Bob's Iguana Bits

I was looking up stuff to do for Fallout. Images of the web are a great source of ideas. In the original Fallout game there was a stall called Bob's Iguana Bits, the brain child of Iguana Bob Frazer. Bob was actually selling chunks of human, not exactly the food of choice, even in the wasteland.

So I thought I'd do this. It took about twenty minutes of work, not a huge job but I am looking for something to do and I had the bits to hand. It will do as a little bit of table scatter. It's a little bit tall but close enough. If I was going to do any more, I think I would make them a little shorter.

Actually Done Some Painting...

...but not quite what I was expecting to paint. Although I now have a workbench to paint on, I am still scratching around for things that I can do. My eyesight is not brilliant so I depend on a magnifying lamp. I can find the lamp but I can't find the base. No problem I thought, I'll do some buildings. I use pins to keep these together and I can't find them either. So I went looking.

So....No pins and no lamp base. They are probably in a box in the garage. Which is piled high with sealed boxes. So using the lemons to make lemonade I found something that I can do. whilst searching I found some small castle walls. I got them in a shop in the Arndale in Manchester which I think has been closed for twenty years. I think I got them as an impulse buy. I had played in a HOTT game run by Chris Johnson at the MAWS wargame club and I never got round to getting a stronghold for the army I used. The army has never been used since and the walls have been sat in various boxes ever since. Not so much lead mountain as resin mountain.

 So...A nice little project seemed the obvious choice. The paint is almost the same colour as the resin. You can only really tell the difference because the unpainted one has some marks on it.

So...I have the urge and a bit of time. I am now looking for something else to do. I was goin to have a play about with doing some post apocalyptic I started on this then realised that I had no  sand. It looks a bit little bit poop but I am sure that it will work out.

So...I'll look around and see what I can do.

I have an idea that these could be used for a fallout game. They might well be of use to a HOTT game in 15mm. I guess they have some scope for the skyrim/viking game but they are a littlle on the small side for that. Other than that, I have no idea.

Now I need to varnish them. Guess what, I can't find the varnish either.

A Newish Workbench

Well I have put as much into the workbench as I am going to, at least for the time being. It's just getting in the way of me doing stuff and it was starting to rind me down. A lot of the stuff I do for shelving is a little over engineered. This is not what I have done here. This is a temporary measure whilst I wait to move. The phrase wired together with flexi cord and spit springs to mind but if I am going to move it might be some time. It is also looking like I might be staying in Warrington which is no bad news.

We are having a bit of a make down and mend thing at the moment (that's repair reuse recycle to some). so most of the selves are stuff I have previously owned, torn down and stuck back together. I am not really happy with it as I am too far away from the paint but at least it works.If I was doing it again there are a lot of things that I would do differently.Not least of which is buy a table saw.

I did think of painting it white. The whole thing is going to get chavvy, I mean shabby chic'ed by my other half, so I guess it doesn't really matter. The white would  give me a bit more light. The spot I am in now has a lot less light to play with so I am going to need something.

Now where's my brushes...

Poop

Well things proceed as normal. The house fell through two days before I was due to exchange. It appears the owners of the house had been holding back a load of information that the solicitor said would make it unsalable.

So everything is in boxes. Every mini, every paint pot and every brush is boxed up and ready to go. But I am not. Then I was looking at somewhere that is a bit of a fixer upper but is massive. There would be shed but maybe there is a spare room and a cellar that could be put to some use. However I have since decided that it is too close to falling down to take a punt which is a shame.

My dad did get me a new lap top but for some reason, the net at home does not work. This has gotten worse after someone pushed the router over and it fell four feet. Not to mention a battery issue and it has no DVD player. So I haven't been able to do much online either. I have had to go out of the house to do this, but that feels pretty good too.

So as I am going to be here for a little while at least, I wanted something to do so I have a bit of a side project which is a new workbench. I have been wanting to make my workbench into something that I can cover up to stop it getting dusty, jumped on by pets and the like. Mst of all it needs to be somewhere were I can get all my stuff in the same place and out of the way.

