Thursday 31 December 2009

Askaris Are Us


That nice Mr Copplestone delivered the DOAG Askaris this morning (well, not exactly in person but metaphorically speaking).

Having read my mind, Mark included six figures with bolt action rifles and four with flintlocks, allowing me to max out on my two units of regulars for In the Heart of Africa i.e. two units of nine figures each.

This will add another 120 points worth of firepower to my Colonial Expedition, which will be handy if I don't get the gunboat done for whatever reason or as extra opposition for Dave's powerful Royal Navy landing party.

One of the leftover Askari figures might also be a suitable basis for a conversion into a standard bearer, if I don't destroy it in the process.

Good stuff!

Wednesday 30 December 2009

The Big List


Right, time to get the list of 'things I'm definately going to do' out in the open before the end of the year arrives. I'm going to give myself a half term to complete each of these projects, with any spare time left over used for quick 'one off' mini-projects.

So, in scale order, here are the projects for 2010 (with a Plan B just in case):

1.600 Coastal Warfare

I will paint up opposing British and German / Italian units for both Action Stations! and Schnellboot, using a selection of the Skytrex, PT Dockyard, Airfix and Testors models that I have accumilated.

Plan B: I will paint up the 1.2400 Tumbling Dice French and British Victorian ironclad fleets that I have for Iron and Fire OR the 1.700 PT Dockyard, Pitroad and Skytrex FAC's I have for Bulldogs Away!

1.600 Korean War Air Warfare

I will complete both United Nations and N.Korean / Chinese forces using my collection of Tumbling Dice aircraft, for Wings at War:Mig Alley, depending on whether I can crack the basing / flight stand problem.

Plan B = I'll use Bag the Mig with hex stands and magnets!

1.285th Luft 46

I will complete compact Allied and Axis forces for Luft 46 air warfare in 1.285th, using my supply of excellent Raiden Miniatures aircraft, based for Bag the Hun and/or the Luftwaffe 1946 rules.

Plan B = I will finish off my North Africa aircraft with Luftwaffe and RAF forces OR complete a selection of mid to late war RAF / USAAF / Luftwaffe aircraft.

10mm/12mm ARVN for CWC

Moving up in scale, I will endeavour to assemble, paint and base up my ARVN armoured regiment in 12mm using Minifigs AFV's and figures.

Plan B: I will do something around 1000 points for BKC.

15mm AK47 Dictatorship

I will complete a Dictatorship army for AK47 (2nd edition) using the vast collection of figures and soviet vehicles that I have stashed away in various boxes. I will include militia, regular and professional units plus helicopters and even a boat or two.

Plan B: I will finish off the extras I have nearly completed for the Colonial Settlers army of the Independant Republic of Nbuto...Vive Nbuto!

28mm Heart of Africa

I will complete a German Colonial Expedition for In the Heart of Africa, including a Leader and Attendants, a White Man and gunbearer, a Scout, Marines, Askaris, Agile Spearmen allies, a Field Gun and Bearers. I will also scratchbuild a Gunboat and some improvised barricades.

Plan B: I will finish off the Japanese army I have started for the Back of Beyond or paint up a selection of EM4/Copplestone Future (French Foreign Legion) War troopers.

So, there it is.

Of course, there's a vast number of other projects waiting to be started and/or completed this year in all of these scales and more, but these are the ones I will endeavour to actually tackle! I will have to do the Raiden Ju88's for the club participation game so this will disrupt my schedule over the next two months or so. However, after that it's plain sailing (?).

Here we go!

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Africa Update


I've had a chance to rummage through the Darkest Africa spares box and found a gunbearer and scout figure but no suitable standard bearer. So, after some thought, I've re-designed the German Colonial Expedition to look like this:

1 x White Man Leader + Aide de Camp (attendant) + Servant (attendant) = 40 points

1 x Scout = 50 points

1 x White Man + gunbearer = 60 points

1 unit of 6 x Marines (regulars) @ 28 x 6 = 168 points

2 units of 6 x Askaris (soldiers) @ 20 x 12 = 240 points

1 unit of 8 x Agile Spearmen Allies @ 4 x 8 = 32 points

1 Artillery = 50 points

1 x Gunboat = 100 points

Total = 740 points

The agile spearmen were destined for my Zanzibari Arab Slavers but will do nicely as allies for the Germans, or at least as bullet magnets / ambush triggers depending upon the scenario and opposition.

I've also ordered one more pack of German East Africa Comapny Askaris to boost their numbers above the baseline six, which should make morale checks less frequent. How many I get to add to the two units depends upon the number in each pack with bolt action rifles rather than flintlocks.

