Painted figures for April

SIXTY!!

12 Cretan archers
6 Thracians infantry
16 Greek/Macedonian heavy cavalry
6 Greek light cavalry
6 Italian javelinmen
12 Greek light infantry
2 Macedonian generals

It has got to be a record! All for Cynoscephalae of course.

This brings me up to 105 for the year and I was aiming at 24 per month so I am now 9 figures ahead schedule!

I did take a couple of days off at Easter so had 8 days at home but then we were also doing a lot of decorating, dump runs, carpet removing etc.

Now can I get 18 more light infantry painted in 12 days befor the game on May 10th?

One Year on

I've just noticed that it's a year since I started this blog. I have gone through all sorts of crazes as to what to paint and it's really only the activities at the club which bring any discipline to what I do. The club is planning a big one day Wars of the Roses battle soon and so I will get those out again and maybe try to paint the eight cavalry I need to finally finish the army.

In the meantime here are the two Macedonian Generals we need for Cynoscephalae which I finished today.

Next, however, (at least until the Artizan Spartans come out!) I am going to concentrate on the Sudan which I will record on my Sudan blog.

http://sudan1883.blogspot.com/

World War 2 or not..

All the stink about the SS re-enactors at Salute has got me thinking about the pros and cons of World War 2 gaming. Now, like many little boys, I got into wargaming through the Airfix plastic figures and tanks, encouraged by my father who fought in North Africa and then served in Palestine. Currently my little boy is playing with very many of the same tanks and figures in the living room and also with a rather violent Playstation game. When I first started wargaming properly at school with my friends Cess, Bean-kid and Brookbank it was largely World War two that we did.

Now however, I feel rather dubious about gaming it. I still have this sneaking suspicion that WW2 gamers are a bit odd and that while I used to game I grew out of it. Maybe it's still too close. My father was 37 when I was born and so most of my contempories fathers did not fight in WW2. It has always seemed that bit more immediate to me than for some of my friends.


Last year I bought some Airborne division figures from Arizan and very nice they are too. I painted just one but haven't done any more. My uncle was in the Airborne Division in gliders and fought at Arnhem so it was the natural choice for me. He was in hospital with shell shock for two years afterwards and never talked about it until about two months before he died when he came up with all sorts of funny stories about his experiences of being human ballast for trainee glider pilots. I think it took him nearly 60 years to come to terms with it.

Now I am tempted by the Artizan North Africa figures and the Chieftan armour models that go with them. Still, I'm not sure. Maybe its still too close. I sold all my Vietnam figures for the same reason. But my little boy is pestering me. Need to think about it.

Cynoscephalae Count Down

Only 17 days to go until the SOA Cynoscephalae battle day.

In theory that means I could paint 17 figures.

I have in process:

6 Greek light cavalry to finish off a unit for the Roman side.

2 Macedonian generals

12 more Greek javelinmen

Given that this weekend we have to move a whole load of stuff as we are having a new carpet laid on Monday I suspect I won't get much done. So, if I am really focussed I may just get this lot done.

A little more time would have been nice as I would have liked to have done another unit of Greek lights and at least 6 more Thracians but I suspect that that will not happen.

Then I think it's on to some Perry Sudan for a change.

Salute

I went to Salute with my little boy on Saturday. It was defintely more crowded this year but it was laid out much better. I still managed to miss some traders I wanted to see, though: notably Copplestone.

There seemed to be a lot more women and children there too this year; there was a painting area and 4 out of the 10 people painting were girls when I went by.

I went mainly to look at some figures I had been thinking about buying where I wanted to check their size compatibility with ones I alreaady had.

Very unhappy about the SS re-enactors presence and I commented to that effect on The Miniatures Page in a thread that has over 290 posts now. Had an overwhelming amount of support and a couple of nice personal messages from Allen Curtis, author of the Warhammer Ancient Battles Hannibal supplement.

My favourite Game was this Teutonic Knights siege set in Lithuania.

The guys there were very friendly and they told me that they had taken a year to scratchbuild the scenery, castle and houses. The amazing thing is they actually look the way buildings in Lithuania still do. I suspect the techniques haven't changed that much in 800 years. They said they had visited the country to get a feel for it and it showed.

I also loved the cog on this wonderful river. All the set up needed to give it total authenticity was a couple of models of leggy blondes tucked away somewhere.

