More Hittites

With summer just kicking off and the month of June winding down, activities on the hobby front are seeing signs of renewed life.  From May's low figure count in the Painting Log, June will see a marked uptick in output.  Not quite a hundred figures will pass out from the painting desk but it may be close.  Still one week to go before closing the books on June.  

With two games last week and one game yesterday, gaming is starting to work its way back on track too.  All three games were refights of the WotR Battle of Mortimer's Cross.  The first was a F2F game chronicled here.  The second was a remote game with Peter and the third was a four-player remote game with the Rejects.  Games 2 and 3 are yet to be chronicled.

Mortimer's Cross with the Rejects

Anyway, back to the painting desk.  Mustering out today is another body of Hittite spearmen.  These fourteen figures are mostly Wargames Foundry with the odd Newline Design figure tossed in for good measure.  A return to the SYW/WAS may be out next from the photo booth. 

Weather has been good on the Palouse and outdoor cycling has picked up accordingly.  While my lingering and annoying cold/flu bug has forced continued workouts on the indoor trainer, mileage outside increases.  Late spring and early summer are colorful times with the bright yellow blooms of rapeseed blanketing the landscape.  Seems many more fields of yellow this year than in recent years.  Nice contrast to the blue sky and the green, forested hills. 

Next time, hopefully a battle report!

The Dirty Dozen

Actually, the very dirty fourteen!

Being knocked back from illness the last week and having to wipe away a couple of games from this week's schedule, I am surprised at how much more I feel motivated to paint.  The absence of any games to plan, host, and write-up, has given me more time to think about activities at the workbench.  More accomplished than simply thinking about painting activities.  I have gotten down to business with a few meaningful painting sessions as my recovery allows.  I even managed to stick together a dozen Perry WotR mounted men-at-arms.  Glad I don't need to field masses of these mounted horsemen.  Short bursts may be all I can muster, for now, but good progress is made on a number of projects.    

Off the painting desk today is the first of two bodies of Hittite spearmen.  Figures are mostly Wargames Foundry with an odd Newline Designs' figure tossed in for good measure. 

These fellas look a bit dirtier and more campaign-worn than usual.  I may have applied the stain a touch too liberally this time or may not have wiped away quite enough.  Anyway, these dirty warriors join the ranks of the Hittite Army.

For now, back to the painting desk.

Babylonians on the March

 

With heads barely peeking over the tops of their large tower shields, a body of Babylonian infantry is on the march out from the painting desk.  These 28mm Newline Design figures are some of my favorite sculpts from the Biblical range and I have many.

The shields these fellas carry are so large that they obscure the figure almost entirely.  Great figures and a pleasure to paint.

With Mother's Day coming up this Sunday, it is time for the crabapple trees to be in bloom.  Right on schedule, they are!

Weather has been pleasant and cycling has kicked up over the last few weeks.  River is running high from snow melt and recent rainfall.  The Lower Falls sees a complete inundation by the torrent of water.

South channel of the Upper Falls is much the same!

I close out today with a big red barn from a recent ride.

A Look at Some Akkadians

While time at the painting desk seems at a premium of late due to other distractions, work continues albeit at a slower pace.  What time I find, continues to be monopolized primarily by SYW/WAS units.  Still, my attention is turning back to Biblicals and today's entry illustrates one such diversion.

Out from the workbench today are 24 Akkadian spearmen deployed into two units.  Figures are 28mm Newline Designs.  Superb sculpts.  These Akkadians march out to reinforce the Sumerian project.  Remaining in The Lead Pile are enough Akkadians to form two more such 12-figure units. 

What other Biblicals are working through the painting queue?  Well, there are two bodies of Babylonian spear in progress at present.  Two dozen Hittite spear are being prepped for undercoating.  I would like to work more Biblicals into the painting queue in 2025.  Off to a good start in the New Year but the pace really needs to increase if March production is going to come anywhere close to totals seen in January and February.

Working up rules for an upcoming Wars of the Roses game is taking away time at the painting desk as I prepare to bring the WotR collection to the table for the first time.  Still, much to consider and refine as I wrestle with building something (hopefully) useful, enjoyable, and challenging.

