Dwarven Sorcerer WIP

I had enough fun painting the Ranger figure that I have started on a Dwarven Sorcerer figure. It is one of the two Dwarven Wizard figures from the new WizKids D&D unpainted range.

Back WIP

The figs come primed and ready to paint, and are nice sculpts. They are a little less detailed than high end metal figs, being cast in a bendable plastic, but are still good quality.

Front WIP

For this figure, I am going to do light brown robes and green trim. Not sure about the rest yet.

Q1 Hobby Review

The first quarter of this year was probably more active for me in terms of painting, terrain making, and general hobby activities than any other similar period in a long time. I think I also did not play a single game (non-solo), not even at the Cold Wars convention that I attended very briefly. So...some good and some bad, I suppose. Although if this continues at this pace for too much longer I might have to change the blog header to say that I am a figure painter instead of an actual wargamer.

As far as accomplishments go, I ended the quarter with... (more or less):

• 18 German knights painted (including some refurbished ones)
• 10 French Hundred Years War crossbows painted
• 6 Ottoman akinji light horse painted
• 13 buildings painted
• 18 more German knights half painted but not finished
• A few hundred figures from various periods "brightened", highlighted and otherwise touched up
• Several hundred figures rebased entirely
• A few hundred bases flocked, edge painted, or otherwise cosmetically completed
• A few more modular terrain boards begun but not completed
• At least a hundred figures prepped, primed and made ready for painting
• Other miscellaneous small terrain projects

The actual painting output seems modest, although it was very very good for me, especially considering the amount of work/time spent touching up older figures to a much nicer standard.

As for Q2, I'm not really very goal-oriented with regards to my hobby time anymore, but I'll tentatively throw a few out there anyway:

• Play games
• Complete the basing and photography of my Hundred Years War English
• Paint some Ottomans

Sounds simple enough.

Ottoman Project in 25mm

Several years ago I made some initial progress on an Ottoman medieval army in 25mm, circa the era of Nicopolis 1396. I painted a few units myself and had some painted in Sri Lanka for me. Then nothing much happened for quite some time. I need a painting project to focus on, and I am planning to get back to this.

The pictures below show where the project stands at this moment. I have completed 5 stands of Hungarian skirmish cavalry and 5 stands of akinji skirmish cavalry, along with 2 mounted leaders and a banner bearer. There is also one unit of armored infantry, one unit of janissary archers and two units of regular archers. In the partially painted category are another unit of janissary archers and another unit of armored infantry, along with one more mounted leader. Primed are 9 armored sipahi cavalry figures, with 9 more figures partially assembled. The three bags in front contain 10 more akinjis and 20 unarmored sipahi cavalry.

Step 1, I guess, will be to complete the two partially painted foot units. Step 2 will be to finish assembling and priming lots of cavalry. That way I can assembly line a good number of cavalry in hopefully a fairly manageable amount of time. A bunch of foot may get sent to Sri Lanka. One can dream...

In addition to what is pictured here there are more armored infantry, voynuk heavy infantry, archers and spearmen. There are also some Wallachian cavalry assembled and ready to paint as Allies and/or opponents. Plus Hungarian knights primed and ready. Now all I need to do is actually paint.

March Miniatures Progress Update

A few weeks ago I posted an entry on my hobby goals for the remainder of March and April. To keep myself on track, I'll take a brief look back at what I have accomplished against those goals. All in all I am happy with what I have gotten done, and think I will be where I want to be by April month end.

• Decisions have been made. 15mm Napoleonics will be based per the Age of Eagles basing scheme. This can also be used for Shako or a number of other rules sets. I do have an interest in skirmish gaming so I will take at least some of the decent-sized armies that I have for Vikings and Saxons and rebase them for skirmish. I can use these figs for Saga, Chris Parker's upcoming skirmish system, or simple home brewed rules I am toying around with. This is a great period for skirmish gaming, I have lots of figures, and I never seem to use them for larger battle games, so a re-purposing may help these figures see the light of day. I have also been wanting to try Saga, but didn't have anything based for it. With only a little work, now I will...
• Bases for the Napoleonics and the skirmish mounted 25mm figs were ordered from Litko in mid-March, and arrived in the mail today.
• Crusades 15mm - All figures have been stripped from their old bases. Ten or twelve new bases have been created since the last update, including everything necessary to play the first battle in my campaign, as noted in an earlier post. The units for this game still need cosmetic finishing work, but I could play with them now if I wanted.
• The large trees have been based and the bases painted. They only need flocking and cosmetic finishing to be complete. They are usable now.
• The hedge/hedgerow project is complete. I now have approximately 22 linear feet of hedgerow.

