Saturday 27 August 2011

Woof! or is it Bark at the Moon???






Aaarrrggghhh!!!!!! Apologies the first part of this post is a little bit of a Rant!

Its been over a week since my last post, what's going on??? I here you ask. Well the simple answer is School Holidays!!!!!! The wife has got herself a new job, which means school holidays are a problem from now on, so I was Told,  I need to take some holiday to look after the 2 youngest brats. Fair enough I suppose, now this is where things went tits up, I made a plan, I should know by now at 43 years of age never make a plan, for me, it never works. So first day of my holiday what happens?? My old war wound comes back to haunt me, actually I pulled my back out, when my back goes it goes big time, all I did was bend over to pick up the TV remote, that I'd asked the kids to pick up about 23 times, it felt like that mad axe killer in all the crap horror films came up behind me and chopped the back in half! So all my decorating, figure painting, rule writing Call of Duty playing and kid entertaining went out of the window, instead of that I sat for the week watching crap kids TV,  and was slowly driven crazy by Holly and Nieve arguing all the bloody time.... deep breath!!!!! I don't really remember the first day too much, my wife who was luckily off that day gave me one of her painkillers, (naughty I know), I drifted off, wide awake to a happy place with no pain and elves and fairies, (I watch far too much kids TV)
Anyway today my wife has taken brats 3 & 4 to a farm, brat No2 is starting a new Saturday job and Brat No1 is up her boyfriend's, probably?? So its me and the dog in the house for 4 long hours....ah bliss!!!!!

So I've very carefully taken the opportunity to take some photos....... So after that big moan above here we go!!

As some of you will already know, my previous post was about the three bears, today's is about their fellow woodland creature... The Wolf!!
After I bought the bears on ebay I started to try and think of other animals that I could possibly use to make trouble for the troops in the FIW. I searched the net for a company who sold 15mm wolves, sadly it seems nobody does, apart from fantasy looking wolves, which were either far too big or just looked silly. I even had Postie searching all his old wargame catalogues, he came up with an idea though, I'd previously bought some 15mm dogs from Irregular Miniatures, this were to use in my Indian village and perhaps as the faithful hound of a British Colonel during the FIW.
So a quick call to Irregular Minis, I ordered 6 x FAN11 Alsation dogs, and hey presto we have a wolf pack, ok they don't really look like wolves, but they do fine for me!!
Thanks have got to go to Barry S, for giving me lots of ideas, click his name for his blog or this one for his Photobucket site, There's some beautiful work here, there's lots there that I've got to make!!

Ray






25 comments:

  1. Oh, those are nice! Nicely painted ansed based and I like the sculpting and poses. They have that "poised, ready to attack look". I think they would work great for some 15mm Mordheim, too.

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  2. Lovely wolves (& bears earlier). Ah, sorry to hear about the back going out. I'm lucky I only have two boys - they are at the age of not wanting to do anything with me or as a family - I actually make it a point to bug them everyday :)! Hope you have more quite/tranquil time. Best, Dean

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  3. They look the part - alert and quietly menacing. I'm writing up some adventures that have a frontier mood so I'm really tuned into this, but they are evocative and add even more depth to the project.

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  4. Great looking figures there.

    And remeber no plan survives contact with the enemy :) Hope your back gets better quickly

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  5. Sorry to hear about your injury! The wolves are evil looking things, just what every forest needs!

    On another blog you said you were going to paint some 15mm Hannoverians? If so what manufacturer and are they with the soft caps?

    Cheers

    Ken

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  6. Well what would you want to do, maybe build up the skin at the neck and go to some silvery highlights there and more grey elsewhere? The American wolf may look different from the ones in the Russian stories, or the German stories. Or might not.

    We have coyotes running around at night also, one or two at a time, looking to pounce on geese and such.
    Lean and hungry looking and they move fast and aggressively, but not so much on us.

    About eight years ago I did something to mess up my back and could hardly move for four days and nights, the worst was trying to get in and out of a car because of how you move to do that.

    After four days of hopeless pain I reached back and touched one particular spot just above and half an inch left of the center of the belt line with one finger, about as hard as you'd tap a keyboard key, no force at all really, and the problem instantly and completely disappeared and has not been 'back' for these eight years. Amazing,and I have no idea what led me to touch that exact spot. There was no reason to, my finger just went right to the spot for no conscious reason at all.

    It's worth a shot. Or train the dog to pick up the remote?

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  7. Cheers for the comments guys and sympathy for the damn back pain!!! My peace and quite is nearly up, they should have been home half an hour ago!
    @Ken - Not sure, they're for Postie, I think he's just gonna use some spare British figures, although I'm sure I painted some of the jager units recently, sorry my minds going, I'll check with Postie!!
    @ Mekelnborg - Can I please borrow your finger, I've already spent £90 so far on two trips to the Osteopath, so come on how much for the finger???

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  8. Hope your four hours of bliss is wonderful. Sounds like a lot going on. I laughed at the axe killer in the crap horror movies.

    But you know what might make you feel better? Making some fish n'chips with a side of good honey.

    Cheer you right up.

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  9. @Whisk - I'd think I'd rather keep the bad back, than have honey on Fish'n'Chips, it turns my stomach thinking about it!!

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  10. Turns your stomach? Oh my, that's not good. We don't want you to feel worse. So here, I'll give you your vinegar back.

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  11. Very nice painted wolves (or should I say dogs?). Never mind, they're good enough to defend your home.

    A bad back? Should be a reason for your wife and kids to serve you. Nice cosy pillow in your back, beer, fish and chips brought by your wife, and one of the kids to push the buttons on the TV remote? Doesn't that sound good?

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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  12. Sounds perfect Peter! Then I woke up!!

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  13. Oh man, I don't think any injury is worse than the back. Hope it's getting better.

    The wolves look great!

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  14. Excellent work on the wolves Ray and I hope the the back is on the mend.

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  15. how about yip at the moon? ;)

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  16. Love this blog post! A really interesting read! Followed!

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  17. Sorry to hear about the back Ray. Great wolves though, love them.

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  18. I know what you are saying when you talk about back pain...I don´t suffer from constant pain but when it goes..!!!!!!!! At least once a year and then big time!
    I like the hounds...the pose does look alert..like in the film UP.."squirrel!!"
    Cheers
    paul

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  19. No need to borrow it, I'd gladly just GIVE you the finger! But I can't because I wouldn't mean it. Try it with your own, it might be that simple. It went out easily enough.

    Try this: rub the fish on the remote while retaining most of the fish in your hand. Then the dog will go for the remote and pick it up, and realize it just smells like fish. Then show him the main fish, and get him to only have his reward when he gives you the remote at the level where you don't have to bend down.

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  20. Great work Ray.

    I have some Copplestone Castings 10mm Giant Wolves. They are a little large perhaps, but I'm happy to use them for 15mm.
    http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/range.php?range=FAN

    Cheers,

    Barry

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  21. @ Barry S - They look excellent!! Just how big are they? Any comparison pics yet?

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  22. Ray - I'll try and get a comparison shot for you over the next couple of days.

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