Off the Workbench

 A couple months in to the year and I'm already off to a good start. Got 172 figures painted last month. I suspect this month will be better. I am currently in the midst of a 15mm Sea Peoples army for Impetus, having completed my Prussian 3rd Corps for the 100 days.  Reading, I finished my first book of the year

Overall not a bad read. You can read my short review here

In my painting I was forced to change my normal brushes, the Reaper black handle ones. I loved them and they are either way out of stock or getting rid of them. I absolutely detest synthetic brushes, they are literally the devil. so the hunt was on for new sable brushes. I finally settled on Da Vinci brushes from Dick Blick. I don't think they make them, just carry them. But, they are really nice brushes, keep a good point, and seem to be hardy. That was the one thing I loved about the Reaper ones, they took my abusive practices and still worked until they were practically hairless. One caveat, Reaper did have a bum brush from time to time, but the endurance of the good ones far outweighed that con. Anyway, it seems I have found a suitable replacement.

Well the time has come for the latest completed miniatures. So here they are! 

First up some Warlord Games Gauls

At times I think these are the gym Gauls, they are pretty cut. Maybe its that starvation diet they are on, I'm not sure. They are really easy to assemble and not too bad to paint. Shields are all Little Big Men Studios. The only real issue with the figs are mold lines, ugh, they are a pain.

Next up some cool skeletons from Skull & Crown I had misplaced these guys, and recently found them and got then straight to the front of the queue.

I don't really like the pavises, nothing wrong with them, and they came with the Kickstarter, but, I think in the future I am going to go with the coffin lids instead. I think they are more in keeping with the theme, and I don't have to come up with designs, I'm awful at that.

I finally finished my ECW project! I put this together to use with the Baroque rules, and based the armies on Marston Moor. Figuring that I would have more than enough units for pretty much any battle. Baroque loosely figures units at 1500 men per, I did mine at 750, I don't see any reason that would be problematic. This time around the majority are Scots.

That is pretty much the entire Scottish contingent at Marston Moor. I have another cavalry unit I missed getting a picture of plus there is an additional unit of foot in there I made up out of extras.

I also did a couple of Parliamentarian units.

And not to be outdone, a random Royalist cavalry unit made from excess cavalry and general figures.

The Scots flags are all from Wargames Designs they are really nice ones. As good as any others out there. The majority of the foot and cav are Essex miniatures, though there are some Minifig shot mixed in as well.

Finally I did generals. I'll caption the ones I remember.

LtoR Charles II, Aide, Charles I, Boye, Prince Rupert

Left base center Ralph Hopton

Right base center Earl of Leven

And there are of course a bunch of other guys like Essex, Manchester, Cromwell, Fairfax, Maurice Waller, etc. I used a mix of Old Glory 15s, and Blue Moon for the command stands. All the named personalities came from Old Glory 15s, and the others are mostly Blue Moon, including Boye. Yes, I bought a whole pack of figures for the dog. He is a must have IMO.

Well that is all this time around. I hope you enjoyed the post. I'll see you all next time.

Wrapping up 2021

Well 2021 has left us, I'd almost say thankfully. It was a fairly productive year as far as painting goes. I did not get to do much travel, and did not attend too many functions in the area. But, things are looking up for 2022. Plans are in the works to go see the Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away exhibit here at Union Station in Kansas City. I'm not sure I will ever fit in visiting the actual site, so I suppose this would be the next best thing. The community I live in has a book club, and late this month they will host Jonathan A Jones author of Moonlit Mayhem about Quantrill's raid on Olathe Kansas in 1862. I am pretty excited about that for sure.

Tentatively, in lieu of overseas travel, I am contemplating a road trip across the southwest US and at least up through Colorado, maybe up to Little Big Horn and Mt Rushmore. Not quite sure, it is still in a vague planning stage, if you can call it that.

