Painted Figures for February

Another very under par month.

Only 12 Punic Romans and 1 Greek Javelinman done.

So only 13 figures in total. I am now 16 figures behind schedule!

I did have 4 overseas business trips which didn't help.

Painted Figures for January

The first month of the year I painted:

Lord of the Rings: 1 Wildman of Dunland, 1 Warg rider and 1 Rohan mounted Royal Guard

Republican Roman: 6 Velites, 6 Triarii and 1 cavalryman

Ancient Greeks: 1 peltast

This makes 18 figures altogether, 6 short of my normal target of 24 (6 per week). I need to do better in February to get everything painted for the SOA Battle Day in May.

So what's next?

Given what I am getting rid of what should I be planning for over the rest of the year?

Punic War and Greeks

At present I am working on troops for the Society of Ancients Cynoscephalae Battle Day in May. I have painted two legions of Punic Romans and am now doing some Greek auxiliaries that I can use to form part of a planned Greek Mercenary force. I have Italian allies to finish as well.

Spanish

I was going to paint a Carthaginian army to field against the Romans (given that I already have a hefty number of Celts). The new Crusader Spanish looked really nice so I bought a bunch of those and I will turn to those on the basis that Little Big Man studios have some shield transfers out by then.

Age of Arthur

The new WAB supplement is fabulous and I already have half a unit of early Saxons painted. the fact that there are no cavalry to paint for this army is very appealing!

Sudan

I have around 20 Perry Beja started (and over 35 finished). These are very quick to paint and I'd like to get enough finished for an army this year. I reckon about 80 infantry and 20 cavalry would give a good force to start with and this is achievable. I got a whole bunch done on holiday last year and there is no reason I can't get some more done this August. The problem is that the British take longer but at least you don't need so many!

Vikings and Carolingians

Finished two big units of Vikings with another well under way. The Carolingians make a nice complement (and an opponent) so will continue with these definitely.

Phew, I think that is enough for 2007!

The rationalisation continues..

I have decided that there are so many armies I really want to paint that I should stop pretending with those that I know I will never paint! Given that I am running out of bookshelf space then the various supporting Ospreys etc will have to go too.

The first armies to bite the dust will be:

American War of Independence

This is hard given the lovely Perry figures and the fact that I have always wanted to do a woods and lakes of North America type scenario. But I have come to accept that horse and musket figures are so time consuming to paint (all those cursed cross belts and buttons) that I would rather hang on to the vague possibility of doing Napoleonics one day. My pine tree and water fetish can be fulfilled by the lovely Conquest French Indian Wars figures-especially as there is a The Sword and the Flame variant for them and you wouldn't need too many figures.

http://www.conquestminiatures.com/french&indianwar.htm

Hundred Years War

OK, I haven't got any figures but I have bought several books on Agincourt inspired largely by the book The War Game which I got for Christmas when I was about 11. It had a lovely recreation of Agincourt using Peter Gilder's figures. The Perry figures, again, are gorgeous but the thought of painting all those heraldic devices..! I am happy with my Wars of the Roses army for this period.

Goths and Late Romans

I have some Newline Goths bought at a time when I was considering a Late Roman Army. I also bought some Black Tree Designs late Romans. As I am already painting EIR, MIR, Punic and Caesarian Romans I can't see myself getting round to these in the near future. If I did I would probably go for Gripping Beast as they have opponents as well.

Egyptians

This is quite a tough one as I have quite a few of these but if I do Bronze Age I am much more attracted by the Foundry Bronze Age Northern Europeans and Trojans.

So big stuff on ebay over the next month or so.

Warg Riders!

I played a Lord of the Rings Battle Companies game against my little boy on Tuesday. This was our second game. He had Uruk Hai and I had Rohan (but without my Captain as Guy had knocked him out for a game last time). Guy won as usual but having about 6 archers helped. I told him that the new version of the battle Companies rules only allow 30% archers. Rather reluctantly he agreed that as they were killed off in future games he would replace them with normal troops.

In our upgrade session afterwards we rolled for 3 figures I hadn't got painted: a normal Orc, a Warg Rider (without bow!) and I won a Rohan Royal Guard on horseback. He wants to play again on Sunday so I have to get these three painted by then. The Warg rider is the first one finished. Here it is with the only other Warg rider I have done. These Perry designed LotR figures are lovely to paint.

First Figure of the Year

Another year and this year I am going to log the number of figures I paint. I reckon I paint an average of six figures a week so it will be interesting to see if I maintain that!

Although I have been exclusively concentrating on Punic Romans for the last month I'm playing Lord of the Rings Battle Companies with my son tomorrow. As a result of upgrades won in the last battle he needed to add a Wild Man of Dunland to his force. So here he is.

Yesterday my son and I did an audit of our LotR figures. I had thought that I had painted more than I had. Depressing! Having had all 91 issues of Battle Games in Middle Earth the number of figures I have is terrifying!

Back to Velites now..

Seconds from disaster!

I know it sounds like the title from a Thunderbirds episode but I really was last night.

My wife was sitting in my study (just below where the calendar is) when she heard a creaking noise and spotted that one of my wall-mounted shelves (arrowed) was just sagging forward and was about to come off the wall. She put her arm up and stopped it, fortunately. The weight of books had finally overcome the screws! Underneath the shelf were all my newly painted Republican Romans plus some Vikings I am re-basing. Not to mention  my late Uncle's pickelhaube!

Today I have put the shelf back up (with much longer screws) and have put my boxes of unpainted Lord of the Rings figures up there (mainly plastic) to reduce the weight. These shelves have been up eight years with no problems but now I am nervous about which one might go next.

Thank goodness for wifey! Big present due!