Hoi,
No, I am not going to talk about early medieval times. I am going through, what in lingua Fora is called, a "Dark Age" a certain period of time in which you are not entertaining your hobby/ special interest etc. In my case I have not painted anything in about 3 weeks. A brush? What's that again?
My new work and some personal circumstances have resulted in this time of inactivity. I am very anxious to start painting again and finish some of the running projects most of which the several WW1 projects but when I get home I am far too tired to even open the paint cans.
The silver lining will be this weekend as I will visit the DUCOSIM games fair again for some games of Battletech. I will keep you posted and hope to have some pics.
Cheers Sander
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Something different altogether...
Hoi!
Today's update is more or less just to let everyone know how I am doing, which is fine! Just before the summer holiday started I had a job interview at an exclusive Private School which, to my great surprise, hired me out of 4 candidates even though I did not have the right papers for said job. I didn't quite know what to expect having always been employed by big public schools, but during my visits to the school and the conversations with the Principal and staff I found myself liking them a lot and gaining respect for their aims in regard of how they are running the establishment. Just last week thunder struck and my own old school called in desperate search of a teacher in history and they could offer me a rather better perspective then the private school... so I had a hard choice to make. In the end I decided to go for my old school since they offered me more teaching hours (and thus more income), I would be working with old classmates and teachers who have taught me in the past and it is only 3 blocks from my present house...
The job-interview at my old school went well and I was duly hired, now I had to call the private school to tell them I would resign my commission. Those are the phone calls I dread, but as it happens the principal was very cool about it even if my resignation put them in an awkward position of needing to find replacement for me very fast...
So now I will start at my old school tomorrow and am very curious as to what is in store for me.
On the hobby front things have been very quite, some minor health issues have made me take a lot of rest this last week and not much painting has been done. I must also admit that for the present I am very sick of Feld Grau and as soon as those WW1 German cavalry are finished I am going to do some Napoleonic Prussians again as a counterweight.
Well that's all for now
Cheerio Sander
Today's update is more or less just to let everyone know how I am doing, which is fine! Just before the summer holiday started I had a job interview at an exclusive Private School which, to my great surprise, hired me out of 4 candidates even though I did not have the right papers for said job. I didn't quite know what to expect having always been employed by big public schools, but during my visits to the school and the conversations with the Principal and staff I found myself liking them a lot and gaining respect for their aims in regard of how they are running the establishment. Just last week thunder struck and my own old school called in desperate search of a teacher in history and they could offer me a rather better perspective then the private school... so I had a hard choice to make. In the end I decided to go for my old school since they offered me more teaching hours (and thus more income), I would be working with old classmates and teachers who have taught me in the past and it is only 3 blocks from my present house...
The job-interview at my old school went well and I was duly hired, now I had to call the private school to tell them I would resign my commission. Those are the phone calls I dread, but as it happens the principal was very cool about it even if my resignation put them in an awkward position of needing to find replacement for me very fast...
So now I will start at my old school tomorrow and am very curious as to what is in store for me.
On the hobby front things have been very quite, some minor health issues have made me take a lot of rest this last week and not much painting has been done. I must also admit that for the present I am very sick of Feld Grau and as soon as those WW1 German cavalry are finished I am going to do some Napoleonic Prussians again as a counterweight.
Well that's all for now
Cheerio Sander
Sunday, 17 August 2008
More Paris Pictures!
Now a positive tip for all visitors to Paris is the Printemps Shopping Gallery which has a Roof Terrace from which you have an awesome city-view. Oh don't get your hopes up about the drinks though, since the wine wasn't really that good but the view is spectacular! They even provide you with a cardboard diorama disc which tells you what buildings you are looking at, very nice indeed.
As most people visiting Paris, we went to the Louvre. Another tip: there are several Virgin Mega stores in Paris (one is located in the Carouselle du Louvre) and there you can buy tickets to the Louvre museum itself which we did the evening before our visit and it shortened our waiting time getting in the Louvre enormously! The Louvre is another of these highly touristical things to experience: so we enter the museum itself, along with hundreds of other people and everywhere you look there's signs saying "Mona Lisa Salles 6" so the crowd starts a stampede up the stairs towards hall 6. At the top of the stairs is a big statue, I can't for the life of me remember how it's called, and all the tourists (most of whom have a walk-man guided tour thingy) stop in the middle of the stairway to take pictures damming the flow of peoples going up! Then the rat race towards that Eternal Smile is on again. Running past all halls 1 through 5, I cannot tell you what is in there sorry, we were flushed straight into hall 6 for well a very small picture of a woman smiling condescendingly down at everyone, yes madam the joke's on us! After that we dived out of the mainstream of tourists and looked up the less familiar expositions. In the end we had a chance of seeing the ancient Greek and Roman Archaeological artefacts and the halls of paintings of the old French, Flemish and Dutch masters. I can now say I have seen some of the art pieces we hobbyists see in the reference books a lot in person! You know what else is strange? This museum houses one of the world's biggest and most important art collections right? So one would assume the museum has some kind of educational responsibility to the larger world audience right? So why are ALL the signs next to the pieces of art in French ONLY!? No I don't want an audio tour! I want to be able to read what painting or statue I am looking at and then converse about it with the people I came to the museum with. I must be mad...
