Painting and Preying (Mantises that is)

 My current painting speed is making glaciers look fast.  Just a little bit more progress on my first AWI unit - the blues jackets have been painted for 24 infantry figures and the officer is fully painted but still needs a wash.  I tried to take some close up of the officer but they came out very poorly.  Perhaps this I-phone isn't the best of cameras...

I really do need to get into painting form as my current level of production is really very poor.  The weather has just been too nice to spend time indoors.

This weekend was eventful.  On Saturday we had 30 mile an hour winds and I went to check on the sail boat and while aboard retying the sail cover managed to fall and bang my head and almost go into the drink despite the boar being tied up in the slip - it was very rough.  Still it was an ignoble way to get injured but a good reminder that going out alone isn't the best of ideas.  Has I been underway and this happened, the outcome may have been much worse.  I left the marina with and bloody head, a headache and a damaged ego but none-the-worse for wear.  For those of you who are concerned, rest assured my rock filled head did little damage to the Bucentaure's deck.

 With the weather turning crisper, wildlife activity changes on the Bay.  One of the cooler things are the Preying Mantis's who mate and lay their eggs in the Autumn.  Our pool patio area seems to be the local "Mantis Singles Bar" and we'll see them out there on a daily basis through October looking for a "hook-up".  Pictured is strapping young lad on-the-prowl.  The pavers are 2 foot squares so he was six inched long.

 A close up of our lothario with compound eyes.  Males have a mix of brown and green.  These are amazing predators and tend to ambush their prey.  I've even seen a large male grab and kill a small humming bird!

As garden protectors, Mantis's are cool to watch but not all that effective as they eat anything - both good and bad bugs.

My finger provided for size. If it wasn't mating season, I could have coaxed this nice chap into walking up my arm for a while but his attentions were fixed on a very attractive young lady at the edge of the patio (about six feet way).

And here is the objective of his affections - a striking female mantis with an alluring "come-hither" look.  Females are all green and tend to be in the 5 inch range.  Despite their smaller size they are the more dominant of the sexes and often bite the heads of their mates.  There are many traits in the animal kingdom the span species.

London in September

 Not a lot of paintwork this week as I spent the week in London on business.  As usual, London was a lot of fun but a but hectic as it was the lead up the opening of the Rugby World Cup.  One of the highlights of the trip was the transportation - I always fly British Airways to Europe and this trip I was able to fly both ways on one of the giant A-380's - it's a fascinating piece of equipment and was a lot of fun to fly on.

 I will not bore you with the business details of the trips - a board meeting, meeting with some new companies that might be attractive investments (most of whom frog march you through a power point deck...)

I tend to take random pictures, like this one of Cavendish Square - it's outside the office of a new company of an interesting company who didn't use a power point deck and just wanted to discuss strategy options - both very refreshing and promising.

 There are a number of UK firms we co-invest with located down in the city and one has probably the best office location I've ever seen - right across the street from the Royal Academy of Arts.  I don't even want to know the cost of their real estate.

The week was filled with approximately 12 not very memorable meetings, 3 interesting ones and board meeting so it was productive.  The evenings were filled with me gorging on Indian food but I did get to host a dinner at my favorite place to eat in London "Chez Patrick" in Kensington.  It's a great neighborhood french place and the owner is a real character - especially is you ask to see his California Wine list or request "Freedom Fries" with your scallops.  He and I have a standing joke/threat that if I pull up to the place in a big American Ford F-150 pickup truck, he'll add BBQ to the menu listing.  From my experience few places in London combine a reasonable price level with superior food / and a relaxed atmosphere better than this one.

The night before I left for London, my lovely wife and I attended a birthday party for a friends dog (named Creek).  It's really just an excuse to throw a party but it was fun.  As you see in the picture the guest of honor took quite a liking to MaryBeth and followed her around all night.  I think that means we net to get a dog!

Hobby wise, I still have a unit of AWI Continental regulars to finish off and I'll be re-organzing my workshop over the next few weeks.

A Little More Painting, A Little More Sailing...

A rainy and windy weekend is a perfect combo for painting and sailing.

I actually managed to do more than prime some mini's.  The first two colors have been applied - Medium fleshtone and a flat white (pictured to the lower left).  I take a bit of an assembly line approach to painting units doing one color at a time.  I find it reduces errors and really helps me keep a unit looking like they belong together.

A close up of one of the figures.  These will be a Maryland regiment so will have blue coats with red facings.  It does feel good to be painting again

On satruday, I had a race in Annapolis and it was a perfect race day - 18-20 knot winds a little chop and rain.  I was crewing a friends boat but really wanted to have Bucentaure in the race.  There was some excitement.  During the third race a boat form another class (pictured above) lost her rudder.  It's hard to see in the picture but the rudder is completely sheard off just about the water line.  A sailboat without a rudder in high winds becomes a torpedo untll the sails are loosed but there was no collisions.  Maybe it was better the Bucentaure stayed in St Michaels.

