October in China Pt 2

So, after our whirlwind first day in China and a really good nights sleep, we got up to prepare for the first of our two day tours in Beijing. I had chosen a mini tour from Travel China Guide because I did not want to feel like I was a part of a herd, moving from place to place. They had texted me the pickup information the night before so we knew when they would arrive. After our morning routine, we walked around the building to a noodle shop for breakfast. We opted for the fried bread and I think soy milk, whatever that was it was good, and I would have it a number of times while we were in China. 

We had a little time back at the hotel, and then it was time to go. The itinerary for day one was as follows;

Day One

Summer Palace

Beijing Zoo Panda Exhibit

Beijing Hutongs

Temple of Heaven

We had arrived in Beijing, timed to miss the festivities for the 70th anniversary of the government the previous weekend. Even so, there was still quite a few Chinese tourists in town. That coupled with the fact there are 26 million people in the Beijing area, means that you will rarely see places without crowds especially if the weather is nice.. So we arrived at the Summer Palace. and our guide took us on a brief tour of the grounds, and letting us roam a bit on our own. It is an expansive place, so expect to walk a lot. Here are some of the scenes.

Qiuyan and I 

Jade Peak Pagoda in the distance

The Emperor's office

Tower of Buddhist Incense on Longevity Hill

Wenchang Tower

Pavilion between Wenchang Tower and the Arch Bridge

Details of the Pavilion

The Arch Bridge and Kunming Lake

Arch Bridge

This is definitely a beautiful spot, one I plan on exploring more of  in subsequent trips. You can click the link above for more info. It is a late Jin, early Qing Dynasty construction. The lake is man made, hard to imagine how many peasants were out there building that thing. It was a favorite spot of the Dowager Empress Cixi. The tour guide never used her name, which I found odd, but called her the Dragon Lady. Must not be much love for Cixi in Beijing The next stop was the Beijing Zoo Panda exhibit. I've seen Pandas at the San Diego zoo before, but it was part of the tour, and they are cool to look at no matter how many times you have seen them.

After a short time at the zoo we were off to the Beijing Hutongs .There are not many left, as many were demolished to make room for the Olympics as well as apartment buildings for the millions that live in the city. They have kept a section of them, and will preserve them as a part of their heritage. So we loaded up onto a rickshaw and cruised through the area. 

The Hutong district is a really cool place to visit, and worth the time to check out. Part of the tour was visiting the home of a resident of the Hutongs. This was pretty cool. They had a nice pad. The husband is a famous artist, so theirs was probably nicer than most. He had his work for sale if you wanted to buy something but, it was cool that there was no big sales pitch, etc. They owned their Hutong, but many don't, they rent from the government. The government covers the exterior repairs to keep the look of the old district. Any inside repairs are the owners responsibility. After we left there the guide took us to a mall food court near the Temple of Heaven so we could get lunch. We had a big bowl of noodles which hit the spot after all the walking we had done. Some old guy next to me offered me some of his lunch and some sort of clear alcohol, I assume wine of some sort. I politely declined. I will certainly be more comfortable interacting with the locals in the future though. It was my experience throughout my trip, that the people of China are very kind and gracious. I certainly look forward to more adventures there.

Last on the itinerary was the Temple of Heaven The temple is in a huge park/temple complex just south of the inner ring of Beijing. It was built in the 1400s and is a Ming Dynasty construction, as are most things in Beijing. We approached from the east side down a long walk., and through some covered walkways. Since it is a park, many locals had gathered at the covered walkways to play a variety of card games and Chinese chess. It was really cool to see people getting together and enjoying life. The Temple it self is a gorgeous structure, where the Emperor would come to pray for good harvests etc. There is a small museum on site showing the steps the emperor went through to complete the rituals. It was in very basic English, with most of the info in Mandarin. Here are some pics of the Temple area.

 The Temple is quite ornate, and just a beautiful structure. Sadly you can no longer enter the Temple. The gate in the last picture leads to the south entrance and a rather large open air alter looking thing. We did not go down there but I have it on my list for another time. That is all for this time. Blogger is acting up and I am tired. After our stop here it was back to the hotel to relax the rest of the evening and rest up for an even bigger next day.

