Ebay: Heavy Mortar and Hornby H0/00 Class 90 Bo-Bo Electric Locomotive - last few hours

Just a little reminder that the bidding for these two ends in a few hours' time. Up for sale is a Forgeworld Heavy Mortar and a Hornby H0/00 Class 90 Bo-Bo Electric Locomotive in Speedlink Distribution livery.

Two Sentinels being painted

I'm going to be popping up a few things on Ebay, and some madness is making me want to paint things before they go up. I've been at work on a pair of Imperial Guard Sentinels. One, armed with an autocannon, is crouching low, dodging enemy fire, and the other, bearing a multilaser, is stretching upward, trying for a good shot on one of those new Knights, no doubt. They have slightly different schemes: one is in an olive drab, and the other is a more honest and vibrant green. I'm keener on the drab. Both have had some grey chipping applied with a sponge. I'll probably do a bit more work, then pop them up. If you didn't see yesterday's blog, I have a Forgeworld Heavy Mortar and a model locomotive (Hornby H0/00 Class 90 Bo-Bo Electric Locomotive in Speedlink Distribution Livery) on Ebay at the moment. Here are the Sentinels.

Ebay: Forgeworld DKoK Heavy Mortar and Hornby Class 90 Bo-Bo

I've just popped a couple of things on Ebay, as the title says. The Heavy Mortar is painted, and the Hornby train ain't. The latter is a boxed H0/00 Class 90 Bo-Bo Electric Locomotive in Speedlink Distribution livery. Here are a couple of pics to whet your interest.

Ebay Reminder

Just a reminder, folks, if either the Heavy Mortar or the large bunker appeal to you, you've about 30 hours left to bid on them. Good luck. :)

Ebay Sales

I'm putting a few things on Ebay over the next few days. If either of this first pair interests you, do take a look. First up are a Heavy Mortar (as used by the Death Korps of Krieg in the Imperial Guard of Games Workshop's 40K setting - man, that's a mouthful), and a large home-made bunker.

Thirty painted bunkers for sale at £15 each!

I've sorted out my troubles with Ebay. Here's the listing for the bunkers. They're £15 each with free P&P in the UK. I hope you like them enough to buy one!

Bunker for sale

One of the bitter-sweet things about life is learning. Usually, learning is helpful in the long-term. Sometimes it's a bit of a pain in the short-term. I have got 32 bunkers ready to sell. So off to Ebay. I haven't ever tried to sell 32 of something before. I put up one listing, and can't work out how to sell multiple iterations of the same thing in that one listing. I know it's possible. I've seen it done. So I had a rant on Facebook, and a friend kindly provided me a link. After some swearing, the link was useful. Isn't it amazing how swearing makes things work out? Unfortunately, when I tried to sell 30 items . . . Ebay told me I could only sell 30 items per month. So I asked it to post me a letter. Then I tried to edit the listing so I could sell 29 items on the big listing. But now all that happens is that it sends me back to the sign-in screen. It's fine. It isn't as though I need to sell these bunkers so I can afford to pay off the minimum payment on next month's credit card statement, meaning any delay would be excruciating. Oh, tell a lie.

Anyway, if anyone fancies bidding on the one item Ebay is allowing me to sell for the time being, here is the first bunker. The number of these things is slowly creeping upwards. I might end up selling 150 of them by the end of it all. If I can afford to. I have also been working on a load of those mini-bunkers. I'd rather sell them in pairs, but trios would arguably make more sense, so you could fit a whole Heavy Weapons Squad in them. What do you folk think? Please comment below. For the time being, here are the illustrative pictures of the bunkers I hope soon to be able to sell on Ebay en masse. As the Ebay blurb suggests, I suspect they'll mainly appeal to 40K Apocalypse players, but a bunker or three would sit nicely on a normal table as an objective or narrative terrain feature. Heck, on a 6' wide table, three of these bunkers (each a little less than 6" wide), would provide a pretty coherent defensive line across the whole board. Go on. you know you want to. Fully painted. You can just pop them right on the board. Game with them right away. Ugh, I hate sales patter. I disgust myself. Let's pass over this ugly incident with a few pretty pictures of a specimen bunker.