Still to be completed (or substantial progress made) in April:

• Make a final decision on what to send to Sri Lanka for painting and get the order underway.
• Lots of bases to "green flock".
• Crusades project progress - more units to be completed...
• Buildings to paint.
• Flag Dude flags to order.

I also need to begin thinking about May/June goals.

Miniatures - March/April Planning

I have been doing my usual "this and that" as far as hobby related things go, making a little progress on various projects but with no real goal in mind. Over the next 4 to 6 weeks, I plan to actually focus on a few specific tasks, and have some goals that I would like to see substantially completed by the end of April. Some of them are related to moving along a couple of projects that have lain mostly dormant for way too long, and a few are more spring cleaning oriented so I can get some things off the work bench and be able to move forward on new things. If I don't get past some of these tedious tasks, I may well stay bogged down forever...

Decision Making and purchasing:

• I have blogged previously about my ongoing indecision about what to do with Napoleonics, and the ongoing quest for a set of rules that I like and am comfortable settling on. I really like From Valmy to Waterloo, but they are intricate, time consuming, and not a set of rules that we can use with some of the more casual gamers in our little group. Games where I am the only one who knows the rules are problematic. LaSalle was fun enough when we played it, but it seemed exceedingly generic to me, and despite enjoying the game or two we had of it, I have no overwhelming interest in going back to it. Leo's suggestion, to be able to at least be playing Nappy's before we die, is to just bite the bullet and get Age of Eagles, the Fire and Fury derivation. At least we know this can be played by the group we have. Shako also looks promising. Ultimately, I need to settle on a basing scheme that works for what we are likely to be playing, stick to it, and consolidate the figures I have into that scheme. At this point, that seems to be leaning pretty strongly to four 15mm figs in a block on a 3/4 inch by 1 inch base. Artillery and cavalry as I have them based now will work for just about any system. Litko base order to follow.
• Figure out what my next painting order will be to ship off to Sri Lanka. That way I will know what figures I need to order, if any.
• Decide whether I want to do anything for skirmish basing. This would be re-using or potentially painting new figures for either Saga or Chris Parker's skirmish rules that he has under development. Order bases with the Napoleonics base order if I decide to do this.
• Order the Seven Years War flags that I will need for my completed Austrians and pending Prussians. Flag Dude flags of course....

Basing:

• The 15mm Crusades project has languished for well over a year because of the decision I made to rebase my armies on Impetus style bases as opposed to WRG style basing. I stripped enough figures off the existing bases to make the armies unusable, but bogged down in the magnitude (and boredom) of the effort. I need to strip all figures off the old bases and make at least some progress toward rebasing enough figures to be able to do a small game. Having usable armies should provide the needed boost to keep going, or at least make it so that the lack of progress isn't completely crippling.
• Flock bases. I have several trays of completed figures that are based and have had the bases painted, but have not gotten their final dullcote and then flocking. This is a tedious task, but it will allow me to put the darned figures away finally and check them off the "in progress" list.

Buildings and Terrain:

• I have a dozen or so new large Woodland Scenics trees that need to be based (they are too big to stand up on their own). Cut bases, glue, paint, flock.
• I began making a series of terrain pieces that could be used as either hedgerows for 15mm WW2 or hedges for 25mm figs. There are about 10 pieces substantially done and another fifteen of so that have just been started. These can be knocked out quickly. Priming, sand gluing, painting, foliage cluster gluing, final flocking of the edges.
• A dozen or so buildings for various 15mm periods have been either primed or started. These are easy to paint with layered wet-brushing/dry-brushing and should also be able to be knocked out quickly.

