Shocking

Ebay never ceases to amaze. And for once I'm not talking about their commission policy.

I came across something called a static grass applicator which you can buy for £13.95. Essentially its a kitchen sieve which you fill with flock and then put a charge through in order to get the fake grass to stand up when you shake it over the appropriate piece of terrain. I haven't added the link but its in scenery and props if you want to take a look and dare I say it, feel your jaw drop.

Now I know that we modellers can be something of an obsessive lot but this takes a whole packet of biscuits. Good luck to the people trying to sell it but can there be an item more marginal? The best bit for me was that because electricity is involved there is a risk of electric shock. The advert perhaps unsurprisingly does not identify the level of risk to which the user is exposed but if you are willing to take a chance in order to achieve upright grass then you are a braver man than I

Or am I missing something? Is there a market for this sort of device which I have hitherto never seen? I doubt it but please tell me if I am. I love the home made feel of this sort of thing (think Youtube and foam cutters) but the sight of a common sieve bolted to an electrode was an innovation too far. I'm out.

Flesh

I was browsing the Vallejo catalogue last night because I need a resupply. It suddenly struck me how many flesh variants there are. Until recently I used GW's triad which gave a nice, pinkish finish but recently switched to the Panzer Aces set of shadows flesh, flesh base and flesh highlight. It's OK I suppose but in retrospect I only bought it because it's something different.

I've tried the VMC combination of cavalry red, beige red and basic flesh which is alos pretty good but what about all the rest of the colours on display? Light flesh, dark flesh, sunny skintone, medium flesh, flat flesh, basic skintone and there's even a flesh set of half a dozen colours. But apart from the latter set none of these colours seem to hang together. For a start most of them seem too yellow but for example, does anyone use the dark flesh as a base? I would be interested to hear if readers have any suggestions on how these might fit together as triads.

It may be a Vallejo thing. I still don't see how their dark red can be lighter than a red.

A-n-n-o-y-i-n-g

Just a quick query here. I keep getting multiple hits from a site called r-e-f-e-r-e-r. Its a tedious web advert and there are a number of others but none quite as prolific. Does anyone have a way of blocking these?

Drummers

My heart normally sinks when I paint drummers - so many additional bits and pieces and all that lace. So when it comes to French drummers for 1815 then it gets worse. But way beyond this is the Swiss drummer I have just done.

Not only do you have the green, yellow and red on the coat but the facing colour is a rather fetching sky blue. I could also have got some orange of purple in there if I had chosen to put him in a different company. Its a slightly blurry photo but I hope to have him properly based shortly.

Presumably this poor chap was something of a bullet magnet when marching into action so he can have a stand of his own as all his pals edge further away. Is there another uniform with so many different colours?
 

Don Featherstone

I saw the news that Don had passed away at the good old age of 95. Off to the green fields beyond.

I've written elsewhere about my links to him so all I will add here is this. I know that he was very proud of his wartime service with the RTR - his battle dress and beret hung on the back of his study door. I don't know what he experienced but service with a teeth arms unit in North Africa and Italy must surely have had its grim moments. So when he commanded a troop of tanks in a WW2 wargame at the late, great Wessex Wargames Club there must have been some mixed feelings. As his armour approached a small village he declared that even though he could see no little plastic Germans he was going to thoroughly machine gun the place. As a simple teenager the concept of surpressive fire was something I had never even considered. It was a salutory lesson and I thought to myself that here was a small glimpse into the reality of how people, rather than models, actually fight.

So, thanks for all your kindness and wisdom Don.