Ebay: everything must go! You've never seen anything like it!

My car came back from the garage on Friday. It had been in since Monday. The bill was a little over £500. So I'm selling about fifty lots on Ebay, hoping to go some way toward being able to pay off the resulting credit card debt! If you've ever liked any of my vehicles, the chances are that you'll find them on here at a knock-down price! Even if you haven't, you could still equip an army at a fraction of GW's prices! There are too many to provide photographs of, so I shall just list them with links.

Two Exterminators
Two Hellhounds
Three Laser Destroyers
Two more Exterminators
Two Russ hulls
Two more Russ hulls
Two Basilisks
Two more Russ hulls
Two Russes
Two more Russes
Two Exterminators
Two Russes
Two Russ hulls
Two more Russ hulls
Another two Russ hulls
Two Russes
Two more Russes
Two Demolishers
Two Russes
One Executioner, one Russ
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two Sentinels with Multilasers
Two Chimeras
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two more Chimeras or Salamanders
Another two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two Chimeras
One OOP Forgeworld Shadowsword in resin
Two Heavy Mortars (those things that they have in Griffons, you know)
Two Sentinels with Lascannon
One Steel Legion Sentinel with Lascannon
One artillery company - that's one Chimera and nine Basilisks!
Two Heavy Mortars
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Medusa conversion kit for Basilisk
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two more Chimeras or Salamanders
Another two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two Chimeras
Two Heavy Mortars
Three Thudd Guns or Quad Launchers
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two Russes
Two Russ hulls
Two more Russ hulls
Two Chimeras or Salamanders
Two Chimeras or Salamanders or Trojans
Two Laser Destroyers
Legion of the Damned: Sergeant Centurius, rare OOP
A Bitz Box of Heay Bolters, Heavy Flamers, missile launchers, Lascannon and all sorts of weaponry
Forgeworld Centaur transport
Old Style OOP Space Marines
58 Warhammer Fantasy Goblins: some archers and some spearmen
Plastic and metal Necromunda miniatures

The Easter Bunny visited yesterday, and so did his son

Before we left for Mass yesterday, Mrs Duck and the Ducklings (bad band name) and an adult bunny dropped in and breakfasted in the yard. Later on I went for a walk in the garden, and as I came down the back steps saw a kitten, a baby bunny, sitting under the magnolias. No, we're not in the Deep South, so far as I know. I managed to get a couple of snaps of him before he shot off. They are below. Pictures of the avian ramblers are in this entry. In case anybody has missed it, I'm selling off a few more things on Ebay. For some nice big pics, a list and links, check out this entry. I'm going to knuckle down and do some modelling stuff today, so expect a proper wargamery post in the next day or two. Until then, I leave you in the impossibly cute hands of Baby Bunny. I hope you all had a lovely Easter. :-)

Return to Ebay Mountain 2: The Revengening

Yes, I've put a few more things up on Ebay. Frankly, I'd rather have finished off a lot of these, but we can't always do what we want when finances are tight, eh? The pictures below are larger versions of the ones on Ebay. If you're interested by anything, please have a look. Some are scratchbuilt/kit-bashed and others are original bits that I've managed to finish - the pictures should clue you in! I'm selling the following:
1) Forgeworld Bombard Artillery Piece
2) A pair of Exterminators
3) A pair of Hellhounds
4) A pair of Griffons
5) A trio of Laser Destroyers
6) A Leman Russ Punisher
7) A Thunderer
8) Two Leman Russ hulls without turrets

Billions of bilious, blue, blistering barnacles!

As Captain Haddock would say. Something like that, anyway. He'd say that when sorely tested - perhaps by murderous extraterrestrial mushrooms or Professor Calculus doing something particularly deaf. Which Muse inspires me to such expostulations? The Muse of inept Postal Services, of course. If all is smooth as a dream, I am happy. I do not notice the good work of postal employees. But when something goes awry, I feel the pain, not those fellows. You recall the Saga of the Lost Bombard? It went to Germany and never reached its buyer. Therefore, what did I do? I sent a replacement. That never reached the chap, either, and so it bounced back here. Now the Canadian postal service is at it. They haven't delivered summat, and it's sitting in storage - perhaps until they try a second time.