So that's the plan. Let's see how it goes... This list should be whittled down by the end of March, and complete or substantially complete by the end of April.

Hobby State of the Union

So... What have I been up to from a hobby standpoint these last several months? The honest answer is "not too much". That being said, things seem to have taken a turn for the better. Part of it is just coming out of a general malaise, part of it is that the Fall In convention in Lancaster PA has energized me somewhat (as these cons always do), and part of it is that I never went completely dormant on the hobby front (blog silence to the contrary).

As much as anything these days, I am suffering from the attention span deficit that often (OK, always...) afflicts me. Too many interests and projects and too little time. Back to the original question... "what am I doing these days from a hobby perspective?":

• Seven Years War project - I have been packing an order to send to Sri Lanka for painting, This is an interest that I have that I will never ever be able to address properly on my own from a painting perspective. If I waited until I painted what I needed to do a modest game, it would never happen. So it is time to admit my own limitations and call in the pros. I am sending Austrians to be painted, while I still have hopes of doing some Prussians on my own, as well as a bullet point covered below...
• Modular terrain - Following the blogs of Olicanalad and others, it seems that many hobbyists use modular terrain pieces for their battlefields. I have always either used custom terrain boards carved out of foam (but not modular), or simple ground clothes with other terrain pieces. I have made a few half-hearted starts on making modular terrain pieces, but have never gotten very far. This time will be different, and I have already made some decent progress. More to follow in another post...
• Hundred Years War - As recently posted, I completed a mini project on a set of 24 archer stake bases. I had been planning to get around to this for the better part of a year, and finally set aside the 2 hours needed to knock it out. In addition to that, I always seem to have at least a unit or two of medieval figs on my painting table.
• Napoleonics - My 15mm armies need more rebasing work in order to use my existing figs better with the LaSalle rules, which we have played a couple of times and like. LaSalle seems to be a nice mix of period feel with modest complexity and fairly quick play time. In other words, a winner.
• Ottomans - Work continues, albeit at a glacial pace, on knocking out a unit or two here and there. Much more work to be done before even a modest game could be played.
• Seven Years War "ImagiNation" - It seems to be a fairly common thing amongst our English gaming compatriots to create a fictitious state for which to create an army and inject it into real history. Popular periods seem to be in the early horse and musket periods of Marlburian through Seven Years War. I have decided to exercise my imagination and create the Duchy of Alsberg, a small German state in the Seven Years War era. I have begun painting a few units and have begun sketching out the "history" and background of my little duchy. I envision my duchy as a sometimes ally of Prussia which is often at conflict with smaller neighboring states as well as occasionally getting caught up in the larger affairs concerning Prussia and Austria (hence the additional impetus to get some Austrians painted...).
• Lord of the Rings and some other fantasy stuff to be expanded on later....
• Last but not least, the Crusades Project needs to forge ahead. Theoretically this should be an easier one to make progress on as it requires little more than rebasing of figures.

So... as I said, lots of different things going on. If I could just focus on one or two things at a time, I might actually make some progress. Alas, it is not my way...

Another New Project... Really

A little bit of a teaser... I have found myself with a little more spare time in the evenings these days, and the painting bug has bitten again. An interest that I have had for a while but not really given in to seems to have taken hold. So I am prepping a few things for painting. Something completely different. Which I will take some pictures of and show here soon...

Crusades Project - Plans

I have been inactive in my wargaming for far too long. Now that we have gotten some family things straightened out that had things in a state of flux, I am ready to dive back into something.

First, I need to get an order out the Fernando Enterprises for painting. I don't have the time to paint quantity, so some of my figure stock needs to get on an airplane and go overseas. This will end up being 25mm Ottomans, 25mm Seven Years War, or 25mm Renaissance.

Second, I need to get back to work on helping Chris Parker out with his ideas for Day of Battle IV. In conjunction with this, I plan to rebase my 15mm Crusader and Saracen armies using the Impetus style basing that Chris is using. There is no real risk in doing this, as I have never really used these armies the way they are based now, and I have been anxious to base something on the kind of diorama-style bases that Impetus uses. I will try to use these newly rebased armies to do some playtesting of DoB4 as part of a small solo campaign.

