Life with eleven cats and other madness

Posted on June 15, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

As promised, third day in a row!

I’ll start with the “down” part then we can progress towards more positive things.

As part of getting old I had a health check up at the local doctors, blood samples galore. One little thing he picked up on was a slight under production from my thyroid gland. Euthyrox was prescribed and the doctor would review the results after a couple of months after a blood sample was taken at the hospital. I try not to read side effect notes until after a couple of months because I don’t want to project them onto myself, just observe and reflect. I waited until after the check up before I looked and oh boy, tick, tick, tick etc. I then stopped the medication and will look at alternative thyroid medication with the doctor. Life is much better without, crushing fatigue, depression, an inability to really concentrate, shortness of breath, insomnia and eating a small amount of cheese resulted in stomach cramps accompanied by by a trip to the throne room. I’m still fatigued, which might be a complication of covid, but it is not like a huge weight of tiredness. I feel a lot better for stopping that particular medication. Yeah getting old sucks.

And just to top things off it’s pollen season. I have two or three weeks in June where my nose is just pouring. Not even antihistamines help.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

I have managed to paint and I have been finishing parts for my big projects. Bar some little props Heroquest is ready to paint. Bloodbowl parts are printed and ready for paint and assembly. Spacehulk corridors are ready for priming, this is going to be an outside summer job. Escorts and cruisers have been printed for Battlefleet Gothic. I spot a retro theme going on here.

Some ecumenical advisors to accompany the Baron Figure from earlier this year

And more. I have to produce fifty five bases of Snotlings for my 2000pt army.

And finally the high note! Eleven, yes eleven, cats. My cat Queenie snuck out before we could get her neutered. This has resulted in the birth of some more kittens. They are going to a nice family in a couple of weeks. The family has been visiting to see the kitten’s progress and we have been observing the family. They are kind and gentle with the kittens so we have no worries. It always is a difficult parting when cats leave us.

This is Squeeky. I called her this because you can’t keep a cat called Squeeky. Can you?

We don’t have a name for her, but the family are thinking of Kitty.

My boy Jasper has been a bit freaked out by the kittens so he hasn’t been such a constant companion of late. We do seem to have bred racing kittens there is always a blur of fur. And last thing at night we have to check there is nothing loose on the floor otherwise we have a sleepless night.

Snotlings

Posted on May 8, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Well hello new followers! This post is going to totally phaze you, are you sure you’re following the right person?

This is something I wrote about thirty years ago and I was prompted to dig it out following a post on the Facebook Middlehammer group. Sometimes being a hoarder can be useful. This is written for WHFB 3rd edition so if anyone knows the formulae to convert this to 6th let me know.

Snotlings

Are you tired of limp-wristed elves, solid dependable dwarves, highly spiked chaos thingys or noisy dirty orcs? Then what you need my friend is SNOTLINGS! Yes! Those gibbering green creatures lurking in the corners. A bit of light relief to bring a smile to your battle weary face. “But theyse always runs away!” comes a voice from the back of the room. Well with a bit of beefing up they won’t, or not very often anyways.

Most of these charactors are based on figures produced by Citadel Miniatures.

Spit the Chicken Slayer

Snotling Major (Level 5 only) Hero

snot1 Bravest of the brave. His tales of derring-do are sung (well sort of hummed a bit) after the Midwinter feast of roast ferret and acorn beer. His mighty thews armoured with the spoils of a thousand (well, more than five) dwarven rubbish tips. On his side he wears the mighty sword of champions “Stoatbanger”. Purloined from a visit to Ye Olde Reject Shoppe. Forged in the fires of chaos and twinned to its bearer in an unholy alliance of flesh and soul. Allegedly.

spit Special Rules

Spit commands a minimum of 3 Snotling bases and a maximum of 6 bases. When commanded by Spit the Snotlings will charge or receive a charge if they outnumber their foe by two-to-one. If they are charged by a unit they don’t outnumber they will run away.

Snotling Fanatic

snot2 Worshippers of the dour god ‘Arikross these devotees are fed on a diet of muesli. They hide amongst ordinary Snotlings until 6 inches away from an enemy unit. Then irrespective of the normal turn sequence the Fanatic is loosed towards the enemy with squeaky cries of, “Brookie! Brookie!”

The Fanatic is pointed in the direction the Snotling Player wishes him to travel and moves 2D4 inches. If a double is rolled the Fanatic has suffered from a heart attack or the inability to control his whirling iron ball.

The Fanatic uses a 3/4 inch template for damage purposes. Any unit moved over by the Fanatic receives automatic D4 strength 3 hits with no saving throw for armour.

For more specific information please read the section on page 98 WHFB about Goblin Fanatics.

