Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A fresh wind blowing in!

With the arrival of the 15mm Swiss army and the Impetus rules that they are intended for, I feel more in the mood to paint.  So, in order to keep many projects moving I have decided to break each project into small chunks, such as the Swiss into 1 Impetus unit (16 figures) etc.
I am planning on working on just 2 chunks at a time.  Currently that will be a unit of Swiss pike and the HMS Belvidera.  This will give me sosome me variety and still be able to see progress (I hope).  Once again I have found that trying to too much at one time fails miserably.  (My work bench has been occupied by movement trays for Impetus, Norman foot, Ancient Brits, 4 ships for the 1812 battle, terrain for DBA, some Welsh and
some older pieces in need of some TLC.  I have put everything but the 2 items of focus away, so I hope to be less distracted.
Random observation:  300+ 15mm Swiss figures fit in a 1 gallon ziploc bag with room to spare.

Also of note:  I recently discovered that Omega Artworks is back in business make swords and daggers.  I was at one point negotiating with them to purchase the business, but it did not work out. (Which I think has turned out for the better for all of us!)

I will get back to posting pictures of the work in progress in the next few days.

(Why does is seem that the work bench is messier now that I "cleaned it off" than it was before?)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A grumble about ordering miniatures

Back in May, after getting hired as a direct employee with the company that I have been working for as a contract employee, I decided to get myself a "good going!" gift.  So I ordered a large army of Essex 15mm Later Swiss for use with Impetus.  Instead of ordering direct from Essex in England, I ordered them from the US distributor, Wargames Minis.  I figured that I could get them sooner and then ship them out to a painting service and have them ready for play this fall.
Well, I was mistaken.  I placed the order on May 29th, and the figures arrived on September 9th.  And they were shipped to the billing address, not the ship to address.  Since I am working out of state I wanted the figures shipped to me instead of the house.
It appears that the order is complete, as it was placed in May.  I tried to add a couple of things to it last month was promised a freebie for my patience, which were not included.
During this long summer, I have stayed in touch with the owner of Wargames.  He has had a difficult summer including serious health problems.
You may ask why did I not cancel the order?  I do not have a solid answer for that other than I am a "nice"guy.
Will I order from them again. No.  But I will buy from them if they are at any of the conventions I attend.
So, here I sit in Illinois, with the army in Michigan.  I will get them next weekend.  *sigh*

Movement trays for Impetus

Here are pictures of some movement trays I am working on to use my DBA armies with the Impetus rules. Each unit in Impetus consists of either 2 or 4 stands of DBA figures. The top picture is a sample with a disorder flag marker (flag is removeable). The bottom picture shows a full unit of blades on the left and an empty tray on the right. Each tray has a magnet inserted where each DBA stand goes (the magnet is the same thickness as the tray bottom.). This will hold the figures in place and I can store the stand in a container with a steel liner and they will not slide around. Each tray will get a series of holes drilled in the raised lip for markers.
Posted by Picasa

War of the Roses Armies

I recently purchased a set of painted War of the Roses armies. Here is how they were packaged. Each stand was wrapped in foam, with a cardboard "back". They arrived with only a few bent weapons and one rider seperate from his horse.
I thought it was worth showing, and a picture of one of the cannons, just because.

Bill, thank you for the time spent to pack these.

Posted by Picasa