Some more for Darkest Africa and a busy week...

Last week was very busy with visitors from Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Chile and Colombia as well as a big Latin American event in London.  I had very little time in the evenings and had several receptions to go to.  At one of them I had Peruvian wine for the first time (always a pleasure with the Panamanian Ambassador).  My friend and I try to compete with having had wine from obscure places.  For example, I have had wine from Thailand (horrible), Zimbabwe (better than I expected), Uruguay (OK) and Luxembourg (dull). This was a Peruvian blend and was rather good.

Charlotte with Alice Temperley

Although the Legatus goes to a lot of receptions they are usually diplomatic ones full of dull ministers, presidents and ambassadors. That is, unless the Panamanian ambassador is there, Her Most Excellent Slinkiness to the Court of St James, as she always brightens things up considerably.    It's not often that I go to a glamourous fashion event but I went to a fashion show and reception for British designer Alice Temperley last week.  I haven't seen such a splendid collection of tall leggy girlies (they could have given the Panamanian Ambassador a run for her money) for a long time.  Some of them were taller than me so I carefully checked out their legs and they weren't even wearing that high a heel.  I took along my daughter Charlotte as a reward for getting her offer to study physics at Edinburgh, which was the one she really wanted.  I may have to cut down on my soldier purchases for a bit (well five years - she insists on doing a masters and Scottish universities require an extra year) given the £20,000 a year it's going to cost.

Wangwana 

I managed a burst of painting over the weekend and finished another unit for my Zambezi Campaign.  I have now painted more than half the units of Arabs I need for my force so I may do a few more while I am in the mood.

I picked up the Saga supplement The Raven's Shadow which includes Franks as I have some Carolingians painted that wouldn't need a lot of work to turn them into a warband.  Vikings would be a natural opponent.  I haven't played Saga yet but as I am contemplating rejoining Guildford wargames club that might be the place to try it.  I also have another game booked at Guildford with Alastair (Back of Beyond) but I have had to delay it until April due to an Edinburgh University induction evening on Monday.

My best purchase last week has been a rack for my paints which I saw on  Bleaseworld's blog. As soon as I realised that they did one for Humbrol tinlets (there are other dinosaurs) I bunged in an order to Progressive Engineering Solutions straight away and it arrived in two days.  I haven't bought anything laser cut before so was unprepared for the rank, rotting salmon smell but a couple of coats of black paint helped that. 

Order from chaos

It has really enabled me to sort my desk out and order the whole workbench.  I haven't been so pleased with a hobby item since I discovered liquid Greenstuff.  Excellent!  Highly recommended!

When I did my post on very old figures from the loft a week or so back I was lamenting the fact that I have always wanted to do Samurai gaming again but the thought of painting hordes of Perry Miniatures put me off.  Now North Star have previewed some figures to go with the forthcoming (by the way, I can't stand this "upcoming" that everyone seems to use now) Osprey skirmish rules, Ronin.  This sounds like it could solve my problem!  Twang!

I have now worked out what my Roman project will be which is, coincidentally, the same as what BigRedBat is planning!  The good thing about this period is that I have already painted quite a few of the Romans' opposition although some will need re-basing.  More when I get my first batch of new figures!

I notice that there is a new blog by the authors of the In her Majesty's Name rules which I will follow with interest.

On the go at present are more Darkest Africa Arabs, Argonauts, Back of Beyond Chinese and a few characters for my latest pulp project: The Lost World...