I'd originally intended this as more of a blog about my "hobby" activity (funny how conversations revolve around "the hobby", as though it was a euphemism). Briefly put, I get zero opportunity to game right now, and (from my point of view) next to no time at the moment for other types of activity, apart from the occasional burst of energy around Slingshot.

When I do get time, my current activities are centred around painting up a couple of Gripping Beast armies, one a thematic Byzantine set and the other a set of Arabs. The two armies are about 2000 WAB points apiece, maybe more if I put some thought into it, and I also have plans to add a few models from other manufacturers to bulk things out.

The last few weeks, maybe a couple of evenings a week, have been involved with painting horses. Running the two armies at once, that's about 100 or so (rough guess, but I just checked) horses. I spent one evening, for example, just working out which horses went with each army, having primed them black as a single group. And then finding out I was short a couple, and going back to Darren, Andy & co and obtaining them. And ordering more stuff anyhow.

Right now - all the bases are done (I do the basing first, bar the flock - with metal based figures I mount on Litko basis and then pad up a little with polyfilla, sand a bevel around the base and add sand before priming the whole model black, and then dry brushing the base with layers of Foundry Base Sand ... I leave the final flocking to the last step before varnish); about 25% of the horses are just about complete just need going back over to check details, blacklining etc. Of the rest, all the non-barded horse have had their hides done; I need to go round in these cases and add detail like socks and markings, and then work on the gear. 14 barded or half barded horse are based and there are two further horse on each side which arrived as part of the "missing" group, which are right at the start of the process.

If I ever get to the infantry, they're mainly (bar the reinforcements) glue gunned to their litko bases (20mm x 20mm) waiting for polyfilla. The horses' riders are still in baggies. Once the horses are done, I plan to do the riders a regiment at a time, and alternate between infantry and riders (I may well spend a day just doing all the infantry bases to the pre-priming stage though). Once I have complete models (some time in 2011 ...) I'll start posting up some pictures.

I went up to the British Museum last Friday to take a look at the Hadrian exhibition. It's a pretty good, very well-lit exhibition. Unfortunately there was an enforced ban on photographs so I've nothing to show for it, but I put some other photos up in the Galleries, along with a rant about the state of affairs there. London has far too many public works that open amid great fanfare and then close down indefinitely, diverting money from the main museums (the Millennium Dome is an obvious example, but how much was spent on the Museum of the Moving Image?). I'm writing to try and get access to some of the other galleries - we'll see.

Back to the exhibition - the star item is the head (along with a leg and foot) of a statue found last year at Saglassos, in Turkey, and never before seen in public. The original statue would apparently have been four to five metres high. There are many other busts of Hadrian (who was fond of commissioning statues) from various stages of his career, from youth onwards. One of the statues has him stepping on the back of a conquered barbarian; the statue's from Rome but was obviously a common design since pretty much the same statue was in the museum at Istanbul (and can be seen in the photos).

There are interesting collections of busts of Hadrian, Trajan and their respective families near the entrance to the exhibition, and on the way out of Hadrian's potential and actual successors (Antoninus Pius, Aelius Caesar, Servianus and some remarkable busts of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as children.

The press has I think focused in the run up to the exhibition on, firstly, Hadrian's relationship with Antinous, of whom there is a fine collection of statues, and Hadrian's record in the second Jewish War; there's a collection of possessions belonging to Jewish refugees. There's also a collection of finds from Hadrian's wall.

The bookstore had some nice offers. Acquired Atlas of the Roman Empire at 50% off.

Finally, there's an advertisement on the way out for the next "big" exhibition, "Babylon", which I think comes along in October. I saw this earlier in the year in Paris, and I have to say it's not a patch on the Hadrian exhibition - too much "interpretations of Babylon over the ages" as opposed to actual stuff. The Louvre exhibition was however far more overcrowded, so the exhibition layout may also play a part.

I added some more pictures from Istanbul, this time from the monuments around the city, as opposed to the contents of the archeology museum. I'm planning to go back there in a couple of weeks but probably won't have much time for tourism. I do have some trips planned to the British Museum shortly, and am going to South West France in the summer. I'm currently trying to get a vacation trip to Cairo set up this Autumn (as in, I've bought a book, and worked out that I can afford a trip). I'll let you know how it goes.

Sorry, I've been a bit tardy getting this off the ground. Anyway, I've added a set of photos from my recent trip to Istanbul to the Galleries Section. I'm currently travelling again, and Slingshot 259 is nearly put to bed, so hopefully some more updates on this second blog over the next day or so.

And so, part 2 (or maybe 3, I'm not keeping track) of my grand plan - a separate blog alongside the Slingshot one. This blog is meant to cover my gaming activity, painting, collecting, reading, travel and general uninformed opinions (mainly on the unwieldiness of web design software, but given that categorisation it's rich in potential material), separately to the role of editing Slingshot. Two blogs for the price of one!