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.