We'll have to wait and see.

Plans for the New Year


Unfortunately, we had a fairly unpleasant journey back yesterday so I didn't get to Benouville this time. It would probably have been shut anyway as everything closes on Monday in France. What's that all about?

Anyway, I did get the chance to have another think about my plans for the year so will be sketching them out tomorrow in the form of a top ten of things to do.

I've been thinking about changing my schedule to one of half terms rather than months as this fits better with the time I have available in between holidays, when I'm nearly always not at home. It would reduce the total number of projects per year to six but would give me 50% more time to complete them in. For small projects I could split the time in half and get two done in the six week time frame.

Worth a thought.

Oh, and I finally got my Xmas present in the form of some 1.300th scale Beauforts, Blenheims and Beaufighters from Leading Edge / Museum Miniatures @ 25% off (nice) plus an order for TD 1.600th Korean War B29's, Sabres, Thunderjets, Mustangs and Shooting Stars from Doms Decals, together with 100 tiddly magnets to base them with, once I work out how to do it.

Cool.

Sunday 27 December 2009

Going Home


We're off home tomorrow after Xmas with the French in laws.

No surprise that I haven't managed to find the time to get any of the German Colonials cleaned up or based, let alone the Luft 46 stuff. At least I was able to work out the army list and read through the rules for In the Heart of Africa, so all is not lost.

Hopefully, I'll find the time to prepare, base and undercoat the figures in the last few days of the holiday so that I can start painting them in the first week of January.

That's the plan anyway.

I was even thinking of doing a Native Villager or Native Warlord army instead, as the figures would be quick to paint up even though there are lots more of them to plough through, but I reckon I'll stick with the Germans as they are less of a mountain to climb in one month.

As for the rest of the year, I'm going to write up a 'to do' list for the end of the month so that I have at least half the year planned out in advance.

I'm hoping we'll have time to stop off in Benouville tomorrow to re-visit the D-Day museum. They had some excellent books last time I visited including one detailing the ToE of all the British units involved in the Normandy campaign (it's one of the books done by the publisher of Vae Victis, Steelmaster etc).

I'll see if I can pick one up on the way to the ferry?

Saturday 26 December 2009

Blitzkrieg Commander Revisited?


I still haven't decided what to get myself for Xmas, having ruled out the Brigade Neo-Soviets as they're too much of a new thing. I've got the Future War Commander rules and that's it for sci-fi, except for my 28mm Future War stuff, so I'd be going out on a limb if I went for the 6mm option (sorry Dave!).

I've also decided not to get anymore Foundry Darkest Africa figures as I have far too many already and they're pricey even with 20% off. Even Peter Pig has failed to tempt me as I have several unpainted armies lying around and can't justify any more, even though I really like Martin's figures and vehicles.

So, that leaves the 10mm option, which for me means something for BKC. I've got a French 1940 infantry battalion with armoured support already but it hasn't seen the light of day for a couple of years as I have a shortage of opponents. I also based it using a hybrid PBI / BKC system that everyone at the club thought was a good idea at the time but which, in retrospect, makes it a bit wierd looking.

So, I need a small force of something or other with greater useability and which I can base up using the conventional BKC system. I have some late war German paras from Minifigs in a plastic storage box somewhere, with sufficient figures and vehicles to do the list for the Italian Front from the BKC rulebook. On the other hand, I don't fancy the idea of a late war German battlegroup, prefering something more interesting and/or less 'teutonic'.

This got me thinking about some plans I had to build an army to represent the 5th Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry for NW Europe. I'd read about this regiment in several books about Normandy and it sounded like an interesting option, especially as it was raised from the part of East Cornwall where I grew up. I even posted a query about the ToE for a British Infantry Battalion on the BKC forum this time last year and got some very helpful replies.

I then forgot all about it.

Now, I could do this in 10/12mm using the nice new late war British figures from Wargames South and vehicles from Pithead and Minifigs. It's worth a thought anyway. It could lead onto another dead end, however, as I doubt I'd get them painted up very soon due to other pre-planned projects (more about these in a later post) and it could mushroom into something altogether too unwieldy.

Alternatively, I might take an easier option and buy an Italian army pack from Pendraken. I'd been planning to get one at Warfare this year, having thought about it at Salute and then at Colours, but Pendraken had sold out by the time I made up my mind to get one. The Italian vehicles are very nice and, favouring the underdog as I usually do, I quite like the idea of a Desert War Italian battlegroup.

The only problem is that I'd be back to square one as far as opponents go at the club.

