Acquisition - Santa Fe Boxcars - Santa Fe Historical & Modeling Society

This is one I have been trying to find for a long time. Its been out of print and very much in demand, I found one through an Abe Books search for a good price, $65, unfortunately it was at a bookstore in the UK which added $25 for shipping. Still less than I have seen it go for. Of course I would find this after I have decided to shift to the D&RGW and Denver's warehouse row.

Life Intervenes - Kitchen Renovation - It takes a Lifetime

Another major life decision has kept me away from any kind of painting. Although I have been able to read a lot about painting miniatures and gaming with miniatures its just not quite the same thing.

The latest endeavor involves ripping out the existing kitchen down to the drywall and rebuilding it into a more effective use of the space and with more storage.

Phase one; the demolition the contractor's favorite part, except because of circumstances beyond our or their control it took three days instead of 1.5 days.

The before pictures. Everything is been taken off the walls, furniture has been removed and all the cupboard and cabinets are empty. Yes, this is a big kitchen and its very much the heart of the house.

The end of day one demo. The removal of sections of drywall is because the counter tops were actually inset into the wall. Someone must have mis-measured the template used to cut the counter tops and the extra depth ended up embedded into the wall.

The odd pipe in the  middle was part of the water system for the sink that was in the island. In addition there is a "toe kick" heater there. It remains here because it uses water heat so there is hot water piping there that needed to be capped off.

Some of the rubble. Normally tile can be popped off but not this stuff. Not sure what adhesive they used but the crew basically had to use sledgehammers to break it up. That's when the next problem serviced, the Hardibacker underboard was nailed, screwed and glued to the floor and it took the rest of the time to get it all off the subfloor.

Cartoon Wednesday

Cartoon Wednesday

Kickstarter - Finally Vikings!

I finally received my Viking army from West Wind from their third kickstarter, this one for the Dark Ages. While I ordered the Viking army as my rewards I actually received the Saxon army. I contacted them and the error was fixed and the Vikings plus two extra packs were sent out. The delay was they wanted me to return the Saxons, which I did, I just couldn't get them in the mail till after Christmas.
(I still feel that they should have just sent the Vikings but I did as requested).

Its a lot of metal that will probably not see paint for a while.