Bull to Bull Run...and more from North America

I just had my best weekend's painting for a long while and finished some more stuff from the workbench.  Firstly, this is one of Foundry's new Tribes of Legend's efforts: a bronze bull suitable for Jason and the Argonauts.  See more about it on my Argonautika blog.

Here, also, are my first 28mm American Civil War figures, which will represent the 4th Virginia regiment at Bull Run. I found these slightly easier to paint than most Perry figures with the various belts and straps rather more clearly sculpted than is sometimes the case (or maybe it's because they are less exaggerated than some other manufacturers).    Of course un-regimented looking regiments like this will always take more time to paint.  I haven't got any more line troops suitable for this unit to paint but have some command figures which I will gradually more along.  I'm just doing occasional bits on the various ACW units I have on the go at present when I need a change of pace.  What makes ACW units, of course, are flags and I don't have any yet.  I need to research who does good ones for the scale and the period  maybe someone out there knows! 

I've also started some more 18mm fantasy figures and am progressing on the Baluchi and Back of Beyond Bolsheviks too but don't have anything nearing completion yet.  Still, 34 figures this month which is the most I have completed in one month since March 2010 and is more than the total I managed between December 2011 and May 2012.

Earlier this week I popped in to Orc's Nest en route to the East India Club for lunch.   I wanted to find out when the Victrix plastic Athenian Hoplites are due in (hopefully next week) and I picked up the new (in English anyway) Muskets & Tomahawks rules by Studio Tomahawk, the people behind Saga.  Even though they are an older set of rules I think these look very good and seem quite simple but you can add layers of complexity in stages if you want; an approach that would have been welcome with Foundry's Tribes of Legend, for example.  You can have a game with, they claim, 30 figures a side, as little as 10,  but as many as 100.  I have pulled out half a dozen French and Indian war figures from Galloping Major to work on, as a result.  These are big figures and not as elegant as the Conquest Miniatures figures I have but should paint up OK.  More thoughts on the FIW and Muskets & Tomahawks another time, perhaps.

Some of my old Foundry mountain men

The rules would also work well for mountain men skirmishes which is another project where I have loads of unpainted figures.  In fact I have every figure Foundry produced for this characterful range.  I painted a few but they, like many of my other older models, will need a bit of touching up to bring them up to standard.

My Mexican force so far!

I don't know whether it's my recent trip to Boston but I seem fixated on North American wargaming at present and, going back to another range where I painted a few figures but haven't progressed much, I notice that Boot Hill Miniatures have released Mexican infantry in their (white) summer uniform.  I would really like to get some of these but need to finish a few more of the ones I have already, I think!

Finally, I am just finishing Agent of Rome: The Siege by Nick Brown.  It treads the Simon Scarrow path of Romans in the desert but is set a couple of hundred years later at the time of Queen Zenobia.  The book improved as it went on and the final battle scenes are well done, although he falls into the annoying trap of archers and slingers firing their weapons.  Grr!  Now, where is that unit of third century Romans I have undercoated?