Hopefully, between these little projects and the fact that Cold Wars is coming up in less than a month, I will get back on the hobby track.

Landsknechts

Having gotten through most (or at least a lot) of my unpainted lead piles for the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses, I need to figure out what to tackle next. The two periods for which I have sufficient figure stock to keep me going for a while are the Seven Years War and the Great Italian Wars of the Renaissance (1494-1529).

I am strongly leaning towards the Renaissance at this point, as I have a good number of beautifully painted Landsknechts that need company. I have stands of pikes, halberds and arquebusses, but nobody for them to play with. No friends and no enemies, other than 4 or 5 stands of artillery. I can send most of the foot overseas, and can play around with painting the cavalry myself. That should be fun. As colorful as the period is, you can pretty much go completely bonkers and still not have gone over the top.

I'll make a final decision soon.

And yes, these figs are some of the many that need proper basing.

Convention Report - Cold Wars 2010

HMGS East's spring convention, Cold Wars 2010, was held in Lancaster Pennsylvania (USA) beginning Thursday and ending today (Sunday). The most glaring thing that struck me, having been attending these shows faithfully for well over ten years, is that attendance was way off this year. There were less people in general, the dealer area was not crowded, some of the people I always see weren't there, and from a game mastering perspective, there were many less games being run and therefore less for attendees to do. Wandering through the main ballroom gaming area, I have never seen so many empty tables with nothing going on. The same was true of all the smaller side rooms, where around half the tables were inactive at any point in time. It was sad and disturbing.

The reasons for the lack of attendance are hard to pin down, but are probably a combination of the economy, a very rainy forecast for the weekend (Saturday was an all day downpour), and possibly some dissatisfaction with HMGS over their repeatedly botched handling of the moving of the upcoming Historicon flagship summer con away from Lancaster to another location. But that's a whole different story.

What did I do? Not too much I suppose, when I think back on it. I live about an hour away from Lancaster, a little more with traffic, so I drove up and back Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I played in a couple medieval games, bought a bunch of stuff (more on that in a moment), met and caught up with a bunch of friends that I only see occasionally, and did a lot of wandering and watching. More wandering and watching than anything, really.

As for the spending, I certainly did my part to revive the economy this time around. Having had the bug to get out of the medieval period(s) for a while, my next project will be Seven Years War in 25mm, and to that end I added 10 more bags of Old Glory figs to the small pile of SYW that I already have. The short term plan is that most of the infantry will be packed off to Sri Lanka in short order, and I will begin working on some guns and cavalry, with a few other odds and ends like Prussian grenadiers mixed in.

Other purchases included 3 rules sets: LaSalle, Impetus and Saga's Lace Warfare. Eight feet of JR Miniatures one-inch streams to expand my two-inch river set. A few bags of bases of various sizes from the nice folks at Litko. A few 25mm Ottoman flags from Rick O'Brien (the Flag Dude). Three Conflix brand painted buildings good for anything from early medieval through 1800's. And last but not least, in the effort to get back into playing Napoleonics, enough painted 15mm figs from Gajo to make a small Spanish division and a Portugese brigade. Adding these figures to the French and Brits I already have gives me enough to run a modest sized game on a 6 x 8 table with some troop variability.

Wow, I bought more than I thought...

While talking to Chris Parker (Day of Battle author) I committed to running some 25mm Day of Battle games at Historicon. King of Prussia PA is even closer than Lancaster, and I have been lazy about running games over the last couple of years. So I will sign up for a few games to run. Games that require little or no work beyond what I already have completed, which is the nice thing about being virtually done a few periods. Really the only thing I need is to mail order a few specific flags from the Flag Dude, and then I am done.

As always, going to these shows gets the fire burning again, so I expect that this will trigger a burst of activity on my part. Let's hope. At the very least, I expect to be able to post pictures of the new painted figs that I bought from GAJO, as well as some of the other Napoleonics that I am re-basing.

Dilemma du Jour - Muskets, but which?