Bugger.

Perhaps I should just stick to my 10mm stuff for Vietnam and Indochina?

Friday 25 December 2009

Happy Xmas

Just thought I'd say Happy Xmas!

I haven't decided what to get myself yet but hope you've had a great day and have enjoyed playing with your shiny new toys, whatever they may be.

All the best

Jim

Triumph and Tragedy


Sounds a bit like Xmas at the in-laws!?

Actually, it's a game I've arranged for early January to try out the T+T rules.

There's a move afoot at the club to find an alternative to Contemptible Little Armies for the Back of Beyond and other skirmish type games. I picked up the rules a while ago and thought they looked interesting especially the card based turn sequence as I'm a big fan of Toofatlardies rules like Bag the Hun, which use a similar mechanism.

So, Jon and I have decided to try the rules out with my Bolsheviks versus his Whites, probably involving the sample scenario in the rulebook or the cattle raid scenario from the download section of the website.

This also got me thinking about a long abandoned project to do some 28mm Freikorps for CLA. I've got some Renegade Late War Germans in a box somewhere for this and, if the rules work out well, I may dig them out and paint up a few. I'd rather use Great War Miniatures figures now but, as I've already got the Renegade ones, I might as well go with them.

I'd only need a dozen or so plus a hero figure and perhaps an HMG or flamethrower, so not much to do really?

Thursday 24 December 2009

Happy Xmas to Me

As it's Christmas eve I thought I'd reward myself for a year of good behaviour, having only diverged from my self imposed ban on buying new stuff once or twice.

I'll put my hands up to PITS this year, which was an entirely new project, as it actually got finished (more or less), so doesn't really count as a negative. The Predator stuff I bought in 28mm, using em4 troopers and Ainsty Predators, didn't get off the ground though, so that's not so good. It may well resurface in the new year list of things to do though, alongside the 28mm gladiators from Crusader that grabbed my attention.

The rest of the stuff I gathered together over the last year was all based on existing projects that I either had rules or figures for already. The main ones were an ARVN armoured regiment in 10mm using minifigs figures and vehicles, more vehicles and figures for my 10mm Indochina project from Pendraken (which is still stalled due to a lack of figures in bush hats!), a French Napoleonic squadron from Langton in 1:1200 which I picked up at Salute (very nice), a full set up for the Alto Cenapa War in 1:600 using Tumbling Dice aircraft, both British and French fleets for Victorian ironclad warfare in 1/2400 from TD again, some additonal spaceships from Brigade for my Neo Soviet Full Thrust fleet (I used the German ones as they looked cool), some extras for the Back of Beyond to make up the numbers for a Dinosaur Hunting expedition and last but not least, some extras for AK47 and PITS, to round off what I've already got.

It's a lot of metal but at least three or four of these projects will get done in the year ahead (honest!)

So, for my Xmas present to myself, I feel relatively OK getting myself a little something, perhaps from Foundry (20% off, not bad), Brigade (15% off, also not bad), Peter Pig or Pendraken? A Foundry Azande or Masai force might be one option. I've also been meaning to get some Old Crow 15mm sci fi tanks and APC's for ages so now might be a good time to bite the bullet. Alternatively, the new Neo Soviets in 6mm from Brigade look very cool and would go nicely with some Old Crow landing craft, hovercraft and amphibious landing ships. Or perhaps I could get something in 10mm from Pendraken? Or yet more AK stuff from Peter Pig (no, that's not a good idea).

This needs some thought but I will make up my mind in time for Xmas Day!

Tuesday 22 December 2009

In the Heart of Africa


Having had a quick look at the army list for the German Colonial Expedition and checked the contents of my box of figures, my initial force for In the Heart of Africa is looking something like this:

1 x White Man Leader + 1 x Aide de Camp Attendant (free) = 40 points

1 x Scout = 50 points

1 x White Man + gunbearer = 60 points

1 unit of 6 x Marines (regulars) @ 28 x 6 = 168 points

2 units of 6 x Askaris (soldiers) @ 20 x 12 = 240 points

1 Artillery = 50 points

1 x Gunboat = 100 points

Total = 708 points

I think this should provide me with sufficient firepower to take on the opposition without resulting in too much painting work.

The standard bearer, gunbearer and scout figures are stashed away in the garage at home so will have to wait until I get back. The baggage and gunboat will also be later additions but the rest I have with me here. As a result I can get cracking with the cleaning up and basing, as soon as I find a cutting board that is (I forgot to pack one).

