Zama!

Well, the Society of Ancients have confirmed that their Battle Day next April will feature Zama, 202 BC. This is obviously going to throw all my painting plans into the air. I painted a lot of figures for Cynoscephalae two years ago and can see myself doing the same for this one as this is a period I am really interested in. Dave Edwards at Guildford is already keen to do this in 28mm. I notice Big Red Bat is going for it big time too! http://bigredbat.blogspot.com/

The SOA always issue a battlepack giving suggested army list but that won't be for months and I will need to decide what to start working on right now. I have about 100 Republican Romans painted and a similar number of Celts (although I will have to eliminate the ones that look too British-woad, spikey limed hair etc).

One good thing is that I have 10 months to get ready so I won't need to give up all my other fixations quite yet! I'll keep working on the Zulu and Sudan Wars, Napoleonics and Lord of the Rings but I will probably back pedal on the Dark Ages for a while. Probably, character figures is the way to go for the other periods whilst concentrating on units for Punics. Another good thing is that it will get me going on the Carthaginian army I have had planned for some four years (I've even got many of the figures already). To get me going I might buy an elephant!

Everything I work on will be recorded in tedious detail in my Punic Wars Blog (inevitably!) http://punicwarwab.blogspot.com/ I wonder whatever happened to that Vin Diesel film about Hannibal?

At least it had elephants!

I can't think of any other Punic Wars films I've seen other than Jupiter's Darling (1954) with Howard Keel as Hannibal (!), George Sanders as the Emperor and Esther Williams as a Roman lady who swims a lot.

Carthaginian army elephant breeding programme

Workbench

Workbench currently: Great War Miniatures late war Highlanders, Perry French and British Napoleonic and Perry Sudan Highlanders

I haven't posted much on here lately but that's not because I haven't been painting. In fact. I have been painting more than for several months. Currently, I am trying to clear space on the workbench by finishing off some of the 180 or so part painted figures I have on it. So far this approach is working, with four Napoleonic Dutch and 15 WW1 Germans being completed in the last week or so (on relevant other blogs). At present I am having a push on my late WW1 Highlanders and some plastic Napoleonics. None of these will be finished for weeks and that is the main problem; I don't have anything that is that close enough to completion that I can get them done quickly. Well, that's not quite true. I am just varnishing 3 Celtic slingers and a Back of Beyond female archaelogist but they aren't exactly mainstream. Never mind, it's cleared a bit more space!

I've also being trying to finish my first Games Workshop Battleboard tile and this is coming along well. It will definitely be done by the weekend.

Hopefully, I will have a bit more time on Saturday!

Painted figures: January to May

I haven't been noting the figures that I have painted on this site this year, partly because there have been so few but mainly because it is very boring! However, I do find the review process helpful in seeing what I have been painting and find that it guides me in choosing what to do next.

So far this year we have managed:

January 33
February 20

March 1

April 7

May 9

So only 71 figures in 22 weeks that's 3.2 figures a week instead of my target 6. I can't see that I am going to catch up unless I have a very good session during my summer holiday. The types of figures I have painted are:

Normans 5

Lord of the Rings 19

Early Saxons 4

WW1 15

Great Northern War 13

Schleswig Wars 1

English Civil War 4

Ancient Germans 7

Louis XIV 3

Last June I only managed 5 figures so I hope to do better than that. Apart from my new Perry British plastics I am going to concentrate on figures I have already started in order to get them done quickly. Starting, I think with some more WW1 Germans and some more Uruk Hai.

My little boy tidied up the workbench for me in exchange for a lottery ticket (he didn't win anything) so I don't have to stare at the previous chaos and wonder where to start.

What I need are a couple of good weekends but this weekend it's Guy's paint-ball party all day on Saturday and I have to do something on Sunday too. I am also trying not to have to go to Singapore in a couple of weeks and that is looking fifty-fifty at the moment. Oh well, at least I want to paint again!