September target

Giles Allison revealed that he has a bucket load of figures to paint for his forthcoming AWI mega-game in a couple of months. I am running seriously behind on my monthly totals so I need to have a good go too.

I usually paint batches of six figures at a time and try to get six figures done a week but I have seriously fallen behind on that the last few months. I am, therefore, going to try a completely different aproach this month and rather than try to do so many a week I am going to aim to complete a certain amount by the end of the month. I am working on a number of groups of figures: 12 WW1 Germans, 16 Zulu War British, 16 Zulus and 10 GNW Swedes. I am just going to try to get all of these moving along without fretting about finishing "x" by Sunday. Let's see how it goes!

Painted Figures for August

Much better due to the fact that I cranked out a few on holiday.

The total was:

Sudan British 1
WW1 German 12
Great Northern War Swedes 6
Spartan Hoplites 4

A total of 23. So far this year I have painted 162 figures in 35 weeks a total of 4.6 figures a week and well under my target. I should have painted 210 so am over 50 adrift. Oh dear! Lets see what we can do this month!

Painting Objectives 2008: Second Update

It's time to review the progress on the second four months of my painting objectives.

My initial priorities in January were:

Sudan British and Beja
Great Northern War Swedes
Dark Ages Early Saxons
Ancient Greeks and Spartans

I also added Darkest Africa in May.

Secondary targets were:
Punic War Spanish
Pulp
Back of Beyond
Lord of the Rings
WW1 East Africa
Napoleonic Quatre Bras
3rd Century Romans and Palmyrans
Caesarian Romans
Wars of the Roses mounted men at arms

What I have done from May to August is as follows:

Sudan British: 1
Sudan Beja: 1
Great Northern War: 11
Dark Ages: 0
Greeks and Spartans: 10
Darkest Africa: 12

Of my lesser priority category I did the following:

Back of Beyond: 2
WW1: 16
Swashbucklers: 1
Gladiators: 9

So going forward for the next four months I think that my priorities will be as follows:

Sudan
I must get those cursed Highlanders done (at least I have started them) plus some more Beja. I am well on the way to finishing the second rub of 60 figures. I also have an Egyptian and a British field gun to do.

Great Northern War
Musketeer Miniatures are promising Russian pikemen and command over the next few weeks. I am progressing well on the Sewedish infantry so will do some more.

Darkest Africa
With the Zulu War to do I think I will back of the Ngoni and Ruga Ruga for a bit, although I have five more of the latter under way.

The Great War
I am really enjoying painting my Prussian Guards so will do some more of these definitely.

Zulu War
I love the new Empress figures and will get going on these.

Napoleonics
Likewise the new Alban riflemen are tremedous and French Voltigeurs are on the way.

Lord of the Rings
I have started some plastic knights of Minas Tirith and these are pretty quick to paint so will try and finish these by Christmas. I always play a Battle Companies game with my little boy at Christmas so maybe I can complete an Orc force for that as well.

Blog Hit Parade: August

I expected August to be down a little because of the holidays and that is true of every site except the Dark Ages one which is this month's highest climber. The numbers are down on Sudan a bit but it has overtaken Pulp. At least I managed an entry on the Sudan site last month!

It is interesting to note that the monthly totals are largely the same; often only about 10% different month to month. Also number of postings does not seem to effect the totals. The question is, therefore, do I do more postings for the low scoring sites (and hence paint more figures) or do I respond to ones where the views are increasing. On the former method I should be working on Swashbucklers and on the latter, Dark Ages. I quite fancy doing some Dark Ages figures again, though, for reasons I will put on my Dark Ages blog in the next few days.


1 (1) Cavegirls in Fur Bikinis 9,288 (86,157)
2 (3) 19th Century Sudan Wargames Armies 2,362 (23,103)
3 (2) Pulp Warriors 2,089 (47,861)
4 (4) Legatus' Wargames Armies 1,439 (16,556)
5 (5) Spartan WAB 545 (8,029)
6 (6) Return to Darkest Africa 538 (4,200)
7 (9) Dark Ages WAB 320 (2,470)
8 (7) 3rd and 4th Century Roman WAB 286 (2,018)
9 (8) Wargaming the Great Northern War 266 (2,557)
10 (11) Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth 228 (995)
11 (12) Punic War WAB 194 ( 3,105)
12 (13) The Great War 150 (505)
13 (13) Byzantine WAB 145 (2,242)
14 (14) Swashbucklers 34 (282)

Painted figures for July

Another bad month. One Spartan and five Great Northern War Swedes. Oh well.

Holiday painting.

I need to start thinking about what figures to take on holiday this year. I usually take a dozen or so of one type to get on with when I am away.

I really have four choices:

I have some Renegade German WW1 infantry to finish. The advantage of these is that they are about half done and it shouldn't take too long to finish them

I have bought some of Empress Miniatures new Zulu War British and I really want to get on with these but don't have the relevant uniform information: unless I order the Osprey and have it sent to our house on the Isle of Wight.

I have some more GNW Swedes based up and these are nice and quick to paint but I am getting bored with GNW as it is months and months since we had any new figures from Musketeer Miniatures. Just a few Russian infantry would be nice!

I am due to do a Romans v Celts game at Guildford in Spetember but I need more Celts. I have bought a box of Warlord Games plastics so maybe that would be best. The problem with these is that I would need to take a lot more paints.

Tricky. Still not sure. Still got time to think though.

Blog Hit parade July

Cavegirls is still getting the most hits but Pulp Warriors has moved up a place pushing Sudan down to number three again, but Sudan did get 1500 more views than last month.

In fact, each site's totals are up this month; odd because I recorded the figures a bit late last month so they should have been down. Biggest climber, up three places, is the Great War site. I hope to finish a Sudan character this weekend and put up a blog entry on him. Also hope to finish my GNW ensign too. Sadly nothing else is close to being finished so it will be another very thin month.

1 (1) Cavegirls in Fur Bikinis 11,841 (76,869)
2 (3) Pulp Warriors 3,317 (45,772)
3 (2) 19th Century Sudan Wargames Armies 2,827 (20,741)
4 (4) Legatus' Wargames Armies 1,784 (15,117)
5 (5) Spartan WAB 712 (7,483)
6 (6) Return to Darkest Africa 500 (3,662)
7 (9) 3rd and 4th Century Roman WAB 379 (1,732)
8 (8) Wargaming the Great Northern War 305 (2,291)
9 (10) Dark Ages WAB 278 (2,150)
10 (13) The Great War 257 (355)
11 (11) Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth 239 (767)
12 (7) Punic War WAB 226 ( 2,911)
13 (12) Byzantine WAB 151 (2,097)
14 (14) Swashbucklers 46 (248)