More from the stripping jar

I emptied out my stripping jar the other day. My stripping jar - if you don't know - is a thick 2 litre plastic jar which is almost always full of miniatures bought off TradeMe soaking in either Methylated Spirits or Heavy Duty Degreaser.

Even though I don’t think I buy many miniatures these days, it seems that enough random things take my fancy for there always to be a couple of inches worth of miniatures in the stripping jar.

So one rainy afternoon – or maybe it was just a lazy afternoon – out came everything in the jar for a good scrubbing and clean off in the ultrasonic cleaner.  Then it all was based and primered.

One of the things that was in it was a set of Citadel Snotlings.  Enough for a Snotling Swarm stand.  Because they are so small I managed to break a couple while basing them, and as I had to do a bit of very fine pining to fix them, I decided to complete them.  So this afternoon I painted them.  And a little while ago – after a couple of games of Ticket to Ride – I glued sand to the base.

Tomorrow I’ll paint and dry brush the sand and then apply some static grass.  If I’m lucky the day will also be warm and dry enough to varnish it as well.  Then I’ll be able to take a final photo.

Wee boy took one look at it and asked if they were goblins.  I said yes (as they are little goblins – of a sort anyway).  He said “well they’re mine then”.  Who can argue with that.  He’ll probably want me to buy him more too

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

I stumbled across a very interesting video about the economic realities for the American middle class. But then again with globalization it really has a lot to say about any Western country.

A second helping

This is my first go at Grantham Gingerbread as it appears in A Second Help; More from Ladies A Plate.

They're nothing like the picture.  I think I flattened them to much with the fork when laying them out.  They're meant to be more dome shaped.

They are pretty tasty tho'.  I just ate three.  I've had to stop as they are for a farewell morning tea on Wednesday.

They're actually quite hard like Gingernuts.  I suppose I am going to have to put up with some heathen dunking them in tea.

Ticket To Ride Märklin!

As SWMNBNOTI has developed a liking for Ticket to Ride I have had the opportunity to play the Märklin edition three times lately. My scores have been 201, 201, and 211. Nearly unheard of scores for Ticket to Ride.

I'm not boasting or anything.

That was then, this is now

As you probably know, dear reader, I have two boys at primary school.  There are a few differences I notice between primary school now and when I was at primary school.

1. They don't have "play lunch".
2. They don't play marbles.
3. There doesn't seem to be any fighting (or bullying) on the playground.

Instead of playing marbles they seem to act out console games in much the same way as we played "Cowboys and Indians" or "Commandos and Nazis".

Marbles was pretty cool tho', I'm wondering if any of the chaps at work fancy a game at lunch time.

Army of the Dead (WIP)

A couple of quick work in progress shots of Small Boy's new Lord of the Rings force.

As you may have read he watched Return of the Kings with me and became very interested in the whole Tolkein mythology.

My friend's boys all seem to play Lord of the Rings so I decided to check out getting the boys their own forces. As LotR was marketed mainly at kids and tweenies, there are a lot being sold on TradeMe by people just looking to get rid of them.

I took a punt on an auction that appeared to have some men (pewter) and Moria goblins, and I ended up with 10 Army of the Dead and 12 Goblins.

Small Boy is quite excited by it so I have quickly painted the Army of the Dead.  When I finish them off I’ll try and get some better shots.

It’s hard to get good macro shots with one lamp and some printer paper.

The next exciting instalment may just be a force of Orcs and Goblins for Wee Boy.

I can do this