Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist

Welcome to two new followers, bringing the total to three marvelous figures

• Paul O'G.  Surely some mistake?  Paul's been here for ever.
• Gordon Richards of I have wrote my simple plan...  Gordon does wonderful IHMN stuff with aquarium furnishings and has a nice line in comic-format AARs.

A welcome to new follower Tradgardmastare.  He has a whole scad of blogs - go and check out his profile for a list.

"Dobro pozhalovat!"

For those pining for News from Diplomatist Books, I'll post something in the next few days once I've worked my way through this lot -

Welcomes

New follower welcome to

• Mark of the Sun of York blog
• Joakim aka The Miniature Man

Paintwatch Day 3 (Sunday)

A slow start and back to basics.  I got some figures stuck to Jenga sticks and sprayed with primer before it got dark out.

But after that I got an hour and a half's painting done before supper.  At this rate it'll be the end of the week before I get the Daleks finished!

Oh, and while trying to get the boiler to light, I found the figures I'd bought for my Secret Santa and then lost...

Welcome

A warm new follower welcome to Irishhighlander.  He has several blogs (one at least requires sunglasses!) - go and suss them out.



Analogue Painting Challenge


As anyone with the slightest interest in such things will already know, the 5th Analogue Painting Challenge starts tomorrow.  As I type Curt's countdown reads 10 hours, 34mins and 45secs.

It's hit me at a time of diminished mojo.  I've barely put paint to brush in the last few months, and was hoping the challenge would boost me - I still hope it does.

Some of the more serious and organised of you will be shocked (Shocked!) to hear that I've done no prep work, other than bringing parts of the lead pile from the Shed and giving a little thought to the bonus rounds.  But I've got pieces based and undercoated from last year and know what I'll do for the 'Cold' round, so I've somewhere to start.

I had intended to force myself to do an hour's prep this evening, but I'm not sure if I'll get there.

1,000 points looks very ambitious at the moment!

Never mind.  Good luck to everyone taking part.  As The Padre never forgets to say "A blessing on your brushes!".

First, thank you for the kind words and congratulations about reaching the 100K milestone.

Secondly, a big welcome to new follower.  Sander has a couple of blogs

• 'Mon cher Alava, Marmont est Perdu!' - a blog devoted to the ambitious aim of creating a static display of the Battle of Salamanca.
• Modus Reg Magni Momenti - a more 'everyday' wargaming blog.

Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont

A warm welcome to two new followers:-

• The Dancing Cake Tin of the eponymous blog (which has a nice line in Pulp terrain).
• robbie3rodiss of The Independent Wargames Group and and Aut Caesar,Aut Nihil, the latter about wargaming the army of Caesare Borgia.

Welcome

Again I have been remiss in promptly welcoming a new follower.  So a warm Hola! to Alfons of Miniaturas Militares Por Alfons Canovas.

Diplomacy

To be viewed to the tune "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Romanov?"

Austria-Hungary has been wiped off the map and despite predictions of a war in the Med, everyone has turned on Russia.

For commentary and reportage, go across to  The Mad Padre for the ever insightful and amusing Daily Dissembler.

Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls


Things are getting hot now, but it's very hard to say who's got the upper hand.

Having taken damage in the previous two turns, I made a swift exit from the cauldron, aflame and with a mast down, but that seems to have left HMS Badger in difficulties.  However, Capt Fearless has the Bosun's Mates starting the repair crews mercilessly in order to get us back in the fray as soon as possible.

Expect a more action in Turn 12 as Curt boarding action is determined and the second wave of ships engage...

Ironclads

Miles' game will probably start in December and will be a play-test of his Ironclad rules for his Big Project - linked games at Historicon15 (one naval and one land) on a British intervention in the American Civil War.  There are also rumours of French involvement...

Anyone who follows Miles' blog will be anticipating a high-level of inventiveness and eye-candy.  I'm certainly looking forward to it!

A dull week for me as I've been laid low both mentally and physically, I'm feeling a little better now though.

Welcome

I'm a little late in this, but welcome to new follower James Cotgrave.  I can't see a blog on your profile James - let me know if you have one and I'll give it a plug.

