Back in the Room.......

 Well it's been a wee while so thought I would share what time I have spent on the hobby recently and truth be told it's not been a lot!!  Back to work full time and it has been hectic but very enjoyable but leaves me pretty tired at nights and the weekend and with the football season back it really leaves Sunday at the moment and gardening is eating into that too. It's not all bad news on the hobby front though and my Dog Wars project nears the last bit, some artillery to base up and some artillery to get done and that will be that.  The picture below is for the Blue army hussars, two small squadrons of them and they have turned out very nicely. It's been a joy to work with the people at Alternatives Armies on this project, really good communication, nicely painted miniatures and a good price too, can't praise them highly enough.

I have enjoyed my experience with AA so much that I am now going back to Slaughterloo and will be building up Orc and Elf divisions, probably three a side, I will be doing some of it myself and AA will take care of the rest, again at a very decent price for me.  With my hobby time being so limited it is a great way for me to get painted troops on the table so for me it's a win win.

On other news with a little disposable money I have accrued I am buying some painted late 17th century troops from Mark Allen, I saw them on Facebook and couldn't resist them, after concluding the deal he asked me if I fancied some more Brits and French at a good price, if any of you have seen Marks work you will know it was too good a deal to turn down, so later this month I will have a good start for British and French forces for some League of Augsburg gaming, I will take stock of what I will get and then add to it as and when.

Well that's it for now, next post I will pop a photo on of some Orcs light infantry that have been done and based up, lovely painted unit from AA and then stuck n some bases by me!!  I have been following a lot of blogs online and find it so good to see what others get up to, certainly keeps me very interested and a source of great inspiration, keep on blogging folks despite all the problems that Blogger seems to throw at us!!

Too Much Time on my Hands???

 Well recovery goes apace and I have been discharged from oncology and back to the loving arms of ear, nose and throat, which means I am cancer free!! Happy guy indeed, also my taste is coming back slowly and I am eating solids again although mainly savoury as sweet things still taste like sludge especially chocolate, bad news! Anyway I am still signed off work and not due to go back until June so I have a bit of time on my hands, done a few walks and a little bit of weeding in the garden as my stamina is pretty poor at the moment, tire very easily. I went to the football in Inverness to watch a Highland League match, my mate picked me up and we parked up and walked to the ground, watched a very entertaining game and walked back to the car by which I was totally washed out, time I get home and settled I crashed out and slept soundly, still will be working on strength over the next few weeks, so hope it improves.

Anyway with all this time on my hands and with a bit of money to spend due to my bonus from work I have indulged myself a little. I first took advantage of Ist Corps sale, which was a nice 20% of the original price. what did I buy? Well I always fancied doing the Seven Years War in India so bought British and French regulars, some Sepoys for both sides and some Irregulars for both sides, they arrived very quickly  and look nice figures, should paint up well even by my standards! Now 1st Corps don;t do cavalry or artillery for this but regulars of each were pretty short in numbers so will probably look at getting some native cavalry and artillery from another source.

The next purchase was still in the sub continent and got me a whole load of Empress Miniatures from their Indian Mutiny range, great figure, so full of character, the have come of ebay and were at a decent price for the quantity, I am short again of cavalry and artillery but will add to them as required.

Also got a couple of books but hopefully I will reign in my temptation to splurge on more goodies, now is the time to get back to some painting and basing as I have a tonne to do. I really fancy doing some Dominion of Frederick the Great games, very abstract set of rules but easy to set up and play and I have pretty much all I need painted and based, you don't need a lot to get into it. I thought about these rules as they are an easy set up and a quick game which suits my health at this time.

Anyway every day sees a little bit more of an improvement and looking forward to getting back to normality, here's a photo of the match from Saturday, why I haven't a job with paparattzi I will never know!! Inverness Clachnacuddin against Fraserburgh, 4-2 to the away side, good game for the last of the season.

Well that was interesting........

 As the title says it was interesting but not always in a good way!! Since early January I have been, as I said in the previous post, undergoing treatment for neck cancer. Good news is that the treatment i over and they all seem happy with the results but I will find out in a couple of weeks when I see my oncologist.

The radiotherapy went well enough and I had no real problems with it other than a plethora of side effects which are not overly pleasant!  The chemotherapy on the other hand was pretty brutal, the first blast anyway. result in my kidneys dropping to under 75% and me going into hospital for a week while they sorted me out!! I must admit I never felt so ill in my life, really bad but the hospital did a grand job on getting me back on my feet.