Last time the clowns at Deutsche Post gave the package a new tracking number, which they did not give me, the sender, nor did they give it to the recipient. He was sat at home all day on the day they claimed to have tried to deliver it. He even met the postman, and got some other letters off him! But no damned parcel. As a result of that fiasco, when people buy stuff off me on Ebay, their Paypal payments take 21 days to come through. I don't have any money! So not getting even enough money to send a package is a pretty dreadful (you have no idea how bowdlerised that word was) deal. One digs oneself deeper into debt for a payment which - in this case - is unlikely to appear, if the Canadian postal service proves to be as inept as its Teutonic counterpart.

I need this damned money. I need it. But what can I do when these blasted postal services, on whom I must rely, can't be bothered to do their jobs? Bugger all. That's what: nothing! If you, o reader, are a postal employee who does a good job, and doesn't try to give your impoverished customer aneurysms, then I thank you. But if you're one of these . . . time to replace words again, one of these charming chaps who can't be bothered to do his job, and whose laziness and incompetence screws this wee unemployed twerp over, then may angry gnomes with sticks beat your toes throughout your life!

On the positive side, at least the staggering and grotesque incompetence of some halfwits at Deutsche Post has led to my use of tracking on every damned parcel, so it's swiftly demonstrable that I have posted it. Maybe my prospective recipients and I could pelt these jerks with less than fresh fruit until they deliver the blasted packages. I threw some old tomatoes out earlier, and now wish I had not.

Rambling

Way back here are some Laser Destroyers, Exterminators, Thunderers, Chimeras and Griffons on Ebay. These are lots of wee toys to play with, fellow wargamerinos! On a different scale of return, I see that I now have 20 followers, although I don't know who you are because my machine is utterly primitive. My 200th post approaches, so I might soon employ said post as an excuse to do all sorts of things. Perhaps I will hire an acrobat, but I might as readily acquire for myself a gun-toting halibut. Er, less readily, since I'll assume that taught halibuts are being exploited by their masters.

I will be putting up a lot of pictures later. Two things have combined to prevent me from so doing as yet. First, I'm watching Dexter. Second, he's on an External HDD which commands the same socket that the camera does. Ergo, I have the one socket either to watch stuff or upload it. I would like to say I have another socket, but while I agree that another computer exists, I can't use it. I don't know whether Mum's using it to access genealogical records or Dad's updating Church records or my brother's looking into his finances. Any one of these three is really inconvenient, but that's just how things are!

Anyway, good luck to you Ebayers!

Shack and Sheriff's Office: preliminary painting

Well, less painting, more staining. I hit both of these buildings with my usual grey Halford's primer, but balsa gets a bit fluffy when you do this. So I then started diluting paints and using inks and washes to help flatten out the surface texture a bit. It's working quite well, but I've missed a few places, and been a bit sloppy here and there. It's just struck me that I'll need a Wanted  Poster or two for the Sheriff's Office. In other news, I have several squadrons of things up on Ebay. There's a pair of squadrons of Thunderers, here and here. Then there's a trio of Griffons, one of Exterminators, kitbashed Laser Destroyers (two on Chimera chassis, one on a Russ) here, and a trio of Chimeras, including one with a funky, repurposed Russ turret. Anyway, here are the pics of the buildings so far. Enjoy, folks!

Return of the Bombard

Following its unsuccessful tour of Germany, my Bombard has returned. While there's still no clear explanation how the postal service can have attempted to deliver it without my buyer noticing, two small puzzles have been clarified. First, it was Deutsche Post who tried to deliver it. Second, the reason my buyer couldn't track it through Deutsche Post is because they didn't use the Royal Mail's tracking code. I won't stick the full code out in public out of some confused feelings about online security, but the English code begins RJ and ends GB, while DP's code begins RL and ends DE, with a nine-digit number between. There's some overlap of numerals, and the national codes in GB/DE are clear enough. However, I have no idea how a sender or recipient could track this. My buyer tried the Royal Mail code on DP, who said they had no record of such a package. Well, no, not if they've given it a new code unknown to sender or recipient!

