All Quiet On The Blogging Front

I haven't really been doing much wargaming related stuff for the last couple of weeks or so, although I have started prepping up figures for some early 2021 projects, including my Bad Squiddo Onna Bugeisha minis which I have had sitting around for ages and ages. I felt guilty every time I saw them in the box where I keep my (supposed) priority To Do stuff. Anyway, they are now glued onto 2.5cm round MDF bases and primed in Halford's matt grey undercoat spray.

I have also started to prep up another project, this time in 15mm, which I shall keep secret for a while, because it is something of a personal trip down memory lane, in many ways, but it did require me to get onto eBay and buy some old rulebooks from more than two decades ago.

I also took advantage of the Foundry Christmas price reduction offer and bought some minis from their Seadogs and Swashbucklers range. A few of us from the club put in a single order, to maximise the discount, which was nice. The plan is for these to make up bands for Osprey's En Garde rules, or anything else that seems suitable, for that matter.

I also bought a couple of Geek Villain wargaming mats in the Black Friday sale, the first time I've ever done such a thing. I got a grassy one, which is useful for everything, pretty much, and a cobblestone one, which will be good for all manner of urban settings. I am primarily thinking of In Her Majesty's Name here, but Frostgrave seems another possibility too. I have the Frostgrave 2nd edition book on my Christmas list too, so I am looking forward to that.

Anyway, it is the run-in to Christmas now, so I am going to be pretty busy with getting the food and wine ready, getting out the Christmas tablecloth and table mats and other festive bits 'n' pieces. Tomorrow, I'll be off to the butcher for the meat , which means boning, stuffing and tying up the chicken, poaching a bacon joint (for glazing on Boxing Day), making stock from the chicken carcass and making a chocolate and lime baked cheesecake ready for Christmas dessert. and then it will be Christmas eve. when I must go to the baker to get our bread order collected, and also get whatever I have forgotten about until now.

A few Bad Squiddo odds 'n' ends

 I've been trying to paint up a few odds and ends of things I've had in my "To Do" box for a while.

These are all from Bad Squiddo and have been patiently awaiting the brush for a long time now.

First are two violent little girls with swords. They were part of the Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter that I somehow forgot to paint at the time. I suppose that they ought to be wooden practice swords, really, but I went for real ones.

I am not sure what I will use them for, but there is bound to be something in the future.

Next are three figures who were associated with the Amazons and Dwarves Kickstarter. I think that they will work nicely in mediaeval and fantasy settings, perhaps as non-player characters or as special figures in suitable scenarios.

First, a woman trying to get her basket of fresh fish past the local cats;

And finally, two women who look so alike to my eyes that I think of them as sisters;

This figure is HUGE

This figure was a freebie that came with  the latest copy of Miniature Wargames magazine. It is for a game called "Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings", which I'd never actually heard of before. Anyway, it is in 38mm scale, which seems pretty unique.

Here is the finished item, next to a 28mm Victrix Roman auxiliary cavalryman;

That is ridiculously big. Here are two more pictures of the Big Guy.

I only made him up and painted him for something to do. I've no intention of buying into a game system that uses such large minis as standard. The thing is this, though; I could see a point to him once I'd glued him together and undercoated him in black.

I think that he would be fine as a gigantic Daemonic Knight, probably as a Warlord for a Saga; Age of Magic warband, such as my Otherworld one, or for a Dragon Rampant force, which is why I used a fairly classic Chaos colour palette of black, bronze, brass, steel and red. His helmet has a weird flaming-looking crest, which I decided would look pretty good as actual flames, so that is how I tried to paint it. 

He was actually pretty easy to paint, because of the size of the model. I liked the idea of his daemonic steed having brass hooves, and they seem to have worked quite well. I left the slight amount of visible face black, to give the impression that whatever is inside the armour is Not Of This World.

Annoyingly, after I'd taken the photos, I noticed a few grains of ballast clinging to his horse barding, which I have now removed with a paintbrush.

Six more mounted Shieldmaidens

 This time unarmoured ones.

These are also Bad Squiddo minis, and they will be joining their armoured sisters as the cavalry arm of my Shieldmaiden army.

As I have said before, I'll be using these for troops in a number of different rulesets, particularly Saga Age of Magic, Lion and Dragon Rampant, and probably for other things that I haven't even thought of yet. I am very keen on having figures that can serve multiple purposes.

These were finished a few days ago, but I was waiting for the weather to become less wet to avoid fogged varnish. As you can see, they have come out fine.

The tufts on the bases are, once again by Gamer's Grass, available from Bad Squiddo.

Mounted Shieldmaiden Hearthguards

Having finished my mounted Lagertha figure, I decided to press on and paint up the five Bad Squiddo mounted armoured Shieldmaidens that I've had for a fair while as her Hearthguard.

Firstly, here are the five riders alone;

And here they are led by their chieftain;

These are clearly going to be useful for all manner of games, particularly Saga Age of Magic (I will probably use them as a Horde), Lion Rampant and, especially Dragon Rampant, where I think a Shieldmaiden army would be a more acceptable option to put on the table than in the historical version of the rules. 

The tufts on the bases are all Gamer's Grass, also available from Bad Squiddo.

I now have six unarmoured mounted Shieldmaidens to paint, to bulk out Lagertha's cavalry forces.