Painting! and Snake Wrangling

I have finally managed to pick up a brush and start painting some mini's.  OK, I just primed them but it still involved a brush.  Yesterday, I primed the 38 plastic Perry 28mm US Continentals (AWI) along with a mounted command figure from Fife and Drum.  I'm trying to vary my painting techniques and decided to use a brush on primer rather than use a spray on version.

My primer of choice are the Vallejo surface primers.  The local hobby shop had a sale on these so I've stocked up.  I still stuck with a light grey as a primer color since these guys will all be wearing white pants, vests and webbing.

Unfortunately my painting bliss was interupted by my wife yelling for me to get outside.  Her tone of voice had a bit of alarm in it so I sprang to action.  It's times like these where having ones own action theme music would come in handy.

What was causing the constern - this attractive young lady...

A rather large (6 feet) water snake that was snoozing next to our grill.  I got out my trusty snake - wrangling tool and set to work moving the snake out of the way.  These beauties are mice killing machines so you actually want them around the house but just not in plain sight.

So what is this tool?  A pool skimmer

These snakes are constrictors and if you grab them behind the head they will wrap around your arm and are both difficult to dislodge and one can injure the animal while getting them loose (I learned the hard way).  With the pool skimmer, you can prod them to an open area and then place the skimmer in front. I think it looks like a cave and they crawl right into the bag and they're easy to carry away.   Of course getting them to stay in the bag during transport (roughly 250 ft) is another thing.  The photo below swows her just before being released.  Hopefully todays painting will have no reptile intrusions!

Difficult Duty

 Yesterday was a tough day here in St Michaels.  My lovely wife ( pictured to the back right) hosted her Women's Dental Students Association summer event at our place and I was "required" to play the dutiful host.  Yes, It was a very difficuly duty that required me to muster up enough food to feed this ravenous horde.  Don't believe what people say about young ladies eating like birds - it's just not true.  Many fish, chickens and crabs were required to sustain these "dental scholarinas".  OK, maybe it really wasn't all that tough....

 I did manage to get a little work in on some mini's before the "Assault of the She-Wolves" and assembled the first box of Perry AWI plastic Continental Infantry and a general from the Fife and Drum line.  I really like assembling plastics.  Each Perry figure comes with 4 parts - a body, 2 arms and a hat choice (from 3 options).  Not hard to assemble at all and you get a chance to inspect the figure closely to plan the painting.  Next step will be to prime there lads.

Overall, I really like this box set.  In additon to the regulars which I built this time there's an option to build out milita with different arms / rifle combinations.  All-in-all a really nice set.

A Good Day on the Chesapeake

 Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day were nothing went as expected but everything turned out for the better.  Early in the morning my son and I got up and left for a sail on the Bucentaure.  Unfortunately we really didn't sail (as in the picture - it's from another trip).  There was no wind and a sail boat without wind is just, well ummm... a very slow power boat.  So we turned back to port and decided to do a lot of maintenance wish included such glamorous duties as emptying the holding tank on the head (yuck) and a lot of minor repairs / improvements.

Three hours later we were done and went back to the house.  It was a lot of fun working with him on the boat.

 When we got back to the house it was time to mount a daring rescue operation - a humming bird was trapped in the garage and couldn't get out!  Queue the dramatic music, if you please.

Being quick thinking yet sensitive nature types we decided to capture the bird using a plastic paint cup an a piece of cardboard.  Hummingbirds are very delicate so one needs to distract them with something shiny come up from behind and place the cup over them and, finally, slide the cup over some cardboard.

 A few comic attempts and then success - the picture shows the little guy (or gal) as I was in the process of releasing.  All' well then ends well and I was sure that such courageous behavior would warrant an afternoon on the hammock.

 The Boss-Lady had other plans and I was tasked with grinding yet more tomatoes for sauces - a picture of our genuine Italian plastic food mill which is a must for making sauce.  We made another 3 gallons of tomato sauce that ended up in the freezer.  I spent 3 hours cutting and grinding those red menaces but ensure enough sauce to last the winter is a most worthy goal.  Plus there may have been a tomato peel fight with my son (we were outside so it's OK)

 There was a reward for a hard days work - my lovely, yet fierce, wife made peach ice cream.  Mmmm ... homemade peach ice cream.

A rare shot of the Boss-lady inspecting how well I did the dishes - there were more than a few that needed so "touch-up work".

Despite not being able to sail it ended up being a very fun day and yet another example of how nice the Chesapeake Bay region can be.

A New Project: AWI

 Here at the Lair, we are embarking on a new project and time period - the American Revolutionary War (A.K.A. the American War for Independence or AWI).  My starting forces to be painted are 3 boxes of plastic Continental Infantry from the Perry brothers that I picked up from the Architects of War booth at Historicon.  Hmmm Perry miniatures - what a surprise.  The Perry's also have a large range of metal AWI figures as does Fife and Drum Miniatures.