Shinies

I indulged in a little retail therapy this week.


On the shiny front, I picked up a copy of one of the GW LOTR part-works for 99p in OXFAM (other charity shops are available).  Not something that ties in with anything else I've got, but it's a nice Aragorn figure and for that price...


Later in the week North Star announced their annual pig in a poke (a-hem) lucky bag offer.  There are three varieties, and I picked up a couple of the Artizan NW Frontier bags.  

Naturally enough with North Star, they arrived very promptly.  I am slightly disappointed that the two bags were identical and didn't include any Sikhs or Afghans - but that's churlish,  It's the nature of buying blind; if I wanted to be sure of what I was getting, I could have paid the (quite reasonable) full price.  They are after all very nice figures.

Thematic Months

Autumn is here, so it seems to be the time for having painting drives.  To encourage us there are a spate of cleverly-named thematic months - all a bit of fun of course, so no pressure guys.  It also ties in with me bringing the hobby-station in from the Shed to the sitting room, which actually means I get more done.

October is Orctober and Zomtober.  As Orcs or Zoms aren't really my thing, you'll excuse me if I give these a skip.

However, November is more promising.  We have Dinovember and (a new one to me) Naval November (surely Navember?) - an idea put forward by r.a.e.gingerbhoy.  These I think I have a go at.

I won't produce any great eye-candy or massive quantities, but it's nice to have a focus for once...  (And to be able to twist things so they 'fit' that focus).

Give-Aways and Celebrations

A couple of things I should have mentioned earlier...

Monty Luhmann at the Twin Cities Gamer celebrated 200 followers and Jonathan Freitag of the Palouse Wargaming Blog celebrated two years' blogging with generous give-aways (which it's too late to join now).  Congratulations guys!

Ian Willey of The Blog With No Name is marking the extraordinary milestone of finishing 75 Bns of French for Waterloo in 6mm.  Pictures of his work and details of the competition are here.  If your interest in 6mm goodness, go there!

New Followers Welcome

A Warm welcome to

• Darcy Perry - Darcy has several blogs to his name: The Darcy Perry Band, Harmonica Masters of NZ and Hits to Kill.
• Pendragon Without - disappointingly (with a name like that and a profile description that starts "I dabble in Indian Mutiny, WW2, RPG's, Dark Ages, Medieval, etc, etc. I enjoy modelling scenery, writing rules, painting figures (when my mojo is present), and reading.") Pendragon doesn't seem to have a blog...

I hope you enjoy your visits here guys!

EDIT
Pendragon does have a blog.  It has ridiculously few followers - go across and join!
The Prizes

Could Robert, Roger and Anne please e-mail me at diplomatist2 'at' gmail 'dot' com in order to finalist the details of their prizes and let me have postal addresses.  Thank you.

Blog-Con



Heretofore a Yorkshire phenomenon Blog-Con is heading South this Autumn!  I've offered to do some of the organising.

Will anyone who is interested in going (or considers themselves 'a friend of Blog-Con') please go over and look at the post I've just put there: there are some important decisions that need to be made!

And Finally...

Today was to see the first post in a new regular feature for the blog.  Rather tellingly, it hasn't appeared...

Welcomes

Welcome to another new follower!  This time it Jon Yuengling of the always interesting Basement Games.  I must say, that Jon falls in that category of 'people I thought were already followers'!

Distractions

After getting distracted by the purchase of a Wallace and Gromet rocket-ship,  I saw some of  these being thrown out in Sainsbury's -



So, what do you see?  Craters?  Mars habitats?  Dino nests?  Enough stiff to make all of the above?

The problem is that it's quite flimsy.  Any tips on ways to get around that?  Would painting it in a PVA solution help?  Should I mix some filler in with it?

Playing By Blog

The business and tiredness I complained the other day was affecting my social networking is still here.

As far as Clint's PBB game of 'Blood, Bilges and Iron Balls' goes, this means that I only got around to adding last week's move to my BBIB Page this afternoon.  And the results of another turn will be announced tomorrow (the fleets will finally engage!).  I was actually two weeks behind updating my own game table, but I think Clint's photos are so good I needn't bother with mine.

