Holiday Under the Weather

Sorry not been typing much in this blog for a few days. Been chilling out. Most of Wednesday was spent sorting out my photos to send to Henry Hyde of Battlegames. The hardest thing was emailing them. Attempted to send them all in one go twice - a whopping 18mb including the Mollwitz photos again. Ended up splitting them up into 3 zip files with an email for each one and minus Mollwitz. Sending Mollwitz again would probably have been a duplication of effort again anyway. Sent them all successfully to Henry eventually.
Also yesterday was my mate Andy's birthday so went to see him and his girlfriend for a few hours, had a few cans of lager, watched a bit of Casino Royale again and chatted.

Today I just relaxed and watched telly most of the day. My friend Pete unexpectedly came round for 20 mins and another friend Jamie rang me up and is coming tomorrow. Managed to watch Doctor Who and Doctor Who confidential on Demand.

Been getting the other web page done with galleries for the gamers who play fantasy games on Tuesday nights. Nearly done.

Had some constructive criticism on my photos from Henry Hyde with suggestions as how to improve, which was welcome also. He may use my other photos of the games at Partizan. Will have to wait and see.

Booked my train ticket to Durham for next Saturday 9th June for the Durham Wargames Show. Am on holiday and want to get out of town by jumping on a train to somewhere. Another wargames show miles away seems a good idea. I don't return to work till the 10th.

For some reason today I have been feeling a bit under the weather, bit sniffy and a bit light headed. Maybe its a cold. I do feel slightly bunged up.

The Past 48 Hours

Had a lay in on Monday. Didn't do a lot at all. Just chilled out and went through my photos of Partizan. Went to my mate Andy's for a short while. It will be his birthday today. Discussed the website and other things. After that, went to the Club where Mark Alcock, Dave Hewins, Jason Whitfield, Ron Skeet and Andy Hamilton were playing a game of "Wallenstein" I think it was. While at the club I put the posters advertising the website and blogs up. Those were the same posters I handed out at Partizan.
After going home got the Partizan Overview gallery prepared and edited some pages on the website. Started on them. Was tired so laid on the bed for a while missing my own midnight deadline for TMP but sent my news item anyway.
Received an email from TMP saying it would be up in 2 days in the early hours of the 29th to find another email several hours later saying the story would run any minute.

As for Tuesday, kept checking TMP for hits and comments. The news item can be found at:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/332825/

Had some comments so far. Not doing bad on hits and this time we were not the first or 2nd story to appear in hobby news. Hits still not bad.
Tidied my flat up a little, did some shopping and went to the club where the lads who play Warhammer and all other Games Workshop stuff were playing just that. Took lots of photos. The aim is to give them a page and promote them on Tuesdays. Such things have been going on for years at our club and they contribute quite substantially financially throughout the year. There will now be photos to show their games off also. Going next Tuesday to do the same and may join in next time. Can't normally do it as I work 2-10pm on Tuesdays. Am on holiday so can go. They were really friendly and it was quite busy. Plenty of people there playing all sorts.

Best news of all: My photos may end up in the Battlegames magazine of Partizan! What I haven't said so far is that after I got home on Sunday I went through the Mollwitz photos, fixed them and resized them before emailing them to Henry Hyde, the editor of Battlegames who I had met at the show. I wanted to contribute my photos of that game and others to the Battlegames magazine. Henry replied today as he only got back yesterday and it was his birthday and he is interested in some of them for the magazine and would like to see my photos for the other games. I had already told him the games I had taken photos of. He said I could send him a CD of the games at full resolution or reduced size ( as I had sent them) inside a zip file. Zip file may be quicker. He will start preparing the next magazine so I had better sort them out soon. Before I go to bed I will pick out the best of each, stick them in a folder and resize them whilst adjusting resolution. Tomorrow I will zip them up.
Tomorrow is going to be busy as I need to buy my mate Andy's present and hopefully see him in the evening.

