And the winners are...

...being revealed in just a little bit. But first I want to show you the results of applying the Dip to the Perry Desert Rats.

The Dip working it's magic.

This is truly the lazy painter's magic solution: the dip has beautifully picked out all the details on the figures, from the pockets on the tunics to the faces. I say again, these figures were just block painted and then had Army Painter's Strong Tone applied with a brush all over. After 24 hours of drying time they were hit with two light coats of Tamiya flat spray varnish.

Now on to the results of my giveaway!

4Ground 20mm Hayloft build and review

As you might be aware of, 4Ground are makers of very fine, pre-painted MDF building kits. So far their kits have only been available in 15 and 28mm much to my sadness as they look very good indeed. Now Plastic Soldier Company have released  a line of 20mm buildings made by 4Ground to specifications by PSC. The first release is a Normandy farm complex available either as one large bundle or as individual buildings.

The whole shablooie. The Big Kahuna. The Mother of all Farm complexes. You get the picture.

I couldn't resist ordering one of the buildings when PSC had their black friday sale recently and opted for the Hayloft, top right in the above picture.

Test-painting Perry's British Desert Rats

I've been meaning to try and get some paint on the very nice Perry Miniatures British figures I bought and reviewed a while ago. I'm no expert on the desert but I had a bunch of paints from the Coat d'Arms British paint set that looked like they could be useful, namely Desert Yellow, Pale Sand, British Khaki and Faded Khaki.

Have at'em boys!!!

200th post giveaway!!!

So, I have written 200 posts on this blog, and I'm going to celebrate it by having a giveaway. Naturally it's just a blatant sham to get more followers and rid myself of some junk from the lead- and plastic mountain that I'm never going to use, right? Well, let's see. I think I have dug out some rather tasty morsels from the pile.

The rules are simple.

1. You must be a follower of my blog. (See, blatant sham, I told you.)
2. You must leave a comment on this post, saying that you are in and which of these you would like, in order of preference if it matters. (It's okay to want them all, but you are only going to get one of the lots.)
3. Mentioning my blog and this draw on your blog, Facebook, Google+ or something similar will get you a bonus entry into the draw. Please leave a link so I can check it out. If it's on your own blog I might follow you back if I'm not already a follower. (You can only get one bonus entry mainly because I can't count further, but feel free to mentioning this draw as many times as you like.)
4. If you commented on my previous post about depression, I will give you another bonus entry. It's too late to go back and comment now though, I want to say thanks to those who read it and offered their thoughts and support. Thanks guys!
5. You must get your entry in on midnight Christmas Eve (central european time) at the latest. I will be drawing the winners on the 25th of december. 

That's that, now on to the loot! I hope some of it will appeal to you.

Battling the Black Dog

So this is my 200th blog post, not counting the handful of drafts that never were finished. I promised a give-away when I reached this number, but not today. Maybe tomorrow, or the day thereafter. Soon anyway, I'm currently pilfering around and excavating the nether regions of my lead mountain for suitable items.

The Lead Mountain according to Wikipedia. Yes, it's a real place!!!

But in this post I want to talk about something else; I recently suffered a bout of depression. Churchill described getting visits from "his dreaded black dog" now and then. It's really a fitting description. It's hard to explain how it feels to people who haven't suffered from real depression, but I will try. Feel free to skip the text and only look at the eye-candy at the end if you don't like to read my ramblings. Don't forget to tune in for the giveaway next time, though.