Sunday 22 August 2021

The Return of the Butterfly

If I think of my painting table as a leaf, I have spent the better part of this year as a caterpillar chewing steadily away at my yet to be revealed project. But the urgency of that project is diminished with the cancellation of this year’s Tarawera event and metamorphosis has occurred, freeing the wargames butterfly to flit between bright and shiny objects that have appeared near the painting table in recent weeks. 

Evidence of this change has been seen of late with the posting of the Great Paraguayan War artillery sets and mounted officers, as well as the terrain tiles. But it is with this post that the complete transition to butterfly tendencies is demonstrated with the return to the American War of Independence and a long overdue expansion to the  British force that I last worked on in January 2020, before the world went mad. The project yet to be revealed will continue, but at a less frenetic pace.

Presented here is the 9th Regiment of Foot, minus its standards (because I didn’t have the opportunity to print them before we were put into lockdown). This is the first of seven line battalions that will join the six that are already in the barracks. Another artillery set and a few battalions of Hessians are likely to depart foreign shores in the not too distant future to join them.



Meanwhile as I was preparing this post fresh reinforcements arrived from Nottingham.

These will be the cause of the butterfly going  into overdrive, flitting between an even greater number of projects in the coming months, most of which will be reported on the pages of this blog.


19 comments:

  1. Nice work Mark - I look forward to your interest in the AWI morphing into a few games for my large collection of Brits and Hessians! Hopefully as a group, we have plenty American forces?

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    1. I think there are more American units in our collective armies than fought in the war!

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    2. And I am planning a small French contingent to join the American forces just in case there is a ‘shortage’.

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  2. Hooray! More projects! Your British look fab, by the way.

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  3. The words "oooh, shiny" are part of every thinking person's vocabulary. Keep on dazzling... but seriously, are needle guns fair in your AWI world?

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    1. I think I may have been a magpie in a previous life! Needle guns always have a place on my table!!!

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  4. Really nice and an excellent job on the whites.

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    1. Thanks Norm. The white is simply Contrast Apothecary White over a bone undercoat.

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  5. The British look great Mark:). The flap of butterfly wings is getting louder here as the return to school and Uni approaches and the house quietens to allowing painting to resume. I look forward to see how you get on with the Perry plastics.

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    1. Thanks Steve. I can see the FPW project building to something sizeable.

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  6. A nice classic looking British unit Mark…
    I have also acquired a couple of boxes of Prussians… they were a gift… my butterfly was particularly delighted…

    However I am willing to bet that you will have a playable force long before I have painted mine…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. You will like the Prussians Aly. I have assembled the first battalion, but most likely won’t get around to painting them until next month.

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  7. The plastic British from Perry's look outstanding and you did a fantastic job on them. Well done. Looking forward to more.

    But really looking forward to how the 1870 Prussians come out! The butterfly might be appearing at my painting table!

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    1. Thanks Mark. I have another British battalion on the painting desk now.

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  8. Great work and that red looks spot-on for the British.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence…you are up early this morning! That Contrast red looks too garish at first, but when the matte varnish is applied it tones up really nicely to give a slightly faded red.

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  9. Wonderful job Mark, where would we be with those new projects to distract us from the job in hand.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Thanks Stu. Yes we’re would we be. I am having that trouble right now, working from home in my study with a lot of toys looking at me for attention…I have had to remove the temptation by keeping the paints in another room!

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