Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

This is the longest update for quite some time, as August has been a very successful hobby month.  Although I've been very busy in the real world too, I seem to have got into the flow and organised my time better.  I haven't agonised over things and just got them done.  I've also played a few games which I find motivates me to do more. Completed Quite a few things finished this month: Essex Miniatures15mm late 15th Castilian jinetes for the Fall of Granada project.  I started these last month and got them polished off in the first week of August.  This gives me a couple of units for the 2/3rd sized units I am initially using for Lion Rampant.  The 20mm Indian/Afghanistan buildings that I'd assembled and textured last month were next to be worked on.  Before painting them, I'd spent some time looking at photos of Punjabi buildings, some of which were very colourful, so rather than do the usual creamy white ones, I gave these very earthy tones.  The...

I picked up a box of Plastic Soldier Company M4A3s in the summer and it's taken me until January to finish them. They're very nice little models.  Although there’s not many parts, assembly was not as straightforward as it should have been because the kit allows you to make three differently armed versions and there's no  instructions included!  To cap it all the parts sheet that I found on the web differs to how the sprues are actually made up!  At one stage I'd looked at so many pictures of M4A3s trying to figure out what's what, that I thought I never wanted to see one again.   I spent some time deciding which versions to make and I wanted to make them as flexible as possible.  This is easier said than done because although there are separate parts for the 75mm and 76mm turrets,  there are only enough .50 cal turret HMGs and hatches to make five tanks.  However, by using spare Battlefront .50 cals and being crafty by not gluing on the hatch...

Real life certainly intervened in July.  The day before we were due to go on holiday we were woken with a family emergency and we lost the first few days of our holiday. This was a real shame and cast a bit of a shadow over what would have been a lovely break.  To cap it all I returned from holiday with a stinking cold which wiped me out for a few days.   All month I've been swinging between being quite motivated and having little interest in hobbying. However, in the later days of July, I made myself get on with some of the old shite that's been sitting about.  This has not only cleared up my table but also my mind.  Working on these simple pieces has given me some quick wins, helping to restore my motivation.  As I wrote this up and listed what I've cleared this month (especially bearing what's happened), I'm feeling quite satisfied.   Completed  Prior to all the drama and our holiday, I did manage to complete the few figures that were in p...