No news for the next 2 weeks

I'm off to the beach for the next 2 weeks. I really hate the sand and the sun, but the kids love it (well, as soon as the first mini wave his they come running back to Kim  and me, so....yeah). Just hoping it won't be too crowded, it's the first time since I was a kid I'm going on a holiday in the middle of the holiday season. I'm taking some light reading, a few kits and my notebook with me, as well as my copy of the solitaire B-17 boardgame. Other then that, not much, as we have a tiny car and no tow hook.

Cu guys in a fortnite :)

Possible beach that I will be visiting. May not look anything like this. Maybe it will. Who knows.

Transformers!

Catch of the week, traded for the cargo part of a 1/25 scale truck trailer. It's a load of round parts, steel beams and these 3 guys.

Great big transformers, that will do for TNT and Gaslands alike. Just need individual, but matching basing so I can slot them together of keep them seperate. I want to get these painted asap.

It will most likely be my last catch as well. Some stuff is still en route to me, but my hobbyfunds are all dried up atm. I've been shoving most of the proceeds of the sales back into my bankaccount but with both of us on benefits and expenses that are bigger then our mutual income, it is a uphill battle and decided I will stop purchasing stuff untill Crisis. So no orders for new mini's, no more new secondhand plastic and preferably cut down on my trips to the second hand stores.

The bright spark in all this is that I have found a place that would like me as an intern for 2-3 days a week for 2 maybe 3 months and maybe a job after that, who knows. I don't start till late August though.

...which gives me more then enough time for our 2 week holiday and time to clear out more stuff up for sale and get some more work done on comissions as those are needed to pay for the hobby for the time being. Also, I have tons of kits to keep me busy for the time being so spending money on that should not be a priority at all.

And thx to this Blog, Lead Legeonaries, I'm now pretty convinced I can make a shantytown easily enough using the foamcutter and cast off foam to make blocks to build the huts on for a shantytown. His work looks lovely and I will enjoy copying it.

On a personal note, some minor changes/events: My girls turned 4 yesterday and we kept the party pretty low key as we didn't have much spare cash after putting most of into a single gift for the girls.....a nice big pink trampoline with safety net etc. And they love it! And for me personally, while my knee still hurts as always, I've been having a lot less resistance while walking and cycling and I'm pretty chuffed about it. It's also been 4 weeks now since I last drank any sort of softdrink, and I now just drink bubbly or regular water and my health has improved a lot. A tone more energy, no more urges for late night snacking, and a general better feeling. Just lovely :)

The only issue ai have atm if that my focus has gone to shit. I'm just building as I feel like, with no clear goal, and I want to change that. I've set up a painting challenge on my Dutch Battlegroup page (2x Recce unit in August) to get some focus, plus I should be working on creating more Gaslands industrial scenery, and just keep the rest low key and not on a priority list.

And that is it for today. Tomorrow is the last day in daycare for my girls so we are having a small party at school, for which Kim and I got very creative. Just need to make some last minute things in the morning and then we are set.

Scourge of the Partisans

As a friend of mine has a bag of Gebirgsjäger ready for me, why not add a small force to fight the Partisans, and allocate some top of the line equipment to them?

 

The S-Models Pz. Kpfw 35S739(f) is a really nice model. Main body is quick enough to build, then some fiffly plastic parts and finally some Photo etc, my first ever. If you take your time these bits aren't terribly hard to add. I used a toothpick, a drop  of superglue and my round punches to roll the photoetch with and it came out ok I guess. It should look nice in grey, and I need to practice that on something (not this model!).

As I am aiming for this:

 

...I might need to add a antenna pot for a German radio to the turret as well. Who knows. For now she is going in the ready for paint pile, and her unbuilt buddy back in the stash.

Goobye Photobucket.

After a week of downloading photographs, hounded by errors, automated "Are you a human" checks and really weird download times, I have just finished downloading the last of my folders and deleted my last account.

Photobucket

May 2006 - July 2017

If you had been worth the money I would have supported you. But now you died because of your own greed.

With my exams finished for now (Passed my last Sales exam with a 9/10) and the holiday started I can take some time in the evenings to sort out all of the folders and see if I need to upload it to the Blog or find the funds for a paid hosting site. We'll get to that eventually.

A shout out goes to the Yodel courier company. As in: "My God, you are bunch of c*nts". They stamped my express package to Piers 2 days after I sent it, and then it went missing and you can't complain about that untill a waiting period of almost 3 weeks. So I complained right away, and complained again on the 10th as I was told to.  This morning his wife found it when opening the door to walk the dog. Nobody knocked or rang the door. She didn't sign off on it (so they forged the signature). The box has a large tear in it so god knows what is broken or missing. FFS. I've looked at using courier companies but the quotes I get for a 1 kg package of the same size are ridiculous, as I get quotes ranging from 65 euros all the way up to 130 euros. I can fly myself and the package to his place for cheaper!

Right, back to business.

 Partisan 75mm mountain guns are built and based. Just need to drill out the barrels and add the hand spikes of these and the German guns and then they are ready for paint.

Also started work on another Blitz wreck and I'm trying something new.