Now all I have to do is find the time to get them started. I'll aim to make them my first project of the year with a deadline of the end of January for completion of the figures, if possible including the gunboat and bearers as well. If I get this lot done in a month, I'll have made a good start to the year.

Fingers crossed!

Sunday 20 December 2009

Plans for 2010


I'm now at the relatives in Brittany after a long journey by ferry and car yesterday. It wasn't that bad actually, depite the road being a bit icy. We found out later that they'd closed the motorway behind us overnight due to the snow so we had a lucky escape.

I managed to bring along two small boxes of stuff to get cleaned up and based over Xmas, if I can find the time. One box contains a German colonial expedition force for In the Heart of Africa consisting of around thirty 28mm figures from both Foundry and Copplestone.

I've been planning to start ITHOA for a couple of years now and have colected loads of figures, including an enormous force of tribal warriors, some Belgians, some British and some Arabs. In fact I've got enough for about four armies stashed away but, given my tendency to bite off more than I can chew, I've decided to begin on a small scale to start with.

I need to add some baggage elements and a gunboat but other than that it's a nice self contained force. Although I'll need some extra scenery bits and bobs, I've already got quite a lot of useable terrain stuff for Africa in my Saurian Safari set up, so that's another good reason to make it a top project for the new year.

I've brought the rulebook and army lists with me so that I can cost the units up to make sure I've got enough for 700+ points worth, which should be enough to take on Dave's British naval landing party (I hope).

The other box of stuff contains a small selection of 1.285th scale Raiden planes for Luft 46 games. This has been another planned project for a while and was down for 2009 at first but got sidelined by North Africa instead. I need to brush up my small scale painting for the big Raiden participation game, so 1946 seems like a good mini-project to get going. The planes will also act as a back up for the ITHOA project if I don't start that straight away in January for whatever reason.

I've decided to include both Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft in the initial batch as the former are too cool to leave out and the latter, in bare metal, too simple to take up much preparation and painting time. The Luftwaffe have some Triebflugels, Natters and Ta183's for interceptions plus some Hortons for offensive actions. The RAF have MB5's, Tempest II's and Meteors. I've also chucked in a couple of one offs for both sides just for fun and as a test bed for camouflage schemes. I may use this lot with the Luftwaffe 1946 rules or just stick with Bag The Hun, the 2nd edition of which should be out very soon!

I'll post some updates if I manage to get one or other of these preparation projects off the ground in the next few days. I'll also be working out the other projects for 2010, some fairly big and some manageably small, when I've had a think about what I can feasibly get done in the next twelve months based on the contents of my lead mountain. I've already whittled it down to half a dozen front runners which should provide some interesting games in 2010.

Thursday 17 December 2009

The Big Result!

Well, this is the end of wargaming for me in 2009 as I'll be off to the in-laws in France on Saturday for the Xmas holidays, leaving my current unfinished project on the workbench.

I was thinking that now would be a jolly good time to count up all the things I've succesfully completed and all the other things that have been put back in the various boxes, drawers and shelves from whence they originally came.

So, starting at the beginning, it's back to January 2009 and my New Years resolution.

As I mentioned before, this was to set myself a target of one project a month from my existing lead pile, with the aim of clearing the decks and getting in some games using my vast collection of rules. I decided to keep a note book, both to record my progress and to log all the paint shades, basing methods and other fiddles that I'd used along the way.

To start with I wrote down all the different things I thought I could tackle in a year so that I had a range of options to choose from, broken down into small, medium and big projects depending on the time I had available each month. I also tried to make sure I had a firm deadline each month by comitting myself to a game at the club. I then dived in with a project to kick off the year.

In January, it was a small flotilla of four 1.1200 French Ironclads for a game of Iron and Fire. This was a success as I finished the ships, minus the rigging (too scary by half), in a month, give or take a few days. Unfortunately it was March, as I had to split the painting over about six weeks due to the second project of the year, which got in the way. However, all was not lost as I did manage a game using the French ships against Dave's British blockading fleet, in which the French aquitted themselves pretty well. Huzzah!

February was taken up with a quick project to build a couple of 1/72nd scale WW1 aircraft kits for a club mutliplayer game of 'Knights of the Sky', a set of homegrown rules we use for aerial dogfighting. I had a lot of planes already built so fancied something a bit different. As a result I chose to build a Roland DII from an old Merlin Models limited run kit and, as a quick side dish, a Nieuport 17 from an old Esci kit. I really enjoyed making these kits, despite some hassles with the very crude Roland DII. However, I missed the game as I had a bad cold and couldn't make it, so despite finishing the planes it was only a partial success.

For March, see January...not sure where March actually went?