 Each box has 38 figures which consist of 30 rank and file infantry is 6, 5 figure sprues and...

4 rifleman figures on 2, 2 figure spurs and a single command sprue of 4 figures.  Each successive Perry plastic set gets a little better and these Continental Infantry are no exception.  They can be modeled as either militia or regulars and there are a lot of arm / pose combination possibilities.

My gaming partner-in-crime, Mike, is a bit of an Anglo-file and will be painting up the British side of this little fracas.  We're both leaning towards basing for skirmish gaming rather than "big battalions".  The implication is that we'll use  round bases rather than squares for each figure.  I've got enough "big battalion" formations for both the War of 1812 and the ACW so focusing our AWI collection on skirmishing is a nice change up.

This project will be aimed at putting on an even bigger show at Historicon 2016 where we are planning to do a series of games on both the AWI and the War of 1812 - but, as always, with a little historical twist.....

Sean's Summer Job

My son has a great internship at Farr Yacht Design this summer doing programming for them.  It's kind of a dream job for a tech and sailing crazy college student but there is one hitch - it's unpaid.  In order to make a little cash over the summer, Sean has been building quad rotors for people.  He'll clear about $300.00 for each one he builds which I'm sure will go exclusively for books and other educational supplies while at college.

The video above is a one of the first test flights of the basic design.  The landing is a bit abrupt but safe as Sean forgot to recharge the battery from earlier tests.  Some of the earlier flights didn't go so well as he was tuning the program he wrote for flight control.

Here's a picture of the first quad that will be delivered today.  The rotors have been removed for transport.

 To Sean, this is a simple design and he's added mounting rails under the center so people can add go-pro cameras and such.

Sean's thinking about continuing his custom work while in school (I'm not so keen on that) but may do it as a fund raiser for the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Club (he's the treasurer).  

At least he wasn't being lazy this summer.

Mariners Museum

Last week, the family and I went on vacation to Williamsburg, VA.  I'm a sucker for colonial Williamsburg and we had a great time.  I also had a chance to visit the US Mariners Museum in nearby Newport News, VA and I have to say I was blown away.  The center piece of the museum is the USS Montior's turret and an exhibit on the Monitor vs Virginia (aka Merrimac) encounter at Hampton Roads.  Currently there is also a great Nelson exhibit, a history of the US Navy, some wonderful exhibits on boat building through the ages and one of the finest collections of model ships I've ever seen.  To be honest this was the highlight of my trip and I'm already planning a return.

The entrance of the Monitor / Virginia exhibit is one of the Virginia's guns that was disabled during her encounter with the Union fleet the day before the fight with the Monitor.  The USS Cumberland was rammed by the Virginia and despite sinking kept firing her guns and managed to shoot the muzzle of one of the Virginia's guns.

 In the museum there is a full scale replica of the bow of the Virginia being readied for it's up coming fight with the monitor - the display shows the replacing of the gun damaged by the Cumberland.

 The interior of the Virginia - it's a lot more cramped than I would have thought.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to be inside these iron ovens while the guns are firing.

 A cross-section of the Virginnia's armor - 10 inches of pine 8 inches of oak and 2 of steel.

 The gem of the museum is it's monitor exhibits. In addition to then actual turret, there are several reproductions that show the turret as they found her when it was raised...

and a fully restored turret cross section - even tinier than the Virginia's interior.

 I was fascinated by the turning mechanism for the turret and probably spent 40 minutes trying to figure out it's detailed workings.

 The actual turret, guns and steam engine of the monitor are not on display and are being preserved in vats of chemically treated water that preserves the metal.  Here's one of the Monitor's guns.

 The day I visited the turret tank had been drained to allow some academic research - again I spent 30-40 minutes gazing at the turrets and guns in their preservation tanks.

 There is a very neat exhibit on the interior of the Monitor which wasn't as cramped as the turret leads you to believe.  The crew accommodations are not spacious but bigger than I thought.  First up is the Captain's cabin

 and then the XO's

 Some 1/1200 scale miniatures of various Union ironclads from Langton Miniatures

An amazing diorama of a US colonial ship yard in what I think is HO scale (1/87th)

 This may be the upcoming theme for my 2016 Hisotricon games......

 The ship models are fantastic and I took pictures of maybe 60 of them - here is a US Whaling vessel.

the CSS Alabama - a ship that factored heavily in my imagination as a kid growing up along the Alabama Gulf Coast.

I really can't recommend the Mariner's Museum more highly - if you're in the area it's a definite must see.

Tomatoes!!!

Our garden was left a bit untended during last weeks Historicon activities....

and we have a surplus of produce including two big baskets of tomatoes.  My wife and I made tomatoe sauce all day on Saturday and now we've got about a gallon to freeze.  MB finds a mix of the Roma's and cherry tomatoes makes the best sauce.  I find whatever she makes is an angelic ambrosia and worth every ounce of effort.

Maybe not directly related to miniature gaming but like armies, we gamers do both travel and paint on our stomaches!