Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 23 January 2017

Intermission

I'm taking this opportunity to take a quick break from my normal blogging 'style' (more of my normal moaning and complaining follows below) to reflect of the last 5 years, even  though it's another fortnight or so before my blog is five years old!
The reason for this early reflection has been the realisation that I made over 100, 00 'hits' recently probably thanks to the influx of many Russian spam bots. I didn't notice this at the actual time as I don't  put a great deal of importance in hits as more than a passing reflection of blog success, as I find that more to be the number of those who regularly leave comments.
This post will also be my 252nd, (another 'milestone' - the 250th - missed?), but what I have noticed is the number of bloggers that still have blogs on my blog-roll that have either ceased posting altogether after less than a half a dozen or so posts (when their enthusiasm was at it's highest I'm guessing) and well established blogs that fold after about three years of regular blogging (my very nearly gave up on my own blog at the three year interval).
In the early days of my blogging I was given some sage advice about posting regularly, on a given day and replying to each and every comment etc. Most of this advice has now of course been thrown out of the window by my then adviser (haha!) but I have held to it,
I've also noticed a decline in the number of new followers, which is probably natural, but it is always warming to be able to welcome a new follower to my blog and to this end let me welcome "Ric Walters", for whom I can't find a blog.
Some bloggers I know put great sway in the number of their followers, but still don't manage to get even 10% of them leaving comments (like 'hit's', something else I think too many put importance upon)  - I get about 10% of my followers leaving comments, for which I'm truly grateful.
As a postscript to the above I was very pleased to see "Confused dad" posting on his blog "Confused Dad's Mental Wanderings" very recently after an absence of five years.
 Perhaps there's hope yet for some older favourite blogs : "Lucky Joes Place" (2 years absence). "Welcome to Lazarus" (which had a revamp of old posts about a year ago but nothing since) and of course "Obviously Dead" (with the many adventures of the Whiteface faimily! - over a year) and finally "Plastic Zombie" , that has been spluttering for a good while, but I can live in hope though can't I ?
I may even get around to posting on my other blog too!
The internal corner with rabbetting for goodness knows where ? 
Yes, it's now back to the boring bits as this week has seen the continuing frustrations I've had with Stoetzel's Federal house. The first floor (2nd if you're from the US) has the same fault design as the ground floor in one corner of the building and in the area above the entrance.
When cutting out the seven doors for this floor I also had to add doorknob to them, for as in the ground floor doors, none of them had door-knobs represented on the printouts either,
It's a minor complaint, (but nevertheless annoying) easily fixed with my Gold Sharpie Xmas present, despite my current shaky hands!
Before (top) and after,
Upper fl;oor (the hole is for the staircase (- another nightmare in the making)
The "fun" with this build  just hasn't stopped as I discovered that the upper floor has been creased across the width of the floor and with foamboard it's difficult to remove  - so I won't be trying, but will instead be looking for a way to disguise the damage. (-failure may not be an option, but throwing it all in the IS!)
The two large yellow circles in the photograph, highlight the crease and aren't tea-cup stains (I haven't had that particular delight - yet), The crease has probably come about with the my current limited work-space.

Coffee stirrers - Who'd have thought ?
The "crease" has necessitated a slight re-think in how I'll be aligning the upper floor with the ground floor and I'll be experimenting with an edge of coffee stirrers to retain it in position - just one of many ways it could be done, but as many regular followers will attest, I do like my coffee stirrers!


More Piratey goodness

It hasn't all been doom and gloom though as I visited "The works" with my daughter and they've restocked on their Pirate ship sets. After my daughter had paid for her purchases she received a 20% discount voucher which she promptly gave to me. I bought up all their stock of ships (both of them), presented the recently acquired  discount voucher and in turn received my own 20% off voucher which I immediately gave to my daughter!
Two ships for £16 (after discount) - bargain!
I intend to convert both, one into a larger (longer) ship and the other into a single masted schooner-type but the final decision on that front is still to be made.

Bamboo

Finally, in the last week I received yet another bag of "trees" from China; I've only two more bags to await before I have to think about basing up the entire lot!
From the photograph it will be obvious that thees are bamboo, but what surprised me was the very thin strip of wire running through them (vaguely visible in bottom centre of the picture).
They're about 4-5 inches long and I thought could also be used as corn stalks, as I'm pretty sure I've seen them used in such a capacity.







