Did you miss me?

Ok so we missed a week, it was uneventful painting wise as I had a bad back, but I did manage to finish both the French and Tricky Dickie although he still needs a flag, which I have somewhere but can't find.

I have started the first base of billmen, but got sidetracked by the many feet and teeth of the luggage and the salute 2015 figure

Neither of whom are quite finished. The billmen are being painted up in the livery of Lord John Howard, they were going to be Walter Devereux's men but I ran out of white.

What other projects are lined up for this year?

Well as you asked and in no order other than this is how they came to mind we have:-

• WWI in 6mm using Great War Spearhead II;
• Romans vs Sassanians again in 6mm;
• Rebasing my 6mm Napoleonic armies for March Attack rule set and filling in any gaps, I'm hoping to be able to use the same bases for Blucher;
• Thirty Years War armies for the Warre Game rule set, these will be 6mm and on reduced base sizes to cater for my small game space;
• ACW probably using the Altar of Freedom rules.

On the plus side no tearing hurry to build the mean streets of Clampetts City, New Mexico, so I can get on with the Yorkists. The only thing to fear now are the displacement activities which this week have included :-

• Xmas jigsaw, luckily this is technically the better half's project so only an advisor on this one.
• The new Star Wars movie which is much much better than the prequels.
• Work, ok so more of an essential activity than a displacement one but I often find it comes home with me and I end up doing more research in the evenings.

Also managed to get in two games of CnC Ancients on Friday evening, as well as games of Ticket to Ride UK expansion, Wombat Rescue and Colt Express on Saturday, all of which were great fun.

All of which means that I have yet to complete the first unit of 2016, but fear not the redoubtable Duke of Gloucester and the FIW French militia are only a few strokes of dry brushing and a grass application away so should be finished tomorrow night. Which is close enough to on schedule for government work.

New Year reinvigorates a jaded gamer

 So with the New Year upon us it was time to tidy up the work bench, which took surprisingly little time mind I would not want to open the cupboard doors. What took longer was deciding what to paint. I have bottled it a bit by by going with clearing what was in a part painted stage on the desk already. So we have:-

• a 12 strong unit of French militia for muskets and tomahawks;
• An 8 strong unit of Arab spearmen for Crescent and Cross;
• A dozen or so French and German test figures for WWI in 6mm;
• A unit of word knights including a Richard of Gloucester command element for L' Art de la Guerre(AG) again in 6mm.

The latter will form the start of my first project of the year, which is a Yorkist army for the Battle of Tewkesbury. For a while now I have been taken by the Peter Pig word rules but my main gaming scale is 6mm and I just couldn't get my head round sourcing and painting up all the bits and bob's you need to make the s rules work. So following the purchase of AG I had a brain wave I have used the scenario in the Peter Pig rules to provide the AG army lists for Tewkesbury. I hope to finish the Yorkists by March so I can purchase the Lancastrians at either Hammerhead or WMMS.

I am hoping to be able to post progress updates on weekly basis so watch this space on a Sunday evening. Of course the plan, such as it is, may not survive first contact with the real world. The first hurdle will be how whacked I feel after what looks like being a hectic day in the office tomorrow. The second will be a visit to friends next weekend because if Nige is all fired up about his Xmas wild west loot then I may have to build some of the 4ground stuff I have in the buildings pile for a game of the old occaisionals in the first quarter of the year.