As far as my miniatures collections go, I have been painting (and having painted for me) almost exclusively medievals, with some renaissance, for the better part of the last year or more. I have committed to completing my Hundred Years War and Wars of the Roses armies over the next several months, neither of which are large tasks at this point, as my Sri Lankan friends will be doing the heavy lifting for me. After that, I have been leaning towards doing Ottomans circa Nicopolis (1396), but I am having second thoughts. I think I am beginning to suffer from hack and slash burnout. I find my thoughts drifting with increasing frequency to various musket era periods. Napoleonics. Seven Years War. American Revolution. French and Indian War. American Civil War. Fascinating periods, all of which are of interest to me, and all of which I already have some figures for (in some cases a great many).

Which brings me to quite a dilemma. I am at my most conflicted when trying to decide what to do in these periods.

• I have ACW in 15mm in decent quantity but could use more Federals to replace some older less well-painted ones that I dislike using (snob!).
• I have modest SYW armies of Prussians and Austrians in tiny 5mm based for Koenig Krieg.
• I have modest Napoleonic 15mm forces for French, Peninsula Brits and some Austrians.
• I have a HUGE collection of 5mm Napoleonics based for From Valmy to Waterloo that we never use. I have the entire French Armee du Nord, the entire Anglo-Allied army, and a corps and a half out of the four Prussian corps. That's something like 175,000 men at 1:60 scale.
• I have a decent collection of 25mm AWI based for a regimental Fire and Fury adaption (not the real one they are working on). These figs are all for the Brandywine armies since I live about 5 minutes from that battlefield.
• I have a few odds and ends of French and Indian War figs based for skirmish gaming, but not enough to run a game.

The reasons for my indecision generally fall into a couple of categories, and tend to be fairly consistent across all of them. Inability to settle on a rules set that I really like for the period. Because of this, a resulting inability to settle on figure scale and basing scheme. As a general rule, my scale of choice would be 25mm, as I like the visual impact of the larger scales, and I really don't enjoy painting anything smaller. However, I do recognize that smaller scales have the benefit of enabling much larger games on my 6 foot by 8 foot table. I have a difficult time mentally committing to 25mm in SYW or Napoleonics because of the predominance of cavalry, and the greater table space I believe these periods deserve to be done "right". Whatever that means. That being said, 25mm Seven Years War and Napoleonic figures are a sight to behold.

I don't know what to do...

Miniatures Planning - HYW To Do List

English
I have everything in-house that I need to complete my base army, I just need to finish some painting and other miscellaneous tasks. Items needing completion:

• 24 foot hobilars are primed and need painting. This will add 8 stands, or two units of 4.
• 30 foot men at arms are going into a Fernando order that will go out this week. This will add 10 more stands (I base my foot knights at 3 per stand even though they are close order so that you can see the nice paint jobs better - quirky personal preference...).
• 20 stands or so worth of archer stakes need to be made as a scratch building project.
• Base painting and flocking needs to be completed.
• A few specific banners need to be ordered from the Flag Dude.

From a pure quantity perspective, I should probably have more longbowmen, but I have 20 or so stands of Wars of the Roses militia longbows that can stand in if I need to put together a larger than usual game. Other than the anachronistic helmet here or there, it is hard to notice the difference in figs.

French
Again, I have everything I need to finish the French, I just need to complete the painting. Needing completion:

• 30 foot men at arms are going into the Fernando order. With some of the command below, this will add 12 stands, or three units of 4.
• 10 foot command are going into the Fernando order.
• 30 pavisier spearmen need to be painted. I'll do these. With 2 command, this will add 8 more stands.
• 18 or so mounted men at arms need painting. I'll do these as well. Six more stands.
• Base painting and flocking needs to be completed.
• A few specific banners need to be ordered from the Flag Dude.

For extra quantity here, I would add more men at arms (foot and mounted) if the mood struck, but they shouldn't be necessary for all but the largest game I would run.

Allied Troops
It's always nice to have an assortment of other troops to be able to add into games for variety beyond just the basic main sides, so to this point I have small contingents of Spanish, Germans and "generics". Needing completion:

• 4 Spanish jinetes need painting to finish a pack. This will add two more stands.