Crowning of Napoleon and Joséphine
Do I need to introduce this one?
While walking back to the hotel that day we stumbled along a small scene on the side walk I could not help but photograph:
I call this piece of art: "The Toy Soldiers Demise"
Well that's all as far as I am concerned.
Au Revoir!
As most people visiting Paris, we went to the Louvre. Another tip: there are several Virgin Mega stores in Paris (one is located in the Carouselle du Louvre) and there you can buy tickets to the Louvre museum itself which we did the evening before our visit and it shortened our waiting time getting in the Louvre enormously! The Louvre is another of these highly touristical things to experience: so we enter the museum itself, along with hundreds of other people and everywhere you look there's signs saying "Mona Lisa Salles 6" so the crowd starts a stampede up the stairs towards hall 6. At the top of the stairs is a big statue, I can't for the life of me remember how it's called, and all the tourists (most of whom have a walk-man guided tour thingy) stop in the middle of the stairway to take pictures damming the flow of peoples going up! Then the rat race towards that Eternal Smile is on again. Running past all halls 1 through 5, I cannot tell you what is in there sorry, we were flushed straight into hall 6 for well a very small picture of a woman smiling condescendingly down at everyone, yes madam the joke's on us! After that we dived out of the mainstream of tourists and looked up the less familiar expositions. In the end we had a chance of seeing the ancient Greek and Roman Archaeological artefacts and the halls of paintings of the old French, Flemish and Dutch masters. I can now say I have seen some of the art pieces we hobbyists see in the reference books a lot in person! You know what else is strange? This museum houses one of the world's biggest and most important art collections right? So one would assume the museum has some kind of educational responsibility to the larger world audience right? So why are ALL the signs next to the pieces of art in French ONLY!? No I don't want an audio tour! I want to be able to read what painting or statue I am looking at and then converse about it with the people I came to the museum with. I must be mad...
Crowning of Napoleon and Joséphine
Do I need to introduce this one?
While walking back to the hotel that day we stumbled along a small scene on the side walk I could not help but photograph:
I call this piece of art: "The Toy Soldiers Demise"
Well that's all as far as I am concerned.
Au Revoir!
Back from Paris!
Hoi you all!
Well we're back from Paris and had a blast! We have seen quite a lot of the city's highlights (maybe not all from the inside but hey what do you want if you only have 5 days?) and I am very content having seen all these things. Of course my main interest was our visit to the Musée de L'Armée in the Domes des Invalides, which was great even though the Napoleonic Gallery was closed for renovation. Inside the building one is allowed to make photo's but since it is not allowed to use flash and most of the pieces are behind mirroring-glass making decent pictures is very difficult. Therefore I did not make many pictures indoors, but was fortunate in finding some excellent books in the store with colour photographs of WW1 uniforms of the museum's collection.
One of the things that really bothered me more then I would have guessed up front is how touristic some of the city's highlights are: when visiting Napoleon's Tomb we were rushed on all sides by tourists not really interested in the meaning of the place but rather in being able to tell the folks at home they had been there...
Okay, on to some pictures then!
De Domes des Invalides, where the Empereur has found his last resting place, although I doubt whether he has must rest what with all those people walking in and out...
Me with one of L'Empereurs Petite Filles in the inner courtyard
Me again, this time down at the lower level of the Tomb. Now it feels like I was just as bad as all those tourists running in and out....hmmmm
I will post some more pics in the next topic here!
Friday, 8 August 2008
Paris! Paris!
Hoi There!
There will be no up-dates for some days since I will be leaving for Paris for a week. Amongst other things I am going to visit the Musée de l'Armée. I have actually been there before some 10 or maybe even 12 years ago and did not quite appreciate what I was seeing back then being still a young lad only at the beginning of my military history studies. Same is true for Napoleon's grave...I will visit again now and with a lot more purpose and cherish the moment. I hope to make loads of pictures and some will inevitably find their way here.
