The Lead Hillock

Those of you with patience and long memories may recall my struggles to reduce the pile of lead in the cupboard. This is the latest report from the front, and I am reasonably pleased with the progress. After all, perfection is for the gods alone. Us mere mortals can only expect to be somewhere in the environs of good enough.

Still, the starting position was not too bad, with nearly 900 figures in the lead pile. This is, of course, way down from the over 2500 I started with three years ago, so I must have painted a fair number of little men over the period. A rough calculation suggests I have, in fact, painted 2129 figures in the period of interest. The reason the numbers do not match up, of course, is because, like most people, I have been buying a few along the way, which, somehow inevitably, find their way to the top of the waiting pile.

Still, the starting position is this:

You can see here the 885 figures to paint this year, which should, I thought, easily be achievable. After all, in the last two years I have painted over 1000 each. It does include Christmas-related acquisitions, to wit: 45 WSS cavalry and 8 big ECW cavalry. The former are Baccus, of course, the latter are Irregular.

Now, some of the painting to-do list was a bit of a no-brainer. The plan with the WSS figures was to heavily reinforce the French army, more than doubling it in size, for a WSS campaign in a day. I already have standard-sized Anglo-Dutch, Bavarian, and Austrians, but the French were, firstly, by far the biggest army and secondly, had the most defending to do.

The next most obvious painting was the Germans, Spanish, and Dacians. The first and the last have graced the wargame table, as you might have seen recently. I am still pondering the Spanish, not only because I am not sure what to do with them (‘Fight the Romans’ of course) but because the reinforcements overflowed the current storage capacity, meaning they are split over two boxes. Bother.

The big figures are for my role-paying or skirmish games, the mixed-scale campaigns I referred to in a recent post. This has sort of stalled at the moment as I have gone back to the Italian Wars, but I dare say it will come around again as the treaty gets towards the Channel ports and attempts to stop it grow in intensity. I have to say that painting big figures is a lot slower than 6 mm figure painting. I managed 5 foot and 2 mounted 25+ mm scale figures in the same time it took me to do 45 6 mm French WSS cavalry. It might be that I am just not very practised with the big ones, I don’t know. I’m not planning to paint any more than I have in stock, and some of the foot figures have been in stock for many years.

Anyway, March sort of represents the midpoint of my painting year, so a bit of stock-taking is on the cards. The painting for the year so far looks fairly good.

The Dacians, Germans, and Spanish ancient figures have been completed, which gives a good boost to the numbers, of course. I am not sure that the style of painting is the same as their older colleagues. I think I slipped up on the shields (or got bored) so instead of a stand having multi-coloured shields they are all the same. Ho hum. Never mind.

As you might have noticed, recently I have been trying out a few wargames. These have nothing to do with what I have just painted, of course. Normal human perversity applies, after all. Mind you, I have been thinking of the Machiavelli campaign for a long time, possibly nearly as long as some of these figures have been in stock. At the current rate, I shall be looking for some more gendarmes, at least. Still, as the Estimable Mrs. P is fond of quoting: ‘All work and no play…’. I have painted now 56% of the total number of unpainted soldiers available (ignoring the plastic medievals for the moment), so I think I need a rest or at least a few wargames.

Actually, I keep promising myself more wargames when the painting is done. The problem is, of course, that the painting is never done. Even if the remaining 380 or so figures get done this year, I am sure I will find some more stowed away in a box somewhere, and then there are 500 or so plastic medieval figures of various origins, let alone being tempted by extra figures to flesh out what I have, or even, the horror, starting a new period.

When I do return to the painting effort, I think the ancient civilians and the ECW generals are probably next up. They should, at least, be manageable. After that, I am not sure. My need for extra Persians is rather limited, as it is for Companions. The Thessalians might get the application of a brush if they are lucky. I am not sure about the Moorish foot. I will have to look at them. Some, I think, date back to the times when Moorish foot were classified as auxilia in DBM, and I am not sure if this is suitable for the current views of ancient Moors. I think some of them are skirmisher foot, though, but again, there are limits as to how many you really need.

It is a similar story with the 25+mm figures. Some more of the cavalry will probably be assaulted with acrylics, and probably some of the foot. I have just finished the peasants (one of which is armed with a pitchfork and shouting ‘Grrr’), but I have a barmaid and a forester to do, as well as a whole raft more of dismounted cavalry. I suppose I shall get to them, eventually.