Start of A New Decade

This year has certainly been a mixed bag as far as gaming goes. While I had a decent amount of time to paint, gaming time was really non existent. It was expected for the most part so not too disappointing. This year will start out much the same. Qiuyan's daughter will be immigrating to the US in February, so there will be some things to get done until she gets licensed and able to drive. I imagine that will dominate the first half of the year. Painting time should remain intact, and gaming time should increase as the year goes on. I started work on a gaming room in the basement last week. That is progressing per plan, and should be done this spring, once I get a table built. I'll share that once it is complete. As far as this post goes, I'll showcase some stuff I have gotten painted in the last few months, then I'll review my goals for 2019, and then set some goals for 2020.

Painting

First up we have some mounted samurai. 

These are 28mm Old Glory. I am always intimidated when starting samurai. There is so much to them and it is daunting. These were no exception. I did figure out a process while painting these and I started more today. The process seems to be making them less intimidating and going forward they should be a bit simpler. 

This next model was a figure from the October 2018 Model Box. If you are unfamiliar with Model Box, it is a subscription service featuring miniatures, paints, and other modeling items (usually bases or scatter terrain), delivered as a monthly themed "box". The October 2018 theme was Horror. You can find more information at mymodelbox.com

 It is Freddy Kruger without being Freddy Kruger. I painted him along those lines without the striped shirt. I felt that with all the other things going on with this model a striped shirt just would not look right. He is a resin model and was very easy to paint. I am really happy with how he turned out. In that same Model Box was a play on Alien with the Rox character that is the mascot of the Model Box. Rox The Model Box Fox

Again this was part of the October 2018 Model Box. This too is a resin model, super easy to paint. As you can see a little green alien Rox is bursting through the chest of the space explorer Rox. Rox was a monthly exclusive up through the end of 2019. 2020 will still feature an exclusive figure in each box, it just won't be the Rox character.

 Next up are some unique figures. These are FAA 20mm Fallschirmjager with the helicopter backpacks.

It seems to be a wacky contraption, and I have not been able to find any information on these things. I had to paint them none the less, just because of the novelty factor. 

Next up are some Early War Miniatures (edit) 20mm WW2 Italians.

EWM has a nice 20mm line of WW2 figures. The Italians were ok. The moldings were not very crisp.  Now, I have had these for some time, and the molds may be better now than they were when these were cast.

 I painted up a German command group from FAA.

Last, but not least, for the painting section are some Asian civilians/peasants from the old Black Hat range, now produced and sold by Scotia Grendel as the Tales of the Dragon Kings line. 

These are really good figures, and though they are marketed as Chinese, they will really fit as peasants for any Asian country. They are pretty generic with no discernible "Chinese" clothing. The only thing that would really make these better would have been grooves on the hats. I suppose I could have done that but, I thought of it too late.

Goals for 2019

Well lets take a look at my goals for 2019 and how I fared.

Rebase my ECW figures for Baroque - Got this one done for the most part. The project is partially finished so I had some units that are in need of a few figures. I have finally got a bead on what I want to do with this project so in the coming weeks I'll get the figures sorted out and see what I may need to complete the ECW.

Finish my 28mm WW2 Japanese - Got about 1/2 done

Finish my 28mm Warlord/WW2 Chinese - about 2/3 done

Rebase Feudal French and Classical Indian to Impetus - not done

Complete my Gangs of Rome Project - Not started

Assemble 28mm Japanese buildings - Not done

Game twice a month - Definitely not done.

Finish basing painted SYW stuff - This was completed

Base painted 6mm Napoleonics - Not done

Blog more - Would have been hard not to but I did succeed here

Start 15mm WSS project - I did to a limited degree. I was able to sort through the figures I had, determine what I needed for the project, and get it set up to start.

While I wasn't able to complete anywhere near the amount of projects I wanted to, I am still happy with what I was able to accomplish.

Goals for 2020 

I'm am going to keep my goals more modest and open ended for this year. I know what is ahead of me this coming year.

Finish the game room - the biggest parts will be the table (mostly deciding on size and the construction), and adding can lights, the lighting is atrocious.

Base/Rebase 6mm Napoleonics. I have piles of painted/unbased as well as based stuff that I want to base for Grand Armee.

Finish my SYW project - Need to do some French heavy horse, Saxons, and the Brits/Allies

Finish my 28mm WW2 Chinese and Japanese.

Continue my WSS project.

Continue my Mexican American War project.

Assemble 28mm Feudal Japanese Buildings

Assemble Chinese buildings.

Paint a minimum of 1200 figures while purchasing only the figures I need to complete ongoing projects.

That's quite a bit and I think I'll leave it at that. Should be enough to keep me out of trouble. I hope you all have enjoyed this post. I'll be getting part 2 of my vacation in China up in the next few days.