Opening up the door is a lot of hard work but I will hope it will look the part.

 

It's wrecking time!

Decided to make good use of a underscale Daimler Dingo, in this case the one you get in the Monty's Caravan box.  As I prefer the S-Model version, this one will get a second lease of life as a completely burnt out model. Wheelnubs come from the 1/76 Matchbox LRDG set.

Waiting for everything to dry and set and then it is straight in line for the stuff I want to prime this week. I've left off anything that dates it too much, like fuelcans, so it can be used as a fully burnt wreck for the BEF, Afrika and Normandy etc as well. The green blob to the right of the vehicle is a officers hat btw, salvaged that off of the hard plastic officers inside the box.

Out with the old, in with the....less old?

As my PC was shutting down twice a night by crashing, I figured it was time to get a new one. Not having spare funds for that, it was a bit hard to find anything on my budget, but after selling some more stuff and with 200 euros cash in hand I found a 5 year old Gaming PC. After 3 evenings of work I manegd to get it to run properly and accept my old HHD drive (well, one of them anyway). I just need to purchase 2 more plugs so I can run the DVD player and my second HDD as well. But those are only a couple of euros each and can wait till after my holiday. It's a lovely PC, it can run 2 screens which would be nice if it wasn't for the fact it does not recognise my old 19 inch back up screen....If I can find a nice 22 inch or bigger one for a cheap price locally I'll be sure to allocate some funds for that....but again, no rush.

The PC barely misses out running Fallout 4.....which is a blessing in disguise as it would mean I would get lost behind the pc again for months. Still, a bit of shame.

Anyway, I did some modelling in between the PC, sick kids and my studies. Finally made the Italian Commandtruck  using the Italeri Lancia 3R0 90mm truck and the venerable Matchbox Monty's Caravan. It's not the cheapest of conversions for what essentially is just a Communications Relay Truck but I will paint it in weathered sand, Italian licence plates and plenty of dust covering those so it works for my 8th Army as well as Italians/Germans in the future. So I spent 25+ euros for just one truck? Not really :) 2 kits combined make 1x Comms Relay Truck, 1x Bison Concrete Bunker Truck, 1 burnt out Dingo wreck and one spare 90mm AA gun that will find a place on my Britannia trawler (when I find it again) to make it a Italian sub-chaser.

 

The conversion is super easy, just shave a bit of the bits sticking out from the cab and use a plasticcard spacer to mount the office body on top of the truck and that is it. I've changed the canopy mounts for brass wire for strength though. I will now make a small generator and 2 poles with wire strung between them to complete the look.

The tiny guns you see are 2 WIP HäT Skoda 75mm Mountain guns. I've bought these for my Partisans only to find out the Gebirgsjager used them as well so these, after some work to add extra armoured flaps on the front and opening up the viewports, are meant for the future Gebirgsjager I want to trade with a friend. The Partisan ones will be stripped down by removing the armoured plate. Les sweight, so easier to handle and conceal, that is my reasoning behind that.

Tomorrow is my last exam, and after that, weather permitting, I want to get on with painting stuff again as I have debris, Gaslands cars and other assorted bits lined up for painting.

Did not buy webspace yet, still looking into that and ways to fund it. 

I'll leave you with the useful parts of a job lot I picked up from Marktplaats that arrived on friday.

 These will become wrecks, as the decals are missing and I need the wheels and the 1/76 scale makes it does not fit well with my 1/72 stuff. I intend to pick up some resin ones for these when I finally get to it.

 Nothing I'd buy normally but the tent is nice (after some work) and the rest is ok for scatter I guess.

The sole reason for buying the lot. I've had a standing request for this ever since proofreading Tobruk, and no one had any spare and the Ebay prices are ridiculous. So I lucked out, again. Will look nice in Desert Sand camouflage. I've also managed to find an Auster and 2 Pipers for Normandy but those haven't been delivered yet.

Now, back to my studies.

Things are going to change around here. Well, they have already tbh.

Right, the 30 day challenge is over, and I've spent almost the entire week after clearing, cleaning and sorting. Atm my room looks like this:

 Hobby Desk and 10 little Moppe. I have 13 now, plus 4 precursors and 3 non Ikea ones of about the same size :) The Alex is one I picked up on saturday for 30 euros after taking a small break when cleaning and seeing a FB post pop up in a local salesgroup. As these cost 100 euros new and are perfect for painted miniatures storage, I jumped on it. And the grey Helmer will be joined by a white one that I will pick up tomorrow afternoon. Yes, that will mean the entire table is blocked....it's the sacrifice I'm making to make sure I max out on storage space in what little room I have. As all 3 cabinets are wheeled I can just roll them aside when  I want to paint or use the airbrush....I don't like doing either in front of the PC anyway, I need to focus and the light is better on that end. For now, the 3 cabinets will be just for the small for sale stuff so I can just grab it when it is sold and put new stuff in that is listed, all in one place. The yellow labels are bits I need to sort into sell, trash or store.