Side effects have been a bit brutal, doctor told me all about them before I started and I think I got every one of them!! Worst is no taste, really grim, everything tastes like mud, really disgusting and has resulted in me being on a feeding tube for all my water and nutrients, bit of a pain but it is ok. Taste is beginning to come back but very slowly, my sense of smell is fine which means I can smell everything my good lady is cooking for her dinner, pure torture, smell great but taste....... Hopefully this will end soon and I can get back to eating normally, fingers crossed. One of the other side effects is that my facial hair has died! Not too sure if it will ever come back, bar for the odd bit no shaving required!

Well as you can imagine hobby time has been zero and it is only now I am back to looking at blogs and plotting and planning, mojo is good but chance of getting thing done is low at the moment, so reading blogs and planning will have to suffice for the moment.

Anyway another week of recovery then I have a week of clinics before I see the doctor for her views on how it all went. Well I am back to a certain extent and looking forward to getting back to normality, big year for me this year as I am looking to retire at the end of it, so plenty of plans for my hobby time in this year and hopefully the future,

Next post will be more hobby centred I promise!!!

If it wasn't for bad luck.......

 Well it's been a while since I posted an update on this blog and it's all down to my health and not particularly good health!  First problem, about 13 years ago I had bowel cancer which was discovered due to the bowel screening programme that is run by the NHS, without this I doubt I would still be here, anyway after an operation and the removal of the cancerous bowel I got a clean bill of health and life continued. The screening tests come out every 3 years I think it is and I do it as a matter of course and the last one has come back as positive for something dodgy, not again! Anyway went up to Raigmore hospital in Inverness and got a colonoscopy which showed a rather large polyp that the surgeon reckons could turn nasty, so a biopsy and a CT scan was done that day, good news is that it is not cancerous nor is the bowel around it, they still want to get rid of it but it is a pretty minor procedure so all good on that front.

The second health problem is not so good news though, at the end of August start of September my lymph nodes got swollen, went down, swelled up, went down and finally swelled up again and stayed that way, so of to my local GP who took blood samples and passed it onto Raigmore hospital, ENT got in touch so it was up to see a specialist. Then it was a round of tests, ultrascan, biopsy, MRI and another CT scan, all done and dusted I went up and saw my ENT specialist and was told I have a small cancerous tumour on the underside of my tongue! Good news is it is small and not growing and has not spread to my throat or my chest as they can do, and since then it has been a steady trip up to Inverness to see dentists, dietician, speech therapist, my own nurse and at the start of the year my oncologist who will tell me what is due to happen and when.

My nurse filled me in on what is going to happen and the ENT specialist also let me know the procedure, the oncologist will tell me the time scale which works out at 4 weeks Monday to Friday of Radiotherapy followed by 2 weeks Monday to Friday of chemotherapy, when that is done and dusted I should be clear and that little parasite should have gone for good. Sounds by all accounts that I have a hard slog for a couple of months at the start of the year but the prognosis is good and for that I am one happy wargamer! After this is done I go back to ENT and go to the specialists Thursday clinic for 5 years!,can't fault the after care that's for sure.

So a bit of a shock and a bit to take in but everyone has been so nice and allayed any fears that I am about to shuffle off, thing is apart from the swollen neck I feel great! good appetite, still fit and healthy, which I suppose is good for the forthcoming treatment.

All this has kind off put my hobby time to a real premium and I have done really nothing at all, my main hobby time has been following and reading all my favourite blogs and this has kept me going nicely, I will have a bit of time of work but don't really know if I will be up for doing any painting or gaming, just have to see how it goes. This is my last year at work as I am retiring at the end of the year and now I am going to miss 2-3 months of the start of the year there too, they have been great and it is a weight of the mind not having to worry about that.

Well not the last post of the year I wanted to make but it's a good prognosis and it's not going to put me under so it's just a case of onwards and upwards and see what's what at the end of it all. Good thing is I am a pretty positive person and don't get depressed easily so in a good place with good friends and family around me all should end well. I may not post too much here for a while but I will still be reading and posting on all the blogs I follow ou there, so keep me entertained folks!!

Mojo returning?

 Well it's been a wee while but I am back into some sort of groove, most of my hobby time has been basing some SYW stuff that I have got from TJ, these are non Minden figures a mixture of Black Hussar, Foundry and some Front Rank French and British, most have been based but some needed finishing off so that has taken most of what little free time I have had, but that has now changed!

I finished work on Friday for a break of nine days free from the grind and with the gardening all but done of the year I really should get some painting done and indeed I have!

I needed something to reignite my painting funk and fancied getting away from the late 17th, 18th or 19th centuries that are my usual, so what did I go for?  Well sorting out some books for putting on my wargame library shelfs I found a copy of the first DBA rule set, now I haven;t dabbled with DBA since far too many years to even try to remember so thought that this may be the little project needed to get me back into some serious hobby time.