Partizan Rundown

What a great day I have had. Meeting all those people at Partizan, incredibly taking over 200 photos which is a staggering amount for me and 95% of them came out. The highlight of my day was meeting Henry Hyde, John Preece, Stuart Asquith, Brigadier Charles Grant and Steve Gill at their Mollowitz Stand. Took photos of most of the games I wanted to. Talked to Derek at Vendel who seemed happy to see me and who had put that nice comment on TMP on my last news item there. Had a short chat with Colin on his stand also.

Had planned to post some preview photos on my blog of Partizan, so here we go. The official taster before I put up all the photos that came out extremely well is going to be made tonight and put on our website as an overview of the show. Here are some tasters:

The Mollowitz game hosted by the Battlegames team with guest Brigadier Charles Grant OBE. Charles Grant also had a better mini-tripod than me :(


28mm Crimean display game by the Derby Wargames Society. Had taken photos of their World War 1 game at Triples, the French Counter Offensive 1915.


Bill Gaskin's 28mm Napoleonic display game. My first encounter with Bill's work who apparently had been playing since he was a young boy is when I came across a gallery on the Wargames Illustrated website of his American Civil War figures.


The Mongol Invasion of Japan 1274 by Curteys and 1st Corps. Had taken other photos of this game at Triples also. There was one slight change to todays game though. The Samurai had formed a relief column and were trying to take back their ground. Curteys had received my email that I sent after Triples with the pics I took in them.

Paul was good enough to take me to Partizan. Horrible weather for the start of my holiday. Note also that Paul had added the main Grimsby Website to his links on his blog.
At Partizan we bumped into fellow members Martin Buck and Dave Tuck. Also bumped into former member Tim Walker, who had written up our 18th Century Warfare Rules who moved to Sheffield last year. I hadn't seen him in years.

Other games I took photos of:
25mm ACW by North Hull Wargames Club - Mechanicsville 1862
Forest Outlaws 28mm Seven Years War
Shedheads 20mm WW2 Bocage Breakout (using Rapid Fire organisations)

Tired now. Will get the Partizan gallery done. Aiming tonight, if not, in the morning. Promised all I took photos of within 24 hours. All those games I took photos of received the poster I specially printed up for the occasion.

Pre-Partizan Jitters (and it's raining)

Partizan tomorrow. Paul said he would take me. I did offer to pay towards Petrol though I don't know how much he'll want. Just checked up the price of a return and single ticket on the train. Looking forward to it anyway. Will chat to Vendel again after their comment on my TMP news item. Paying East Riding Miniatures a visit too. Colin will also be there but under his Rapid Fire publications this time.

Just emailed John Preece but he may not get the email till he returns to Wales. Looking forward to meeting the rest of that crew including Henry Hyde of the Battlegames magazine who Paul also knows and leaves comments on the Battlegames blog. May take some video this time as well as photos which I why I bought a larger memory card for my camera.
Batteries are charged up for my camera. Got some more posters to print and things to do. May not get a full night's sleep. Only waking up about an hour earlier than normal anyway.

Partizan here we come.

On TMP again!

Yes, we were on TMP again this morning with my latest website update also outlining my plans for the website. It can be found at:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/899889/

No comments this time but a decent amount of hits. Hope my next batch of photos etc will be worth talking about more. Planning to take loads at Partizan. Going to install my new ink and print off one of my new posters before I go to bed. May print the rest in the morning. Will also have to charge my batteries for my camera when I get up.

Work was usual thing today. Extremely busy. Trolleys coming out my ears. Not a bad day but a bit cool. Just got Partizan on my mind at the moment. May pay a few forums a visit before going to bed also.

Summer is Here again

What a really nice day it was today. Really hot, muggy and summery. Even caught some people trying to catch the sun and loads more in shorts.

Last night I also bought a larger memory card for my camera. Still have the old one. The new is 512mb. Means with both I can take loads of photos and maybe some short clips on my camera.
Tonight after work I bought some photographic paper for inkjets, about 20 sheets, mainly for the club posters but also other things. Won't use it all anyway.

As I type this I am preparing to submit the latest website update plus my plans to TMP. All the latest 4 Galleries were uploaded in the early hours of this morning. May take some posters to hand out at Partizan, especially to people whose games, miniatures etc I take photos of. Really Looking forward to Partizan on Sunday. Gotta get on with updating everyone.

