Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

October was a good mix of hobby activities  I used a fair bit of my hobby time to play (see Gaming below) and also continued chipping away at the project pile. Completed Early on in the month I finished the 6mm Seven Years War Austrian Grenadiers from Baccus.  I'd started these in September and had put them to one side, as I wasn't enjoying painting them.  I'm pleased to say that I got over that once I'd applied myself and I got them done quite quickly.  I wasn't that fussy and I've now got four battalions ready in short order.  I use the same number of figures per unit as for larger scales (which I know lots of gamers don't see the point of), but it works for me.  It keeps costs down, means you actually get to play rather than be continually painting, is easier for storage and I can field more units in my limited playing area.  And what works for me is all I need care about.  I then turned my attention to the last of the 20mm buildings for the An...

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...

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...