This was going to be a post about my ongoing painting progress, but I’m feeling a little worse for wear and to be honest you’ve seen it all before anyway. We’ve had a succession of post school holiday visitors during September which put a dent in my hobby time and culminated in my brother in law beating me 4 wargames in a row. Jerk. He has a serious heart condition, so I told the wife I let him win in case he snuffed it.
Desperate to catch a break from this continual drubbing I seized on the opportunity to help my neighbour Marie Theresa with her problematic ride on lawnmower. The machine in question is kept in her barn of mystery, into which étranger such as I are not normally allowed. Marie Theresa by the way is either seventy eight, eighty five or eighty seven - depending on the current phase of the moon. She remains married to the infamous Pradeix strangler (who she hates with a passion only a French women can muster) and who I was about to say is as mad as a box of frogs, which would of course be racially insensitive, so I won’t.
I actually never made it as far as the tondeuse auto portée because my access was blocked by an old hot water tank with a coil of copper pipe poking out of the top. My suspicions were quickly confirmed by the rows of bottles under an adjacent tarp. Seems my geriatric neighbour makes her own booze. Who knew? Well apparently not the gendarmerie. Perhaps in a bid to secure my silence I woke up this morning to several bottles of something disturbingly clear on the back doorstep. It smelled like drain cleaner. Hell it could be drain cleaner for all I know… but I’m always game for a laugh so when she came around at lunch time I shared a glass with her.
An hour later I still can’t feel my lower jaw which is totally numb…and I have a splitting headache. Instead of the planned post you’ll have to make do with a series of loosely connected photos and some brief captions. Soz. Had a piccy of us raising a glass together but it’s on my phone and I’m buggered if I can port it across to my iPad. Not in this state anyway.
Oh look it appeared anyway!
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| Cheers. |
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| Temu scatter terrain for 28mm urban VBCW battles. Hat tip to Keith for the heads up on this one. |
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| Part of my birthday haul. Some lovely urban / factory type buildings for VBCW |
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| Yet more urban gaming stuff from Sarissa |
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| How the hell did that get in here? Me getting my perm done. Confucius he say never post under the affluence of inkerhol. |
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| This shouldn’t be here either. lol. Saw this 1948 Sonora 302 when I was getting my perm done. Decided to collect old French radios. Like you do. Ain’t she a beauty! This piccy is off the interweb - cos I was trying to identify it. |
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| Ahh….back on track. 2 sections of VBCW anti fascists primed and ready for painting |
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| Two HYW command stands - part finished. There’s another three knights to go on each of them to fill in the gaps. |
Right, I think that’ll have to do me hearties. I’m going for a lie down.
Toodleooh.
Haha, an excellent if somewhat anarchic post JBM! I applaud your dedication in doing so under the influence of French moonshine.
ReplyDeleteHey Keith, I’d actually just fired up the iPad ready to start a proper post when MT showed up. Why I thought it was a good idea to plough on with it heaven knows. Stupid ideas seeem to make sense when you’ve had something to drink. lol.
DeleteDid it go something like this?
ReplyDelete“I’ve brought you some booze, do you want some”? “Well it would be rude not to ….. wouldn’t it?”
HYW coming on nicely, the coat heraldry is looking good.
Cheers Norm. I’m always aware that I’m a reluctant ambassador for the UK and it would be rude to refuse a gift. The accepted wisdom has always been “be aware of GREEKS bearing gifts”, and since she’s French I thought I’d be okay. lol.
Delete😆😆😆👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteBest laugh I’ve had since hearing that [political reference deleted].
You’ll know that radio is a genuine 1948 model if it only plays Charles Trenet original recordings.
Chris/Nundanket
Hi Chris. I’m afraid the radio doesn’t work at all…though I may be able to coax the current wood lice inhabitants to hum a few bars. Looking forward to doing a bit of tinkering on it - I think you can get replacement valves etc?! As a side note - I actually do like Charles Trennet, whose seminal track “Boom” is on my happy music list.
DeleteI managed to sign on as myself, which is better than usual. Now then - why did I sign in? Oh yes - I was going to suggest that maybe Marie Theresa is 27 and just drinks a lot of her own booze. If God had intended us to drink this stuff he wouldn't have given us Pepsi Max.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you’re still firing on all cylinders monsieur and have found the time to write between all those cash in hand building jobs you’re currently engaged in. Pepsi Max is bloody awful and Red Bull is definitely the work of the devil, but MT’s brew has a taste of its own - sort of bleach crossed with turps. I wouldn’t recommend it but I can’t bring myself to chuck it in case it comes in useful for something.