Photos Galore

Day off so been quite lazy and relaxing most of the day. Tidied up flat but spent most of the day going through recent wargames photos and even designed a graphic for the poster I plan to make for the website. Originally designed it so that it would go in my camera onto my camera's memory card, to be printed up on photo quality paper. That didn't work - getting it into the camera I mean - so decided to buy some ink after all and do it the old fashioned way.

Still not got all the photos completely sorted ready for tomorrow night. 1 more to do. Although that gallery is now revamped, lets just say our Border Reivers are going to be making a comeback. The original's have been "fixed" and gone over again before gallerying them with Paul's pics of the game.

Anyway here's that poster I made for the website, presently still a graphic I made in Paint Shop Pro (see above).

Big Wargame Bonanza

My mate Andy came round earlier and apart from telling me his plans for the flat we discussed yesterday's incident in the front garden. I asked if we should knock on the door and speak to them. He said no. So we are going to send them a letter by special delivery to their landlord, care of one of them, backed up with my photos.

Went to the club tonight. Steve Mercer and Dave Tuck were back from their holidays. Booked another game of 15mm ACW with them for the monday after Bank Holiday. I requested a scenario-based game, preferably based on a real life battle.
There were 3 games on tonight: 15mm Seven Years War with Dave Hewins (French) and Tony Waumsley (Prussian); Malburian with Andy Sharpe, Andy Hamilton, Paul Robinson and Mark Alcock, mainly Paul and Mark's figures with Andy Sharpe contributing; World War 2 desert with Steve Mercer and Dave Tuck - Dave being the Italians and Steve being the British again. Dave should have more luck this time. I wasn't playing with my unlucky dice.
Below are some previews of the photos I took:

Clash of 15mm Prussian and French Forces at the bottom of the Valley. Seven Years War.







Close-up view of Dave Hewins SYW French.









Malburian game on our big table downstairs. At the forefront is Mark's new British Horse, painted by our resident figure painter Joe Dunn.



Paul's new Danish figures.








WW2. Steve Mercer's new Crusader tanks en route. Really like taking photos of tanks, especially tanks like this. Although I only have a 15mm ACW Army, I still like the WW2 period quite a lot, including Rapid Fire! though not played RF for some time and Blitkrieg Commander I have also found to be fast and fun.


A close-up of Dave Tuck's Italian Artillery. Apparently the plan was for Dave to relieve his men behind the barbed wire fence whilst having to deal with the onslaught from Steve's Tanks.

Also tonight Paul said that he was willing to take me to Partizan , picking me up Sunday at 9am. Used Tripod again. Camera was set to ISO 100 as suggested by Paul Davies.
Told Dave Tuck of my plans within the next few weeks, starting with before Partizan, to get us on TMP and other news sites.

Under Siege

My Flat is the one on the right. Someone had completely destroyed my hedge while I had been at work! It can only have been the top flat again. A neighbour across the road watched them do it this morning not long after I had started work. The garden, in fact nothing on the ground floor level, belongs to them. Absolutely none of it. I noticed they had trimmed some of it off yesterday, which I didn't mind so much as that bit had been getting in the way a little and I had not had time to do it. But to totally trash that huge hedge which isn't even their garden in the first place I found absolutely shocking. I couldn't believe it when I got home. As soon as I saw what they had done, that was it. The hedge was the height of that branch sticking out they mysteriously left, with that width you can see at the bottom. It could take years for that hedge to reach its height again and months to go green again. It's almost bare. I'm afraid of what they are going to do next. Are they going to trash that large tree (on the right)? Change the locks? Do something to the back garden? What are they going to do? The nasty sods just left the mess they made on the front:

They just left the mess they made. It could not have been anyone else. The other troubles I have had with them in the past are:

