Not only was it our wedding anniversary but our 50th as well! BTW I am the good looking one on the left!
Wedding anniversary.
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Category Archives: A Guru Rant
Oh ye of little faith Guru has moved into the 21st Century with a fantastic spell making machine!
Just not sure if it is BCE or CE!
Gurus view on computers has always been “You can never trust a computer until you have thrown it out of the window”. Apologies to Steve Wozniak.
I always said that I would never move into the 3D spell making age but it has happened.
Thanks to good friend Andrew from the Wargames Holiday Centre I am now the proud owner of one. He had problems with one he had bought and the supplier decided to replace his. As it was taking too long he decided to purchase a new state of the art magical machine with a lot more spells, and then this one turned up.
An Anycubic Photo Mono X Spell Caster
I have put it all together and set it up waiting, to quote another Guru, “a little help from my friends”. Mechanics I can handle, “spell casting ” beyond “and” and “or” gates is one of life’s great mysteries.
Once I learn how to cast spells with this mystery of modern science I might even become “a groovy guru” and Get Smart!
The mighty spell making machine in painting paradise!
If you are travelling to Melbourne and want a good time don’t forget to look up Andrew from the Wargames Holiday Centre – sounds a bit like one of THOSE adds doesn’t it!
Mia Culpa
Hi All. I would like to say that of late I have had some Gremlins in my machine causing problems, but alas it has just been incompetence.
I have been setting up a new website and have had a few too many stuff ups including re-posting a 2016 post and several posts without pics where I pressed the wrong button.
Hopefully I have it all sorted out now!
Yeah Right!
A vision Resplendent – a gift to Guru
A while ago I received a gift from someone whom I will now call a “frenemy”!
I thought that looks great I might be able to do something with that. Then he said, and this is where the frenemy bit comes in, ” I thought it looked a bit like you”!
He likes blowing his own trumpet.
He keeps his money bag tightly closed.
He has little grey hair.
He likes a frothy or three – true providing it is old scrumpy!
His choice of clothes could do with some improvement
And looks like his had his head in the trough for far too long
Looks nothing like me!
See…………Oops wrong logo!
Guru says. “If you cannot laugh at yourself others will do it for you”!
A little more excitement than we wanted!
As a risk and emergency manager I am used to managing fires, floods and other emergencies, but edging towards retirement the last thing I needed was a fire literally at our back door.
The map of the 22 hectare fire, Our house is on the far right.
We live in the yellow “Watch and Act” danger zone.
“Watch and Act” means keep a close eye on what is happening with the fire and get ready to evacuate. Enacting our fire plan we put the four cats in their large crate and readied the carry baskets to evacuate them if required. Our essential paper work, medications, laptops and a few clothes were readied to be packed in the car if required.
Friends were notified that I wasn’t going to be wargaming with them tonight but instead we may need to visit if everything turned pear shape!
Continuing to monitor the emergency warnings we received the message that we wanted. The two fire helicopters and 22 fire trucks kept the fire on the opposite side of the Plenty River Gorge and the “Watch and Act” warning was downgraded to “Monitor”.
The famous Australian poem by Dorothea Mackellar describes “My Country” perfectly:
I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
I love her far horizons
I love her jewel sea
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me
Dorothea Mackellar
Phew!
Current Cave Chaos
Another update for me to keep a track on myself and to just give you an idea of what I am doing at the moment.
Preparation and “staging” side.
Painting and waiting to be painted side.
These have not been progressed for over a month and perhaps should go back in their relevant boxes to make more space.
The mammoth has had a few more colours added.
Only the skin colour has been added to these “old hammer” sentinels.
More “Plague” figures that I have been concentrating on more recently.
2 Units of WW2 scouts ready to be started.
Two more U.N.I.T. sections half done.
Children with snowballs that are so closed to being finished all I need is motivation to do so!
4th Squad of the Australian Jungle Division not progressed very far, if at all, from last month.
2nd Doctor Who and Companions ready to start painting.
20mm Airfix Australians with a few more colours added.
LVT 4 “Buffalos” ready for weathering. My Grandfather, who had many a ride in these said the only thing that was not covered in rust on them was the allied star as they were kept clean to prevent them from being mistaken for the Japanese Type 2 Ka Mi which looked more like a DUKW than an LVT4 but that was the story anyway.
A “between the wars” (?) vehicle given to me by a friend in anticipation of my 70th birthday in May this year.
Pack horses with no further progress.
Deadzone “Enforcers” put together for F28 halfway through painting.
Midlam Miniatures Tavern Kickstarter. I thought they might look good on some wooden floor resin bases I had, but they don’t. I will re-base them before painting.
Badger and rabbit with some more colours on them. The badger had a fight with a kitten and came off second best. I am still trying to find the feathers broken off his hat!
The offender “Muggles” – how can you stay mad at her!
Brother Vinni’s jungle fighters – post on the first lot appearing tomorrow.
WW2 US Army section to be used as Merrill’s Marauders.
Warlord’s special “Cappy and Devil Dog” figure that comes with the “Marianas & Palau Islands” Campaign book.
5th Jungle Division section just undercoated.