Beyond this, I don't really need anything else, although I will probably do another pack of Spanish knights to get them 3 more stands and be able to do three units of 2, rather than the simple 3 stands I have now.

As far as buying more figs, if anything I would probably just buy a single pack of this or that (whatever struck my mood) on occasion in order to add a unit or two. This would be a nice position to be in, because it would allow me the flexibility to paint whatever seemed fun at the time rather than painting out of necessity.

Looking at it logically like this, it all seems very manageable, especially given that I am going to be sending out some of the work to contract painters.

Miniatures Planning - English Hundred Years War

Much like the prior post on the French, this is a muster of the English host. The picture shows the assembled masses, with the French muster in the distance. Everything on this side of the left to right road is part of this army.

In the front rank are 7 single leader figs, 4 single banner bearers and a general stand for King Edward III. One of the leaders is Edward Prince of Wales, the Black Prince. (most need flocking)

• The left-most column is 12 stands of dismounted hobilars (need flocking).
• The next two columns are 24 longbows (9 are complete, the rest need flocking).In the center are 17 Scots spearmen (need flocking).
• Behind the Scots are 10 stands of Welsh longbowmen (bases need painting and flocking).
• To the right of the Scots are 15 foot men at arms including general stands for the Black Prince (on foot), Warwick and Salisbury (need flocking).
• On the right are 4 stands mounted men at arms.

In the far background and far right distance are some allied troops:

• 3 German mounted men at arms plus a single leader figure (need flocking).
• 8 spearmen in 2 blocks of 4 each (done). These are Scots figures but have shorter spears and were painted in 2 uniform blocks to represent mercenaries from wherever, or just generic spearmen.
• Behind the pavises in the back are 8 stands of crossbows. These are representatives of a mass of crossbowmen from the "Liegnitz - Mongols in Europe" range that look so generic they tend to stand in as crossbowmen from whatever period I need. For later periods, Wars of the Roses crossbowmen serve the same purpose. I have not bothered to get crossbowmen from this specific period, and may or may not at some future point. Not a priority...

Well, it's off to "Brunch with Santa" soon for me and the gang, so goals and plans will have to wait for later, but at least this finishes documenting the current state of the HYW project.

One last picture - what the other half of my table looks like a the moment, backdrop removed. This is why I need a backdrop for pictures...

Miniatures Planning - French Hundred Years War

I suppose the first thing that needs to be done when contemplating the remainder of a project is to take a moment to take stock of where you are. With that in mind, I took down the France 1355 game, putting all the French on one side of the board and all of the English on the other. I then pulled out all remaining figs that weren't on the table, regardless of their state of completion. Only bare metal figs stayed off table. Everyone else mustered for review.

The picture at right is the result. Keep in mind that where named general stands and single leader figures have been made, I am doing the personalities for Poitiers (1356). General stands where noted have the correct banner, other banners are a mix of HYW flags from the Dansk website or Flag Dude. [links at right]

In the front is a general stand for King Jean. It needs one more fig and then flocking. Next to the King is a single stand carrying the Oriflamme sacred banner (needs flocking).

In the second rank is a priest stand and 4 single leaders and 3 more single banners. Some need re-basing, all need flocking.

In the "main body":

• At left is a column of 10 stands of Breton bideaux light infantry (complete).
• Next come three large blocks of pavisier spearmen, totalling 18 stands (complete).
• In the center are three columns of dismounted men at arms, totalling 22 stands. These include general stands for the Dauphin Charles, the Duc de Bourbon, and the Comte de Brienne. (1 stand needs a banner, 3 need flocking).
• At back left, behind the pavisiers and bideaux are 9 stands of militia infantry (need flocking).
• At right are 9 stands of mounted men at arms (complete). This includes general stands for Marshal Arnoul Audrehem and Lord Douglas.

Behind the French right are the Spanish. They include:

• 3 jinete light horse (need flocking).
• 3 mounted men at arms (complete).
• 10 light infantry (need base painting and flocking).