My Bike being stolen from the Hallway a few months back. I had locked the door after I came in. Came out next morning to find it wasnt there. Only someone who had a key to the front door could have taken it. Either one of their friends or them. They would still know about it. The only other way out of the hall was through their flat. That bike cost me £100 as did its replacement.
I actually caught one of them attempting to steal and in fact mess with the seat on the bike before that when I left it in my own back garden. They then tried to say they got mixed up the bikes. Then they left their bikes in the hall. Some still do. About 3 live up there.
It may not be much but such things as helping themselves to my washing line without even asking. One of them left one of their bikes in my back garden a few months ago.
These people cannot be trusted. I haven't always been getting my bills, so have they been stealing the post too?
It doesn't help that these people are Afghans, I think. Their accents are hard to understand at times though one does speak good english. I know they have jobs. Don't know what they are.
Several times last year the police have been round looking for them. One was to do with a girl, the others were to do with immigration. I have always tried to be friendly and get on with them. All this behaviour by themselves is totally unprovoked.
It has got to stop. As far as I am concerned, all these incidents, including today, amounts to harassment. Legally and technically they have access to the front door and meters in the hall, their own flat and the fire exit - which they constantly use as a back door, coming in and out when they like - through the back garden which they have no legal need or access to, except for fire. Legally, going into my back garden, unless I say so, is trespassing.

From now on, I am going to keep a record of any incidents and take as many photos as I can regarding them. Rang my landlord and mate up Andy as soon as I got home and we are going to send them a letter by special delivery, backed up with my photos.

Some more preview photos of the 20mm Greeks

All these Greeks are owned and painted by Dave Hewins. Whilst playing with Picasa, I decided to try the "blog this" option in the program. These are just a few more photos of the 20mm Greeks - a dozen in total -that will be galleried and put on the website soon.
I really enjoyed taking the photos of these figures.

Website Getting Somewhere

Another nice surprise today concerning the Grimsby Wargames Society Official Website, which has been located at many places since I first designed, built it and uploaded it about 5 years ago: Freeserve, Geocities and British Wargames (which is coming back) before arriving at Panzers of the Reich last year during my serious work problems. Some of the pages have got their own PR (Pagerank) which I did not expect. Optimising the website is an ongoing project. The higher the PR, the more popular it gets on the search engines and therefore the more exposure the society gets - on the net anyway. I ran an optimisation program to find out who has been linking back to it to give it its present PR and it turns out that some people have linked back to the website without my knowledge. I shall be linking back once I have got more details. Both this blog and the website will be optimised more on my holiday soon. Lots of more emailing to do.

Paul Davies and Salute 2007

Today it was my day off. First thing was my much anticipated visit to the dentist. NHS Dentist. Not too many of them about. I was surprised that they charged the patient the patient for treatment as I thought the NHS was funded out of our taxes. Wasn't too much anyway and I work full time. Turns out apart from needing a polish, which is only to be expected after several years dentistless, all I need is a filling on a broken tooth because everything else is fine. That appointment is a month away.

Other than paying some bills, I also arranged with the bank some contents insurance which I did not have before. Its only going to cost me just over £20 a month, which isnt too painful, starting with next payday although there is an initial payment end of the month.

On the way home I dropped by Dave Hewins shop looking for glue to stick my figures to some sort of stands while I am painting them and a craft knife to remove flash etc. Was also looking for some sort of stand to put them on. After talking to Dave, he suggested that I stick my figures on to cardboard and suggested the appropriate glue to do so: UHU, as well as an appropriate craft knife. I bought those items. While I was at it, I picked up the latest issue of Wargames Illustrated.

In that issue there is an article and photos on Salute 2007 by Paul Davies, full-time photographer and member of the Crawley Wargames Club. He had been in the previous issue also with a Border Reivers article. Their Border Reivers game had been at Salute too.
While emailing their webmaster Ian Coleman, attempting to exchange links, I complimented Paul on his photos and article. Paul then contacted me by email thanking me for those compliments and saying that if I needed any advice or help taking photos, all I had to do was ask. He also gave me some hints on painting my charltons. On 3rd May I contacted him again asking for some help on taking photos along with sending him some samples but have not received a response since. I can only assume he has been busy. Tonight I contacted Ian again asking him to pass on my compliments on to Paul, who has written yet another good article on Salute 2007 from a visitor's point of view, with his excellent photos, as well as reviewing 40mm Greeks near the back of the issue.