Gaming did not see much action. I did participate in an online Carnage & Glory campaign of Jackson in the Valley. I was Jackson and another guy was Ewell. We did come out victorious, though the campaign battles mostly occurred in the north of the valley and none where they really occurred. It was fun, despite all of us trying to figure it all out. I would gladly do it again.

The last few months have put me in touch with quite a few gamers so FtF gaming is looking promising for the year. I got contacts for historical minis, Middle Earth SBG, and ASL (which I have never played). I picked up a couple of the ASL starters so I hope to learn enough to play at the next event. I have picked up a few good solo board games as well, so there will be that. Probably the main roadblock is the state of my basement room and lack of a gaming table. I have always been more of a solo board gamer so I need someplace to set up a game and leave it. Thus I need to get the room cleaned out and a gaming table set up. That is high on the priority list for this year.

Painting went extraordinarily well. I finished a total of 2877 figures on the year. I am really hoping to hit 3000 this next year, but we will see how things go. I am guessing I will be busier in the coming year so painting won't be my only (hobby) activity.

The figures break down as follows;

351 - 15mm  Prussian Napoleonics for my 100 days project

642 - 15mm figures for my Mexican American War project

275 - 20mm WW2 Early War

271 - 15mm SYW

336 - 15mm War of Spanish Succession French

378 - 15mm ECW

408 - 15mm Ancients

216 - 20-28mm figures for various skirmish games

I am quite happy with my production last year. I am hoping I can do a bit more this year and see the end of some of these projects. This is a good place to show off the latest stuff I have completed. First up, is a chunk of my ECW project.

This comprises a large portion of my Royalists with a few Roundheads thrown in. All the figures are Essex and they are based for Baroque. Many of the command groups had cast on flags. Now I really hate painting them but I worked it out and they turned out ok. What I have left for next year is mostly the Scots, and some personalities for both sides. 

Next up, Napoleonic Prussians

This group of Prussians completes the 1st corps for the 100 days. They are figures from the Brickdust range by Alternative Armies. You may remember them as the old TTG line. They are one in the same. They are all based for Napoleon's Battles. I did make a couple changes to the basing. I split the cavalry into two 1x1 bases instead of the normal 1x2, and, I did the artillery on 40mm square instead of the 1-1/2 x 1 bases. I really hate the artillery hanging off the back of the artillery base, so I decided I would put them on bases they fit on. Interpenetration of units can be handled during the game.

Well last but certainly not least, we will take a look at my hobby goals for the last year and see how I did, as well as setting new ones for 2022

Here were last years goals

1. Continue my Mexican American War Project
2. Continue my Early WW2 Project
3. Continue my ECW project, maybe complete it
4. Start my WSS project
5. Continue my 100 days project
6. Start doing my 15mm ancient armies

Well it looks like last year was pretty successful, I managed to make substantial inroads on all of the items above, as you can see by the numbers I listed above. I was able to complete a Skythian army and half of my Ptolemaic army. And this last month I made some good progress on my Yorkist War of the Roses army. All of the other projects are much closer to completion. So with that in mind, what are my goals for the current year? Well here goes;

Continue the Mexican War project, possibly finish it

Continue the early WW2 then transition to SCW

Complete my ECW project (I have the rest in hand, probably get it painted this summer)

Continue the WSS project (next on board for late winter are Bavarians, Danes, and Wurttemburg)

Paint the 3rd corps for my 100 days project then transition to doing my Albeura project

Continue my ancient armies (should have the Yorkists and  Ptolemaics done by mid February and my Tibetans started)

Paint 2 Middle Earth SBG armies. I have enough to do Mordor, Rohan, Minas Tirith and the Army of the Dead. I am thinking Minas Tirith and Mordor will be the first two.

I also plan to game at least a couple time a month, we will see how that goes, but, I am excited to get back to gaming. It has been much too long since I did it regularly. Well that's it for now I have a couple more posts planned, one on the March Field Museum in Riverside, CA and, more painted minis. I am looking forward to a great 2022. I wish you all a great year!