Odds and Ends

 The "restoration" of my house is going at a snail's pace. Still no floor. The guy who is going to fix some of the cabinets is supposed to show up tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've been trying to do a million things at once. Most of it related to the college application process for my daugher. 

Oddly enough, I've had a little time to do some painting. As I might have said before, I'm trying to reduce the pile of lead. This is mainly in the fantasy/medieval category but I've done some painting on my 3mm modern figures. Additionally, I have been making a bunch of very crude ship counters representing various modern ships for the naval portion of the Bovatopia campaign. This way I can test out various rule sets. I might extend this heresy to earlier eras. 

Just a few pictures here:

Essex 15mm Swabian Swordsman:

Why is he included, unpainted? I ordered three packs of these guys and out of the three packs, I only got one figure of this pose. Very annoying. This isn't the first time this has happen lately with Essex. Shame on you Essex!

Demonworld (now Ral Partha Europe) Beastmen command:

These guys have been waiting to be painted for probably well over 20 years! Not sure why I never got to them because I've painted a bunch of the armored rank & file. The tree in the background was also made recently. It took a lot longer to make than I expected.

Recent purchase: Hexplorer magnetic hexes:

Found this company on Facebook called Headless Hydra Press. They make small, magnetic-backed hexes called Hexplorer Mag Tiles for RPG campaigns. They measure about 1.5" face to face. They are very thin. Thinner than those little calendar magnets that you get from your insurance agent to put on your refrigerator. I got two ocean packs for playing hex-based naval battles. They would work well for 1/6000 ships, or slightly larger if you don't mind the overhang. You get 30 for $13, which isn't a bad deal. I will probably order another pack or two. It would be nice if they were a little thicker, but I can't complain about the price. I just need to figure out what to mount them on.

Among other things, I've been building this for tomorrow's annual Bristol TN/VA Christmas parade: 

Normally, Ivan's Boy Scout troop marches in the parade carrying a HUGE American flag. It spans the entirety of main street. It's pain to carry, plus I am not sure why for a Christmas parade. I have no issues when we carry it in the Veterans' Day parade, or the 4th of July parade, but not for Christmas. This year, the troop leader who owns the flag won't be making it to the parade (pretty much no one complained about not carrying the mega-flag), so the leaders decided for the scouts to build little cars that you wear to look like the pinewood derby cars. They said to make them simple. So, naturally, I went far beyond what I should have. Hot glue gun is now my best friend! It is almost done and I will post the final product in a future post. BTW, do you notice the lovely floor?