Sunday, March 6, 2016

More Medieval Stuff and Blathering About What to DO Next?!



The dust has begun to settle from last weekend’s Frostgrave Campaign Weekend and I’m easing myself back into painting…



Including a few painting sessions with the kids! Actually we started listening to A Game of Thrones audiobook this week – so they’ve been quite keen to sit down and paint. Actually The Girl never needs convincing – she LOVES painting. The Boy could take it our leave it… but since the only time we listen to audiobooks is when we’re paiting – and he does like listening to audiobooks (especially fantasy ones!) he’ll dig stuff out and get some work done.

I’ve more or less carrying on with what I’ve been working on the last month or so… more on that later, but for now – here’s what I’ve finished up this week:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):


Six foot Men-at-Arms from Black Tree Design for my green and yellow Lion Rampant retinue.


A couple more religious types to help spread the good word… I thought I might try and get 12 of these – or at least a few more and mix them with civilians to use as a bunch of pilgrims heading to the holy land (I’d call them a unit of “Peasants” in Lion Rampant). The figures are from Old Glory (I think…).


New Treasure Hunter for the Jade Wizard’s Warband. This is an old Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop figure that I’ve had for over 30 years and recently stripped to repaint (I posted a picture a couple weeks back just before he went into the paint-stripping-bath).


Finally another Archer for the Middle Eastern flavoured warband. I’m not sure of the manufacturer; I got him in a trade.


Well... What next…?

I’ve been so wrapped up in making terrain (and making more terrain), and painting warbands (and more warbands and other stuff), and playing Frostgrave (and again, and again…) all in preparation for the 12th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash/Winter Wargaming Campaign Weekend: Quest for the Skull Sword …. I kind of haven’t given much thought to what I’m going to do for… well…  the rest of the year – and beyond!?

Sure, I worked out a bit of a plan in January and I’ve been thinking about En Garde! and painting up swashbucklers for it (like these ones and these ones and  these ones) and then there’s Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant which I’ve been thinking about a lot and painting stuff for (like these Elf Archers, and these Elite Elf Foot, and these Halflings, or these peasants and such) – we even got in a game of Dragon Rampant in early January… but they’ve been distractions that I quickly pushed aside to stay focused on the task at hand… so now what…?

I feel pulled in so many directions at once…

Part of me wants to just drop Frostgrave and move on to other things. But another part of me, now that I’ve got all this stuff done, wants to get a regular campaign going – even if it’s just with the family – and play through all the scenarios in the core book and then the Hunt for the Golem campaign and then Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign

Part of me wants to just jump into high production for Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant.

I have a feeling that’s just not going to work out for the next month or so….You see for the next month the kids and I are studying the early 20th Century – so that means the Great War, the Russian Revolution, Spanish Civil War, and World War Two – all of which I have both board and miniature games for – so I have a feeling that we’ll spend a lot of our game time doing those sorts of things. I might set aside Saturday evening for Frostgrave… but the rest of the game time through the week will be devoted to more modern subjects.

Part of me hopes that this might jumpstart a renewed interest in the Vimy Project… it’s just over a year to go until the 100th anniversary of the battle and I have NOT been keeping up with the schedule laid out in that last post… but if I jumped right in and stayed focused I could probably pull it off… Of course WHERE would I put it on…!? Who the heck would even want to play in it!? the Legion Hall a block from my place would be a perfect location – but would there be enough interest in Saskatoon to run it here – or would it be a big enough draw that people would be willing to travel to Saskatoon in April of next year to participate…? I don’t know…. I guess I’ll see how the next month goes.

I guess that’s most of my plan worked out for the next month – Frostgrave on Saturday nights… Early 20th century during the rest of the week for the month of March (and in April we’ll be covering even more modern subjects – I’ve got all sorts of Vietnam and Cold War miniatures and board games we could make use of…) and we’ll see where my interests lie at the end of that.

I DO want to get to try out En Garde!, and play a lot more Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant. Also I have a complete Medival Muslim retinue and a third complete European retinue to paint up for Lion Rampant – and a bunch more halflings and others I’d like to paint up to finish Warbands for Dragon Rampant. I'll probably continue to paint a bit of this while playing other games for the next month of so. But serious work on these projects (and playing these games) may have to wait until later in the spring… or summer… or 2017 if I get going on the Vimy Project again!!

Of course then there's Men Who Would Be Kings... which I'm also pretty excited about and have been gazing over my British colonials and Zulus (and Boers... and Martians!?) and pondering which of those I should get working on... 

Then there's the Imperial Guard Jungle Fighters I'm so close to getting finished... which, seriously, a week or two of serious work and I'd be DONE ALL OF THEM and they'd be sitting ready for whenever the kids or my friend and his kids finish any of their units and want to play...

I could go on...

Too much stuff to do, too little time...


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some Seljuk Cavalry on the workbench that I'll probably be finishing up next.

Probably not getting in a game of Frostgrave this weekend, but perhaps next weekend... 

7 comments:

  1. Yep! So many choices...so much fun....just not enough time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's quite the painting table! Love that the kids are into it too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's our basement "craft table" - though 90% of the time it's covered with miniatures and paints... Also, as the big table in the "War Room" has been cluttered with... well.. stuff... this has kind of become our main miniature gaming table - which has worked out okay as we've mostly been doing small skirmish games for the last while... This room has much better light than the War Room. One of these I'll get to cleaning off the big table and we'll get back to having big battles.

      I also have a smaller painting station in the next room (TV room) for painting at while we're watching movies...

      It's fun painting with the kids. They get so excited when they finally figure out how to do something new or different.

      Delete
  3. (I like that last comment about the kids getting excited when they figure out how to do something) :)

    Nice painting as usual! So, that's the secret to your copious output - you paint minis in batches of 50 or so! lol (that many on the painting table at one time is daunting to me)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, there's just lots on the table because I base, prime and goop them in large batches as they arrive (which is what I was working on that evening) - so that they're ready to paint whenever I have the urge. I usually paint in batches of 4-15 depending on the size of a unit (if I'm working on a unit) If I'm working on individuals I'll have 4-6 on the go at a time..

      Sometimes as I'm painting one batch or unit I'll have the next one I want to do "on deck" - just off to the side of the table as a reminder... but then sometimes I add more than one unit to the "on deck" area and things DO get a little crowded and overwhelming! then I have a clear off and start with something fresh!

      Delete
  4. Gosh, that's a painting desk, too many periods too little time it's very hard to stay focused, still be interesting to see how you would do vimy ridge. ..
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I started on the project 10 years ago and nine years ago ran the first instalment in Edmonton at Mayday 2007:

      http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2007/05/mayday-part-four.html

      The plan was every two years do the next divisions area of operations and by 2017 be able to do the whole corps attack for the 100th anniversary. It's a bit of a megalomaniac dream, I know, but that's how I roll... Of course I kind of let things slide and got interested in other things and now the 100th anniversary is one year away and I still have only built terrain for the fourth division's area of operations (which I have to fix...) and have the better part of three Canadian divisions to paint and almost as many Germans... I should really sit down and do some figuring and see if it's really even feasible at this point.

      Delete