Got round to painting my reivers again today. One of the white horses was drybrushed white and lightly painted white again (left). The black horse that had been undercoated only black so far was drybrushed, of sorts, in GW Enchanted Blue. All the horses were glued onto temporary cardboard stands, as had been suggested by Dave Hewins earlier. It seemed a cheap alternative to buying some wood to stand them on and with plenty of cardboard on hand it seemed ideal.

The horse that Paul had mainly painted in Brown Umber got another Wash. This time I washed it with a mix of GW Snakebite Leather and Chaos Black (left).


Here is a photo (left) of the horse I drybrushed GW Enchanted Blue. Notice the slight blue spots near the back of the horse.
I would be interested to hear Paul's opinion of my horses so far. That's our Paul from Grimsby.

At the end of this entry there is a photo of my painting box with all the horses stood in it on their cardboard stands, my new craft knife and my GW Citadel paintbrushes, which I used today, which came with my GW paints.

The Citadel brushes are named and to be used for a specific purpose such as detailing and drybrushing. Used the drybrush one today.

Paint with Paul

I had started to fill this entry in last night, which takes time as it always does, when the pc mysteriously shut down and restarted itself, losing everything I had already typed in. Will run my antivirus later.

Went to the club last night where Paul was continuing painting his cuirassiers (left). There he gave me help and hints for painting. I had brought all my reivers and horses and all my paint to the club. Paul also showed me how to paint my horses by actually painting them himself, sorry, demonstrating. He has a very good established technique and can paint quicker than I can down a pint. Paul painted my horses in this way:

My red horse (to be brown) was washed in Burnt Umber. It may need another coat (see left). Though it will be a mix of GW Snakebite leather and black.
Both my white horses were washed in GW Codex grey. Paul said that one of them may need to be drybrushed white.
One of my black horses was lightly drybrushed in Blue. GW Midnight Blue specifically. Looked nice.
Washing was done by drenching the brush in water before dipping it in paint and lathering it over the figure where it would seep into all the crevices.
Paul did say however that I had undercoated too thickly and had not removed the "flash" off the figures. Whoops. I shall remove the flash off my reivers figures before lightly retouching any bare bits with GW Chaos black before continuing my painting. He said that he paints his figures how they dress etc with hands and face first. Paul also suggested I give the horses a white blaze and do the socks on the feet.
Many thanks to Paul for all his help and advice on painting.

There were 2 games on last night: 15mm Napoleonic between Andy Sharpe and Mark Alcock; 20mm Greeks v Greeks between Andy Hamilton and Dave Hewins using Dave's figures. I took photos as usual though this time I used my new toy: a mini-tripod which I bought very cheaply off ebay last week. I had hoped it would reduce camera shake from myself and judging by the results, the tripod worked. Out of the 66 photos I took last night, only about half a dozen were unusable. Thats 10% of the shots. Everything else came out perfectly as I had wanted. As usual, I will preview some of the photos.

Photo of Dave Hewins Greeks (left) taken from the other side of the table with the tripod and cropped to center in on the action. All these figures are owned and painted by Dave Hewins and some had recently been re-speared.

Wurtembergers and Austrians engaging in battle at the base of a hill (left). The Austrians are by Andy Sharpe while the Wurtembergers are by Mark Alcock.

Mark also gave me the Red Badge of courage book back which I had asked him to look after. Paul and I discussed John Preece who left a complimentary comment on my blog on sunday. It is the same John Preece who has contributed to Recce in the Battlegames Magazine and who will be at Partizan at the end of the month. Looking forward to it even more.

Before I sign off, those cuirassiers Paul was painting will look like the ones in this photo (left) when completed. This photo was also taken at the club last night.

As always, all photos will be added to their own galleries later. More often than not I let those galleries double as game reports as the action can be followed by viewing the photos. Along with any photos from next week, they will probably all be uploaded just before Partizan.

