Housekeeping, a modest figure conversion & some upcoming stuff...

Greetings!

Unfortunately I've been having lots of trouble with this blog.  For some time now it's been impossible for me to leave a comment here, despite it being my own blog.  Though I'm still able to create new posts, Blogger won't recognize my identity as a registered user of their system.  I tried a bunch of ways to solve this problem, both obvious and more obscure, and even consulted with a couple of html and Blogger experts but so far without any success.

I owe a personal apology to John S. Beardsley, who was kind enough to leave a comment here on my last post back on July 27th, 2019, asking a question.  I tried many times to post my reply, but obviously none of them worked.  I wish I'd had the idea to do this months ago, but I'm copying John's question here so I can finally give him his woefully overdue answer:

Just a quick question.  In one of your posts you refer to "heavy dry brushing."  Does that mean more paint or harder pressure?
Thanks in advance.
John S. Beardsley

John, for me, "heavy dry brushing:" means more paint on the brush, which will then equal more paint on the object in question.  And my sincere apologies for taking so long to reply!

It's been a few months since my last post and though I but I've actually been somewhat busy on the hobby front.  But before I get into my recent activities, I want to show off a very small project I worked on a while back for a very good friend.  It's a figure conversion of a 40th Pathans bagpiper, made from a Perry Sikh bagpiper's body (LINK to item on Perry site) + an Artizan Designs Punjabi Infantryman's head (LINK to item on Artizan site).  I also added a Pathan/Highland shawl, using a 28mm winter cloak I ordered a pack of years ago to use on c.1840 British troops in the Afghan Winter, which I narrowed and used a pair of clippers to add fringes to the dangling end of.

When he's all done the finished figure will look something like this:

I sent the finished conversion to him and when he gets a chance to paint it, I'll post some pictures of the finished item.  Meanwhile, here's some pics of the conversion...

Artizan Designs Punjabi sepoy -

Perry Sikh piper -

Trimmed down & be-fringed piper's shawl...

Some post-surgery views-

Side-by-side view-

* * * * *

As mentioned above, that 40th Pathans Piper is something I worked on awhile back.  More recently I've been painting a multi-part 28mm Vauban Fortress for another friend.  I also managed to play in a big multi-player 28mm ACW refight of the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga - against my son Skylar (!!!) - and to set plans in motion for one or two more traditional "Maiwand Day" style games to hopefully be played in the Summer of 2020, on the fast-approaching 140th Anniversaries of one or two big Second Afghan War battles.  I hope to be back very soon, blogging more about the Chickamauga game (I do have some nice pics) and also about the Vauban fort (which I have WAY TOO MANY pics of), which I've been working on for about two months, and is now very close to completion. Until then, I repeat my sincere apology to John S. Beardsley, and also to all my fellow bloggers out there on the hobby web, on whose sites I've tried and failed to leave comments of my own over these past months.  Hopefully at some point I'll find a solution to this problem!

Best,

Ethan (AKA: Mad Guru)