Currently painting- 54mm flat plastic Medieval Russians

l am very pleased with these 54mm flat figures of Medieval Russians. They are in hard plastic and hold acrylic paint well with only a detergent watery bath.

They were fun to paint and are charming. I really like the arrows embedded in the shields or at the feet of figures. There are quite a variety to be found on eBay. Are there any books or magazine articles on these splendid fellows and their plastic kin?

Mental health and the hobby.

A great post by Mark for World Mental Health Day-
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/celebrate-your-hobbys-contribution-to-world-mental-health-day-10-october-2019/comment-page-1/#comment-5079
Pop over and have a look you will find it fascinating and maybe useful too...

Venting

Went uptown today. Amongst other business l wanted to speak to the supermarket company where I have my phone account about potentially upgrading and about a technical issue I had. One of my daughters was  there also as l wanted to ask about her phone too. To cut a long story short I was patronised, treated like an utter idiot and left with negative self esteem by the phone employee.It reminded me of the Two Ronnies (?) sketch where the chap goes into the Hifi shop, if you remember it. I am only just coming down from being made livid by the experience.

Skirmish at Lantern Waste

Inspired by this game https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/close-little-wars-game-8-of-2016/ and waiting in for the gas boiler to be serviced today, I set up this Close Wars game. The Northern wildmen have invaded from the North and the Narnian forces are making a final stand on the Lantern Waste. Here are some pictures from the game( which was great fun) with the second one  showing what happened just before the Narnians were swept from the table...

Mythical Earth- the baddies

As promised here are the Mythical Earth bad guys. They are still a work in progress and victim to my indecisiveness regarding basing. What you see is various attempts at basing and my general lack of coming to a consensus on this. Plain green , individual,element based, textured etc they stand testament to the ongoing work. So here are the figures. By the way what do you think re basing ?

A tale of two museums

Typing this on the train northwards. Saturday saw me at a fascinating conference on the Late Stuart Army at the National Army Museum. Great papers by engaging speakers. It was well organised and well conducted. However l could not say the same of the museum itself. The thematic displays were confusing and strangely presented. I was underwhelmed to say the least.
Yesterday l went to the Imperial War Museum ( l had been to neither museum in thirty years or so) and the opposite applied. Engaging,chronological and coherent,excellent presentation. The Holocaust section was superb and the model of part of a camp overwhelming. The silence of the people visiting was moving.
A really helpful volunteer told me about a ww1 field gun on display and we talked about context via the Airfix gun , horses and crew of of our youth. The visuals in the ww1 area were incredible.
A tale of two very different museums and an opportunity lost in my opinion. I would be interested to read what you think.

Prancing Pony Podcast

En route to London l am really enjoying listening to this

The Prancing Pony Podcasts are super. They cover all aspects of Tolkien. The are informative,entertaining and great fun. Highly recommended. Do give them a listen.