Opening it up, the ammo-loading crane's been broken, but that is the weakest part of the kit, and even coating it in bubble-wrap and those little foam thingies, bad things will happen. I think it should be easily fixed with an application of super glue. The buyer and I agreed last night to give up on this. It's really been difficult, not having a job, to find the money to pay for postage for the other things I've been posting. Hopefully, now this is over, I can turn the clock back to the way it was before! Anyway, here are some pics to breathe life into my dry and dusty words. See ye anon, dear reader!

Adding up AFVs

You know, I thought I had sold a lot of my tanks, but it seems that only a small proportion has gone into the ether. I decided I'd grab hold of them all and tote up what I have left. It's a humbling number. This is AFVs of all types, not just tanks. I've packed 72 of them onto my shelves, and another 22 mostly complete ones are scattered around the place. It looks like the mess of that item that didn't reach Germany is about to clear up. The Royal Mail say they (or rather their German partner, probably Deutsche Post) tried to deliver it on Saturday, so it's apparently wending its way back to me. My buyer was in, met the postie, and received some other post, but neither the package nor a note to say it had failed to appear. Nor does DP have any record of it. So at this point I'm giving up. I sent one item. It vanished. I sent a replacement. The postal services are at best colossally incompetent. So I'm hoping he'll just take a refund and all will be well again.


Then I mean to start getting rid of vehicles in squadrons. It'll let me decrease the numbers a bit more quickly. I did a bit of work last night on a super (Banehammer? Banesword?) to finish off a squadron of the beasties, which I'll then pop on Ebay. Although not until the next time they have a free listing weekend. I haven't paid enough attention to that, and I'm paying for it financially now. Had to renew my car insurance the other day, and it's ridiculously expensive. A friend tried to explain to me why insurance companies charge more to the unemployed (who are most likely to have no cash) than to students or the employed (who are more likely to have cash), but I still don't understand it. Still no response to these job thingies I keep sending out. Bah.

On a lighter note, I made brownies yesterday, and they're very nice indeed. I forgot to put macadamia nuts in, so earlier on I pulverised a few and had them with a brownie and some ice cream. Heavenly! I've been doing a lot of tidying and organising today, so no progress as yet on anything wargamery, but there's a while yet afore bedtime, so there's a chance yet. It's a good thing it's a few hours before sleep, as the models boxed and shelved have displaced books, which have now occupied my bed in serried ranks. Before I away, here's a teaser of the super I'm working on. Whatever their name, they're the long-range artillery variant. There's a third in the attic, with the regular allocation of sponsons, so you've guess correctly that this third beastie will have double-side sponsons. Twin-linked Heavy Flamers, of course - not because she is the sort of vehicle to charge into the action, but because she is the sort of vehicle that enemy deep-striking troops will go for. Until next time, mes amis, goodbye!

Ode to Joy!

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

So, yeah, I found that receipt. I've tracked down the package to Frankfurt, where it's being processed. That little droid's caused me an awful lot of trouble - "Wait, not a droid, Pete." Oh, yeah, stinking postal service. To be fair, these two problems are the only ones I have had (touch wood hordes more buyers won't come climbing out of the woodwork to say they've been waiting three weeks!), but when one parcel goes missing and the second (which should have reached him after three days!) still hasn't been delivered more than a week later, one starts to go a bit mental. Still, I've sent him the details, so he can see it's just sat there. Well, that a package that I say contains a Bombard is sat there. I don't think there's any way I can speed up the German postal service, so now it's just a waiting game. However, since it's in Germany, it surely can't take too long, which means maybe Paypal will again be unlocked. I can only cross my fingers and trust in stereotypical German efficiency! ;-) And submit my complaint/compensation form to Royal Mail for the disappearance of the first one.

