It all began with the delivery of a consignment of 6mm Napoleonic hussars. They were neat little chaps, clean-moulded and dynamic but with one glaring fault - the horses had somehow lost their tails. I contemplated these bald posteriors and then had an idea. Not to worry, thinks I, I'll just add prosthetic tails from Green Stuff and all will be well. Hah!

So I set to with two-part putty to rectify (or possibly rectumfy) the situation. Having rolled out a hair-thin snake of the sticky substance, I lopped off a small length and flattened it out so that it was vaguely tail-shaped. Offering it up to the first horse's rear end I discovered the first lesson - everything is smaller than you think. My replacement equine rudder would have been more appropriate to a 747. Trying to shave it down in situ reduced it to a ragged, battle-torn flag, since to have used my sharpest scalpel would have re-modelled my finger and using something duller was as useful as trying to cut a knife with butter.

Nothing loath, I scraped the remains off and cut myself another slice of gooey misery. Chopping it down to a barely visible shred of green seemed to satisfy the dimensional aspects of the task when compared to the relevant horsey derriere, so I attempted to anchor the sharp end to the animal's buttocks. Now, I'll say this for Green Stuff - when you stick it somewhere it does stay stuck. So it really doesn't pay to miss the intended target area. And if you do, and you finally manage to get it off, its adhesive properties will ensure that it remains on the end of your finger, or the scalpel or anything else it comes into contact with. An entertaining half hour can be had, passing the thing from one surface to another, before you remember the answer and reach for the H2O.

Well, I finally got the thing in place, blended the sharp end into the haunches (if that's the right terminology) and managed to arrange the whole thing in a suitably "flowing" manner. At which point the awful realisation hit me that I now had eight more to do. I have to say that practice makes, if not perfect, then a crude approximation thereof. If it has done only one thing it has ratcheted up my already substantial respect for those amongst us who do it for a living. Personally I'd rather train ants to march in step.           

ERm  - Ants do march in step. Now herding cats !!!!

ianS

 

Doesn't hurt to be reminded of the skill of Matron, Clib and the gang once in a while does it?  Lesson for us all I think.

Question: why didn't you just contact the supplier to send some replacements?

Cats, thank God, don't march in step or take orders. They live eat, sleep, play, and get laid. If only the human race were as rational!

I've never had a Pendraken horse arrive without a tail.


Just saying.


For future reference. 


Get what you pay for.


Very firm, the Pendraken tail.

Quote from: fsn on 04 April 2015, 10:34:49 AM
I've never had a Pendraken horse arrive without a tail.


Just saying.


For future reference. 


Get what you pay for.


Very firm, the Pendraken tail.

All of your tanks Pendraken, hmm, eh, are they?

One mistake and you're tarred forever!

Quote from: fsn on 04 April 2015, 10:47:11 AM
One mistake and you're tarred forever!

Thought it was two mistakes?

Not that I'm in any position to comment, ALL of my tanks are 6mm!

One mistake - I just made it twice.

Quote from: fsn on 04 April 2015, 11:16:17 AM
One mistake - I just made it twice.

"My darling wife, while I was away fighting in The Great War I was unfaithful twice, once with a Belgian girl and once with a French woman, can you forgive me?"

"Dearest husband, I forgive you easily, for I too was unfaithful twice, once with the Argyll's and once with the Brigade of Guards"

So a man walks into a bar, and sits down. He starts a conversation with an old guy next to him. The old guy has obviously had a few. He says to the man:

"You see that dock out there? Built it myself, hand crafted each piece, and it's the best dock in town! But do they call me "McGregor the dock builder"? No! And you see that bridge over there? I built that, took me two months, through rain, sleet and scoarching weather, but do they call me "McGregor the bridge builder"? No! And you see that pier over there, I built that, best pier in the county! But do they call me "McGregor the pier builder"? No!"

The old guy looks around, and makes sure that nobody is listening, and leans to the man, and he says:

"but you S**g one sheep..."

 

Derby fan then?   Or maybe he was Welsh? 

Was about to suggest some bunched* fuse wire inserted into a suitably positioned hole in the horses rear end then, once secured, could be twisted and snipped to the appropriate shape until I realised you were talking "6mm."  Oh, well.

* coincidentally I mistyped that 'bumched' - which somehow seems very apt for the aforementioned process.

   Bumched. Bumched. Bumched. 

Piece of tissue, soak with pva, attach in a 'flowing' pose.

If too big, cut to size with clippers afterwards