Well, that's it then for another week, not much I know, but thanks for visiting and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

25 comments:

  1. Whoooo hoo. 2 ships for a pittance! That has got to put a smile on your face.

    I am noticing a lack of coffee stirrers in tis build. Does that account for your demeanour?

    As always a good and very worth while reading post. I am always happy to leave comments here as you always reply.

    Maybe (and I am just saying) more people would blog for longer IF they replied to comments that are left on their blogs. I could be mistaken but It always makes it seem more positive when people leave comments and you can reply to them.

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    1. Thanks Clint, there is a distinct lack of coffee stirrers in the Federal House building but I am trying to remedy it.
      It's always exasperated me to leave a comment and not had a reply as I always endeavour to do a reply myself.

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  2. Very many congratulations on the milestones Joe and here's to many more years, I certainly take a lot of inspiration from your posts.

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    1. Thanks you Michael I do feel like I have only hit a couple of 'proper' milestones though, namely 5 years of blogging and 250 posts as I feel that most everything else is mostly inconsequential (to me at least)
      I continue to be surprised that anyone can draw inspiration from anything I do (along with all my moaning too!).

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  3. Thanks you HW, much appreciated

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  4. I quite like the moaning to be honest Joe :-)
    I miss the adventures of Whiteface too...

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    1. Oh dear, what have I done...

      For one reason or another I empathised with the Whiteface adventures probably more than any other party's adventures!

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  5. Nice to read your reflections and fun too. About the pirateship, I thik that they look a little bit like the first edition of Playmobil pirate-ship but in a smaller scale.I am looking forward reading more about this pirateship-project.

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    1. Thanks Ptr, bear in mind that whenever I write on my blog or other forums, I do so with a wry smile on my face as I don't really take this hobby as seriously as many seem to do, but it's a hobby I've been at for over forty years and I still have hope for it!

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  6. The makings of your own fleet. I think the recent changes to the back end Picasa web closing down has people jumping ship from blogger and moving to other mediums like Wordpress and Google plus neither of which I can get on with. Facebook pages does seem to be growing I noticed quite a few bloggers I know starting there own pages there to. In all fairness it is quite a decent platform to use. Though posts get lost a lot easier without the index of using the tags.

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    1. The ships will br great additions to my fleet due to their smaller size.
      Interesting to learn about the problems blogger has, if it gets worse I'll probably 'jump ship' too. I don't like google+ or those blogs than use "atom" for commenting (so I don't)
      I'm on several FB pages but don't really find them as useful as the more organised nature of blogger. I will of xourse be monitoring the situation as it develops

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  7. That's a reason why I'm happy to blog about Col. Bills. When I've nowt of my own to post, I can fall back on his, to keep my blog alive.

    I can see those trees definitely being useful to represent a commercial crop plantation - or even just as bamboo.

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    1. Haha, I knew there would e some benefits to what you so!
      I've been a bit guilty of padding myself from time to time!
      I do like the bamboo and have found some beads that will make excellent corncobs too (even if a bit larger than needed)

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  8. Great posting Joe, full of the thoughtful insight you do so very well. Congrats on the milestone, and on the purchases as well. Its always a pleasure seeing your views here and on other people's blogs too :-)

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    1. Thanks for that Blaxx, I do often wonder whether or not posting things like this will be well received or not (I can do without the grief)
      I've got several ideas for the two new ships, I just need the space now to start on them before my enthusiasm drains completely.

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  9. Congrats on the 100 thousand Joe, always a pleasure to visit!

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    1. Thanks AL, always a pleasure seeing you here.

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  10. Well done on your milestone and those ships look tempting.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, the ships are the best cheap alternative I've seen to making one's own or buying resin versions.

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  11. Boom! Milestone and achivement reached. Next level is unlocked.

    Congrats mate. I am one of those that do not always leave a comment. Sorry about that...

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    1. Thanks LS, I'm still not convinced it's a significant milestone though.
      I still have to laugh at those that have several hundreds or even over a thousand 'follower' but still achieve very few comments so I'm not that bothered by frequent visitors who only occasionally comment.

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