After a Leave of Absence

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

It has been many months since my last blog, but the only reasons I can give is that there have been massive upheavals in the the world of Callan.

In the space of two weeks:

- Lost my flat - had rented there for 18 years, owner wanted to renovate and make more money.
- Lost my agent - she had a little girl and a family and her husband travelled taking family with him, not conducive to maintaining a business with actors.
- Lost a friend to cancer - never easy to deal with, known the man for over 30 years . . .
- Audited by Tax Office - enough said.
- Put on jury duty - enough said.
- All this on top of about 18 months of little or no activity in the acting field.

Needless to say, I was less than interested in recording my adventures in modelling, so . . . sorry about that, Chief .

Now that I am in my new flat, with my new agent, having by-passed jury duty, and resolved my tax issues, with a long-term voice-over gig to take me up to possibly October (playing Halvar the Viking in the new "Vik the Viking" animated series), I can set up my light box and start taking pics again.

To whet your appetite, work on my table consists of:
- A complete rebase and revamp of a Revolutionary French army I painted over 20 years ago, for General de Brigade.
- More Moghul Indians for the massive army already constructed.
- Massive castle for said Moghuls.
- Fully-lit landing pad for WH40K.
- Assyrian 28mm army for Armati.
- Dark Angel battle force, with suitably Gothic figures.
and many, many more projects.

Never-ending.

I don't like leaving you without at least one new pic of work done, so here as a final tribute to Ian Trout are some pics of a non-figure job I did for him, about 20 years ago. Hope you enjoy.

The 1:100 Heller Victory. Took 18 months to build, 17 months on the rigging alone (at least that's how it felt). Plenty of scope for super-detailing, ably assisted by much research.

While on the subject of Ian Trout, I can safely say that at the moment certain elements of his vast collection are up for sale to assist the family, and to get his armies back into circulation. If you are interested, please contact Anthony Pearson on his blog  http://www.antsarmies.com.au/ . I know for a fact that there are Foundry British, Perry Brunswick (full WRG army including limbers) and a huge Foundry French Napoleonic collection, a Prussian 7YW in Front Rank, a French Lace Wars in Dixon, as well as Assyrians, samurai, Hussite (with hand-made wooden battle wagons by yours truly), French revolutionary and Seleucid. Talk to Anthony, he is a very engaging and approachable man. But he is not a push-over.

On that note, a belated Happy New Year. May the best of your yesterdays be the worst of your tomorrows. And I shall endeavour not to be away as long as I have.

Cheers
Peter C.