Where I do need a map, charts, coloured pencils and a communications log is in making sense of The Mad Padre's PBB game of Diplomacy!

These turns are fortnightly, and I only just managed to get my orders in due to some heavy prompting from Michael.  I'm a complete newbie to this fascinating game, and I must admit that I hadn't then finished reading the rules!  Now I'm being bombarded with in-game messages from other players floating all sorts of 'understandings'.

Confusing, but fun!

In the on-line game Pirates Glory, I've decided that attacking other players isn't too good an idea (they're all bigger and meaner than me!).  On the advice of my Guild Master I'm sticking to trading and wooing governors' daughters.

 It's all a bit sexist really (you can only woo governors' sons if you  register as a female).  At the moment, I have romances with a Plain, a Cute and a Gorgeous; I also have an Exquisite wife!


Reminders

First, the HeroQuest expansions are still for sale.  I haven't yet put them up on the LAF, but will do so over the weekend.

Secondly, don't forget to enter the draw for the Prize Give-Away (and tell me if you qualify for a bonus!).  The draw will be made on Monday morning.

Secret Santa




Another sort of give-away has been announced.  Yes, it's that time of the year!  Ian over at The Blog With No Name has announced the terms for this year's Secret Santa and put a call out for participants.

Welcomes

With a comp running, there will be a spate of new followers to welcome.  First off the blocks are

• paulalba2004.  Paul is from exotic Carluke and has two blogs Modelling in Miniature and Napoleonics in Miniature.
• Donogh of Once Upon a Time in the Apocalypse and Land War in Asia

Welcome to you both!  I hope you enjoy the ride.

Big Boxes

Today is International Big Box Day - no, wait!  That's just at our house isn't it?

First is this, a charity shop purchase:-

And the other bits and pieces look useful too.

"Guard it" he said.  "How long for?" I said.  "Until I come back!" he said. That was last week...

And then there was this...

Can you tell what it is yet?

More has been revealed on the Diplomatist Books' Facebook page.

Welcome to two new followers who have joined in the last few days

• Ken Reilly of the Yarkshire Gamer which is a very nice looking blog covering all sorts of wargaming areas (including tiny ships).
• MarkG of the interestingly named Repple Depple Club House who seems to wargame WWII onwards.

A nodding acquaintance of mine - Gemma Correll - is an illustrator, specialising in gently amusing comments on life.  Given the number of times I see her work, I imagine she is quite successful - she certainly has a following.  Nevertheless, it's a precarious living (my nephew and several associates are just starting out).





This morning one of less funny her pieces was shared on Facebook by George Takei (which given that he has over 7 million followers is a big thing).  Sadly, the website he found the image on - let's name and shame funnyasduck.net - have edited the picture to remove Gemma's signiture and url, replacing it with their own (even using the same font and style!).  This is appalling: it is theft of intellectual property.

I know some of my readers who try to make a living out of painting have also had this problem.  Now I'm as guilty as any casualty blogger over this - I try to have a picture for every post I make, and I don't always give the source - but for a business to this is out of order.

Welcome

OK, after the little rant, a new follower welcome to Ian Drury.


Edit- 23 Jul 2014

Funny As Duck So this is why we got a bunch of e-mails, to clear it up If you look around the other comics on our site you will see we don't remove artists signatures and credit everybody we can.   If somebody else removes the signature before we see/get sent the comic there isn't anyway for us to tell unless we know the artists work, in this case we didn't. The watermark was an auto thing that we stopped using a long time ago. We have swapped over the image on our site to the original.

A warm new follower welcome to Conrad Kinch of the Joy and Forgetfulness blog and elsewhere.

Following on from my rather lazy post yesterday, here's another picture of a shark - rather more highbrow this time.


It's Watson and the Shark painted in 1778 by John Singleton Clark (and copied lots of times since).

Watson is the lad in the water.  From a family wealthy merchants, he went to sea at the age of 14.  He was swimming in Havana Harbour when he was attacked by the shark.  Although he was rescued, Watson had his right leg amputated below the knee.