Well till then,
Au revoir Sandére!
There will be no up-dates for some days since I will be leaving for Paris for a week. Amongst other things I am going to visit the Musée de l'Armée. I have actually been there before some 10 or maybe even 12 years ago and did not quite appreciate what I was seeing back then being still a young lad only at the beginning of my military history studies. Same is true for Napoleon's grave...I will visit again now and with a lot more purpose and cherish the moment. I hope to make loads of pictures and some will inevitably find their way here.
Well till then,
Au revoir Sandére!
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
You will remember this as the day...
...that Captain James Swallow would not led himself be captured on camera!
Okay so I tried indoors with a gazillion different camera options to photograph the little bugger, but would he let himself be captured on film? Noooohooooo! I had to go outside and even then the picture turned out to be not good enough to do this paintjob proper justice. Well judge for yourselves ye lubbers and freshwater sailors! Avast and all that...
Two pictures of his front-view, taken outdoors:
Different views of the Pirate Scoundrel, taken indoors:
hope you like him as much as I do!
Okay so I tried indoors with a gazillion different camera options to photograph the little bugger, but would he let himself be captured on film? Noooohooooo! I had to go outside and even then the picture turned out to be not good enough to do this paintjob proper justice. Well judge for yourselves ye lubbers and freshwater sailors! Avast and all that...
Two pictures of his front-view, taken outdoors:
Different views of the Pirate Scoundrel, taken indoors:
hope you like him as much as I do!
Oops I did it again!
Yes yes, I succumbed to the awful modellers disease of starting new projects before finishing the current ones yet again! While browsing the net for colour reference for Pirate-clothing I stumbled along the excellent Front Rank http://www.frontrank.com/index.asp and Crusader http://www.crusaderminiatures.com/index.php websites who have some really gorgeous figures in their assortment. Amongst them are ranges for the Seven Years War and I happen to have a large portion of Revell 7YW figures lying around. So I delved those up and started dividing them in two armies one Austrian (as all the infantry models are Austrians http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02574) and one British force of 6 (20 man) regiments each, amounting to two brigades. For the Brits I will need to do a lot of head swaps so I'll start with the Austrians for now. As it happens I had one box of aforementioned figures painted when a kid and these are now being re-done to create some Austrian Grenadiers and Line. After creating the regiments, taking care to match the right poses, I found that I wanted to do some test figures to see what colours I want to make my regiments in. The figures featured here are the first of them.
Because they were already painted (two times) with enamel paints a lot of the detail was gone or filled with paint, which now leaves these figures rough on the edges so to speak. Nevertheless I am quite content with how they worked out.
When re-painting old figures I tend to give them a better paintjob of their original one. For instance: I have two sets of painted Revell Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02576 which will remain Garde chasseurs, I also have some other unpainted sets of the same, for which I have different plans: one set will be turned into Dutch hussars of the Waterloo period and one or two others will be turned into elite companies of French line hussar regiments in Spain.
Same is true for Revell´s Life Guards http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02578 at the moment I have one set painted as Royals and the others as the Blues, this makes for a very silly mix of poses. I will redress this by painting all the resting poses as the Blues and the charging poses as the Royals. In time...when I’ll find time.
Oh on the work-in-process front: I actually finished Captain James Swallow today and took pictures, but they were not good enough for publishing so I will take new ones. I think he turned out lovely.
Cheers Sander
Because they were already painted (two times) with enamel paints a lot of the detail was gone or filled with paint, which now leaves these figures rough on the edges so to speak. Nevertheless I am quite content with how they worked out.
When re-painting old figures I tend to give them a better paintjob of their original one. For instance: I have two sets of painted Revell Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02576 which will remain Garde chasseurs, I also have some other unpainted sets of the same, for which I have different plans: one set will be turned into Dutch hussars of the Waterloo period and one or two others will be turned into elite companies of French line hussar regiments in Spain.
Same is true for Revell´s Life Guards http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=REV&code=02578 at the moment I have one set painted as Royals and the others as the Blues, this makes for a very silly mix of poses. I will redress this by painting all the resting poses as the Blues and the charging poses as the Royals. In time...when I’ll find time.
Oh on the work-in-process front: I actually finished Captain James Swallow today and took pictures, but they were not good enough for publishing so I will take new ones. I think he turned out lovely.
Cheers Sander
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