First Cold Snap of the Year

We have both of our heat pumps on tonight as well as our electric blankets. Although it is not extremely cold (8 degrees) it feels  a lot colder becuse of the great run of weather we have been having. We have placed an electric Korean floor blanket as an electric blanket for Josie's bed and it seems to be working really well. Luckily Mari's sister left it behind when she went back after her visit a few years ago. We have prepared for winter by buying a few metres of wood as our main buring material and a few loads of pine for fire starters. I am not really planning on using these until June?? if I can help it but knowing the fickle nature of the weather this far down the island we could be forced to use it at any time. I walked down to school today in a heavy jacket and woolen hat. The wlak didn't warm me up enough to take off either of them. This doesn't bode well for the coming week.

Painting Frenzy

My figures arrived on Tuesday and this is how far the first batch has come.  I fell upon them like a famished man and have been happily spending hours at the painting table ever since. In three days I have done the red coats twice, white trousers twice, flesh and guns. This is on 8 sprues of 24 figures by the way.  I have examiner training tomorrow which is going to seriously cut into my painting time but I am pretty sure I should be able to fiish all of the black on the figures by the end of Sunday. I still have another 16 sprues eagerly waiting for me to get my hands on them out in the dun porch. By the end of the next three months my Peninsualr army should be marching!

Zen and the Art of Toy Soldier Painting. I am not the best painter and I am always happy to admit it. One of the reasons I paint is the chance for relaxation and reflection. My wife meditates to conect with spiritual yogis and other new age hippy things but at the end of the hour or two per day the only thing she really gets is a sore arse. I also get a sore arse but I also have a little and pretty project just that little bit closer to conpletion. Many an hour I have spent pondering life whith paintbrush in my hand- what a pleasant way to spend an evening!

The Spray Can

I bought a spray can today to see if I could base coat my massive number of figures that way. The end result was that I base coated about 500-ish figures pretty well. I might have to go over the rest to touch then up but they are looking pretty fine. That has saved me at least 2 weeks of painting. Tomorrow is ANZAC day so after the dawn service I will start the red base coat for the jackets and go from there. Th eweather has been remarkably fine over the last couple of weeks So we are all hoping for a nice global warming winter. My bro from Auckland is coming over tonight. He has been down for the funeral of his mother in law. She was a really nice lady and her funeral was sweet. Both grand-children stood up and gave really nice eulogies in speech and song which added to the flavour of the whole proceedings.
Anyway, looking forward to painting over the coming months.

I hate the tax man.

If indeed the tax man is a man then I hate him. Recently I have found a thing called Terminal Tax has been applied to cut away my bank account. Already I am paying off extra tax on an overpayment of Family Support from a few year ago. Just when I pay off my student load another bill of the same size arrives. Life seems so unfair!!! $10,000 isn't just in my pocket as loose change Mr Key!!!!!

We all got presents

Santa bought us some early Christmas presents. I got 6 boxes of Peninsular War British Infantry for my winter painting extravaganza ( I need to paint about 15 boxes) and Mari got the old IPad 2 which was on special at Bond and Bond. Add no children to the mix and everything is looking MIGHTY FINE!

No Kids!

Well the 4 day weekend is over and the kids are up at Nanna's house. Yay! For the next week we are back to wedded/no kidded bliss. Unfortunately when we got back home we couldn't find any alcohol so it looks like I will have to get straight down to ironing my shirts for the next week.  I think we have another long weekend coming up for ANZAC Day pretty soon. That makes this year better already than all of last year when all of the day off days fell in the weekend.

Four Day Weekend Coming Up!

Yay! Over the weekend I plan to finish the forest that I have been working on over the last few days. That will mean that I will have finished four pieces by Tuesday. I have been working in a European fur tree forest. We don't get to see this type of tree in New Zealand so I trust the German Jordan company for their interpretation.

I post from work.

Berthier is passing an important note about the forthcoming English Advantage staff party to a petty officer. In the background is one of my first attempts at a tree. The watch tower is an ESCI from the early 90's. Behind the telephone are some British Dragoons from the AWI looking a little out of place.

In the forest the French are up to their dastardly plans.

My happy place.

Autumn is coming and the school is humming with new students and busy staff. I have decided to make a "happy place" in my office with a little model exhibition. This has been met with looks of puzzlement at staff meetings and the NZQA lady wasn't too sure about the mental health of the principal. I have long since stopped worrying about what people think about me however. My happy place is my little oasis.