In my next post, I will catalog the English, as well as detailing my end goal and how I plan to get there.

Miniatures Planning - December 4, 2009

After letting some thoughts percolate for a while, and having gotten in a good Medieval Warfare game in the meantime, I have decided that my next project will be a two-pronged approach to complete both my Hundred Years War and Wars of the Roses armies.

I will work on finishing the HYW armies myself. Preliminary review would have the following still needing to be completed:

• Make about 20 stands of archer stakes for my English.
• Paint 30 English dismounted men at arms.
• Paint 30-40 French dismounted men at arms.
• Paint 30 French pavisier spearmen.
• Paint 24 English foot hobilars.
• Paint 4 Spanish jinetes.
• Paint 18-20 French mounted men at arms.
• Order specific banners from the Flag Dude (see link in Links section).
• Finish flocking and seal coating all the bases.
• Maybe make some more movement trays.

This would finish all the HYW fig stock I have on hand. I don't really need to buy anything else, so if I can get this painting done, I will be able to run a game that will pretty well fill my 8' x 6' table. As a bonus, many of these figures will be able to serve double duty in my upcoming Ottoman project, such as Nicopolis 1396, which included many western Europeans.

Finishing the War of the Roses project will be a partial cop out - I am in the process of prepping a batch of figures to send to Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka. This will primarily be retinue archers and billmen in specific livery colors. In the 2 months or so that that order will be in progress, I will try to complete my HYW painting. If I can keep to that time table, or close to it, I will be in a good position to paint the remainder of the WOR cavalry and leader figures myself in late winter/early spring 2010.

If all goes well and I give myself 3 months for each project, I should be done by the end of May 2010.

Miniatures - What Comes Next? 11/24/2009

So I am at a bit of a crossroads. What to do next? There is a fantastic blog out there by James Roach that has been an eye opener for me, insofar as his approach seems to be the antithesis of mine. His approach on projects seems to be to decide what to do next and then go at it full bore until complete. Judging from his blog recaps, some of these projects are a year and a half or more in the execution.

My projects, on the other hand, tend to involve jumping into something new with relatively little forethought, getting partway done, and then becoming enamored of some new thing. Ooooh, shiny.......

To recap my current projects/periods that I would not consider complete (in order of relative completeness). I will try to distinguish between unpainted figs I have already bought and those cases where I don't even own the figs yet.

• Vikings are a smallish army that are fundamentally done but have 40 or so stock figures that I should finish just to be complete. If I were feeling ambitious, I should probably add 2 or 3 bags more figures for bulk in order to be able to do a larger game than I can now.
• Normans are a fairly large army, but do have a few units left to paint (less than a hundred figures). I think I may do the 60 remaining spearmen as Crusaders rather then regular Normans.
• Mongols. I have only one bag of auxiliary spearmen in stock left to paint, but I really need some more quantity for these guys, especially of heavy cavalry (non-horse archers).
• Wars of the Roses. I have a good sized collection, but also have a few hundred unpainted figs of various kinds, especially retinue troops and cavalry.
• Hundred Years War. The English and French armies have grown to pretty good size over the last year or so, but still have a ways to go. This is probably less a question of needing more painted units to run a pretty big game, and more about still having a lot of unpainted figs. One nice thing about this is that the extra figures can be useful in the Ottoman project I have begun as well (see below).
• Ottomans, including eastern European opponents. I have begun this project, which has been of interest to me for many years, by having a few bags of figs painted in my last Fernando Enterprises order. The only completed components of these armies are a unit of Janissary archers, two units of Ottoman archers, a unit of Akinji horse archers, and a unit of Hungarian horse archers. I have probably 10-12 bags of various figs for this ready to go.
• Renaissance Italian Wars. I have a growing interest in this period but do not know nearly as much about it yet. I have bought a bunch of figures, but have painted only a few leader figures myself. I do have a bunch of Landsknechts that I had painted. Any time I look at these I want more!

These are just the medieval and renaissance periods. This leaves out gunpowder, ancients and anything in 15mm.

If I had half a brain, I would pick something to complete and plow through it. I will let you know what I decide...