New from the Painting Desk

 A slightly longer gap between post than I had intended - not because nothing has been happening, but rather I have just felt a bit "meh" about putting anything on the blog - not sure why.

Anyhoo, I have got myself motivated enough to take some images and combine them with other stuff to come up with a substantial number of pics, and here they are!

First up - specially for Matt with his recently acquired interest in steam engines - these date from mid December when the local vintage railway at Glenbrook ran one of their locomotives via the main line into Pukekohe station around 2130 one evening - we heard the whistling and decided to head down for a look see.

Standard passenger services were still running - which quite impressed me, given it was around 10pm by this time!

The had a dirty old diesel hooked up to the back of the train to help push the steam loco along!

Next up some products of the garden - some of Ruths MANY dahlia's

And the last of the summer strawberries - the bowl is from about two weeks ago

And this small collection from about two days ago - quite amazing really when I recorded the first fruit on 11 November!

Chinese New Year marked at my work - The Year of the Horse, apparently.

Last Saturday, 21 Feb, we went to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - at Eden Park in Auckland!

The Tattoo ahs been to New Zealand before, but never to Auckland, so the last time I went I was about eight years old and it was August in Edinburgh - guess it was circa 1970!

I didnt take heaps of pictures because they wont be the best, but here is what I did take

It was the 75th anniversary of the first tattoo, so the massed bands manoeuvred themselves into the number 75 

The guard of honour formed by the RNZAF, NZ Army and RNZN

The guard marching off

My dear wife and I even managed to squeeze ourselves into appropriate gear - a gift from my parents before we left for New Zealand in February 1988! Mine is modern Hunting Ross tartan, Ruths is Bruce of Kinnaird because she had the name Bruce from Wick in her family history and Kinnaird was local to my hometown - from Wikipedia - Kinnaird Castle is a 15th-century castle near Brechin in Angus, Scotland. The castle has been home to the Carnegie family, the Earls of Southesk, for more than 600 years. It is a Category B listed building, and the grounds are included in Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland

Now - FINALLY - some toy soldiers!

These are Perry plastic French Chasseurs a Chevel - the 7eme Regiment, to be precise

A pink faced unit, so the bugler is pretty flamboyantly attired! Elite company on the right of the line wearing bearskin colpacks

I gave the musician and officer fancy headwear, too.

This Red Army WW2 Gaz truck has been painted for weeks

Its from the 3d printed stuff I received from Poland around Christmas time

The whole thing, including the driver, is one single print

It made painting the driver a slight challenge, but not insurmountable.

I got a couple of red stars from the Warlord tank decal sheet

A really nice model, I am very pleased with it - I just need another four or five!

That's all for tonight - off to Julians for a "Game of Thrones" game tomorrow - should be interesting!