Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!

The lasagna, which I made on Sunday, went well. I'm not sure how others will take to it - vegan cheese, like Scotch, is an acquired taste. Who was it said that an acquired taste is one not worth acquiring? Untrue, untrue! How could one have a taste for Ovid without a little acquisition of knowledge? However, whether the non-cheese would be universally appreciated or not, the appearance of the dish is unquestionably pleasing to the eye.

As well as this successful culinary expedition, I have thrust myself back into going through our film catalogue. Yesterday was the turn of Kiss the Girls,
a flick about Morgan Freeman hunting down a serial kidnapper-cum-rapist-cum-murderer. The ending is rather predictable, and yet one can be denied that small pleasure if one looks the film up on IMDB and their featured quotation reveals the mysterious monster's identity. Tsk-tsk! It was interesting to see the chap who played Doctor Emmett Meridian in Dexter turn up in something else. Today I've put myself through Outrageous Fortune, which was pleasant, but not worth wasting your time over, unless you like seeing George Carlin in small roles. As well as that, I exposed myself to Barbarella. The most peculiar part of the film is that the music seems so often totally divorced from everything else. It's a rather peculiar pile of events, unified only by a skimpy plot and a youthful and scantily clad Jane Fonda leaping on everything in sight. Aside from her amorous adventures, the most memorable scene for me was when she was sentenced to death by being sealed in a cage with hundreds of small birds - budgies and the like.

I dug through an old computer the other day, and ran across an account of a pre-Apocalypse-era battle I GM'd (badly) at uni. I can date the report to 2003/4 thanks to internal evidence. Oh, cunning of me, eh? Not really too interesting to you, though, so I shan't recount it all at length. The main points of the battle were as follows. We used an area 12' by 8', divided into two 12' by 4' strips. We had a designated attacker and defender, and the defender's had an HQ located in a fort my Granddad built for my brother, and which I had borrowed for the occasion. He still has it in his room: it's about 20" long on either side, although the gates aren't really quite wide enough for Chimera models and such, it made an impressive sight.

The events of the game suggest just why the chaps at GW formed the Apoc rules as they did. Our defenders didn't bother to occupy a network of defensive bunkers (and possibly not even the fort besides a single minor special character), and sallied forth to glorious combat. One wing of the attackers advanced so slowly that they took forever to get into combat. Only one player paid any heed to his objectives or to the cohesion and safety of his force. He ended the game on the verge of turfing the scant defenders of the fort out of their positions, so was probably a bit miffed! The fella representing critical reserves for the defender ambled off after turn 2, and the game stalled about turn five after six or seven hours of play. Heh! Then I seem to have gone off to console my then-fiancée who was upset about her post-graduate degree in Cultural Heritage Management. Two battles lost in one day! :-D

I must see if I can dig up some pictures from that battle. I know there are some extant from the era. Pictures of what I've been working on these last few days are right to hand, happily. First of all, there's a delightful Scotch from the Isle of Jura, Superstition, which by some happenstance, I bought for myself at the same time that my friend's sister bought it to congratulate him on passing his degree. So I feel I should congratulate him, too, and feel a bit abashed at buying myself Scotch. I'm sure we're both enjoying this stuff, as it's very "moreish", as the portion I have poured myself shows!

"Why, that's enough sippin' whiskey to bathe a man!" As well as noting that this Scotch is less ruddy than these pictures suggest (does Scotch get "red-eye"?), I'd also like to draw your attention to a friend's blog. He recently had an inspired idea, combining a beloved children's TV character with his Ogre army. I challenge you not to delight in the idea and in his skill with Greenstuff. Here, meanwhile, I have been distracting myself by fiddling about with some 1/72 plastics. I have a large box of these fellas, sat securely on a shelf over my sink, covering many periods. I can remember Romans and Gauls, Mediaeval Knights, Conquistadors and Aztecs, Seven Years War Austrians and Prussians, all sorts of Napoleonics (although mainly French and British), a fair whack of WWII vehicles and infantry, including several jeeps I purchased, intending to run a game based on that Michael Caine film all of you will recognise if I mention these clues: Winston Churchill, paratroopers.

But what I have been working on has been the ACW infantry I have here. I haven't decided what to do with these models yet. Well, I mean to use them for skirmish gaming, as I have only Johnny Reb and Billy Yank infantry. Nary a gun nor horseman is to be seen. I have elected to give Johnny Reb a variegated look, while Billy Yank is getting a somewhat uniform, er, uniform. I started off giving the Bluebellies an Ultramarine Blue jacket, but it struck me as a bit bright, so I have switched now to the Foundation Paint Fenris Grey. Pop some Leviathan Purple or Asurmen Blue Wash over that, and it's just about right. The trousers are Lightning or Ice Blue, I think. I don't intend to throw too many hours into producing these guys, and I always seem to produce somewhat manky-looking 1/72 stuff, no matter how hard I try, so these guys will just get some basic coats of paint then a few washes to tie everything together. Here's how they look so far. Until next time, dear reader!