Saturday, January 13, 2018

An even longer absence from the blog, what have I been up to the past year

Hello.

It's almost as though I need to introduce my blog once again, my last post having been published in December, 2016!  It is now January, 2018!!

I've been dealing with things, I had lost a beloved family pet the day after Christmas, 2016, then had made a trade with an online friend, traded some 1/600 ship model kits for some 1/72 armor, and had made a foray into World War 2 modelling.  Having finished the traded armor, a Su-100, two Sherman Fireflies, a Panzer Mark IV with short barrel, a Panzer Mark III, a Cromwell, and a Jagdpanther, I went on to buy and paint more World War 2 models, and built the Airfix German Recce set, a KV-1, two 7TP tankettes, five StuG IIIs in 15mm. I had started on five Panthers in the same scale, but lost interest in World War 2 modelling, having burnt out.

Besides modelling, I sometimes enjoy video games. Thanks to some youtube videos by BigMooney, I became interested in, and then fascinated with the game "Hitman".  It's a game where a mysterious, well dressed, bald assassin with a barcode tattooed on the back of his head, named 47, goes to various locales to assassinate various targets.

One of the locales is a fashion show in Paris, at the Palais de Walewska, the palace of The Emperor's mistress Maria Walewska, a Polish noblewoman, portrayed by Greta Garbo in a film about The Emperor and his affair with her.  Two targets needed assassinating.

Since the palace is that of The Emperor's girl on the side, there are a lot of paintings and statues of His Imperial Highness all about the palace, and in one of the rooms, a diorama of a Napoleonic battle, in a glass case, where if Agent 47 puts a coin in the slot, the diorama lights up, the 1812 Overture plays, sparks fly out of the muzzles of model cannons, crewed by British highland soldiers, wafing French tricolor flags. That last part didn't matter though. 

I was bitten by the Napoleonic bug. Not the first time though. So Sometime in October-November 2017, I started painting Airfix Waterloo French Line Infantry, particularly the loading guys, because of all the poses, it seems to be they don't get a lot of love.  I had planned to paint 76 of them, as part of a lot of 705 figures I had collected in E-Bay purchases over time.

I only finished 16, and then started another 32, then burnt out. So throughout December and until the other night, I didn't paint. I video gamed, had to deal with life and all, played with my four doggos, Mike the Shih-Tzu joined the crew New Years' Eve 2016, replacing the sadly departed and sadly missed Abby the Border Collie mix. Then my laptop broke down, and was repaired a few days later, and then for Christmas I got myself a desktop PC strong enough to play Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War, which I downloaded from Steam, which is something I swore I'd never do, but I suppose the saying that there comes a time in everyone's life where one has to cut cards with the Devil holds true.

So for the past several weeks I had been busy playing Empire: Total War, especially the american Road To Independence campaign, and at once I became engrossed in the American War Of Independence. So as I was going over blogs about modelling the armies of the period, I ran into a blog run by someone named "The Chasseur", who is a prolific painter.

In the post I had read, he had answered a question put forward by some of his followers, how he manages to paint as many figures, and he said he sets himself a daily goal to paint so many figures an evening, three or four, I do not remember, and if one sticks to a goal like that, one would be amazed how many figures can be painted in a year.

So, while I had painted little in the fall, leading to winter, I decided to start again, one the 32 unfinished figures. Started last night and tonight I had finished four of the unfinished, leaving 28. I'll have pictures to post for you tomorrow.

I do not know how many French line infantry I can paint an evening, they are not easy to paint, blame it on the shako plates and lots of piping, but I'll work at them consistently, and next year, we'll revisit the challenge and see how well, or badly, I did. I do hope to have all of the Airfix French line infantry painted as well as the artillery.

So... that explains why I am back to painting after a short spell, but does not explain why I am back her after such a long long spell.

As time goes on, I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied and disgusted with Facebook, and have decided that there will be a time, in the not too distant future, where if I am not booted from facebook, I will leave it myself, and do all my blogging here.  I am getting started again here.

Anyway, apologies for the long long post without pictures, next post you will see plenty of those and hopefully, they will not disappoint.

Cheers and Happy 2018!

4 comments:

  1. Welcome back Erica, though as a Facebook friend I've not noticed your absence! �� If or when you leave Facebook you will be sorely missed, it is how we met after all. Long may you continue to paint figures, build tanks, (and the odd aeroplane) play games and blog occasionally! ��
    Randal.

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    1. OK, just learned emojis don't work on this medium. The two "??" are a smiley face and a Vulcan salute in that order. ;)

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    2. Hi Randal (((RANDAL!))) not going away, I'll still be there for the odd comment and picture :) :) :)

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