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| We're a bit stuck at present |
I've been a bit bogged down lately.
The return to in person training at cadets and consequently planning for some day activities this spring has added some demands on my time.
I've also been planning Hot Lead for 18-20 March. www.hotlead.ca
So far I've got
- 2x virtual games
- 1x 15mm ADLG ancients tournament
- 4x FRPG games
- 58x open participation games
- 2x game system demo tables
Which is down from the planned list for the cancelled Hot Lead 2020, which had been shaping up to be our best year ever. A few game masters are staying away. The cancellation of the Bring and Buy will also depress attendance I'm sure. But it should still be a good time.
After finishing the Bavarians, I started on some more Napoleonics three weeks ago; 12x Russian uhlans, 12x skirmishing Russian Jaegers and 16x Prussian musketeers.
I like having the infantry on nails for more comfortable holding during painting. The Mad Padre gave me a bag of wine corks which I'm going to try for cavalry. During priming and undercoating I found them very unstable so I added some bases for stability from water damaged art board.
So far, so good. Not that I've done any more brushwork to effectively determine how they work.
I've been reading though, doing some background research on the naval operations in the Solomon Islands to sort out a list of ships for the Mad Padre to print for me. I could buy a set of .stl files for the entire USN for around USD$100, and another for the entire IJN, but I'm pretty certain I don't need all those carriers and battleships. I mostly need a dozen destroyers for each side and a selection of cruisers.
All that, plus added obsessive doomscrolling about events in Europe have really sucked up my time.
I'm hoping Hot Lead will reinvigorate my mojo.
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I relate to the obsessive doom scrolling. Not a good time to be a life long serious amateur military historian. On a lighter, hopefully useful, note . . . I've been using homemade painting sticks for decades. 3/4" or 1" dowel rods, depending on your hand grip, cut to about 5 or 6". I hot glue or epoxy inexpensive rare earth magnets to the top and drilled a 1" X 3" for a holder/stand (cause that's what I had on hand at the time). I use loctite to glue figs to metal base stands from www.wargameaccessories.com. (Great to do business with & great selection!) It's easy to pop the figures off their painting bases with a utility knife, if you're doing unit bases. I find the length of the 'painting handles' to be very useful. I'm a tripod painter. Stick in my left hand, base on the table for stability, when needed I can brace a right finger on the stick as I go. You can turn the figure any which way you want or need as you go and not touch it with anything other than your brush. I use the same methods when I'm rattle can priming outdoors. (Yeah. I wear a full respirator for that. I'm that kind of an older guy!) I've enjoyed reading your blog, just thought it was past time to say so and hopefully offer a helpful tip.
ReplyDelete~ Tom T
Hi Tom! Thanks for commenting.
DeleteGood advice, especially the respirator.