 Computer Desk (+ Hobby Desk while running Netflix or Youtube) with Red cabinet that houses all of my Airbrush stuff (airbrush, paints and compressor plus all the tools needed). Doubles as a mobile tray to put my keyboard on when doing hobby stuff in front of the PC. My main Whiteboard is on the right...I still need to mount up 2 rails beside it so I can store my games mats there. To be quite honest I might remove it altogether.....I'm not using it for any real purpose, I just stick on stuff I find interesting. Might replace the half size half width cabinet with a half widt full size then, and a topper, and shelves next to it to have a better place for my printer and other stuff to clear my PC desk some more. I would like to get my PC off the floor.

 Storage Cabinets with Daily Notice Board for home, training, sales etc. The one of the right has all my spare parts and resin and metal kits waiting for me, the left one is mostly plastic kits now.

 Battletable / Holding Area for sold items or items that need to be photographed for sale. All that stuff needs to be gone this week, completely cleared just like the floor.

 Random thoughts whiteboard - needs to be stripped down this week in preparation for brainstorming the next term after the holiday. Too cluttered as well. Yech.

 3 of my 4 Alexes and my PSC/FtF and S-Models stash. having the black boxes upthere  is not perfect but it will have to do for now. The rails are for adding storage space above the door, as I can fit 6-7 Pappe upthere and that would be perfect for my collection of houses and foamscenery (current and future).

Storage Cabinet and Paint Cabinet. Also Blog Whiteboard with my planned topics and my Hobby Whiteboard with things I need to buy or sell (long term planning). Storage cabinet is a unsorted mess that does not have the highes priority right now but it is a mix of finished, unfinished and God knwos what stuff that is an eyesore to me. The Purchase board (or better said the "I'd like to have" - Board makes it very easy to put my needs on a board. I'm perfectly happy waiting for a convention where a certain trader will attend, or add up things over time from a single seller so I can do a more economical order (shipping cost wise).

I've worked my ass off this week, Kim is extremely happy and she really hopes I will keep everything as clean as possible. As do I! I have to put up some sort of Clean Desk policy that triggers me when either I get in the room, want to leave it or both. I'll work on that tomorrow. Something else Kim is very happy with is this:

This is attatched to the door to my Hobby room. Stemming = Mood. Green, yellow or red smiley. I think it speaks for itself. This way Kim knows how I'm feeling before she comes in, if she comes in at all, as I'm not very good at communicating how I feel (yes, odd, innit? I have no such trouble Blogging about it, but, I'll be damned if I can manage that face to face with my wife). Underneath I write down my goal(s) for that week. Simple, a tad childish even, but it seems to work.

I did take out some time to do hobby stuff as well. Cobbled together a Pegasus T-34/85, gave it a metal barrel, and didn't use the outer roadwheels but replaced them with the T-55 roadwheels from the PST kit. This way it represents a T-34/85M and it and the second one I will build this week will go straight into my Yugoslavia box. The second box of 2 T-34's will be built as is and will go into my Lebanon pile as PLO tanks. It nees some work before it is finished, like handrails and a mount for a .50 cal.

Second thing I built is the Italeri Church I picked up a couple of weeks ago. It is BIG! Then again, it is a church, so what do you expect. It works for quite a few spots around the Mediterranian, though mine is intended for Yugoslavia (WW2 and Modern) as well as Italy (when we get there book wise). I glued the entire thing shut and did not close up the windows for a change. It's suitable dark inside that it just looks lack and that is fine for me. The bell tower roof lifts off so you can put a figure in there if you wanted to. Might look nice in pictures but not really needed right now. I finished filling all the slits today and I just need to magnetize the spot where the cross will fit. The kit one is very weedy and will most likely break by just looking at it. I'll make a second mounting point on the bell tower top, then make and base 2 crosses and magnetise the undersides. That way, if someone knocks it it will just come off without breaking.

And that is it really. I could start about the Photobucket thing again, but when I started looking at my older Blogposts a ton of the mostly older ones are completely gutted so I will have to look into it. Eventually.

And with final note, I've been soda free for over a week now. My body stopped asking for it after a few days and I now have more energy, but as soon as I feel a bit sad or stressed I can practically hear my brain screaming for it. That should be gone in another 2 weeks. This time I will not make any exceptions. No soda what so ever, diet, sugerafree or whatever. Atm it's just tea, water and water with a couple of drops of syrup in it and nothing else. I'm not even having sugar in my tea, or milk.....I've become so uncivilised :)

And a second, final note, as my PC tends to pack up around once or twice an evening I've been on the hunt for a second hand Gaming PC. Not because I want to game, but those tend to be much better equipped for the needs I have for a PC that a standard office desktop like the one I have now just cannot handle. After complaining to Kim about my PC for the 1000nd time, I went online to Marktplaats and found a single one with very nice stats (as in way, way better then the wreck I have now) and managed to talk him down to 200 euros. 5 years old, good enough for the next 2-3 years I guess (hope). it's abit of a drive, but I can pick it up on tuesday evening. Fortunately I sold 100 euros worth of storage boxes last week so at least half of it is funded......it just means I have to list even more stuff this week to make up for it.

Right, a test exam tomorrow to see how well I know my stuff, and then I have the rest of the week to train myself before the final exam before the holiday starts, and after that only 2 more exams and them I'm done :)