Painting For February

I thought I had a good month overall.
I finished the 15mm Imperialists for my friend in Wales. Later than expected but completed nontheless. That's eight dragoons, three guns and crew and three staff for the month, all based and ready for posting.
Add to that I've fairly raced through the Swedes this month with thirty completed - although not all to basing level as can be seen.

So points wise:
Austrians - 38 points
Swedes - 30
Total for the month - 68

Total for the year so far - 125

A Cautionary Tale

When I started the Great Northern War project I had a clear, and initially simple end point to achieve. Four battalions of foot and eight squadrons of horse for Swedeborg to go against six battalions and twelve squadrons of horse for Muscovy. All in a "big battalion" style of 48 figures per battalion.
Simple.
Organised the layout of the Swedeborg troops and duly ordered the figures. Perhaps a little hapazardly in the ordering style with them being bought over four purchases I believe. However, they were all there as per my initial plan.

A few weekends ago I laid them out, as witnessed by a photogrpah in a previous posting, and discovered that I was a few grenadiers short. These were kindly purchased by a fellow club member at the York show two weeks past.
Everything was set and I was down to my last fifty figures.

Note I said was.

Reading last night about the Great Northern War I realised I'd completely ignored the battalion structure and simply imposed my own view. This was that I had organised the battalion with the pikes clustered in the center with muskets on the wings flanked by grenadiers. However, I now understand that the pikes were mixed throughout the battalion and not a single block.
So a quick reworking last night gave me a new plan for the battalion and I now find myself without some figures.

I find that I am a few pikes short but indundated with musketeers and grenadiers.

The morale of this story is read first, plan second, replan third, consider and digest fourth and only then buy the figures in quantity.

Airborne

Monday night saw my son & I play the first WWII game with the Bolt Action Miniatures.
Both of us had two squads in order to try the rules for the first time. Using "Ultra Simple Skirmish Rules" from BAM we both had the objective of taking the mill.
the rules are, as they suggest, very simple in some respects. No weapon ranges, no morales per se, no complex weapon factors and modifiers. Figures are either in the open, in soft cover or hard cover. Throw the dice and compare the results using a very few factors and a combat rating depending on ability. If the firer wins the target is surpressed, if the reslut is a loss or draw then no effect. If the shooter doubles the target score the target is down - effectively hors de combat until revived by another figure or killed as a result of the wound. If the target score doubles the shooter then the shooters weapon is jammed. So on the photographs one ring for surpressed figures, two rings for down and a small die for jams.

My first impressions were of lots of dice rolling for individual firing, which whilst straight forward did get a little repetitive. Still I think a few more games are bestter to judge the rules in their entirety. we didn't play with multiple objectives or action cards as suggested in the rules. nor did we really explore the actions availble to any figure properly.

still a reasonable game but not a set of rules for several hundred figures I feel. Which is good since the project doesn't have to get as large as I feared!

Priest! Priest!

They be knocking on for sixty but they belt them out with enough power and gusto to put younger bands to shame.
With the now expected theatrics, including an opening stunt that set the mark for the show and the obligatory Harley (although they're not allowed to actually fire it up now) Priest spend a couple of hours rocking through new and old material with equal delight.
Just two off the new album but plenty to go at from the back catalogue, although most material comes from Painkiller, Sad Wings of Destiny & British Steel.

Thirty years in the making and for a twentieth viewing they lived up to expectations.

Rock Hard Ride Free!

Friday Night is Priest Fest

Tonight is a special occasion.
Not only will I be seeing my all time favourite band but it will be the twentieth time of doing so. I've seen every tour they've done since 1979 when they launched "Hell Bent for Leather". Standing in that crowd aged fifteen listening to Tipton & Downing on twin lead with halfords vocals was something else. I've been hooked ever since.
Today they may look like an advert for S&M leather wear and Halford may have lost an octave of his range, but they still make me stand up and shout (sorry that's a Dio track) at their concerts.

Tonight they are supported by Testament and Megadeth. Tomorrow I'll need a hearing doctor (sorry that's an Iron Maiden reference!).

How Long Do You Last?

Stop giggling at the back there Jenkins.

When you start a new project with a new range of figures how long do you persevere with said project before thinking that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all?

Is it when the painting boredom sets in? I'm there now with the Swedes, there is only so much yellow I can apply to figures before it gets tedious. Two hundred figures in and despite me varying the combination of figures and poses for each batch, every time I get to the base yellow blocking my heart sinks and it's a chore not a hobby. Of course once past that stage the figures from Musketeer paint very quickly. I can get ten completed in a single sitting once I've blocked the yellow - but that stage eats a fair chunk of time because of the above reasons.

Is it when you don't play with them? this is difficult if you don't have an opponent or indeed if there are no antagonists. Musketeer are giving me this proble right now. A year in and there are still no Russians to complete a battalion other than musketeer figures. I could play the Swedes against my danes but with no Swedish horse that means substituting in other figures which is not ideal.

Is it when the output of the manufacturer is as slow as your figure painting output? A year a go I bought the majority of the Swedes and a lot of Russian musketeers at triples. A year on and I've almost finished the Swedish foot and am predicting to have these complete by triples this year. however, there have been no new releases since then. Not a one. We got a tantalising glimpse of a Russian pikeman a few weeks back but nothing since. Now with money in my pocket and Triples approaching where will that money be spent? Not at musketeer it seems.

So what do you do? Press on and complete the figures you have or give it up, sell them (trying not to make a loss and regretting the man hours spent on the paintwork) and start again with another manufacturer?

the Best Tournament in the world

The Six Nations Rugby tournament kicks off this weekend with England hosting Italy.
Some pundits have already handed the trophy to Wales and written England off as no hopers. Me? I have a sneaking suscipion that England are better than advertised and certainly have a lot of excitement in the backs.

Cold beers in the fridge, seat on the sofa booked, England shirt ironed.

Saturday afternoon sorted.