Grip’s Sheep Warriors

Far away in the mountains of Norsca live and thrive a tough breed of mountain sheep. Quite how they found their way to Grip’s tribe at the World’s Edge Mountains is unknown; although it has been suggested that a dwarf with a penchant for things four legged was to blame. This is usually suggested in a lowered voice many leagues away from the nearest dwarf.

Grip’s tribe is nomadic, wandering from pasture to pasture only heading back to the tribal caves in the depths of winter.

The toughest, hardiest rams are used for battle (the weaker ones for the cooking pot), whilst the ewes are used as draught animals.

The Snotling rider and beast seem to have a special bond between them, probably because neither can realise how stupid the other is. In the summer in the high pastures Snotlings and their mounts can be seen fondly head-butting each other. it is considered a sign of weakness if a rider is knocked out by his mount. In winter, flocks can be found wandering around with little hammocks slung underneath protecting the Snotlings from the wrath of winter’s might by the sheeps thick coat.

There is a Snotling tale about Fid the Wise who tried to light a fire in his hammock. much talk is made of the impressive turn of speed from the irate ram. Not much is known of Fid’s whereabouts after this.

grip Special Rules

The riders cannot wear armour as the noise distracts the rams.

The rams have a butt attack S2 with no armour saving throw.

Barp

Level 5 Magician

snot3

A chance encounter with a sorcerer, a chaos deamonette and a bag of “Magick Dust” left Barp in possession of one spell. Unfortunately that is all, Barp is now a drooling idiot capable of blurting out that one spell if left unattended. The Snotling tribe is incredibily proud of him and will wheel him out at every battle hoping he will use the spell contained within his noggin. Nobody quite knows what the spell is, “BUT A SPELS A SPEL INNIT!”

Special Rules

Barp has no stats, he has to stay in base to base contact with other Snotlings. These are to stop him from saying the spell inadvertantly (it’s the only thing he knows).

The Snotling player has to say in advance to the GM in how many turns Barp will say the spell, that is if Barp is going to be used. When the time comes the GM will pick at random ONE Level 1 Battle Magic spell, without telling the Snotling player what it is. The spell is then cast on the nearest enemy unit within 12 inches. If there is no enemy unit within 12 inches the spell is cast on the nearest Snotling unit.

Once the spell is cast Barp reverts back to a normal Snotling, never to cast a spell again.

A bit more detail about the “Fun”

Posted on May 7, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

April saw me not terribly motivated and to try and get out of the rut I decided to paint some single figures that were started or primed but not finished. Just for fun.

First off was this figure: General Sir Eddard Sharp. He was a promo model for the Arcworlde Kickstarter Sculpted by Alex Huntley, basically Mister Arcworlde. Alex’s sculpting is not polished, he is very talented and his style is very characterful and great to paint. Very like the Battleforge Halflings that I painted a while ago. He deserves our support, he’s only twenty and if he is putting stuff out there like this now imagine what amazing stuff he’s going to be producing in ten years time when he’s hit his stride.

Second off was this fellow. Again sculpted by Alex, this is The Big Chief of the Jungle Gremlins of Chaq-Itza.

Then it was my beloved Snotlings.

This guy was a cheap plastic robot that I picked up from a charity shop. He’ll be joining a few others in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army.

Finishing off with this from Puppets War. A proxy Deth Kopter in my 40K Ork Army.
They all need a coat of matt varnish just to seal them.

January/February work

Posted on March 2, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

It’s been a bit slow of late. Partly lack of motivation. Partly preparing artwork for the GOT shop. And also some health issues. I have had to go into hospital for an operation to remove some rogue cells. The after care medication is knocking me for six at the moment.
Anyway, I finished the Ratling Snipers and managed to do one base of my beloved Snotlings.

I also did an illustration for someone attending this years BOYL, Bring Out Your Lead. The annual Oldhammer bash at Foundry HQ.
He wanted an eighties style of illustration. There’s room for improvement, but I haven’t really picked up a pen in years, so not too shabby. Not one bloody word of thanks mind you. Hmmmm.

January progress

Posted on February 5, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve had a real slow month this month, a bit depressed and some minor health worries have taken my painting mojo. I have really been put to shame by the output of some other people, mentioning no names, amateurairplanes. My mood also hasn’t been improved by advised, by a builder we hired, not to buy the house we had been looking at as it had potentially too many problems and would end up being a money pit. So back to square one!
These guys were my first unit of the year and for a while the painting just didn’t do anything for me. It’s only been in the last week when I started detailing that they have started to pop. With a little push they won’t take long to finish.

So obviously I’m behind this month and I’m very tempted to leave the painting schedule behind and just paint Snotlings this month.
But on a positive note, I have embarked on a new project, still wargaming related. It’s early days yet, but once I have something to show you I will.