striking while the iron is hot...

 

I've been hammering away at the Trojan war project. Thirteen of these Redoubt figures were already painted but they were never photographed so here they are along with the recently painted six (picture 1). According to my handy-dandy tracking app I'm now 52.8% complete with the 286 Trojan war figures.

The other six figures are Foundry figures and are newly painted. Meanwhile, I've got 28 Black Tree Design figures about halfway painted.

the never ending war in troy...

I grew up a profligate book buyer. Perhaps there was an intervention by loved ones. I don't recall. But eventually I adopted the practice of buying any book I wanted... once I finished reading one. Read one; buy one; read that one; buy another, etc. There have been occasional exceptions for reference books but the end result was that I began to appreciate the sense of accomplishment when completing a book and the rush of endorphins when I rewarded myself by buying a new one. Eventually, this led to focusing on completing other projects in life.

Now, I have to admit that I have no hope of painting all the figures I already have. But I did come to the conclusion that I should try to collect and finish enough figures to field both sides of whatever scenario I wanted to play before 'Oh, Shiny!' kicked in. Additionally, I disposed of a lot of projects that I had lost interest in or simply didn't have the space to store. I guess I'm finally developing some discipline and focus. No regrets, so far. "About time," some would claim!

But my core projects remain. My earliest figure purchases were Ancients. Minifig Macedonians to be precise. Consequently, Ancients still account for over 50% of my wargaming stuff. My current project is a collection of around 300 Bronze Age figures for the Trojan War. They are mostly Redoubt, Foundry and Black Tree Design. My goal is to be able to run a scenario that represents the fight beneath the walls of Troy including heroic challenges and the intervention of the gods on the battlefield. It may spill over into skirmish gaming, too, inspired by the Odyssey and other Greek myths. I think completion is within reach; about 50% of the figures are painted while the rest are all primed and based and have their flesh tones blocked in. (By golly, I did have to recently purchase some Wargames Atlantic chariots simply because I had some Foundry charioteers without vehicles. The shame! The shame!)

Here are the latest efforts:

So… How ya doing?

As folk like to say these days… it’s been a moment. Life™ has been topsy-turvy. My last burst of blogging was in 2021 while we were still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. Truth be told, the pandemic really put a damper on my gaming activities. While I’m a true-blue introvert, I find the social aspect of gaming rewarding. Remote gaming just didn’t scratch the itch and while I did continue some figure painting, increasingly I found other hobbies occupying my time.

After spending 10 years commuting into downtown DC on public transportation, I retired early in 2022. After three months it was obvious it was premature so I then returned to work as a contractor for a medical museum a bit closer to home. Three months into the new job my wife began treatment for serious health issues and six months after that my father passed away. Just as Life™ seemed to be settling down from all that, the drastic reduction in the federal workforce starting in 2025 made both of our jobs untenable. So, early in 2025 we began looking for a less expensive location where we could afford to permanently retire.

lost in the woods... again...

 February is quickly approaching and I've done very little gaming wise. Though, I did decide that 2022 would be the year where I upgrade my game terrain. Consequently, the little forest of Woodland Scenics trees that I've been hauling around the country for the past 20 years finally received some decent bases. Initially,  these were all individually super-glued to fender washers--and it was clear that they weren't coming off those washers! While individually based trees provided the ultimate in flexibility, they were constantly falling over, especially when placed on sloping hills. About a year ago I made some rocky, rough-going terrain pieces out of old compact discs, so I decided to treat the trees in the same manner.

 

I'm happy with the results but have decided that I need about two or three times as many. Oh, it never ends!

Meanwhile... here are some screenshots of what's been taking up my time lately. Years ago I really enjoyed making ships and planes for simulators and I've recently revisited that. This is my Wright EX (1911) in the open source simulator, 'Flightgear'.

 

 

adieu, 2021...

It's a gray, dreary December 31st here in Washington, D.C. Seems appropriate somehow for 2021 to end this way. Four years ago when I wrote the last 'year in review' post I was upbeat in restarting my gaming hobby. Well... let's just say it didn't go as planned! I may have played two games this year, though, I'm not certain it wasn't 2020 when I played them. The first was a remote game of Habet! Hoc Habet! and the second was a solo Palaeo Diet game to suss out the rules--which I like. Honestly though, remote gaming is not for me. With my diminished sight and hearing, remote games just become exercises in frustration! Solo gaming is OK but I must admit I don't much care for my opponent. He always interprets the rules in his favor!

bears with me a little longer...

Reaper Miniatures is not a company I've been familiar with. To be honest, I couldn't tell you how I ended up perusing their catalog of figures. Probably in my search for figures of generic 'critters' to be used in 'Palaeo Diet'. Sure enough, I found the aforementioned rats and pugs but also a terrific 'Dire Bear' and a Mammoth. I also purchased a cyclops to go with my Trojan War figures and a sphynx more in line with the Greek myth of Oedipus rather than the architectural Egyptian version. Those will get painted later. Meanwhile I didn't want the paleolithic figures to languish in the painting queue.

While painting the bear I realized... I have more big bears than I ever thought I'd need!

Interestingly enough, the two darker bears in the picture above are 54mm figures from the old Italeri gladiator set. The other three, while considerably larger, are ostensibly 28mm though they do depict ancient species.

And to give a better sense of scale... I think this poor guy is in for a spot of trouble! Oh, bother!

a little progress comes to the stone age...

Proof that I've been productive this week. These are plastic figures manufactured by Reaper. I thought they'd work well as 'critters' in Palaeo Diet, Eat or Be Eaten. A pack of angry pugs seems appropriate the spirit of the rules! (The Neanderthals are from Acheson Creations.)