Well another birthday has come and gone, but is there anything more miserable than it falling at the start of a week that promises to be both long and tiresome?  Still I am looking forward to the weekend when I hope to persuade the ‚Saintly Mrs. Awdry‘ that a frighteningly hot takeaway curry is far more beneficial, calorifically, than cake!  This coupled with a jar or two of foaming ale should rather brighten my spirits.

Speaking of the lady of the house, she has once again spoilt me rotten and I was hugely fortunate to have several, beautifully wrapped packages waiting for me as I padded downstairs to switch on the kettle on Monday morning.  Once I had beaten off the dinosaur guardian, I kid you not, I was delighted to find some hobby related goodness and as a result see a return to the Witchfinder project in the new year.  That said all things Star Wars have really caught my imagination of late and as some will recall, I have been thoroughly enjoying ‘Imperial Assault’ and a regular Wednesday game of ‘X-Wing’ during the school club.  This coupled with me wittering on about my Star Wars action figures of yesterday has resulted in another rather splendid present, Steve Sansweet’s, ‘Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection’.  This is an amazing book, but I have to confess that I wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of ‘new’ variants and must try and resist hunting some down on eBay!

Sadly, I have to report that there hasn’t been much in the way of painting of late and looking across at the paint table, I see that there is unlikely to be another entry for ‘Dinovember 2017’. Once again it has been great fun to indulge my predilection for all things prehistoric and I thank all those that offered kind words of encouragement along the way.

 So with news that the ‘VIII Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’ is due to commence next month my attention will undoubtedly turn to prepping and planning.  I had thought that I might give this a miss, particularly as my painting output has rather fallen off a little of late, but I felt an inexplicable draw when the call to brushes was made.  As a result, I have thrown my hat into the ring once more, but for a very modest 500 point target score.  More news of this in due course.