Out on the bike this afternoon round the Peak District.

Sweet... I'm enjoying a bacon sarnie, then magic-dipping some (old) Old West figures to give them a new lease of life, then boxing up the cats and putting them in the cattery, 'cause we're off to Copenhagen!

Duvet, pool, beer, football, cola bottles, cocktail sausages

oh, and its Nap naval tonight.

Well, it's Sunday night so I'll past tense this: I've spent time this weekend on making a real start on the SYW French. I've amassed quite a pile of plastic & metal and have a fair idea of what I want to achieve. I'm starting with a battalion of the Wodenfeld French line figures. These will become the Royal Rousillon regiment. Later, I'll add more metal figures to make up the 2 battalion Piemonte regiment and a plastic battalion of Etrangers (not sure which: a Wild Geese regiment might look good) to create an hstorical brigade in Sourbis' army. I've also started on 3 battalion guns. The French were a pretty ordinary force and I think I need to beef up their capabilities to avoid constant defeat from the Prussians. The guns will have one artilleryman figure from the Revell Austrian SYW set but I need to convert an infantryman figure as crew as well. When this is done I'll start on more infantry and some "proper" artillery: I have a corker of an 18 pounder gun and two 12 pounders that should look pretty good. Cavalry are on hold because although I do have the fantastic Zvesda GNW Swedish dragoons, I'm not sure exactly how to paint them as Frenchmen. The good news is I have a few weeks off, so I should get quite a bit done. donald

I'll be interested in following your progress with them Donald. I've been pondering the period in 25 or 15mm - but 20mm has always been my favourite scale - will be interested in what you achieve

Today I have mostly been playing with my airbrush.. and painting anything that wasn't moving. I fancied having a go at making a space style gaming mat for starship combat (Full Thrust).

Whilst still on the 'mend' from a lingering ear infection, I managed to progress a small 6-pdr battery of Hesse-Darmstadt foot artillery a bit further this weekend. Very much WIP, as final basing (sand, flock, grass, etc.) still to come.

Bryce, Very nice, Is that a bricole i spy :eh:

Spent most of saturday in the car and in a hospital and most of sunday in another hospital.

Is the car and hospital related Big Dave and should we send grapes? This weekend I have: cut back the garden for Autumn bought a new vacum cleaner and found that the nozzle control doubles as a really cool ray gun :emb: started painting my White Russian maxim gunners and some nappies. cleaned up several squads of Israelis to invade Lebanon. drunk 2 bottles of Shiraz :party: :party:

Nice artillery :)

Went to the coast for a spin on the motorbike,its been the best weather for biking all year :)