Sonny Goes North

Had not really felt like posting these past few days. Been quite busy and been more interested in getting a good night's sleep. On Thursday I went to the club as there was a Star Trek CCG 2nd Edition Tournament going on. There is 1 on today also. Sonny Jensen, one of our regular players of Star Trek CCG and Magic the Gathering is leaving for a new job soon in Stockport near Manchester. We all know Sonny quite well and wish him good luck. He will still be coming back for the occasional tournament and we have his email address so we will not lose contact.
The Tournament went on for 3 rounds. To mine and Stuart's surprise, I beat him 100-35 points (Full win) with the cardassian deck I had borrowed off Mark. It may not happen again. Both Stuart and Sonny are really hard to beat and always have Ace decks. In fact they are 2 of the best players in the country. I think Sonny won this tournament. It's usually either Sonny or Stuart so no surprise there then. This time I took some photos of the tournament. In the above photo, Barry Young, another regular is left on the photo with Sonny Jensen, on the right, in the Adidas top.

Short Update

I left around 4.35pm for my dentist appointment. According to one of the google maps I looked at before going to work, Medimatch (NHS) was at the top of Victor Street somewhere. It was the first place I went to. When it wasnt there, I biked down some more of Cleethorpe Road - towards the top of Freeman Street. So I biked back down there again, turned into Humber Street and went back towards the flyover. It's less hassle that way. I had realised it was not down that end but maybe the other end, past the evening telegraph and railway lines. Headed back down Railway Street, over the railway bridge, up King Edward Street - towards the flyover - and turned left at the top as a guess and continued searching for it. Then there it was. I had spent about half an hour looking for it and it was nearly 5pm by then - when it closed. I managed to get in to reception and make another appointment explaining that I had got lost on the way there. I know at least where it is for next time. Next appointment is next Wednesday.

In the end my friend didn't come round. He told me a few days ago he'd probably be tired anyway and it was raining. He doesn't like venturing out when it's wet. So started watching my Babylon 5 again - from Season 2. Haven't got Season 1 and 5 yet. Just 2,3, and 4. Watched every episode plus repeats when it was on the telly and watched my DVD's at least twice. Was in a B5 mood. While doing that, I got back to my painting. Those White Horses got another 2 coats of paint while one of the horses got painted blood red as suggested by Paul (above). Once these 3 horses are the colour I want them, I will start on the 2 black horses. 1 of the black horses will stay black and I may make the other grey. Once all horses are painted the colour I want, I will start painting the detail on all of them.

TMP Feedback

It is the first time I have submitted to TMP but will definitely do so again. I consider this first attempt quite successful. There were only a few comments but all complimentary and all about Steve Mercer's ships. At time of writing our news item had received 598 hits and 6 comments. The other news entries on 8th May 2007 did not individually receive that many hits. A Wizards of the Coast item came close with just over 400 hits. We were also the first news item on TMP on the 8th. Don't know what anyone else thinks but I am happy with the result. The url is http://theminiaturespage.com/news/471367/

News items stay on TMP for several days so it may receive more hits by the weekend. Think Steve Mercer would be happy with the feedback. Anyway doing overtime tomorrow followed by Dentist, friend coming round then hopefully back to painting my figures.

We're on TMP!

I had hoped it would happen. Bill sent me an email in the early hours saying it would go up. The Grimsby Wargames Society website and this blog has been mentioned in Hobby News on TMP. It's at
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/471367/

There has been a few comments so far but the day is not over yet.

Been blogging over a month

Decided not to do any painting today but will do it wednesday instead. I have also decided I am going to try the paint combinations for my Reivers horses that Paul advised me to do in his comment on the previous entry. Having looked on the net for some article on how to "wash" miniatures when painting them, does it mean only painting a thin layer of a certain colour?

To my surprise again, my updates that I post through yahoogroups have once again been announced on the Tabletop Gaming News website, which I think is great. It started with the update before last and I hope it continues. TGN is a good site with reviews and announcements from miniature companies mainly along with announcements from wargaming clubs. Tonight I submitted my "story" regarding the website and last update to the excellent Miniatures Page. Hope Bill puts it up. In it I also linked to some images from the latest galleries. If things go well, I will post news regularly on there. I am a huge fan of TMP anyway, reading the Hobby News and browsing the forums.

