The End and a New Beginning?

Well I haven't been on this blog for a good while now and I feel that now would be a good opportunity to close it down. I feel that I have painted all that I want to and it is time to move on to a new hobby. I have spent a good deal of time gardening and it is something that I quite enjoy even though I'm quite the beginner. Still interested in reading about the age of the Napoleon although my library is full if books which I have bought but haven't read. Maybe some time in the future...So to any future reader who stumbles across this blog - good wishes to you and ...

           Vive   L'Empereur !     

      

                                     

Progress?

Well, I finally started painting again. One rather uncomfortable aspect of this was that I am sure my visual acuity has worsened since last year. I really found it hard to focus on some of the details of my figures. 1/72 is small at the best of times but I have never felt eye strain before when painting. On the up side, I now have completed collecting the figures for my Austrian army. It will be an 1809 version with a mix of both older and newer uniform types. That doesn't particularly worry me as I have never been a stickler for total accuracy. Photos to come so watch this space....

On another note, I have just added a couple of new books to the "library". The one from the Imperial War Museum is a colourful general read on the topic with lovely artwork on high quality paper. If I had a coffee table in my invisible man-cave, I would put it there. The next is another biography on Napoleon. The last I read was disappointing because you could almost feel the dislike for Napoleon in the words of the author. This one treats the great man with the respect he deserves without too much adoration. It is going to be Christmas reading at the beach.

Austrian Hussars Redux

Well, its been a while. About six months I think. I haven't looked at my hobby over the winter period and I'm not too sure why. Life has been pretty busy here with the whanau. You'd think with one daughter gone up to Auckland life would be a little less hectic but that isn't how it turned out. As a result, all of my figures have remained in their cabinets and my paints have dried up. Since its the first day of Spring I thought I'd just have a go at forging ahead on the project of creating my 2nd and 3rd squadrons of Austrian hussars. Hard to think I was working on the same project last Christmas.

I'm going through an introspective phase at the moment. It is going to be Victoria's last year at home next year and even some of that will disappear because she will be off studying in Europe. It kind of feels that age has crept up on me and soon we will be empty nesters. We've had kids with us so long that I wonder what life will be like at home without them. Its definitely going to be much quieter.

I promised myself that I would start on a man cave but I doubt I'll get around to it anytime soon. In terms of hobby stuff, generally when we get home from work we are all so tired that we just sit in the living room and surf the net. Mari does have her burgeoning pot plant collection which she enjoys but I'm quite the evening couch potato. I guess I just need to get off my arse and do the hobby again - hence this self motivating blog post John.

A long hiatus

Well, in spite of having no posts I am still orbiting around the hobby. I have been lurking around wargames sites and continuing to add to my library. I'm going through a bit of a Culloden, Highland Clearances phase at the moment in my library procurements. Home improvements are taking the lion's share of my free time (and available funds) so I'll have to wait until a few more paydays before I can move ahead with my project to complete my Austrian army.

Austrian Hussars

Unless you like tin figures there aren't any companies which make Hussars or Uhlans from the Austrian army. This presented me with a tad of a problem when I was trying to fill the ranks of my 1809 army. Here was my solution:

1) Horses are Zvezda Guard Lancers with the carbine at the side of the horse removed.
2) Bodies 1815 Prussian Hussars
3) Heads Hat Industrie Austrian Infantry
4) Carbines ESCI ACW Confederate Infantry (cut down) and glued flat onto the sabretache.

Ok, so they aren't the prettiest of my creations but they do at least look the part.

I need another two squadrons so the project continues. Next Up this year will be the Jägers, Grenadiers and the Grenzers. Fun times. Photos to come.

Austrian Uhlans

I must admit to having had an awesome Christmas. The weather has been great our holiday house has been filled with guests and is now mercifully empty again. I've been hiking and biking and beach walking with the family. I've eaten too much and caught up on some reading which I had been planning. On blog related matters I have something to report as well.  I finished the Austrians I had been painting and all they require now is basing. I have been working on head swaps for my hussars and the Uhlans are taking shape as well.  Actually, they are Zvezda French "Polish" lancers but they scrub up to be 1813 Austrian Uhlans at a pinch. A belated Merry Christmas to all who stumble across my blog

Austrians Revisited

After a  year of not painting I have finally restarted my project. I am painting the last battalions of my "German" infantry. I have decided to paint the Hungarian battalions at the same time. These figures  are really quite pretty in their ranks. I will have to see over the next few weeks if the interest in painting can be rekindled but I must admit to really enjoying getting the paint brushes back out again.

Random post just to keep the blog alive

One of my anal retentive tendencies is to wish to "finish off" a collection. When it comes to Osprey Publications, a small but significant number of earlier issues are advertised on their site but have been out of print for a good many years. This tempts me but gives me no way to scratch the itch (which is very annoying). This means that I have to turn my attention to sites like Amazon or Ebay. Over the last few months, I have scoured the globe looking for these titles and as of today am only 5 away from feeling replete. This will mean something like 215 titles sitting in my hobby nook waiting for me to take out my paint brushes so that they can be consulted. I am hoping that the sheer bulk of these will shame me in to restarting my hobby in the New Year. I haven't posted a single newly painted figure in over a year and that really isn't good enough.