Draconian Dr Who figures prepared for undercoating.
Dr Who Yetis, Lt Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, and Professor Travers from the “Web of Fear” box set, ready for undercoating
Assorted MacGuffins and objectives ready for undercoating.
A lot of progress on some new “stuff” like the Plague figures and some that have sadly stalled. Such is the life of Guru!
The Feast of Lupercalia
With us both being too busy today to celebrate the feast of Lupercalia, we decided to go on Sunday to The Blue Lotus Water Gardens instead.
Besides I couldn’t find a goat and a dog to sacrifice, and I am pretty sure that SWMBO would not allow me to whip her with their skinned hides either.
The mountains to the east of Melbourne were the place in Victorian times to holiday in summer to escape the heat, take the “waters” and breathe the “airs”.
Now very much on the fringe of the city rather than in the countryside the area still has many gems for day trips. The Blue Lotus Water Gardens is one of them.
Situated in Yarra Junction, so named for the junction of the Yarra River that flows through Melbourne to the sea, and the “Little Yarra” river, the gardens are fourteen acres of pure delight.
The cool mountain air means that the lakes are only a few feet deep so that the sun can keep the lotus flowers warm and able to bloom. The garden is closed during winter because of this.
Giant Amazonian lotus plants, some over three feet in diameter.
The rose and the lotus?
Queen of the Dragons (shhh – don’t tell her!). Emilia Clarke eat your heart out!
The Lotus fairies. I think the young ones have had enough of photos!
Monet has nothing on this!
We gorged ourselves on a sumptuous feast cooked lovingly by SWMBO, and despite the on and off rain we had a great day.
The only downside was missing Emilia in the dragon garden!
700th Day of Consecutive Posts
Today 3rd of February makes my 700th day of consecutive posts.
Over the last 700 days a few have been very short but I have made it every day ! Phew! There has been more than 700 posts with a number of days having more than one………it’s called “verbal d………”!
What does the number 700 mean?
Looking from a numerology standpoint, the energy surrounding the 3-digit number 700 is a notably even tempered energy. It resonates with well-defined patterns of wisdom and marked vibrations of perception. It’s also a number that never takes a break in its mission for deeper , more universal truths — tirelessly questing to reveal a greater jewel of cosmic knowledge. Google cannot be wrong can it! Sounds like the Guru to me! Highlights are mine of course.
Thanks to all of my readers, followers, and especially you guys that comment regularly. Keeps me going.
Well I guess this means I will see you tomorrow!
Armies for Sale
Just a note to let you know that over the next twelve months I am downsizing my figure collection as I have lots that I have not used for years and am unlikely to ever again.
I am preparing the following 15mm ancient armies for sale and if there is something on the list that you might be interested in let me know and I can send some pics. At this stage I am happy to receive reasonable offers before they go on ebay and other sites.
They are as follows:
- 15mm Minfig strip Macedonian army professionally painted;
- 15mm Moghul Indian army professionally painted;
- 15mm Republican Indian army (average painting);
- 15mm Large Sumerian/Elamite army professionally painted;
- 15mm small collection of arabs painted, but lots of camels, cavalry, infantry etc unpainted;
- 15mm Crusaders. large amount of military order and normal knights, little infantry well painted;
- 15mm Normans and Bretons OK painting (will fit with the above);
- Very large 15mm fantasy army;
- Large Macedonian/successor army average painting;
- Some assorted 15mm English Civil War – mainly minifig strips, but more than enough for an army – average painting, but needs basing.
Later on in the year there will be 28mm Napoleonics, Ancients (full armies and some Saga skirmish armies), 40k Spacewolves army, and lots of 40k vehicles including some of the old armourcast titans. Some 20mm WW2 resin, metal and plastics will also be for sale.
Again if you might be interested let me know and I can send some pics.
Setting the Scene
I have had a lot of comments and emails over the last two months about how I have displayed the Australian Jungle division and the various Dr Who figures. There is no magic involved. If we are not having visitors or I am not planing a game at my place, I normally have some scenes set up on the gaming/billiard table to save time.
These are always appropriate to the projects that I am working on. This month the Xeno Rampart and Dr Who projects.
This is the back of the city rubble scene.
Here is the front. The baseboard is used for my Gotham city railway station.
The background is a “tabletop ready” printed mdf backdrop from Battlefield Accessories.
The wrecked cars were posted on some time ago
There is an amazing perception of depth with this layout. For instance look at this car.
Now see how it fits in with the background to give the perception of depth.
The buildings are straight from my ruined monastery project as they fit in well with the backboard.
The rest is just a lot of Post Apocalyptic scatter terrain.
All of the Dr Who minis were photographed in this setting.
Lighting was provided by the downlights and this highly adjustable white LED desk lamp bought from Aldi!
The Xeno Rampart and Australian jungle division were photographed on a variation of this. Sometimes with a hill:
Sometimes with a building:
Always with the same collection of aquarium plant bases and green/yellow gaming cloth.
I always use my Samsung Galaxy A30 mobile phone to take the photos mostly they turn out OK sometimes when I am tired not so, but I only claim guru status not that of a photographic genius, but then……………………….