DeleteForgot to comment on the radio. Attractive piece, but "form over function" must be particularly applicable here, since I assume that, even if it is working, you'll be struggling to find anything to tune it to. Hilversum always a good bet, and the Free French radio broadcasts to see how Stalingrad is going. Bakelite - if it starts to smell like dead fish, chuck it out smartly. I have very bad experience of vintage (1940s) guitar parts made of the stuff - the fumes will rust metal!
DeleteOooh - off to give it a sniff. Didn’t know that about Bakelite. Good tip!.
DeleteCracking read JBM, fair made me smile on a dark, rainy morning. Home brew, always enjoyable going down and always horrendous afterwards! Nice work on the HYW command stands, they are taking shape rather nicely.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie, glad it gave you a smile - it gave me a cracking headache!
DeleteMost enjoyable post to start the day with over coffee. Really enjoyed it. For one minute l thought your neighbour was going to be the Austrian Empress kept young and alive by a painting in the barn rather than attic. Instead a much more interesting distillery story. The hair drier could be a robotic 18th century hair piece, All I await the next post with enthusiasm…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Hello Alan, I’m not sure we can discount the Austrian Empress theory, It might be worth me doing a bit more digging around on that one. lol. The hairdryer was awesome and it does look like some sort of steampunk contraption come to think of it.
DeleteThis post made me chuckle when I read it Mark:)! "The infamous Pradeix strangler" sounds like a character that should appear in your AVBCW games or milieu. Ah, a good old Bakelite radio; what's not too love? A lovely mix of scatter terrain, buildings and figures to keep you going over the Winter old chap:). Just steer clear of the moonshine or put it in your 'voiture' to supercharge it;).
ReplyDeleteHey Steve, glad it gave you a chuckle. Not sure where I’m going with this radio thing but I’ve always been a sucker for unusual design. Form over function for me every time - as witnessed by my teenage dalliance with Italian scooters. As you correctly guessed I’ve been building up a stock pile of stuff for the cold dark winter months. As to the moonshine - that stuff will never pass my lips again - or any other orifice for that matter.
Deleteway to make friends with the locals. and I think you'd probably look good with a perm. 😁
ReplyDeleteYeah I’d totally rock a perm but I’m now thinking of getting dreadlocks instead. I reckon I’d look cool as a white Rasta.
DeleteA great haul of figures, buildings, alcohol, radios, and young(ish) French ladies 😂
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can use MT's gift to clean your brushes?
HYW figures look fantastic, presumably painted pre-drinkies 😁
Hey Ben. Brush cleaning. Good suggestion - I’ll give it a try. HYW stuff definitely painted pre drinkies!
DeleteVery entertaining old chap…
ReplyDeleteMoonshine… Perms… That device looks like something Ming the Merciless would use… Cool Radios… Industrial Buildings and lovely looking toys… And that’s just one day in your life 😁
Nice one…
I too think the Hooch might be a good brush cleaner… Although I would test it first… I might just melt them 🙀
Hi Aly. Crazy is as crazy does, I find. I seem to be a bit of a magnet for these situations. Hey ho, I just have to embrace it all and laugh at the ongoing absurdity of existence I guess. I’m going to test the hooch out on another neighbour tonight (who’s a bit of a seasoned drinker, unlike me) and see what it does to them.
DeleteGreat read Mark, you are clearly enjoying life out there mate :) We are surrounded by geriatric neighbours but all they do is moan about everything as we Brits tend to do.
ReplyDeleteHey Lee, how’s yer belly for spots mate? My brother in law did nothing but moan when he was over here too. Moaning should be a British Olympic sport. Racist twat was banging on about the number of « pakis » that had taken over his local council and were exploiting the system for « their communities » benefit. He was a bit put out when I suggested he should get off his arse and stand for election himself to change things for his own « community »….whatever that is. Still I guess he’ll be chuffed when Farage is PM. Come the revolution…
DeleteExcellent post JBM. You may not be totally enthralled by the taste of Madame’s hooch but on the plus side she has probably gifted you a life time supply of brush cleaner. I’d start saving for a pair of replacement kidneys now though.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave, be assured I’m never touching that stuff again. I’ve now been informed that it’s Eau de Vie and approx 60-70% proof.
DeleteWell at least you've had a few face to face games! Nice terrain and HYW types, my cousin died from a bad batch of potcheen on Christmas day,luckily you've avoided that, still, what doesn't kill us makes us,weaker, grumpy or something?
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Bloody hell Iain, that’s grim. Sorry to hear that mate. My exposure to the stuff was made worse by the fact that I’m an absolute lightweight when it comes to drinking. Alcohol always makes me think I’m deliriously funny, when I’m not, as you could tell from this post.
DeleteYou have captured the general state of the nation perfectly there JBM! It is so depressing that we have become a bunch of intolerant selfish angry people who do nothing but complain about each other, you are far better off out of it :) We try to use humour to counter it, we call where we live 'The Bungalows of Doom' .
DeleteAll the best,
Lee