More Sumerians and a Bit of Shopping

Close upon the heels of last week's Sumerian reinforcements (see Sumerian Reinforcements), a similarly sized batch of Sumerian javelinmen departs from the painting desk.  This dozen light infantry is split between a four-figure stand of skirmishers and an eight-figure stand of light infantry.  Figures are, again, from Newline Designs.

While attention at the painting desk has turned toward projects not Sumerian, I did dig out a pack of two dozen Akkadian spearmen to prep for pushing into the painting queue.  First, though, more FPW Prussians are on deck as is a return to the SYW/WAS project.  Time at the workbench has actually increased over the last two weeks and progress is being made on the painting front.  I may reach 900 figures painted by year-end.  We will see.

While figure purchases have remained very much at a minimum this year, recent sales on books and games have dented the wallet slighty.

Helion recently offered a Black Friday sale with 25% discounts and free shipping to the USA.  An offer I could not refuse!  The two books shown above are part of the order.

In similar sales and preorder releases, the following games dropped into my mailbox of late:

I know, these annual holiday sales can be so difficult to resist.  While 19th Century Miniatures always holds a Christmas sale on 15mm Old Glory figures, I am resisting in order to keep my 2024 Figures Purchased tally in check.  Since the sale runs through 04 January, I can place an order in the New Year after the counter resets.

On the gaming front, one more First Battle of Azukizaka is on deck for a Tuesday game.

Sumerian Reinforcements

Over the last two weeks, I have actually made some progress on the painting front. If you glance at the counter on the right sidebar, the counter shows that I have painted 834 figures in 2024. November was a very good month compared to some others and just over 100 figures passed across the painting desk. While December may not see such productivity, I am off to a solid start.

Off the painting desk today (well, in November) are two units of Sumerian Javelinmen.  One unit is a four-figure skirmisher stand and the other is an eight-figure unit of massed, light infantry javelin.  Today's offering is the first of two such pairings in work.  Figures are Newline Designs. 

Besides the Sumerians, lots more in work.  FPW Prussians, SYW Bavarians, and WAS Spanish are all making progress through the production line.  As is often the case, painting production picks up as the year draws to a close.  Once the books are closed out for 2024, I plan to revisit the painting seasonality analytics to see if this year saw unusual painting activity.

On the gaming front, Monday witnessed a four-player refight of the 1542 Battle of Azukizaka with Postie's Rejects.  Very good game, hotly contested down to the last charge.  Great fun!  Details another time.

Back to Sumeria

After wallowing in painting 15/18mm horse and musket figures over the last five months, something different finally pushed across the painting desk.  That something different sees a brief return to Ancient Sumeria in 28mm.

Today's offering shows 26 figures in four units.  These units comprise two stands of four skirmishers and two stands of nine massed bow.  Figures are all 28mm Newline Designs.

The brief Sumerian distraction will be followed up by more FPW Prussians and the first of SYW/WAS British cavalry.  Yes, looks like I finally begin work on a British army for this period.

On the gaming front, today sees a return to the very long-running AWI campaign with Matt as he rolls out the Battle of Bennington.  Matt and I have experienced a very long hiatus in this campaign so it will be a welcome return to old.  Monday sees a rematch of Shiloh in a remote game with Postie's Rejects before I clear the table of ACW and plan for the next series of games.  Since the 15mm Feudal Japan armies have not seen action in a very long time, that period is where I am headed next.

Finally, a panoramic photo of the Spokane River Gorge, the Monroe Street Bridge, and the Lower Falls taken on a loop walk on a mostly sunny and warm Saturday afternoon.

Now, time to refresh my memory on Rebels & Patriots before this morning's action with Matt.

Back to Biblicals

While armies were engaged in a heated, yet collegial, battle on the table yesterday on the field of Bassignana, today sees a return to the painting desk.  The painting desk also sees a return to mustering more Biblicals in 25mm.

Out from the painting desk are two stands of Chaldean archers, each of nine bowmen.  Figures are Newline Designs.  I enjoy painting Newline figures for their understated simplicity and quick to field nature.  When I want to pick up the production and get some bang for the buck, I pull out a handful of Newline Biblicals.  Always a pleasure to paint.   