I also realised today that I have been blogging for over a month now. Doesn't seem like yesterday since it began. This blog is ACW themed and once I get it going properly and spent some more time on it, which will be easier to do on my holiday in a few weeks time, it will get better and better.

My Games Workshop Paints

Not done any painting today. Had planned to but didn't feel like it, hit the sack for an hour and a half to recharge my batteries a little, watched some telly, some of it being the french elections before putting this entry on this blog.

Uploaded the 2 latest galleries to the website tonight with the photos from the past 2 mondays being in them: The Naval Battle on the 30th April and the Battle of Almanza Refight on the 23rd April. Both in picasa galleries as they will all be eventually. Before I go to bed I will update everyone by email as usual regarding the website.

The above photo is a photo of all my Games Workshop paints which I bought years ago. Despite being lent to my mate Andy who used to come to the club, who used them to paint his WW2 Germans, loads was left over. I, of course, have no intention of buying any more paint unless I run out, which is highly unlikely. The colours I have to choose from for my Reivers, though I could mix some of them are:

Sunburst Yellow
Mithril Silver
Chaos Black
Blood Red
Goblin Green
Snakebite Leather
Skull White
Enchanted Blue
Bronzed Flesh

They were bought when I first bought some LOTR figures from GW in Grimsby. The LOTR box set was Captured by Gondor (The Two Towers) which contains Frodo, Sam, Gollum, Faramir, Damrod and 4 Gondorian Rangers. I have just dug them out while typing this and it turns out all those figures are still either half-painted or unpainted by myself. Being a huge LOTR fan (still am) I watched all the LOTR Trilogy at the cinema when they came out, rented then bought the theatrical versions on DVD as well as playing the LOTR CCG here in Grimsby and at Hull, though that was a few years ago now. I will post some photos of my unpainted LOTR figures in the next few days. I will finish them off at some point even if I won't play with them.
Don't know if I will go to the club tomorrow night as it is a Bank Holiday and won't be a lot on. Have some things to do too. May stay at home and paint my horses or I just might do that Wednesday night.

Horseplay

This afternoon and evening I finally got a much needed haircut. Apart from doing a little tidying up, I got back to my border reivers, mainly the horses and gave 3 of them a coating of white paint. 3 of the horses will be light coloured with 2 of them being white, 2 dark coloured and 1 either grey or light coloured. I used GW Skull white in them. I now keep them in a box meant for drawing and/or painting pictures which is now for my wargaming paints (above).
There is a photo (left)of my white undercoated horses, though 2 of them will be getting a 2nd coat of white as I wish them to be white horses. Hope to paint some more tomorrow. Have not painted for years and decided to do the horses first, partly because they are larger figures.
Watched one of my favourite bond movies "The Man with the Golden Gun" while I did so. Not watched it for years. In fact, it's the first time in months I've actually sat down and watched a DVD. Did so after Doctor Who, which unfortunately won't be back on for a fortnight.

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms

They seem to have passed now. Well at least I hope they have. The best thing those tablets were for was helping me sleep and were an excellent sleeping aid. From last friday I was not taking any. I struggled to sleep properly for the few first days with the result that I had only a few hours sleep sunday night and approx 4 hours sleep on monday also. Thankfully however those horrible few days seem to have passed. For the past 2 days I have been having some hot milk to help me sleep. Also when I've felt tired, I just relaxed on the bed and in no time did I feel better and nearly close to sleeping. It has worked quite well. Had nearly 7 hours sleep this morning though I was so tired I didn't hear my alarm and overslept. Had nearly 5 hours the night before. It is because of that sleep I did get that I feel a bit better now. Those antidepressants had been in my system for nearly a year with my last dosage of 25mg Amitryptyline being exactly a week ago. While I adjust to being antidepressant free, I shall carry on having hot milk every night to help me sleep.

Regarding the website I have created the new picasa gallery for the Naval game on monday. Will not upload it till I have created the Battle of Almanza 1707 gallery also including Paul's photos from his blog.