First purchase was a gaming mat, 2 x 2 grassy fields for playing it on, decent deal of ebay, paid and duly arrived, happy with it, so that's one thing ticked off the list. Now I haven't thought about DBA or figures for playing the game so after looking about a bit online I decided I wanted an old school vibe for this project and after a bit of browsing I went for Toy Soldier's ready assembled DBA packs, these range in price from £19 to £42 depending on whatever army and how exotic it is. They are seriously old style 15mm figures, chunky and look the part for me, so I picked 4 armies to get me going, Numidian, Hoplite, Macedonian and Successor, order placed and within the week package delivered, super service from TS and really happy with the packs.

First day of my break so out with my painting table and out with the DBA packs, now I haven't painted anything in 15mm in donkeys years and was a bit worried after years of dedicated 28mm figures but these little guys are quite chunky and actually rather easier to paint than I had thought, first on the table were the Numidians, I thought these might be the easiest, tunics, basic equipment and right enough they were a good choice, so for a couple of hours I managed to paint the first elements of this army, a couple of light infantry stands of 4 figures each, light armed figures with javelins and small shield, very little flash and once primed they painted up very easily and are pretty much done other than some highlighting, vanishing and basing, tomorrows job!

To finish off, this has been something different for me and has recharged the creative batteries, hopefully pictures to follow once they are done. On anther ancient topic, reading the excellent Palouse Wargaming Journal blog, I really enjoyed seeing Jon's biblical projects, some great work, it made me go and purchase a Hittite and an Egyptian army packs from Newline Designs for a future retirement project, thanks for the inspiration Jon, I think!!!

Well until next time folks....

Long time.....

 Well it's been a few weeks since I posted on here, real life taken priority, work, gardening and putting up a new shed all ate into hobby time big style. The shed is kind of hobby related as it will house my boxes of figures, good solid 8 x 6 pent roof security shed, should fill it up nicely!

Not all been work and no play as I have some Carlist volunteers on the painting table, they have been undercoated and first skin tones added, not too sure if I will get a chance this weekend to add to them though, we shall see.

I got another box of goodies from Spain from TJ who has sold his 28mm Minden collection to me as he downsizes to 15/18mm, the ones arriving now are unpainted castings, French, Prussian and Austrians, all to be added to the dreaded lead pile! Also in the box were a couple of painted command stands for the Prussians, Von Seydlitz and a vignette with Frederick and a couple of staff, all painted to the highest standard by TJ, very talented he is too the swine! I've been lucky to have had the chance to acquire his collection it's been a major boost for my SYW collections.

A bonus in July's pay packet has given me some splurging money and I am looking at the American/Mexican war, small battles and some nice uniforms, regulars and volunteers, ticks a good few boxes for me. I have ordered a couple of books, uniform guides and rule book and I think the brigade deals from 1st Corps looks a good bet for me. I will go with the US army to start with and six infantry units, two cavalry and three guns and it should be good to go. A wee bit of planning to do but I am looking forward to getting dug into this project, something a little bit different for me and has enthused me I must admit. Here's a picture from Ist Corps site, to give you an idea of what they offer.

Well finally getting back in the groove after a couple of months of little activity on the wargame hobby front at least!

A wee update

 Well the unseasonably good weather continues up here in the far north but due to end this weekend.  Any free time I have has been spent in the garden and I am very nearly finished doing what is needed. More shrubs have been added and more grass taken away, less cutting Huzzah!!

My Canadian Lilac in full bloom, absolutely alive with bees and a really beautiful shrub when in bloom, I did have another one but it has died due to my ivy taking over. The next phase is putting up a 8x6 shed which will be a useful storage for a lot of my plastic tubs of completed and still to do miniatures.

On the wargames front, not much has happened painting wise but I have received lots of goodies from across the pond, loads of Minden and AWI figure from Fife & Drum, super service as always from Jim and ultra quick delivery at a real decent price, can't beat that!

The figures in the stock pile are some Highlanders,artillery and cavalry for my British army, not far off having most of what I need for this project. French artillery and officers, also got a pile coming form TJ, most of these will be used for the FIW as I have probably enough for the SYW. I also got some Austrian infantry and hussars and these are actually going to be used as a Bavarian army as they used uniforms of a similar cut, so a paint job should make them work.

Well that's about it at the moment, I have three units of British cavalry just arrived from TJ in Spain so they will needed based and hopefully this Sunday will see that happen. Until next time folks.......