Wherever have I been?

It was the beginning of this month when last I blogged, and that wasn't about my endeavours in the hobby, but about a poor lady attacked and disbelieved. I haven't really had the opportunitysince then. One weekend I drove up to visit a friend I haven't seen for some years, who lives near Glasgow. The next weekend I went down to Leighton Buzzard to see two more friends I hadn't seen in a while, albeit more recently! Lovely occasions both, but they have rather eaten into hobby time. Even more distracting has been what I had thought would be a great birthday present for Dad - the railways set-up I posted at the end of February. I was wrong. It wasn't a great present. It was the best present ever! If I went in for multiple exclamation marks, they would be here.

That circuit itself hasn't been used much so far, but it crucially inspired him to resurrect and adapt his old railway set-up. As a result, I have been applying my modelling nous to that work. It's rather fun, and is far from finished yet. I've been making loads for the wagons, painting signs for the stations, and assembling and converting buildings for the area around the railway proper, and plenty of other work, too. The best thing about it is how happy and enthused Dad clearly is.

Sexism and terrorism

Via friend, I just read this lady's account of her dreadful experiences in the gaming community. It's impossible to think that this is an isolated case if you read it. It is a horrible thing to read, and I can't begin to imagine how much worse it is to have lived it. Why men would treat women like this is quite beyond my capacity. The whole account can be read at the link below, but here is a flavour of one of the lady's mildest experiences:

I am thirteen years old and in a game store for the first time. I examine their selection of dice and take them to the counter to pay.
“How old are you?” asks the balding, middle-aged man behind the counter.
“Thirteen.”
“Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed!” he chuckles in glee. The Warhammer 40K gamers at the table behind him take up the refrain. “Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed! Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed!”
I run.
http://latining.tumblr.com/post/141567276944/tabletop-gaming-has-a-white-male-terrorism-problem

Please, if you see the cruelty she describes in her piece happening, oppose it.

Timber-framed village WIP

The "Mosque" still needs its minaret and a few other details, but the adobe village is pretty much finished. Needless to say, since I have not quite finished it, my mind has moved on to another project. I am half a dozen houses into a timber-framed village project. At the minute I just have the shells of the houses. I intend to get all the shells constructed first. Here's that first half-dozen. This time I intend that no two houses will look quite alike. So you will see houses of the same height, but they are of slightly different length or widths. I realised after beginning construction that I had quite forgotten to account for chimneys, so I shall be going through the shells with a pencil now, hopefully finding somewhere to put the smokestacks! A wee BEF Scots officer down at the front for scale.

Autism Awareness Day

As you shall have noticed, if you have been following this blog for the past few months, autism has become a subject of great interest to me. Today is Autism Awareness Day, and here is a little video which may encourage folk to be a bit more considerate of wee children who have something on the spectrum. :)