As regards purchases I wasn't too bad:

Persians

The Vendel Persians are quite large but will still look OK with my Foundry Greeks and Macedonians. Now I know that Artizan have commissioned Steve Saleh to do a Persian line I will hold off buying any more. I don't know much about the Persians so don't know if Persian Wars Persians and ones from Alexander's time were the same or not. There is an Osprey and another new Osprey on the Persians has just come out so I will have to pick them up once the Artizan figures come out. There are going to be a pig to paint, however.

Vikings

I had a look at Mark Sims' new Vikings for Crusader. I loved his Foundry ones although some were a little too Warhammer for me so most of my rank and file is Gripping Beast and, latterly, Artizan. I am still not conviced by the dollies he is using for some of his Dark Ages figures. They do seem a little short and squat. Some of the armoured figures looked better. I suppose I will just have to get a few and see, as I decided not to buy any there and then.

Early Saxons

I did buy some of Musketeer miniatures early Saxons. These look great and, oddly, seem to work size wise with both Gripping Beast Arthurian and Artizan Vikings. I can see myself getting a lot of these for my Arthurian Saxon army. I was also impressed by their Great Northern War and Armies of the Caliphates ranges. A firm worth watching.

Foundry

The Foundry stall was rather disappointing. Rather small and very little stock but much of it was new which was something. The greens for their Anglo Saxons looked good and I bought a nice Minotaur and Theseus for my little boy who is doing the Ancient Greeks at school. I had been tempted by the Foundry books before but had never seen one. I bought the book on Troops in Colonial Africa and it is going to be very useful for the Sudan and East Africa in World War One. Beautifully produced too.

Binders
Bought a couple of binders each for Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames. Just don't have room on my shelves at the moment for them. I also bought some back issues of MW as it seems to be getting more and more difficult to get it in WH Smiths.

Magnetic Basing

I bought some more steel paper so I can add magnetic bases to more of my figures. The green paper will be for movement trays and the white to put inside one box so I can take stuff to the club without it all falling over.

Touching History Scenery Guides

I bought the new one which contains the Sudan stuff and they threw in the Peninsula War one for free. They are becoming more eye-candy and less step by step guide (probably as the techniques are the same) but they are still useful and inspirational and as the author is based in Addlestone I am supporting a local Surrey business!

Spears and Pikes

I bought some nice steel spears and pikes with proper leaf ends. The pikes wil be for my imminent Macedonian phalangites.

Companion Punic Wars
got some of their Velites for my Italian Allies. They are nice figures and will be compatible with my Crusader and A&A ones. They are also the only firm I have seen who sell wolfskin and normal troops in separate packs. I also bought a box of ancient Spanish. This was a bit disappointing as there were only 21 figures instead of 24 and only 4 poses. Nevertheless, the figures are nice and will work with the Crusader and A&A ones.

I'm not sure I will go next year as the South London Warlords are obviously run by bunch of idiots and I don't know if I want to give them any more of my money. There are lots of other good shows worth supporting like Warfare, Colours and SELWG.

Salute Eve!

I seem to have been painting Ancient Greeks for months and tomorrow's Salute will give me chance to look at some other things for a change.

Top of the list: Crusader's new Vikings and Carthaginians, Brigade Games swashbucklers, Musketeer's Early Saxons. I also want to have a look at Companion Miniatures Ancient Spanish to see if they are compatible with the A&A and Crusader ones and talk to Steve at LBMS about Spanish shield transfers.

That's without all the usual Copplestone, Foundry, Gripping Beast, Grand Manner etc.

Can't wait!

Unpainted lead

Just got them out to sort them into historical chronological order. A bit depressing as each drawer holds about 40 28mm figures on average. And that is without the five file boxes of unpainted Lord of the Rings stuff and the 12 file boxes of part painted figures. And another eight packs arrived from Wargames Foundry today.

Oh well, getting lots of stuff painted this holiday..

Painted figures for March

Another poor month. Only one business trip but it was a two week one!

Painted 11 Greek Javelinmen for Cynoscephalae and 1 Greek archer.

So, only 13 in total-my worst of the year.

I should have painted 72 by the end of March and I have only done 45 so now I have a backlog of 27. Never mind, April is already looking better and no trips this month.