Speaking of picking up the pace at the painting desk, painting sees an uptick in output with May benchwork making an attempt to push more lead across the work desk.  Currently, there are 46 18mm WAS Genoese just about to ready for basing.  Whether these figures make it into May totals or slide into June counts is still in question.  If finished today, May numbers will look quite good.  If not today, well, I have a good jump on June. 

I leave with a teaser photo from Thursday's Bassignana game.

Sumerian Straddle Cars

When I was assessing my goals for 2024 back in January (see The Road Ahead in 2024), the desire to cut back painting output in the New Year was noted.  At that time, I offered up a painting goal of 750 figures with modest shift to seeing more 25mm figures move across the painting desk.  Well, it is mid-May and I appear to be surprisingly on track to reach that goal.  Painting has slowed down, for sure, but a total of 750 figures painted seems doable.  At current counts, the Painting Log shows 303 figures painted, thus far.  That works out to an average of about 60 per month.  With the number of games played and the increased workload of designing scenarios and hosting games, I figured counts may be even less.  Still, I may be on track to reach the 750 goal by year end.

Back to today's topic, two Sumerian straddle cars roll out from the painting desk.  Not quite sure how I will incorporate these two stands into Basic Impetvs games but I am sure I will put them to work somehow and somewhere.  Figures are Newline Designs.  Nice models!

Piedmontese light infantry hold the bridge!

Thursday saw a four-player remote game of the WAS Battle of Bassignana fight out.  We lost two players due to illness but the game carried on in fine fashion with the Stalwart Four.  Another interesting battle developed with tension at every twist and turn.  Who came out the victor?  I guess you must wait for the reports to filter in.  I hope to see a few more games on this battlefield.

Finally, I received an email from Norm earlier in the week stating that his blog, Battlefields and Warriors was going into hibernation and comments would be turned off.  This is not the first time that Norm has drawn a line in the sand on his blog updates so we may see a return at some point.  While the reason for abandonment is understandable, I will miss his insightful posts and commentary.  In the meantime, Norm still offers diary updates on his goings-on at his Commanders website.  

Akkadian Bowmen

After cleaning up the last (well, almost last) of the SYW/WAS cavalry in the painting queue in the last post and a quick addition of a command stand for the Italian Ward project, painting focus returns to Biblicals and pre-Biblicals.

The first pairing in this Biblical tranche is two, nine-figure units of Akkadian bowmen for the 28mm Sumerian project.  Figures are from Newline Designs.  Up to now, all of the figures for this project have contained themselves to Sumerians, proper.  In the most recent two Newline Designs' orders I tossed in a few handfuls of Akkadian and Gutian infantry.  Also into the mix was added a couple of straddle cars.  The straddle cars are really quite interesting models. 

As a teaser, Tuesday (yesterday) saw the first of a number of anticipated refights of the Battle of Fornovo.  Tuesday's battle witnessed several shifts in fortune as the battle ebbed and flowed as the five players battled it out for victory.  Battle report will be published in a few days after photos have been downloaded, edited, and the narrative written.

Very exciting game, played well by all.  Great fun!  The game will be back in action on Monday.

The Last Sumerian Battle Carts?

In a sign of the Season, Saturday's planned F2F game was snowed-out.  Refights of Ilipa using Commands & Colors were on the schedule.  Looking to reschedule that clash in a week.  Luckily, we do not live by F2F gaming alone.  Later Sunday sees a remote game with Matt.  El Cid will take to the field.  

Back to the painting desk, another round of Biblicals emerge.  Following up on the recent Babylonian bowmen, the Sumerians see a couple of additions to the roster.  This time, a pair of battle carts roll out.  This pair makes the seventh and eighth war wagons in the project and these are the last such pieces in The Lead Pile.  Although no self-respecting Lugal would think so, perhaps eight is enough?  Figures are Newline Designs.

After this brief diversion into Biblicals, painting returns to 18th Century figures.  More Hanoverians are in work as are Piedmontese cavalry.  A planned December game of Madonna dell'Olmo (Md'O) 1744 drives part of the motivation to see some more Piedmontese in the painting pipeline.

Rough details for the scenario are in place and the table has been dressed.  Md'O is another large War of Austrian Succession battle that will likely require more than one session to fight to completion.  

Madonna dell'Olmo

As I am want to do, this battle will likely be played more than once over the next month or two.