Holiday team painting project

I took a portable painting station with me on holiday to North Wales last week. (This is a grandiose way of saying I filled a box full of paints and unpainted Blood Bowl miniatures.)

The great thing about being on holiday is not having a gazillion things that I ought to be doing instead of painting my figures. And as we have to carefully pace ourselves to marshall Cathy's energy reserves, that means some evenings in - which are perfect for painting!

I prepped for the week away by building the second half of my Elven Union team of elves. This has been a bit of a North Wales project, generally. I bought the team set on holiday in Bangor a couple of years ago, built half the team on holiday in Dinas Dinlle last summer (I think) and then completed assembling the team a few weeks back. 

I hadn't decided on a paint scheme for them before the holiday, but I had a pretty turquoise and a shiny silver, so I thought those would make a good elf-appropriate combo. I was quite pleased with the result.

They aren't quite finished because I left their decorative kneepads unpainted. I planned to do them a different colour, but I'm probably going to paint them silver to match their shinguard greaves. There are some other finishing touches I need to do as well.

Even though they aren't finished, mostly painted is better than grey plastic and I was pleased with the progress. I also got some paint on my Norse star player, Thorsson Stoutmead, my yhetee, and my werewolf star player as well. All in all, a very productive week.

Ar wyliau yn yr Gogledd - Medi 2026

We have had a week away in the North of Cymru, returning to a cottage very close to our favourite beach. Our big day out was taking the train up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and we had some other lovely days revisiting some of our favourite spots. 

Long range Cathy portrait

We went to...

Caernarfon

Football mural for a match I went to!

Pwllheli (in the mist)

Handy guide to the view...
I took it on faith the mountains
were there!

Llandudno

Goleudy Penmon on Anglesey 

And we did the things you'd expect to do on a holiday.

And saw some things you might not expect!

At the end of the week, I even squeezed in a football match in Colwyn Bay. Sadly, Barry were on the receiving end of a 5-2 thumping but I still enjoyed my evening there as I've decided not to let results affect my enjoyment of football!

And that was the end of another lovely week yn yr Gogledd! 

Taking the train up Yr Wyddfa

I've wanted to ride the steam train up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) for a long time. A previous attempt only took us halfway because of adverse weather (mainly high winds) so I'm delighted to have finally made it to the top.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway seems to be sticking to the English name for the mountain, but our engine was called Wyddfa. 

It is the only rack-and-pinion railway in the UK, literally grinding its way up the mountain with a cog wheel connecting with a toothed 'rack' in the middle of the track. The entire line is on a slope, even the stations, and the boilers of the steam engines are built on an angle so they stay level on the sloping track.

Our seats at the back of the coach gave us a very good view of the engine. 

The views were great until the three quarter mark when we entered some low hanging cloud. That meant our short time at the summit was cloudy and cold. But we still went up to the cairn at the top.

Then we got back on the train to head back down. The views were even better on the way down as the sun was shining in Llanberis at the end of the line.

We both really enjoyed our trip on the railway. The only downside was the cloudy summit, but that just means we have to do it again some day!