Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Hobby time was a bit limited in September.  At the beginning of the month, I was really busy with work and then we went away for a week. On my return, work was just as bad and home wise wasn't much better!  I’ve also spent a fair bit of time on retirement planning as thankfully it's not that far off now.   Completed I finished off the following: Essex Miniatures 15mm Castilian hand gunners.  These were very simple figures which didn't take too long to do. Essex Miniatures 15mm Castilian Gendarmes.  Horses aside, these were even simpler, being clad head to toe in armour!  I can't recall ever painting fully armoured figures and they're so easy.  The thought of adding more fully armoured troops to my Castilian forces just for ease of painting is very appealing! Essex Miniatures 15mm Granadan Noble Cavalry.  These took a bit more time to do.  I used a similar palette to the rest of my Moor force, but with deeper colours to try and reflect their s...

I lost my mojo at the end of May and this continued on through June.  It happens to all of us at times.  Sometimes a change of project or emphasis is all that's needed and sometimes you just grit your teeth and push on.  Sometimes a few days away from doing anything hobby related is all that's needed.  For the first half of the month I tried the first two of those options, but by mid June I had to use the third.  I had a couple of days of hobby cold turkey, with no hobby related activity at all including not even looking at any social media.   Then after a couple of particularly frustrating days in the real world, I felt the need to paint just to feel I was in control of something.  And that seems to have got me back on track.  I've kept up with limiting my phone use and looking at social media, news etc. and I'm finding that's helping.  There's so many arseholes out there, that even the good things can be spoilt.   The la...

May was a relatively productive month on the hobby front until the final week.  We had some really hot weather over the Whitsun Bank Holiday which put paid to any painting as my hobby table is in a South facing room.  As well as being unpleasantly hot the paint dries instantaneously!  I like the Summer for the extra light, but you can keep the stupid heat we now get thank you!  Prior to that point I'd worked on several different projects which helps to keep motivated and keeps them all ticking along.   Completed I got a few more disparate bits completed and off the table: The first item finished was the Airfix 1/72nd Bristol Blenheim.  Yes finally.  I started this back in October 2025 doing a bit each month.  At the end of last month I focused any hobby time I had to get it finished, which I did over the May Bank Holiday weekend.  It’s come out ok, but it’s very much a wargamers' model and I don't think any self respecting aero modeller ...

Well darn it, we're a third of the way through 2026 already.  April has been a bit less stressful month than March real world wise, just steadily working through my stuff. April always means Salute for me and you can read my thoughts on the show here .  The end of April is also where I take stock of my progress in the year to date.  You can see how I've been doing with my projects here and with gaming here . Completed Here's what I completed during the month: 20mm Platoon 20 French Indo-China War Vietnamese.  I completed four pairs of porters, a mule team and the artillery crew this month.  Porters and mules were a vital part of the Vietnamese war effort.  They add something a little different to the table and they've come out rather well.  I based the recoilless rifle and all the crew on small magnetised bases then made a base out of magnetic receptive sheet as I'd done for my Ancient Germans and Imperial Romans.  This gives me the flexibility of...