This didn't hold him back too much.  He was a commissary to the British Army during the French and Indian War and Commissary General during the Revolution.  In 1772 he was a member of the founding committee of Lloyds of London, later serving as Chairman.  He was elected an Alderman of the City of London and was MP for the City from 1784 to 1793.  He was Lord Mayor for 1796/7 and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

A cad, a bounder and a fiend!

First a warm new follower welcome to Robert Audin of Fiends in Waistcoats - jolly good read!

When The Wife and I were on our travels the other week we naturally bought some books.  Mine was one discussing The Hobbit but her's was a study of Early English riddles.  My intention (and this shows how behind I got with the blog) was to post a couple of riddles each day this week.  But the problem is that they are seriously dull: they make "What have I got in my pockets?" look like Dorothy Parker.

Q. What is it that never was nor never shall be?
A. Never mouse made her nest in a cat's ear. 

Q.  Why drive men dogs out of the church?
A.  Because they come not up and offer and also because they shit on the dead. 

Q.  Why come the dogs so often to the church?
A.  Because when they see the altars covered they think their masters go thither to dinner. 

Q. Why doth a dog turn him thrice about ere he lieth him down?
A.  Because he knoweth not his bed's head from the feet 

Q.  What beast is it that hath her tail between her eyes?
A.  It is a cat when she licketh her arse.

Personally I prefer

Q.  What's red and doesn't fit in a fridge
A.  A fire-engine.

Good old Dennis

The plug is for the competition Loki is having over at his Great Hall to celebrate his third Blogiversary and reaching 150,000 hits.  It's trickier than the usual competition, but then the prizes are much better as well. You have until the end of May to enter. It's quite fun digging out the answers and requires a bit of blog-fu!


Secondly, I want to welcome as a couple of new followers.

• MS Foy is the author of Prometheus in Aspic, which I've recommended before.  In it he charts his Napoleonic and English Civil War wargaming, but also ruminates on the modern life.
• Alastair doesn't have a blog linked on his Blogger profile, but I've a feeling he has one and I should know what it is.

Edit

And of course, Alistair's blog is  A Wargaming Gallimaufry.

New Follower Welcome

First, the most pleasant bit of blogging - a new follower welcome.  Hello to Eric the Shed of the Shed Wars blog.  Many of you will be familiar with his Robin of Shedwood projects; he's recently been turning his skills to VBCW.

My shed isn't as palatial as I imagine Eric's to be

Promoting the Giveaway

As I mentioned yesterday, Legatus' Wargames Armies is celebrating a quarter of a million hits.  Legatus has announced that he will be hold a prize draw, with Salute figures up for grabs.  Details here.

Victorian Buildings

Solo Wargaming in the UK recently suggested that we share a picture of impressive Victorian buildings from our hometowns.  This strikes me as very useful, as I know many like to game that period but aren't lucky enough to be able to wander out of the door and see English architecture (I know I was fascinated when someone posted a series of American shopfronts from the 1920s and '30s).  For this reason, I'll try to include some vernacular buildings as well as the impressive ones.

As I originally come from the home of the Dark Satanic Mill, I am tempted to show Manchester's lovely Italianate warehouses and neo-gothic Town Hall, but I'll refrain.  Perhaps next week I'll share some of the wonders of The North.  For now, I'll stick with Solo's suggestion of impressive buildings near here.

First up is the (old) Norfolk & Norwich Hospital.  It was originally built in 1771 and then expanded by the Victorians in "streaky bacon" brickwork.  It was badly damaged in Second World War.

Georgian building, then...

...and now

Victorian building

The entrance portico (1935)

After the building closed as a hospital, it was converted to luxury flats

Given the British weather, many towns had indoor as well as outdoor markets.  In the high Victorian era, many developers built shopping arcades in larger towns containing 'superior' shops.  This is Norwich's example, the Royal Arcade, built in 1898-99.

c.1913

Langleys - purveyor of models and gaming supplies

The Late Victorians were fond of mosaics and decorative tiles

For those who want to try some advanced modelling work, Dampf's Modelling Page yesterday linked to a page containing tutorials like this one on Creating Surfaces.  It includes methods for making details like these, which I snapped this afternoon

Rotate 90 degrees