A Farewell, a Sunday Walk and Some Figures

 Yesterday, Monday 26 September, was the official New Zealand Memorial Day to mark the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. A public holiday as declared and official events held across the nation. Here are a few images from the web of the main ceremony in our capital city, Wellington.

The day prior, my wife and I headed out for a relatively local bush walk, as below

A surprising discovery in one of the busy suburbs of east Auckland, Howick:

And finally, the last batch of twelve Brigade Games RCW troops have been completed, in a mix of different shades of khaki/green uniforms.

I think that is probably more than enough RCW troops for any game I will be playing in - in truth, I probably have far too many, but they have been great fun to paint! I might be able to justify more cavalry or a few command groups, but probably that's more or less the end of painting for this collection. 

What's next? Well, could be a bit of an expansion of the small WWI in East Africa collection - I always intended to get some Germans as well as the British/Indian troops already painted - but as the figures would like come from Brigade Games, that may have to wait until the NZD goes up a bit against the USD - currently at 58c US to the NZD, I can remember buying Old Glory at 85c US to the NZD about five or six years ago!

Thanks for stopping by for a look and all comments will be greatly appreciated and acknowledged!

RCW Bolshevik Head Swaps

 These additional female Bolsheviks were completed almost a week ago, but I have been a bit busy and lacking in motivation by the time I am home from work, so have spent most of my evenings watching "Bordertown" on Netflix!

With the exception of the leader, who is a Copplestone Bolshevik Heroine, these figures are Brigade Games with a head swap.

The heads used came from a variety of sources........

.....Anvil Industry in the UK....

...Victoria Miniatures from Australia via a distributor in the US....

.......and Statuesque Games, again from the UK

Here are the figures themselves

Statuesque head on left, Victoria Miniatures on right and Copplestone Heroine as cast in the centre, These images give a good impression of how well Brigade and Copplestone figures work side by side.

Statuesque to the left again, Anvil Industry in the centre and Victoria Miniatures to the right

Final batch has two Ushanka wearing Victoria Miniatures heads, while the dark-haired lady on the right is again from Statuesque

No gaming this week, and I really could have done with an invitation to Julian's after work yesterday, as the trip home that might normally take 50-70 minutes took me 2.5 hours! This was because of congestion caused by a mass exodus from the city, due to the fact we have an unscheduled three-day weekend, courtesy of Monday being the official Memorial Day for our late Queen. Hopefully, another game is in the offing soon. Until then, I shall just carry on painting and posting PB&J items!

Its That Time of Year.......

 Spring began in New Zealand on 1 September, and this week, our clocks go forward an hour for Daylight Saving. With the imminent arrival of better weather, it's time to start getting outdoors again for some walks. This past weekend, however, my dear wife wanted a lazy Sunday, so I just took our dog Sam for a walk over at the Alexandra Redoubt, near Tuakau.

A short video of the tranquility of the bush - great for restoring your soul!

Classic New Zealand fern

A nice, tidy and colourful rural cemetery about 500m from where we walked

View across the surrounding countryside

Boys will be boys - evidence of some "doughnuts" on the quiet rural intersection!

On the outward trip, I was struck by the attractive symmetry of some of the fields, and stopped on the way back to take a couple of pics

Oranges (above) and Lemons, say the bells of St Clements.....

Existing and newly planted strawberry plants, ready for a bumper crop come Christmas, hopefully!

No toy soldiers tonight but some are painted so will be another post soon I expect!

Finally, I had a late night - well, till 2am Tuesday morning actually - watching the Queens funeral ceremony at Westminster Abbey. I did not see the cortege reach Windsor, I had to get up again at 6am so thought I better have a few hours' sleep!  Here are a couple of images from the web

May she rest in eternal peace.