Come get your cat spayed in Dagenham!

As some of you know, for the last two years I have been a proud member of MMTG (Maltby Musical Theatre Group) and have thoroughly enjoyed performing as Hugh in 'Acorn Antiques' and last year I got to play my absolute dream roll as Sir Robin in 'Spamalot.' It has been an absolute blast and I cannot believe I left it so late on to get into this. It's not an understatement when I say that it has changed my life.

In years gone by, I was the front man of a band called 'Silver Head', playing both covers and originals. Due to changes in our home life's, however, we had to call it a day a few years ago, and I've missed performing since then. So being back on stage, albeit in a different way, is fantastic.

This year, the show we will be performing 'Made in Dagenham.' The show won't be on until next March, and proper rehearsals don't start until September, so currently we're working through audition pieces, with auditions themselves being next week. I'm going for the roll of Eddie this year, which is the lead male roll. After last year as Sir Robin, I feel like I should push myself to do more and improve both my singing and acting. While I had plenty to do last year, this year the acting is a little (ok, a lot) less silly, and so I think it'll be harder to do right.

I've got one song to learn, as well as a few lines of dialogue to perform as part of my audition. I'm a little bit nervous as there is a decent amount of competition for the part, though not quite to the extent that the women have to put up with. The song I'll be singing is called 'The Letter' (look it up on YouTube if you're interested) and is a fun song to sing, starting off soft but working its way up until eventually its pure frustration. There is so much emotion to convey, and I'm determined to get that across in the audition. I've got breathing and vocal excercises to be cracking on with too to make sure I can reach all the notes (only a couple I'm finding difficult) and I'm really working hard at this one.

Hopefully next week goes ok, I'll obviously post when I find out. Until then, you'll have to wait with baited breath to find out how it goes/went.

As ever, thanks for stopping by.

Getting back into blogging

So, a thought occured to me a few days ago. I spend a lot of time online, reading blogs, and watching YouTube. Now, I've had this blog and others, as well as my Tumblr, for quite a while but they sort of get used for a bit and then fall by the wayside. The thing is, really enjoy writing. I just manage to convince myself that I have nothing of interest to say, but turns out I do. I'm in musical theatre now, and I play games and read books and comics. I'm a parent and enjoy doing other things too, so i have plenty to say. 

So, this is me getting back into blogging. I'm not going to try and push myself too much, so I'll say one post a week for now. As and when I feel I can commit to more, I'll up that. 

So, expect my first post in the next couple of days. It'll probably be a general thought dump of the audition process I'm currently in the middle of for the next show we're doing, 'Made in Dagenham'.

So, if you're reading this, then thank you for taking the time. I hope you'll stick around, and see where this goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Tis but a scratch!

So, you know how I said my warband was finished? Well...it was. Then my Knight miniature turned up and now I've got something else to paint!

I've decided to use 'The Black Knight' from Monty Pythons 'The Holy Grail' as my knight and, as you can see, he comes as two models, the regular figure and the dismembered version. 

Looking forward to painting him up!

Complete Warband!

So, with the completion of my apprentice, my warband is, for now, complete! Here is a quick picture of the whole gang :)

Pondering No More!

I finally finished painting my apprentice! I'm quite happy with the end result, and can't wait to get him next to the rest of my warband for a picture! That, unfortunately, will have to wait until tomorrow as the light will be gone by the time I finish work!

Thanks for stopping by!

Complete Wizard!

So, after finishing my Warhound model off (the Luggage from Terry Pratchets 'Discworld' series) I've found myself full of excitement and inspiration to carry on painting my warband to completion.

I was trying to decide what to paint next, my wizard model (Bursar) or my apprentice one (Ponder Stibbons). Decided I wasn't sure how I was going to paint my apprentice yet, so went with my wizard. 

This was the first time I've done any proper layering while painting, and I think I've done a half decent job, especially on his cloak.

All the red parts took me about an hour/hour and a half in total, with everything else taking another hour. So all in all, not a long project, but I was determined to get him looking good. I added a little detail to the front and then painted to wonky eyes, which I have to say, I love.

And that's that. Only 1 model to go now until they're all finished...for now.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Warhound is finished!

I had a rare morning off work today and decided to finally paint the model I'm using as my Warhound in my Frostgrave War Band. Rather than an actual dog, I'm using the Luggage from the Discworld series. I think I did a decent paint job on what is quite frankly a beautiful model. I've been terrified of starting it, because of the amount of flesh needed for the legs. I've only recently started painting flesh, having only previously painted robotic miniatures. 

I'm happy with the end result anyway, can't wait to get him on a table along with the rest of my gang!

Thanks for stopping by!