Finally, a Bit of Painting

I held a paintbrush today for the first time in weeks. It was not, however, not to paint figures, but rather to work on some items needed to take down to Tarawera for our annual weekend of wargaming.

First was to touch up an item I made 28 years ago. It is windmill that was especially made for another Tarawera game, set in the Vendée during the French Revolution. This has been sitting in the garage for several years. The rear sail had broken off and needed to be completely remade. The model was also looking tired. The original paint job was dark, or perhaps the colours had faded over the years, so it was brightened up and will appear in the WSS game at the end of next week.

The nervous miller peers out his window

The second batch of items were also fix-ups. These were a collection of small terrain pieces I want for my RJW game. They had all been made over a year ago, but had suffered badly when the box they were in was dropped. These were repaired and repainted.

The third item that I assaulted with the brush was an item that won't be heading south in October. This model of a wooden building was made in 2012 as a part of a Bohemian village, intended for use in our Austro-Prussian games. It was completed, but never painted and has been sitting in a cupboard gathering dust. Since the main project for the rest of this year will be the Crimean War armies I figured that this structure would sit well in the Crimea and needed painting.

This week also saw the realease of figures for the Danish army of Second Schleswig War by Northstar Military Figures. This war has appealed to me for a number of years - it is a logical extension to my Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian collections and even more so as I finish reading the "1864" book on the subject. Some years ago I went so far as make the masters for a range of Danes, but the opportunity to get them manufactured never arose. So the arrival of the Northstar range is great - all I have to do is figure out how to fit the purchase of this army in with all the other armies I want to build!