It's that time of year again.

well, what can I say? This week has been quite mixed again. Work has been work and home has been home.

Hobby wise, I have been adding to the horde with another Ebay batch of plastic Squat miniatures. I have quite a few now and it is getting to a point where I will have to start putting them together. Unfortunately, I am a bunch of arms short so I will have to take that into account (and sculpt more or see if I can get some other arms from somewhere else... dare I say recast ones?). I have also been investigating transport options and have not really come up with anything... so I am building my own:

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You can't really see much from the above picture... but I have got the shape down to what I want and have put together some wheels too. You will also see that I have some model filler in the picture. That is because I am seriously thinking of getting this cast up (either I will do it or I will pay someone else to) so I need to make sure all the gaps are filled and smoothed down, ready for the mould making process. The plan is to make these standard transports so they will be nothing fancy; just wheeled, armoured boxes. I've still got a long way to go but I am in a bit of a hobby drought at the moment and this seems to be something I am willing to persevere with (at the moment). It always seems to be the warmer weather that slows things down...

So... Friday night was the Sergeants Mess Summer Ball and this year, I took my wife and an additional guest (which was nice). We all had a great time and knocked it on the head after 1am in the morning. I was a little worse for wear and really didn't sleep very well so Saturday was written off and after another rough night (very little sleep) Sunday has been pretty quiet too. It's life in the fast lane at the moment!

Because I am a bit tired, I thought I'd tinker today so my wife got a new bracelet:

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All patriotic! This one is better than the last one because I have joined two looms together now so that I can get longer bracelets... so the stars go all the way around. It took me about half an hour and cost me about 30p... that is great value for a hobby.

You should all be aware that I am a bit of a fan of AT VOTOMs. Well... on my travels through Ebay, I spotted some Gashapon mini-mechs and couldn't believe the price so I had to buy them. I got six 1/60scale VOTOMS mechs (each about 3.5inches tall) for the grand price of £12.99 including postage! How could I refuse? They are made of a slightly rubbery material but are painted and hacve a certain amount of movement. Once I have decided how I am going to deal with them, I will post some pix... but here is a link to five of them: LINK. They are pretty cool, aren't they?

Well... that is about that for today. I hope you are enjoying life.

See you from the shady spot!

I have become a Loomatic!

This week has been one where I just needed to reflect on life and go with the flow. I went to a funeral on Monday and it was a very well run thing but it was the last time I'll ever see my friend, Angie, (even though she was in her transport pod to the next level) again so it does make you think about life and how things go.

So... I have tried to get some hobby stuff done this week but have failed dismally. I have no enthusiasm for it and the ideas that are coming to my mind have become such a burden that I can't focus on any of my on-going projects. The ideas are namely bike designs for Grymn and transport options for Squats... both need to be found and/or created... I am hoping that the transport can be 'off the shelf' but I am expecting the bike to be home made.

What have I been doing instead of my hobby... well, internet mainly. In fact, during one of my 'Ebay drive-bys' I managed to pick up an awesome bargain... and have a box of 36 'on-the-sprue' Squats on the way! They cost me less than £50.00 but have no bases (which isn't a problem). I was very pleased with that!

And that was it... that was all I could muster this week. I couldn't even generate the enthusiasm to throw a sculpt together for the Frothers Unite UK sculpting competition (a Mos Eisley theme) and normally that would have ignited my creative flame. Instead of that sort of thing, I decided in my infinite wisdom to try something new and learn a new trick. So I bought the stuff (really cheaply) and went to You-Tube to get a bit of tuition and this is what I managed to come up with:

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Yes... I have started to mess around with looms, hooks and tiny rubber bands. It is quite relaxing, takes a bit of thought and both my wife and daughter think it is great because they get the finished results. The only down side was that the loom I had was too short... so I bought 2 and with a bit of chopping, bracing and gluing, have joined them together. Who said an old dog can't learn new tricks? I also used to make Scouby bracelets with my daughter so this is just another little handy craft under my belt.

I know it is pretty random on here at the moment but things usually get a bit weird when the weather warms up... maybe sometime soon, I will get back on it and start to focus a bit. I hope so.

See you from the wishing tree!