Disappointed

 Went to see this pm today , in an effort to distract myself -

I love “ The Duellists” in fact it is one of my favourite films and also love “Gladiator “ but not this!

A lost opportunity imho. Beginning interesting but oh those battle scenes, over the top, trench warfare, multiple flags and more . Sooo disappointed.

Uptown funk

 Went uptown yesterday for a bit of shopping and bought this on a whim

Thought the figures might be fun to have a go at and there were good looking articles. An interesting one on A War Transformed. I seem to be buying glossies more than I did.

I am in a bit of a funk currently but trying to get out of it . To cut a long story short , last week one of my daughters had set off for work in the morning and passed some large bins. As she passed a man with a knife suddenly rose up from one of the bins in a threatening manner. My daughter ran as fast as she could, wasn’t followed and was ok. It shook her up badly and me too if  I am honest . Trying to move on from it but it is hard.

I’m not settling to any hobby projects at the moment. So yesterday assembled a few resin figures and will give them a wee paint-

Undercoated they look fantastic, will see what I can make of them…

Eighteenth century amphibious warfare, of a sort…

 A fascinating blog post this morning on the first German submarine-

http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2023/11/steinhude-pike.html

Led me to find this fascinating example of eighteenth century invention-

This crying out to be modelled and used on the Wargames table, even as a vignette. Others may see it as the change to raise a fascinating light infantry unit. 54mm, 28mm or even 10/6 mm it would look great…

Minceheim in 54mm

 Trying out Minceheim in 54mm today.

For the rules follow the link- https://brushandbattle.blogspot.com/2022/11/an-invitation-to-minceheim.html?sc=1669739473035#c5110901850199631417

Trying out ideas such as allowing the elves bonus when shooting and faster movement.

This was thee first time I had used the 2 sided product below. It worked well.

Weekend

 The weekend saw me at two local arts events , a comic one and an open studios one-

Firstly in Abbot’s House. The stair was done up as part of the refurbishment.

But the masterpiece awaited on the top floor. The ceiling murals by Alasdair Gray were everything l had hoped them to be. See here-http://www.sorchadallas.com/works/1830/images

The comic fayre was interesting and daughter number two supported the local artists by buying some of their wares.

I do hope to be back for a proper look at the ceiling one day…

The Open Studios were in a former fire station. https://firestationcreative.co.uk/creators/

We really enjoyed chatting to the artists and seeing their work. The building has preserved much of its Art Deco character which is a delight.

Saturday afternoon saw another meeting of the Virtual Wargames Club via Zoom. A delight of creativity, bad puns, prog rock references and dad jokes. Not to mention people talking about their latest projects offering encouragement and hobby advice. We happy few…

Always looking for new recruits, leave a comment if interested…

John Ruddle Collection and Auction

 Mark Mof T has an interesting post this morning.

Complete with link to the Auction catalogue.

https://manoftinblogtwo.wordpress.com/2023/11/25/the-john-ruddle-collection-of-britains-toy-soldiers-c-t-auction-6th-december-2023/

In Edinburgh

 Yesterday saw me in Edinburgh for a productive and enjoyable Christmas shopping day.

Got off at Haymarket and was moved as ever by the Hearts War Memorial-

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C._and_World_War_I

This building is new on the Edinburgh skyline, it is beginning to grow on me…

Was off to see this film today but real life has intervened. Will go soon.

My bag of swag , a good shop accomplished and an enjoyable dérive too.

Feta and Fennel scone in a new cafe ( to me) I discovered on my travels.

Two ornithological pictures- the cafe above and these charming pigeon sculptures below.