Finally ............. I have painted something; Lagertha and three shieldmaidens

I posted a couple of weeks ago about why I wasn't painting, but I am getting back on track again. 

This is the mounted Lagertha (also known as Lathgertha, Lagerða and Hlaðgerðr) by Bad Squiddo. I painted the foot version of her about a year ago. 

Here she is from the other side.

To add to my existing unarmoured Shieldmaidens, here are three more armed with spears. This gives me a total of 12 spear-carrying Shieldmaidens (if I add my single armoured one as a unit leader) who will make a nice single unit for Lion and Dragon Rampant.

I am so glad to be painting again. I think that I needed to do this for my mental health, which has taken a big battering over the last couple of months.

I have eleven mounted Shieldmaidens prepped now, six unarmoured and five in mail. I will add the Lagertha figure to the latter to give me two groups of six riders, again primarily for Lion or Dragon Rampant, but they will also, together with my existing Shieldmaidens be perfect for Saga: Age of Magic.

Trying to paint again is so very hard, but I am trying.

This time, it isn't really about painter's block either. Here is the reason.

That photo is of Maisie, one of my two West Highland White Terriers, taken in 2015, about a month before her 9th birthday.

Sadly, last Sunday, October 25th was the day that we had to say goodbye to her. She had been ill over the summer, with what seemed to be a random selection of things, until she was diagnosed with diabetes at the end of August. The vet thought that she may have had the disease for a while, but something had triggered it getting worse. She was very ill and it took a week to stabilise her. She had lost a lot of weight, she was down to 9 kg, and was very weak, but with insulin injections every 12 hours it seemed like she might be OK. She was having blood glucose and other checks every two weeks but she wasn't putting on weight. Since October 2019, her weight had dropped from a healthy 10.6 kg to that 9 kg in August and she wasn't regaining it. She was very bony and was pretty weak. I was pretty worried, to tell the truth. However, the vet seemed pretty positive after her tests on October 13th.

Her eyesight had been getting quite bad for about a year, but we had put that down to age, but in the two weeks since her last check-up on the 13th it got much worse, her eyes went very milky and she was struggling to get up and down the stairs, so I was carrying her. Clearly, this was a worry, but the vet had warned me that it would take time for her to start putting weight back on and rebuilding her strength.

To be honest, I knew deep inside that something wasn't right. She wasn't her usual happy, inquisitive and stubborn self. She was tired all the time, her appetite wasn't great and we were constantly having to adjust her insulin dosage to balance her body chemistry. We didn't seem able to find the right dose. Her eyesight was getting worse, and she seemed to have lost her sight in one eye. I knew that she had her next check-up scheduled for the 27th, so I was planning to discuss these issues with the vet then. She was withdrawing into herself. This was not a good sign at all, but it still seemed possible that she would pull through because she still had her old sparkle in patches.

On Friday 23rd October, she refused her breakfast, but I got her to eat some chicken breast. I kept her on chicken on the Saturday, which seemed to work but overnight she had a couple of bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea. She refused her breakfast on Sunday morning and kept on going out into the garden and hiding. She seemed very confused, sad and lonely, and her belly was swollen. To be honest here, I knew that she was really ill and feared the worst. When she started puking up yellow bile I got in touch with the out of hours vet service and took her in for an examination.

They did a physical check and told me to go home. They were going to keep her in overnight and do blood and other tests and take an ultrasound.

After they had the test results, they rang my mobile. The news was not good.

She was incredibly ill. Her blood was full of toxins, she had fluid in her lungs and abdomen, her breathing was very laboured, her heart was struggling and, probably worst of all, she had suffered kidney failure. 

Basically, her poor little body was breaking down and there was nothing that could be done for her. They suspected that she probably had an undetected cancer, too. The only decent thing that could be done was to let her go.

We went back to the emergency vet clinic and we were with her when she went into her final sleep. She was with the two people who loved her and who she loved and trusted back.  It was a peaceful end. She  didn't suffer.

It was the evening before her 14th birthday.

Maisie was a wonderful little dog. She had that characteristic known as "Westitude", a stubbornness and independence that all Westie owners know about. She was also incredibly inquisitive and adventurous. If there was a hole in a fence or a gap, she would find it and be off. I've lost track of the times I had to rescue her when she got stuck somewhere and couldn't find the way out again. I once had to crawl down a scree slope to rescue her from a ledge where she had got stuck. I hoicked her up by her collar and she happily scampered back up, leaving me to crawl back up again.

She was also incredibly loyal and loving. When I worked from home, she would always be with me in my little office and when I took voluntary redundancy because of work-related stress, she was always there for me. We used to play on the landing or on the floor, doing play bows to one another and pretend bites. It kept me alive when I was in a poor mental state. If I was up late watching TV, I'd often nod off. She would always nudge me and tell me it was time for bed.

Sadly, the real Maisie began to fade away with her succession of bouts of illness this year. Deep down, I think I knew that she wasn't going to see the end of 2020, but I kept on hoping that she would pull through. Sadly, that didn't happen.

We are both devastated and her sister Daisy is missing her sister and best friend too. They were litter sisters, so Daisy is also 14. 

Here are some more pictures of my beautiful sweet Maisie. I shall never forget her and I will love her for the rest of my life.