next up we might have agreed to play Steam Wars again!  Why?  Because the rules are now available HERE for free if you want to try it for yourselves…

Organising My Store Cupboard – A Riveting Tale

My OCD has been itching like anything while I have been sorting out my figure cases.  So much so, that I ordered some cheap pop rivets, D rings and key fobs off the internet.  These were acquired so that I could label the cases in a way that would not fall off all over the place like their existing stickers do.

Its slightly sad, but very satisfying, to know that both sides of the metal cases are now labelled securely.  This way, whichever way I put them back in the cupboard, there will always be a label to the front…

Nice And Tidy – Storage Solutions

As it remains hot and painting is not easy, and as I remain off work for a few more days, I have decided to keep myself busy (and sane) by trying to tidy the shed up a bit.  Hopefully that will make it more usable when I can finally get back in there.

I have also had too much time on my hands to think.  Never a good thing.  It has led to me becoming paranoid that the shed is probably not the safest place for the last 15 years of toil to be kept.  The issue of insurance and protecting a collection, like we probably all amass, has started to play on my mind.  Therefore I have decided to move the more valuable items back into the house for ‘safe keeping’.

My daughter has recently left home and the spare room has been cleared of excess junk.  This has now afforded me the space to put up a cabinet for all my miniature boxes to be stored more safely and, more importantly to the lady of the house, out of sight…

The unit is a cheap Ikea modular wardrobe frame that has been fitted out with simple shelves and a pair of doors. Total spend £115.  What makes it better, is that it came as a clip together kit.  I only needed a screwdriver for the door hinges…  Far less swearing than usual was heard during its construction…

Fragile, large or just plainly odd shaped items will be up top with cases of regular miniatures below.

So far that is all the boxes in from the shed. Neatly and safely now stored indoors.  Not sure how to break it to the good lady that there are another twenty boxes in other cupboards around the house that are likely to remain where they are…

Now, all that remains in the shed are twenty or so boxes of scenery…  Oh, and all the unpainted stuff…

Out of sight, out of (the good lady’s) mind.  What she doesn’t notice she doesn’t worry about.

The trade off.  I had to put up a set of coat hooks for her to use in the small dead space between units…  A small price to pay for piece of mind!

Avoiding Doing Anything – Workspace

With all the new Imperial Knights base coated I have no excuse but to start to paint the details on them. This should be a simple job, as none are due for a complex paint scheme.  That said, I still don’t feel up to sitting and painting, so I am avoiding it by making excuses and finding other things to do that allow me to avoid painting.  The latest excuse comes from a recent comment by Faust of Double Down Dice. Who got me thinking about how we each set out our workspaces.  I know what works for me, but I wonder if I am ‘the norm’ or if others have come up with other, better, ideas.

One corner of the shed is my official painting station. In regard to position, it is where the power enters the shed and next to a window, so it stands to reason that it would be the best place to work.  An old writing bureau is the base of my operation.  A nice flat workspace and lots of cubby holes of various sizes help to keep me organised.  Never tidy but always usable.

I may be alone in this, but I do not have a screen or computer near my workspace.  This is something I see on many other workplace photos and I know from Faust’s comment that his setup has one of these. I may be old fashioned but I can only look at one thing at a time so would get very distracted (and get even less done) if I put mine out there.  I do have a smart speaker in the shed and can often be heard chatting to Alexa while I work. She has introduced me to a wide range of music outside of my ageing CD collection…

A second bureau stands almost hidden to the rear of the shed and is supposed to be a display space as well as a potential second work point. Currently it is neither as I seem to have slightly more stuff in the shed than it can actually hold…