We're not out of this yet, kid.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Well, this whole getting money from Ebay whizz is on the backburner now. Y'may recall that on the 26th of last month I sent a Bombard to Germany as a replacement for a Bombard that I'd sent the 25th (or thereabouts) of the previous month, but which hadn't arrived. Now the second bloody package hasn't arrived either! Royal Mail's doodah says they aim to deliver the second kind of package (International Signed For) in 2-3 days. This is, of course, driving me and my buyer bonkers. The Good that I can wring from this is that I can with the parcel's number trace what's happened to the second package. The lady in the Post Office said I couldn't, but Royal Mail's website says otherwise.

The Bad here is that I can't find the bloody bit of paper. I've still got the piece from the first parcel, which I had to dig through binbags to find. See previous blog entry. After that fiasco, Mum gave me a file to keep these bits in, and promised not to throw out bags of paper without asking me. It isn't in the box-file. It doesn't seem to be in my room. So I can track down the package with the number . . . but I don't have the number, because the piece of paper has gone walkies.

The Ugly is that, quite reasonably, the fella in Germany, having received neither of the packages, has now put this into an Ebay administration thing. A knock-on effect of this is that all my Paypal payments are delayed 21 days. I put stuff on Ebay because I have no money. So I need the money from Ebay to post stuff. So I'm now stuffed, and am going to completely run dry of cash and into the red until the stuff's re-liquidated in a month.

Looking on the bright side, there's something funny in selling things becoming impossible because it's too expensive for the seller. I suppose this is how HMV and Waterstones feel. ;-) But it's a comic interlude I could really do without. I've heard nothing from my employment agency since I contacted 'em, and now have no money coming in, money going out on postage (which apparently can't be relied on), two packages to chase up, no way to sell more stuff on Ebay, and argh, argh, argh!

A stronger expostulation than "bloody" is called for at this juncture, but I'll just mutter it to myself and not sully your eyes. But life is not all bad. On Friday I had a nice evening out in town and a lovely meal at the local Thai with some friends (this was before finding out that I'd blown a mass of my seriously finite cash). I'd seen two of my friends on the Wednesday, and we'd had a chat about writing. I'm considering penning some dreadful Dan Brown-style trash. I mean, I'll soon be writing a thrilling, hair-raising, gripping page-turner, that's - what's that neologism? - unputdownable. Yeah, I'll be avoiding terms such as neologism in it, plainly. Well, maybe not: if Dan Brown can get away with symbololololololology, then I think I can probably throw in another tortured-sounding word.

Anyway, B mentioned a writing course she's been on and sent me the details of a related one. Although I doubt I can really go to it now, given that petrol costs money. Hurry up, Star Trek, and fetch me my post-scarcity economy! We had a bit of a natter about synecdoche (which this spellcheck doesn't believe exists - o tempora! o mores!) and chiasmus, and I lamented that my knowledge of these literary tricks and stylings is paltry. I remember bits and bobs from Latin and Greek texts, but it's been a few years!

I'd link to my Ebay stuff, but I don't know if I want it to sell, really. If it sells, yes, I'll have money in a month. But even if it doesn't, I'm still going to be stuck paying for the listing fees and so on. Yeah, let's go with despair as a great adjective to describe my feelings about Ebay right now. Auf wiedersehen, readers!

To the Ebay-mobile, Robin!

There's a bumper crop of my fast-vanishing possessions up today, people! There's a scratchbuilt Medusa, another Griffon, and then things really start to get interesting! First up, I'm selling off my scratchbuilt/kitbashed Macharius Vanquisher, Molly. Then my nameless Stormsword with its doubled sponsons filled with fiery death! Then a trio of trios, as I sell off squadrons of three fully-painted and modelled Exterminators, three fully-painted and modelled Thunderers, and three base-coated Vanquishers (old-school, scratchbuilt turrets). The coup de grace, mes amis, is surely the Chaos Space Marine Army. 2 Predators, a Dreadnought, 4 Rhinos, a metal champion, the CSM Codex and 49 plastic Marines all for about a hundred quid. Worth a look, eh? Here are some pint-sized pics to whet your interest!