Anyway.... Blog post finished.

Delayed New Titles

Being a  little country our international infrastructure does not have a great depth. Case in point being a couple of weeks ago when a farmer decided to do some digging on his farm and took out the only pipeline which brings aviation fuel from the Marsden Point refinery to the rest of the country. This meant that international flights were severely curtailed. On one of those flights was my latest package containing my Napoleonic/18th century purchases. Anyway....2 weeks late they are safe on my book shelf.

Going Back to the 18th Century

I'm going through a bit of a 7 Years War thing at the moment. All my figures are Napoleonic but that might change. Some really interesting history 50 years earlier!

New titles on the doorstep.

Got home from mowing, hacking and mulching up at our holiday house and found these on the door step. Another 10-ish titles still in transit. Pretty sure McMillan publishers have my picture on their fridge at work. I am branching out a little in to the Seven Years War and British Empire in India. As of now however , I  am going to focus on getting my Austrian figures together for a possible 2018 Jan start.
The cool thing about this weekend was that I was able to get some reading done. Right now I'm reading Citizen Emperor by Philip Dwyer. Napoleon from Dwyer's perspective was a megalomaniac and an opportunist who was also a pretty crappy general. Not sure I agree with Dwyer but he has certainly put in the research and presents a compelling line of argument. I guess the "romantic" Napoleon of the mid to late Eighteenth century is the image that I am most comfortable with.

Church colours

Every day I walk past this sad old relic of a church and it is from this that I'll take my proposed colour scheme. Not quite the same style but passingly similar.

Playing with colours

My Father's Day church model was a snap together without glue affair. When finished, it was a really imposing model. Tonight, I got out my half forgotten paints to see what colour scheme it might have. I think it is modelled on some sort of Italian church.  Not ever having been to that part of the world myself, I have to fall back on my deep knowledge of NZ church architecture. I did actually attend church occasionally as a kid and I want this model to feel as cold and oppressive as the Anglican church next door to my old house.

In the second shot,  you can see a Revell American Revolutionary War figure a long way from home knocking on the door for spiritual guidance. Perhaps he speaks Italian.

A couple of new books for the library

The Peninsula War Atlas is a real tome and comes with its own cover. Real nice for the coffee table if I had any friends to gaze lovingly at it. My wife and daughter just looked at it at laughed.  The other is a regimental history of the 9th Infantry Battalion. Looks pretty cool also.

Father's Day

This year seems to be destined to be a year of buildings and books. Not a single figure paintbrush on the horizon.  On Sunday I steered by wife down to Toy World where she bought my Father's Day present. I've had my eye on thus model for a while and even though I have other church models I thought it might go well with the Italieri stone house I made last year. The model has mixed reviews but I still think it is quite an imposing capture point on a table. We'll see how it turns out over the next few weeks.

Cool! Just figured out how to post multiple images

Here are my Del Prado cavalry figures.  Now I can delete these from my phone.

Ospreys at home photo the second.

Well, most of the titles I have been wanting have finally found their way onto my bookshelf. Only about 15-20 to go. I decided to include the Seven Years War in my purchases because it is a logical lead up to the Napoleonic Wars and there are some awesome uniforms! Posting down to the bottom of the planet is surprisingly fast (3 weeks), although it does take about 2 weeks to actually process the order. It has been a fun experience to wait at the gate for my early Christmas presents. Next up - Austrian troops for real Christmas if HAT Industrie get their range to the shops in time?

Ospreys at home photo the first

Thoughts About a Stalled Hobby

The thing about hobby blogs is that if the other 99% of your real life sends you away in different directions - nothing ever gets added to the pages. Unfortunately, this is the case with my hobby of late. I haven’t painted since February and even that was a terrain piece not figures. I have no figures to paint on the horizon as well. I like looking back over this little blog because as I don't keep a diary, these little posts serve to remind me of the other things in my life which were happening at the same time. I don't really want to blog about business and family as I want to keep these aspects of my life to myself and I don't feel comfortable discussing others lives around me. They can do that for themselves if the fancy takes them.  

Anyway,  I am guessing that a year will pass before I feel the urge to continue the hobby.  Just to keep myself vaguely in the hobby I have decided to buy the Osprey Napoleonic titles which have been niggling at me to get over the years.  One of the cool things is that if you buy an Osprey Publishing Gold membership for about 90 pounds you get a 30% discount off your purchases. I am planning to spend around 600 pounds before the end of the month to snag the last of the titles so at least that keeps me in hobby territory. Once my bookcase is replete, I hope that (and the coming of spring and finally selling a business) will signal a kick starting period. I would really love to finish my Austrian army before I turn 50…..

So I'll promise myself to keep blogging about this cool little nugget of a hobby as often as a can. Next up photos of my Osprey collection?

La Haye Sainte

Since I'm on a roll, here is my completed Sarissa Precision Waterloo farmhouse guarded by some British infantry. This was a really fun and fast project. One week start to finish.