Iron & Steam - U.S.S. Kearsarge...

 A request for this from Wargames Vault.

slow progress this month...

Not too much accomplished this month in regard to the painting queue. But, this being the first month of decent weather, I did some yard work for the first time in 15 years: weeding, mulching, general outside clean-up. More importantly, I got the garage organized and now have some workspace for messier hobby activities. There's room for a temporary 4x8 gaming table but I suspect temperature control will be an issue. Maybe some Fall or Spring gaming but Winter and Summer probably will be too uncomfortable.

Nevertheless... figure painting continues. More Foundry Trojan War figures. The first three figures represent Menelaus, Old Nestor and Agamemnon. The other five are unnamed.

an age of heroes...

 

Progress continues with the Mycenaean/Trojans. These are all Foundry figures. The first set is a batch of characters of the major heroes, both Achaean and Trojan. Interestingly enough, Old Nestor, Menelaus, and Agamemnon are all included in another pack of figures with 3 other generic 'kings'. Go figure. They'll be included in the next painting batch. I've already started painting them, as a matter of fact.

Paris and Hector:

Paris and Hector again:

Aeneas and Diomedes:

Telemonian Ajax and Achilles:

Odysseus 

(this may be one of my favorite figures of all time!):

Various un-named javelin bearers:

back on track...

 After my slight 18th century division I've gotten back on track.

The latest Trojan War figures are the last of my Redoubt figures. I think I'm getting close to having two Triumph! size forces so maybe some gaming with these figures might occur in the near-ish future. I've also played around a little with my picture taking. Not sure I'm fully satisfied with it.

a slight diversion...

Still working on the next batch of Trojan War Bronze Age warriors but I've been sidetracked. A few weeks ago I played in a 'Not Quite Seven Year's War' game hosted by Rob D., a local gamer. He's been running these games for a few years now using the venerable 'Charge!' rules by Brigadier Peter Young and Lt. Colonel J.P. Lawford. This is beyond 'Old School' gaming! In the spirit of the rules, he uses home-cast Prince August, 40mm, semi-flat figures. 

Rob provided a link to a Marks Game Room video that covers the what, where and why much better than I could.

Anyway, I had expressed an interest in trying my hand in painting some of the semi-flats. At the last gaming get-together I attended Rob surreptitiously slipped me a baggie with 6 figures in it. And... I was off.

Meanwhile, there are a number of angry looking Mycenaeans glaring at me from the painting desk. Back to the Bronze Age.

the ongoing trojan saga...

A few more figures finished last week. In fact, I've completed 88 Trojan War figures in the last 2 1/2 months and I've got another 24 nearing completion. I'm currently at 61.7% complete with 179 out of the 290 Trojan War figures I've acquired over the years. 

These are the last of the Black Tree Design figures. The next batch of 24 are all Redoubt and then the rest are mostly Foundry. I have added a few Lucid Eye Amazons (a chariot and two horse archers) and I've been thinking about acquiring some Eureka figures. We'll see.

And to top it off, I've played in 4 miniatures games! What's going on here?

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.