Hello friends.
There has been a lot of painting at the Mad Padre's Painting Chapel but rather little blogging. That trend was made worse on Thursday last when I spilled a large mug of tea on my desk, and a considerable amount flowed into the USB and audio ports on my MacBook Air, which is a new and rather nice piece of kit. Alas, while I shook offending liquid out as best I could, the machine soon shut down and would not revive.
Rather panicked, I used my smart phone (feeling now that it was considerably smarter than me) and googled "Spilled Tea on my Macbook Air", A page from Apple Support advising me to take the computer into my local Apple store. Here's the funny bit. To make an appointment at the service desk, called the Genius Bar, one can't do so by phone. One must make the appointment on the internet. What would one do if one's only access to the internet had been disabled by, say, oh I dunno, a giant mug of tea? Fortunately I had acess to the interwebs, was at the store within an hour, and learned that the computer was probably salvageable, but that the cost of replacement parts would likely be $300, making it the most expensive cuppa I've ever had.
Oh well, to brighten my spirits, I present you with the latest installment of my OttoMania, a Spahi command group from The Assault Group, who make quite splendid figures indeed.
I had great fun painting these fellows, and bought some of the most garish paints I could find for the job, seeing as Spahi, as someone once said, rode to war as if dressed for a wedding. The commander has that vital sign of office, a white stick with a big gold ball on the end, no doubt quite useful for clubbing subordinates to announce that the O-Group is over or to punctuate delivery of sub-par performance reviews.
I quite like the fellow with the drawn pistol, a pose you don't always see with cavalry. He looks bound and determined to protect the chap with that ancient symbol of regimental honour, the red and gold thingy on a stick, His blue tunic is the most ordinary colour of the bunch - I had some Vallejo Luftwaffe uniform blue open for another figure and thought it would do ok. It's nicely offset by the shocking purple of his caparison, I think.
It's been a good few weeks for getting some projects done, and if I can negotiate more time on Mdme Padre's computer in the next few days, I'll put up some more work.
28mm Mounted: 13
28mm Foot: 22
28mm Artillery: 1
15mm Vehicles: 4
15mm Foot: 26
15mm Buildings: 3
6mm Buildings/Terrain Pieces: 2
Kilometres Run: 513
Blessings to your brushes!
MP+
Ouch! Sorry to hear of your tech troubles.
ReplyDeleteThanks Edwin. It actually turned out much more happily than I deserve.
DeleteThat was a rather expensive cuppa Padre. Glad to hear you got it sorted.
ReplyDeleteThose Spahi command group figures are splendid.
Thank you Tamsin.
Deletebeautiful brush work! Sorry to here that your MacBook, on the other hand that whole thing of booking an appointment only by internet does make want to bring the title of "Genious Bar" into question. On another note, can we expect to see Audet in action in the near future?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Is that you, FlightDoc? Yes, I would like to revisit Denis Audet in Normandy. I think Chain of Command might be the mechanism I'd use for combat. His platoon got severely decimated last time I played a game with him. I have been thinking abut some sort of reassignment.
DeleteActually no it's not Flightdoc, I'm a fellow Canadian wargamer from Montreal that frequents your blog, and has been inspired to start my own "Platoon Forward" campaign with Chain of Command come mid-June. Always on the look out for WW2 wargamers at least in the same time zone as myself. I usually play solo as it difficult to find others to play in my area.
DeleteVery nice and colorful. Apple doesn't consider anyone who can't assess the internet because say there Mac isn't working, not worth talking too.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful the advances in technology: providing us with unimagined new ways to break down, gang agley, or go phut. Or, if it is small enough, to get left behind in a plaza in Kuala Lumpur, left in the pocket of an about-to-be-laundered trouser, dropped down the jakes at work... Entertaining stuff, and such delights are not cripplingly expensive, unless you are financially on the bones of your b--. Being a humourless, crusty old coot, I spare myself such rib tickling amusements by not having such devices, but my PC, into the keyboard of which I have only the once shoved in a cup of really hot sugared tea.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very fine and colourful command group Mike - you certainly wield, if you'll forgive my saying so, a demon brush! Like you, I reckon model soldiery ought to be bright and colourful, and if the historical prototypes themselves went in for the sartorially spectacular, so much the better.
Seeing your programme over the last year reminds me...
Painting (figures)... mostly Army Men types - maybe 100 figures; plus a few Napoleonics
Modelling ... some half-done refurbs, and a few cardboard vehicles and guns (Army Men project); oh, yes, and a half dozen or so buildings (Army Men project again);
Painting (vehicles) ... a few.
Kilometers walked ... a fairish number - double figures at least - some of it in hilly country, but not nearly enough...
Kilometres run ... 0.006 approximately - enough to cross a road once or twice in moderate traffic...
Looking forward to more -
Cheers,
Ion
Thanks Ion. The advantage of the old school desk/tower PC arrangement is that one could spill all manner of things on the keyboard and at worse you had to replace it. The laptop is a perilously vulnerable thing.
DeleteI do agree that with these Spahi chaps, bright is beautiful.
You have been busy indeed. I don't really admit it much, but most of my running has been trying to make it to bars before last call.
Lovely Spahi command! Just the way I'd picture them with great color choices.
ReplyDeleteMy wife once spilled a vase of water holding a bamboo shoot (hotel) on our laptop and it was ruined. I suspect it was not an accident since the laptop was 7 years old.
Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteAnd that, Padre, is why my mug resides on a separate table, still within easy reach but separated from the computer by four very important inches of open air. Those figures are truly wonderful, make sure you get us pics once they see the elephant, as it were.
ReplyDeleteThanks Thomas. I think in future I'll keep mugs of hot fluids in a separate building from my laptop. I have six more castings to do to finish that unit of Spahi, and once I do I shall indeed put them on the gaming table, where, if the tradition holds, they will be massacred and the survivors will rout.
DeleteOh now that's not good news! The cavalry really are lovely though.
ReplyDeleteSplendid looking chaps, well worth the price of a cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteI rather like the shade of purple on the fellow carrying the horse tails.
Tea is a fickle mistress, not to be mixed in with applemacs or (In my case) microwave ovens. Thankfully, my replacement Microwave oven was far cheaper than your Apple computer repair though!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving how individual all these Ottomans are turning out. Must make for some very enjoyable painting not having to push yourself through uniform after copied and pasted uniform.
Great looking figures. Seriously bad luck with the tea accident! We've had simliar tech woes with phones being dropped down toilets in the past!
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon. I knew a soldier who dropped a brand new iPhone into a rank and malodorous ports-loo at the end of a long exercise. The poor lad was practically in tears and his mates were in tears of laughter. So sad.
DeleteI really like how colorful these units are. You did a great job making them each colorful and unique. Please accept a Liebster, on me.
ReplyDeleteLove those Ottomans! I can't get into my work laptop as it has locked me out and all the information on how to contact the help desk is...in my laptop! Grrr!
ReplyDelete