Scale Creep: A demotivational poster

FInally, a practical use for my skills

Thus far, my daughter has shown more interest in my goofy little hobby than my son has.  However, when the time came for him to make a shoebox diorama of a desert biome, he knew who to go to.  Using a tube of plastic desert animals purchased at Michael's ($9.99, Sculpting: 4/10, Color: 7/10, Scale: 2/10) and a color printer, we made this little scene of the Mojave Desert.  We textured the desert floor with glue, sand, and a small hillock made out of the sole of one of Mommy's discarded running shoes.  A little paint and a drybrush for texture, some of Daddy's grass and lichen, and voila! a diorama that depicts three types of desert plant life and four species of animals.  Mrs. Mad Doctor, who grew up in Las Vegas, felt the need to point out that the suguaro cactus would not really be able to survive in the harsh Mojave climate, but I speculated that it was one of the artificial variety found outside of casinos.

Now if only his project had needed a representation of the Battle of Glorietta Pass...

Voila l'Armée francaise!

 It has been a while since I posted any of my Napoleonics.  Now that I have a sizeable force of Peninsular British, I wanted to paint up some French for them to fight against.  While my club is awash in French, I wanted some of my very own to play with. Besides, it's good to change things up every so often, and compared to the fussy lace on the English uniforms, these guys are a breeze. The legere troops are Hat--not as bad as I expected but definitely guys I will replace someday.  The French line are Perry's and the artillery and cavalry are by Old Glory.   Even though I did not spend a whole lot of time on these troops, I'm getting better at quick shading, which the blue French coats need to add depth and interest. I'm also including a shot of a fountain I created for my Spanish plaza.  My daughter loves the water effect.