Convention Preparations

This evening I finally returned to the basement to do a little bit of painting after taking a few days off. It has been busy the office of late and I needed a little R&R painting in order to wind down the stress. I painted six Front Rank SYW Austrian musketeers and one Front Rank casualty figure all in one evening. I had been planning on building up some of my 54 figure Austrian battalions to 60 figures, so that all of my Austrians and Prussians are at the same strength.

I only have two Front Rank battalions (Botta and MacGuire regiments, in blue and red facings, respectively) so I only need a total of 12 figures to get the job done. The two battalions are in a firing line formation with the front row kneeling ready to receive cavalry and the second row is in the standing firing position. Since FR does not make an Austrian fusiliers standing at the ready or loading, the only option for the third rank is to use officers, drummers, standard bearers and a few marching poses to fill out the row. So I was painting Austrians in the march attack pose. For some reason, this is one of my LEAST FAVORITE poses in the Austrian range. No matter what I do, I just can't make these figures look very good (at least by my own standards).

So it was a bit of a grind getting the six MacGuire fusiliers (red facings) completed, but in this I was successful. Tomorrow night I will paint the six Botta regiment figures (blue facings) and then the battalions are completed. I will then have to add 12 more Crusader Austrian musketeers to complete the two Crusader battalions that I have (Deutschmeister and de Ligne).

The casualty figure was more fun to paint than the march attack pose. I have ten more dead Austrians to paint before the SYWA convention in two weeks. This should be easy to do. On the topic of casualty figures, I have a box of Minden dead figures zooming across the Atlantic to me, even as we speak. I am amazed at how quickly Frank Hammond turns orders around. His customer service is top notch.

After the Austrians are done, I want to resume painting Minden figures. They are a joy to paint, in contrast to the chore of painting the chunky looking Front Rank figures. I have 12 of the Bayreuth Dragoons finished and have another 8 figures primed and ready to paint. I hope to have all 30 figures finished by the end of the month.

I was looking at the SYWA list of participation games, and I see that Paul Petri is hosting two Black Powder games. I am eager to give the rules a try so I want to play in Paul's game on friday morning. I am hosting either Mollwitz or the assault on Leuthen Churchyard on Friday afternoon, so I should be able to fit the Black Powder game into my schedule.