So I got this. It's a second hand Ikea computer desk which has seen better days. My other half even things that it could go in a reception room. So I might not be sent to the shed/garage/cellar/attic.  On the downside she wants to paint it in a chavvy chic, shabby chic way. I blame it all on Kirsty Allsop. Sadly there are laws against what I think should happen to Kirsty Allsop for filling the minds of the female gender with ideas like shabby chic. So I am hoping that my other half resists the urge.

So the plan for the cabinet is to put shelves for the paint pots around the make section of the desk. I want to run some lights around the top of the main area, probably some LED lights across the top. My magnifying lamp won't fit properly so I will have find a way to attach it to the outside and I also want to have a table lamp in there somewhere. I am hoping I can figure out a way to put a socket in there somewhere so I can power a glue gun or other tools.

As there is some scope for running cable up the back, I might not attach the shelves to the unit and get some board to run up the back. The same goes for the sides as there are extenders to bring the table supports out so I will have to find a way to protect them too.

Then I want to put the plastic draws on the shelf above that. Maybe there will be some space for nick nicks and all the other junk.

When I move and I have access to the tools, I would like to put a pane; underneath so that I can slide the plastic really useful tray underneath. This would also stop the top of the chair arms bumping into the the desk top which is currently vexing me a little.

Above that more storage I expect that this will be a pretty mixed bag of stuff that get used fairly frequently but not for every day stuff. I may find the space for a few books and maybe an old stereo I have lying around. Above that, I don't know yet, some more storage I guess.

I'll see where it goes.

Looks Like The Move Is On

Nagging! I have had enough of being nagged. Even though the move is a long way off I am getting nagged to start boxing stuff up and most importantly labeling it. I am pretty much against this as the last time we moved, nearly all of my worldly goods were boxed up for three months before we moved. I ended up getting my paints ut and sitting at the dining table for about three weeks.

Today I have been told to label stuff up where I want it to go when we move. As an example I did this....

Some People have no sense of humour.

Good News

Well, I have a laptop again. Thanks dad. I have money in the bank but my other half has forbid me from using it before we move which might be a couple of months yet. The thought of having no laptop for months after someone in the house breaking it and not owning up has been doing my head in.

So I have two projects on the horizon. The first is some weird war 2 as an RPG. There is some savage worlds stuff that I am using a place to start. I have got some British Paras from Warlord. These are set to be the core of the players and their team. I got a good deal on some Warlord minis. On the downside the big box was half empty but but the shop and Warlord treated me very well. They even threw in some extra transfers. I guess I have a few bits that are not going to be much  use. I might have to take up Bolt Action or I may just sell them. I will have to get a few more and of course some more to put them up against. Artizan are looking good for some PC types and maybe some enemies but I alsolike the idea of guards from Wargames Foundry. The game will be more like the beginning of Hellboy than massive metal battle armour.

I am also looking at a new work bench for when I move. This is probably going to be something that can be hidden away so I am thinking a bureau/writing desk/roll top desk. I am hoping to find something cheap on eBay. As I am already starting to pack stuff up, this might be something I can do on the side.

The packing process has made me think about all the half started projects that I have started. I am hoping that I will be able to do something about that soon. You never know, I may even gets some pictures.

End Of The Beginning

I watched a lot of the coverage of the start of World War One. Instead of the usual images of going over the top there was a lot about the men themselves. The shows seemed to talked about the men rather than the war. It was about celebrating them not the costly victory four years later. I am old enough to have met a few of the survivors. From what I am told about them they almost never spoke about the war. Those that did never spoke about the trenches. My family has two death plaques. These were for men I could have and should have known.

I am a wargamer but I aim to learn from it not to glorify it. As David Drake said “The use of force is always an answer to problems...[It] isn't an attractive answer, though.” I am sure the men on the Somme felt the same and I am sure the residents on either side of the Gaza border or in the Ukraine feel the same now.