Wretched Prattling: Forum recruiting and new addition to our driveway

Your thinking "hey you, aren't you supposed to be in hospital Mr Paint Pig" well surgery has been put back a week due to one of the surgeons that was supposed to chopping me up getting caught in an operation that went much longer than expected so I have been given a slight reprieve from an enforced horizontal holiday for a wee bit longer.

What An Odd Fellow

Odd Fellow Lounger enjoying the relaxing atmosphere

As you may have guessed, or possibly not, I have some not insignificant involvement in a little forum which goes by the name of The Odd Fellows Wargaming Lounge, whilst being of low spirits and unenthusiastic over recent months I had completely avoided any input with the this endeavour much to the forums detriment. Having given myself a good talking to (and kick up the bum for good measure) I have determined to put some much needed energy back into the project.

Our staff are eager to please

Essentially it is a forum for Imagineers, 17th - 18th century enthusiast and those with a liking for older rule sets and home brew rules. As this is a little restrictive for some we now provide an area for discussion of those interests members might have outside of this scope. I would like to personally like to invite you all to stop by and take a look and if you like what you read and see sign on the dotted line.

Budding writers preparing an article for the presses

The forum software (vBulletin) has a content management system which is roughly a tool that can convert forum posts into a emagazine like display,  perfect for the budding wargaming journalist and story teller not to mention promoting services and product so if this sounds like something you can use  please get in touch with us

And in other news

Besides painting and gaming you may have already gathered from previous posts that I'm a bit of fishing enthusiast, I also like to do some off roading too. Usually this involved leaving the black top and heading out for some bush touring, time and health have put an end to the longer trips and not having a need for our old 4x4 touring outfit I decided to sell up and buy a new vehicle for weekend scrub bashing fun in the numerous off road parks that abound in and around Brisbane and South East Queensland.

Somewhere in the Pilliga (google it) Forrest national park

The old girl, a Holden Jackeroo (Americans would know this as an Isuzu Trooper) and a rock solid piece of kit she was. Yes that is Mrs Paint Pig saying "don't you dare point that camera at me Mr Man". this was on our Brisbane to Adelaide avoidance of bitumen 2500km round trip, I always use a little hiking tent for overnight stops.

And so what is the use of getting a new fourby if you don't show it off, so here is the new addition to the family "Broostah" It has been something of culture shock to go from a raw 4x4 to a vehicle that has all the bells and whistles as far as off road driver assist aids are concerned.

Yep a Toyota san FJ Cruiser, an homage to the original Toyota FJ40,  from time to time I'll post the highs and lows of building a mud splasher come rock climber out of this little beauty and the shenanigans we get up too. So far I have fitted some rock sliders and a heavy duty to bar (for the boat) to Broostah but surgeon fees will put the kibosh on anything more for the next six months or so.

Kick Starting the AWI

Something I have toyed with in the past is pledging to a Kickstarter Project but like, I suspect, many of you I didn't fully appreciate what was involved. Well I have finally bit the bullet and kicked in for the Fife and Drum Kickstarter deal, after the shock of missing my chance with the Kingdom Death Project because of uniformed procrastination I wasn't going to miss another chance to help fund a talented new company and score a classy line up of sculpts in the process

Not only do you get the satisfaction of helping launch a project but you also get a tidy saving on your figures, I should stress though you shouldn't treat pledging monies as shopping. I kicked in $300 for the Cavalry Commander level pledge which should see some lovely Richard Ansell cavalry sculpts winging it's way in my direction early next year, cant wait.

The Fife and Drum range has been quite successful and very well received and this is reflected in the original goal and stretch goal levels that have been reached. Originally as a $5000 goal it is now over $20,000 !!! with a final stretch goal of $24,000.

last year I splurged and bought some of these lovely artillery pieces, enough for a small artillery park

So if like me, at first, you are reticent about the whole idea I would heartily recommend this Kickstarter project as a first off.

Fife and Drum miniatures can be found here http://fifedrumminis.blogspot.com.au/
and the Kickstarter page here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1937253848/fife-and-drum-expands-its-american-revolution-rang

For a better explanation and FAQ try looking at this TMP post  http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=311800

Not long to go so hop to it lads

all photo's via Jim Purky aka der alt Fritz

Last cut is the deepest?

This week marks what is, I hope,  the beginning of the end of the somewhat boring rounds of GP and hospital visits. An endoscopy on Thursday last to establish the next plan of attack (re the saw-bones) found some small troubles but they were pretty much in the ballpark with what the surgeon expected and he has scheduled me in for a fortnights time, yay!

The desired effect should be an upgrading of general enthusiasm, not least for the toys. I might even have enough patience for unending procrastination, a war gaming hallmark, although I doubt it is a virtue I want to encourage.

Obviously I'm going to have to orgy-anise my hobby time in to some sort of productive shape, I'm blowed if I can describe the shape it is in at the moment...... is distorted a shape? I could work on the "what have I got in the pile of shame" or "what am I going to want to play" one exceeds computation and the other has yet to surface so neither really form the basis for whipping things, especially time, into shape. Interestingly the pile of shame has not continued growing at it's normal alarmist rate during my down time, this is somewhat new, don't go imagining it hasn't grown at all, I'm not dead!

I will start going through the painting room while I wait for my big day, getting the paints back in some order would be useful and it would probably be useful if I wasn't such a hoarder/collector of paints. I don't know what you guys are like but I cant resist exercising the retail muscles whenever something new or untried is found paint and pigment wise. I could just about paint the bally house with all the pots...... hmmmm?