Sunday, June 29, 2014

State of the Painting Desk

With momentum up having finished the two Reconquista heavy cavalry stands, I hoped to finish one more unit before the first half of 2014 drew to a close.  While weekend home projects, gaming, guests, and cycling kept me away from the painting desk for longer than anticipated, work did progress on a few units.  Unfortunately, none of these will make it into the "Completed" column before 01 July.  Oh well, I will have a jump on next month's painting tallies.

On the workbench today are works for four different projects.  What projects do I have in work?  The four units in work comprise: 18mm SYW Prussian musketeer, 28mm US infantry for Spanish-American War, 28mm French Chasseurs a Cheval, and 28mm Arabs.

In the foreground is one BTD Trojan chariot that arrived with this week's BTD order.  The chariot assembly is somewhat fiddly to assemble and I scratched my head wondering how to attach the trace to the cart but I believe I have it.  Initial inspection suggests that the BTD chariot dwarfs the Old Glory chariots completed earlier.  I will confirm how these disparate chariots look side-by-side once the BTD piece is finished.
Painting Desk 29JUN2014
A closer glance at the center tray shows eight Front Rank horses (in the background) that will be used in carrying an equal number of French Front Rank Chasseurs a Cheval.  In the foreground are 15 Old Glory SAW U.S. infantry.  While I have painted many Old Glory Spanish from this range, these are my first Americans for the conflict.  The Old Glory Americans exhibit excellent sculpting with much character.  These could be my favorite Old Glory 28mm figures and I have seen and painted many of the ranges!
SAW US infantry and horses for French cavalry

Next up are 23 Blue Moon AWI Hessians to be fielded as SYW Prussian musketeers.  With the lemon yellow cuffs, waistcoat, and breeches, these lads will muster out as the first battalion of the 10th Musketeer Regiment. 
Blue Moon SYW Prussian Musketeers
Finally, twelve 28mm Artizan Black Guard Moors from the El Cid range are seeing action on the work bench.  In this photo, I made a bit of progress from the overall desk shot above.

Artizan Black Guard
With the first half of 2014 ending and painting totals in the book, it is time to look back and see what I managed to paint thus far in 2014.  With no new "major" project to drive painting and increased travel, totals will be down over last year.  The answer to how much output has dropped will be left until after I crunch the numbers.  Expect a battery of analytics in the future and then you be the judge. 

8 comments:

  1. interesting work bench you have here Jonathan, I like the look of your miniatures, especially the Artizan - Moors, they do look mean and ready for heavy duty action against their foes! all the best for next 6 months! :o)

    cheers,

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    1. Thanks Phil, for dropping by! The Artizan El Cid range is very well done..

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  2. Looking good Jonathan, but like Phil Artizan Moors are the best out there for Moors.

    Christopher

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  3. Love the mix Jonathan, and I do like your Moors alot! They'd fit perfectly into the new SAGA Crescent and the Cross expansion.

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    1. Thanks, Monty. Usually I try to tackle one unit at a time but somehow I manged to get multiple projects all going simultaneously. Artizan makes some pretty cool figures.

      As for SAGA, well, I prefer bases with lots of figures to singletons but..

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  4. Having assembled a LOT of chariots in the past year, I can attest that it is a pain with almost any manufacturer - the only exception has been those huge Hinchliffe Assyrian 4 horse chariots.

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    1. Thank you, Peter for confirming my experience. We'll see how this BTD chariot turns out once it hits the painting desk.

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