Today was a sunny and cool day here in Hesse Seewald. In fact it was downright chilly in the mid 60s on what is supposed to be a hot Summer day. That being the case, I felt that the weather would be perfect for priming figures. The lack of humidity means that I did not have to worry about the spray primer "fuzzing up" into little balls of black fuzz on the figures.
First on the list were 48 French Napoleonic figures for my 1806 Project. These figures were some of the original Peter Morbey sculpts that I am still looking for. I have acquired enough to build a 72 figure battalion of French. These are smaller and more life-like than the current Elite range, and I like them much better. In fact, I liked them so much that I set to work on the first half dozen figures later in the day. With Napoleonics, I paint them in batches of 12 figures as this is the number of figures that I have in a company. Any more than that would simply sap my will to live. I don't like to paint all of that piping on the lapels, cuffs and turnbacks. On the other hand, since I do like the older Elite figures better than the current range, my eagerness to paint them should be higher than normal.
Next on the priming table was another dozen of the Minden SYW Austrian cuirassiers that I have in stock. As you may recall, I painted the first squadron of the Alt Modena cuirassier regiment earlier in the month. My plan is to alternate between a squadron of Minden cuirassiers and a company of Elite 1806 French.
Happy Anniversary
I almost forgot that I passed my second anniversary of this blog a couple of days ago. I recall that the sitemeter hit counter thingy indicated that over 130,000 hits have been counted since day one, or an average of 65,000 visits per year. I am humbled by the thought that so many people have taken the time to visit this blog. Thank you all for helping to make this blog so much fun to do.
Annual Big Battalion Game Coming Up
The annual Big Battalion Old School Wargaming game is set for Saturday October 10, 2009 so I am busy working on a scenario for this game. This year's event will be held in the home of my friend Keith Leidy, or to be more exact, in his basement. This is the same venue where we have been playing all of those humongous In The Grand Manner wargames. Keith has three 6ft by 28ft tables running parallel to one another. Thus we will have a center table with two full sized back tables for each army (as opposed to a 3ft wide back table per side). So this game will have more table space. Another advantage is the fact that Bill, Randy and I can set up the terrain and position our forces several days before the start of the game. This eliminates set up time on the game day, meaning that we can get started right away. That should make for a better game, I think.
First on the list were 48 French Napoleonic figures for my 1806 Project. These figures were some of the original Peter Morbey sculpts that I am still looking for. I have acquired enough to build a 72 figure battalion of French. These are smaller and more life-like than the current Elite range, and I like them much better. In fact, I liked them so much that I set to work on the first half dozen figures later in the day. With Napoleonics, I paint them in batches of 12 figures as this is the number of figures that I have in a company. Any more than that would simply sap my will to live. I don't like to paint all of that piping on the lapels, cuffs and turnbacks. On the other hand, since I do like the older Elite figures better than the current range, my eagerness to paint them should be higher than normal.
Next on the priming table was another dozen of the Minden SYW Austrian cuirassiers that I have in stock. As you may recall, I painted the first squadron of the Alt Modena cuirassier regiment earlier in the month. My plan is to alternate between a squadron of Minden cuirassiers and a company of Elite 1806 French.
Happy Anniversary
I almost forgot that I passed my second anniversary of this blog a couple of days ago. I recall that the sitemeter hit counter thingy indicated that over 130,000 hits have been counted since day one, or an average of 65,000 visits per year. I am humbled by the thought that so many people have taken the time to visit this blog. Thank you all for helping to make this blog so much fun to do.
Annual Big Battalion Game Coming Up
The annual Big Battalion Old School Wargaming game is set for Saturday October 10, 2009 so I am busy working on a scenario for this game. This year's event will be held in the home of my friend Keith Leidy, or to be more exact, in his basement. This is the same venue where we have been playing all of those humongous In The Grand Manner wargames. Keith has three 6ft by 28ft tables running parallel to one another. Thus we will have a center table with two full sized back tables for each army (as opposed to a 3ft wide back table per side). So this game will have more table space. Another advantage is the fact that Bill, Randy and I can set up the terrain and position our forces several days before the start of the game. This eliminates set up time on the game day, meaning that we can get started right away. That should make for a better game, I think.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteCan I ask; is this the fellow with the painted treeline around the outskirts of the room? I'd love to finally see some photos of the room if you could snap some?
Many more years of blogging please - you inspire us all!
ReplyDeletebest wishes and congratulations
Alan
*sigh* . . . how many times have I told you to forget those Nappies and concentrate on true figures.
ReplyDeleteSurely you have some Mindens lying around that you plan to paint as Hesse-Seewald troops. . . . Now wouldn't it be nice to field a unit or two of them on October 10th?
Paint them, Jim. You know that you want to.
-- Jeff
I am so bummed.
ReplyDeleteI was of the impression that the annual big battalions game was more of a public event and had hoped to attend.
Well, I will look forward to the pictures and draw inspiration from your always wonderful commentary and photos.
Best,
Chris
Chris: the Big Battalion game is a public event. Anyone can attend.
ReplyDeleteWhich primer do you use?
ReplyDeleteI use GW and it seems terribly expenseive, but I started using it a few years ago as I was told at the time that it did not have the same concerns in humidity. Down here in Texas that is often a concern. Whether by coicidence or not I have not had any issue using their product until this past weekend. Maybe they've scaled down (just ruined some figures using their matt varnish as it turned them all white) or maybe I've just been fortunate until now, but the recent spate of events is causing me to look for other manufacturers of primer and matt varnish.
Thanks,
Chris
So I had primed 60 Prussian Fusiliers in the hope of having them done in time for the Big Battalions game. And as might be surmized from my previous post, the humidity caused the little tiny blobs. I asked about a fix but have discovered that if you soak the figures in primer, and so I assume other dillutants, the primer scrubs right off so as to be able to start again and not count the figures as ruined. No response forced action on my part and as it turned out, fortunately so. Thought it might help other poor souls out there who have had the same mishap.
ReplyDeleteChris