Thursday 25 April 2019

Distractions - Welcome and Otherwise

I was home Thursday last week waiting (OMG it is Thursday again today - has a week passed already...) for a service man for the garage door to come and tell me that the bearing on the garage door opening motor is shot and needs replacing. And by the way the springs on the door should be replaced too (I knew this and had been putting it off). The whole repair would cost $1200. Ouch! Still it has to be done and he will do the work tomorrow. This was an unwelcome distraction.

Still reeling from the thought of spending four months of toy soldier money on a garage door repair, I went back into the house and made a strong coffee. While that was brewing I saw that the May copy of Wargames Illustrated was ready to download. With the coffee brewed and armed with my new reading material I went outside to drink and read in the sun of a beautiful autumnal day.

The coffee hadn’t even wetted my lips and I hadn’t yet turned to the first page of my digital magazine when the BING-BONG of the front door bell disturbed my peace. Prising  myself from my sunny comfort I opened  the front door and there stood a smiling young woman with a bag of brochures under her arm.

“I hope I am not disturbing you (you certainly are I thought), I am from Contact Energy...” she said and there I butted in.

“Not interested thank you.”

“But I am not selling anything,” she protested.

Oh yes you are, I thought...your certainly not here out of the kindness of your heart to do the housework and mow the lawns for free.

“Not interested,” I said again a little firmer this time with a certain finality in the tone, and minus the thank you.

She smiled, shrugged and walked away. I closed the door and went back to my slightly cooler coffee. This too was an unwelcome distraction.

I hadn’t had more than a few sips and just turned the magazine onto the first of Observation Post pages when bing-bong. NOW WHAT!?

I was getting grumpy now as I left my comfortable sunny spot again and as I moved towards the door I heard a vehicle moving off. I open the door and was about to growl “not interested” when I saw the parcel. My heart rate increased although I knew what it is before I saw name of the sender. It was the first of the Perry plastic British Napoleonics. This was a very welcome distraction.

I immediately opened the box revealing the three boxes of miniatures therein. The first box of British infantry was quickly opened and the sprues removed and examined. Thirty minutes later the coffee had gone cold and the iPad had long gone into sleep mode, but the first six figures are glued up and fixed to old paint pots ready for painting.

Fast forward five days and here is the first full battalion, the 20th Regiment, completed for the Peninsular War (and War of 1812) with stovepipe shako. 




The plan for this force is that there will will be seven battalions a regiment of light dragoons and a couple of guns, all in the stovepipe shako. For once there will be no scope creep here because this will be a force to complement others in the group who are collecting British.

14 comments:

  1. Seeing your fine brushwork is a welcome distraction for me!
    “A force to complement others in the group...”. Hee hee. Yeah, right!

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    1. I need lots of distractions at the moment...life in the real world is chaotic at present. I will keep the brakes on this project, my friend Keith (below) has plenty of British to refight the entire Peninsular campaign.

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  2. A nice unit to start with Mark - I like your optimism here - no room for scope creep eh.....we shall see!

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    1. Mate, with all your Brits, together with Paul's and Adrian's we will have more than enough. I just want a few battalions to use with the Spanish and to fight the Americans in 1812.

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  3. Just seven battalions... about a couple of weeks work... then maybe just one more battalion to even things up...
    A nice looking distraction...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Twenty-two days to be precise...no make that twenty-six I have a few days out of town sometime next month. Of course I can use use some of the British in Egypt to supplement so long as I can live with them on desert bases.

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  4. Most beautiful additions!

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    1. Thank you Phil. There should be another battalion ready by the end of the weekend.

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  5. Lovely looking Brits! Of course I entirely believe there will be no scope creep, it's not like its happened before?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain. I think I will be able to manage the scope on this project becaus not only do others in the group have extensive British collections, I have the British in Egypt that can be used, and I besides have other armies I want to work on.

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  6. Very quick and lovely work with these Mark. Thankfully we don’t get many door to door salespeople as they can’t get past the big iron gate, but I am starting a run of having things repaired myself. The more conveniences we have the more there is to go wrong, and I sometimes think I just work to keep repair people employed.

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    1. Electricity supply (and broadband) providers are a scurge around here. Barely a week goes by without someone knocking at the door, but I didn't expect one at 9:30 on a Thursday morning! We have been in the house for 21 years this year, do things are beginning to wear out. Next big job is to repoint the concrete tiles on the roof, but that can wait until next summer.

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  7. Great Brits Mark. Also get yourself one of these "Do not Knock" stickers, solved problem nicely for us :) https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/do-not-knock/get-a-sticker

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    1. Thanks Mark. I have been reluctant to put up that sign because I don't particularly like signs, but is getting to the point where I may need to bite the bullet.

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