A Quartet of Completed Reivers plus a Couple of Buildings

OK I just figured out how to switch of the HTML view - don't know why anyone would think that was the optimum default view - but I guess if you are Mark S or Jonathan F and understand these things, perhaps it makes sense.... 

(I don't know why the text above is blue - see below for when this actually happened....when I did the cut and paste, all the other parts returned to black but I cant get this one to change font colour....)

 

Now I am in "Compose" view and it looks like I am able to do paragraphs again, although I have a feeling that Blogger is constantly "saving" as I type and this is causing a lag between what I type and what actually appears on the screen - although this may be driven by correction of errors as I have noticed that it happened a lot when I was having to backspace to fix up an error, but now I am being more careful where I put my fingers (as Bishop said to the Actress...) I managed to type most of the last two or three lines without any pausing...

 

 

I have completed four of the eighteen Reiver figurers that arrived on Friday. I have deliberately paced myself, as I do not want to complete them in a few days, and then have nothing to paint for a while!

 

I am hoping that in this view, I will be able to see the images and add comments below, as I used to do...If all you can see below is a series of pictures, then I will have failed and given up in disgust and just published as is!

 

Here goes...….hmmm....that did not go well - I tried uploading a single image as a trial - it turned up at the top of the page....I cut it and pasted it where I wanted but then could not add any comments. I seem to remember Mark saying something about doing the descriptions first then adding the images after but I cant be arsed faffing around like that so I am just going to load them all and you can work out what they are!

 

Also the issue with lagging/freezing is back big time and NOW for some reason the font colour has changed to blue and everything I have typed is  underlined - either the designers are taking the piss or this is a pre production version and they are testing it on the user....

 

The bloody photos appeared ABOVE all this text again - but I have figured out its seems possible to cut and paste the text above the photos - what a scutter this new Blogger is....

 

 

OK seems like I am now able to type as normal below the photos - so I could add descriptions but to be honest, this short post has taken over an hour and I cant be bothered fighting Blogger any more tonight - of course, it seems to be working fine now, my typing has not paused once since I loaded the images - maybe the trick is to load them first, then type your comments then move the comments around to where you want them to appear - but thats still a lot of hassle compared with how simple Blogger used to be...sigh!  FINAL NOTE - I spotted a couple of typos and went back in to edit - and now, most of the font is blue again - FFS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Border Reivers Arrive!

OK, here we go with the new Blogger... some like it, many hate it, I hope to get used to it....! I am not going to write too much in case I cock this post all up... just to say, about a week after placing the order with Hokahey Miniatures, the figures have arrived at my house - pretty much exactly the same service as I would expect in normal times - so well done Royal Mail, whichever airlines and airports were involved, plus New Zealand Customs and not forgetting New Zealand Post (even though they are the mortal enemy of my employer!) I am sure I will get one or two of these guys painted over the weekend, so watch out for constant posting, at least it should mean I become competent with the new way of doing things - I hope! Some of the figures are for my gaming mate Julian and the mdf Bastle House is for Rick - he has already purchased some figures. Hopefully it isnt too long till we can get together for face to face gaming and on that topic, I had my leave for our planned week long gaming extravaganza in late October signed off by my lovely boss today (she is lovely by the way, its not just a turn of phrase!) Here are the figures - fingers crossed I dont screw up loading them this time...

3eme Regiment des Lanciers de la Ligne Completed!

Hmm, strange, looks like I have defaulted to the new

w version of Blogger, so hopefully I have no problems or frustrations loading this post.....already seem to have had one, I have to use the ENTER key to move to the next line, if I just keep typing, the end of the line disappears off the right hand edge of the screen - thats not too bad thoigh - if thats all it is, I can ahndle that small inconvenience! Tonight I have finished off the basing on the last two stands of the hard plastic Warlord French Napoleonic Lancers. I think they have come out well and would happily buy another packet, although with three regiments in m y collection now, I think Hussars or Chasseurs a Cheval would be a more appropriate choice! The track and trace on my Border Reivers shows they have reached New Zealand, so now we only have the vaguries of NZ Customs and NZ Post to contend with - hopefully they will arrive in time for the weekend. I also bit the bullet and ordered a bunch of civilains from Fenryll, which have been dispatched from France today - good times! OK - I THINK I have attached images....but I cant see them. Tried preview and still nothing... so I am going to publish and see what happens - I wish people would just leave stuff that works alone! I hope you are safe and well, wherever in the world you are reading this. Here are the images:

Borders Buildings

As regular visitors will recall, my new project is skirmish level adventure amongst the Border Reivers, circa 1550-1605. I have finally this week ordered a few figures from the exquisite "Graven Images" range, now produced by Hokahey Miniatures. Hopefully these will be winging their way from the UK in the not too distant future.....

In the meantime, I have been constructing a number of appropriate buildings to use when we finally get the figures on the table. Progress on these has been about as fast as the current upgrade work on the Auckland Southern Motorway - six years and still counting - which is to say, glacial! It has not helped that I have not actually finished the first building I starter, the Pele Tower - and its not here tonight because I still haven't done all the basing - not to mention furniture for inside the rooms...

However, inspired by Mark over at 1866 and All That, who starts work on a building on a Monday night and by Friday, its completed, I have at last managed to finish off a few of the Reivers buildings, which are presented below

 

First up is a Bastle House, the typical defensive farmhouse of the border region. Access is by a second floor doorway, reached by a ladder that can be pulled up when Reivers come a calling...

 

Rear view with a four pot chimney

 

 

The interior of the Bastle House - the ladies are probably a bit over dressed for this more modest abode

 

The three village cottages I have constructed so far - pretty easy to do, so more will follow

 

Cottage One

 

Cottage Two

Cottage Three, with a small sheep pen at the rear

 

 

That's all for tonight - all buildings are constructed with card, balsa wood and match sticks, the stone walls, slate roofs and wooden doors/ floors are printed paper and the turf roofs are made from hand towels.

 

Weekend Progress

Over the past few days, I have completed another four of the Warlord hard plastic French Napoleonic Lancers. I have ended up with three of the five lancer bases including the 45 degree pose, which is fine. In the end, I didn't use the standard bearer arm nor the sword carrying arm, although I did convert one of the 45 degree arms with the help of a Stanley knife and one of the sword carrying arms - thanks Steve J!

I have also been slowly carrying on with the creation of buildings for our planned Border Reivers gaming, so hope to have something actually completed to post in the next few days - in the meantime, here are the four Lanciers…..