April was cut short my the Easter holidays when I was off to France yet again. However, I did manage to squeeze in a couple of 28mm dinosaur hunters and a converted Matchbox Model T Ford safari truck for a game of Saurian Safari before I left. It was fun to run the game and to try out the rules with a couple of vehicles, which added an extra element to the scenario. A small achievement for the month perhaps but one of the most successful in terms of gaming outcomes.

May was a full on painting schedule with a game of Bag the Hun set for mid June as a deadline. I managed to persuade Andy at the club that a North Africa set up would be a refreshing change from the Battle of Britain. I set off to complete 24 various Italian fighters and bombers for the Regia Aeronautica, a mix of Raiden and Museum Miniatures 1.300 models, while Andy tackled the RAF. This was another good production run with the planes all done in time for the game, bar a schwarm of reluctant Luftwaffe Me109F's that refused to get off the ground. We got a couple of decent games out of them too, although the Italians suffered at the sharp end a bit due to their really diddly armament of rifle calibre machine guns versus Andy's cannon toting Hurricanes and heavy machine gun armed Kittyhawks.

In June I prepared for the best time of the year as far as my wargaming workload is concerned. I run an activity in July for the kids at my school in which they happily mutlilate Warhammer 40K boxed sets while I sit at a desk painting other things for an entire week! In 2009 I decided on a BIG project, namely the painting and basing of an entire Peter Pig 15mm Dervish army for Patrols in the Sudan. This was a bit controversial, as I picked up the rules on ebay then bought a load of figures, effectively starting a completely new project. Not a good start.

Anyway, the Dervishes got based and undercoated in June and three quarters done during the week in July. I've even used them a couple of times since for games at the club, in which they've aquitted themselves pretty well, despite the occasional tactical withdrawal in the opposite direction. They're not finshed though, which means they don't count as a success in project terms, the first pear shaped effort of the year! In retrospect, it was too big a project even for the six weeks I set aside, so next year I'll try something less ambitious. I will get the Dervishes finished off at some point though, perhaps to try out 'Death in the Dark Continent' or 'The Gatling's Jammed' as an alternative to PITS, which is a great game but not for large battles.

September was wiped out by France again (bugger!) but in October I did manage to do some extras for my 15mm AK47 Colonial Settlers army in response to a chat I'd had with Jon at the club. He'd just started putting together his Zumatam - Lumatan dictatorship forces and, as I already had the Force Action Rapide Territoriale of the Independent Republic of Nbuto, I thought it would be great to dust them off for a few games.

I managed to get some QRF EBR75's done plus some old ebay Peter Pig M113's to add some APC mobility to my regular units. I also converted a diecast 1/100th scale P51 into a COIN Mustang Cavalier with tip tanks, rocket pods and a lengthened fuselage, which looked pretty neat. This was accompanied by a 1/100 scale Corsair, which got a four bladed prop from another Mustang to make it look more sexy. I had plans for more infantry units and some tanks but these ended up stalled due to work commitments, although they wouldn't take too long to finish off.

The resulting games of AK47 were good fun and, so far, the F.A.R.T. have been victorious, primarily as a result of their hard core of professionals who wizz around the veldt in HMG armed jeeps, blowing the crap out of Jon's wobbly militia and slightly less dodgy regulars. Jon's now scratchbuilding a Zumatan navy (yes, really) so the arms race is full on for next year! Good stuff!

In November, the AK47 extras had to be sidelined for a quick re-paint of Lledo trucks for the Wessex Wargamers Winchester participation game at Warfare. The game involved a 28mm Back of Beyond skirmish between a contingent of Japanese border guards, White Russian renegades and Bolshevik partisans over a train full of Tsarist gold. I offered to provide the transport in the form of a Japanese Model T Ford truck. I also squeezed in a paint job on a Sloppy Jallopy Austin armoured car and a re-paint of a resin Whippet tank that I picked up in a Bring and Buy, both for my Back of Beyond Bolshevik army.

These were all done on time, the truck for the show game and the armoured car and tank for the final game of a Back of Beyond campaign I'd been running over the year. So, success yet again, if only on a small scale. The particiaption game went down very well with the public too, which is a minor miracle given the short time in which it was thrown together. Well done chaps!

Finally, the month of December has seen the last of the years projects fizzle out, despite my best intentions to end on a positive. Inspired by the painting of the Japanese figures by Jon for the Warfare game, I decided to dig out the Japanese army I'd prepared but never finished for the aforementioned Back of Beyond club campaign. They're actually Copplestone Chinese figures but they're close enough to 1920's Japanese to be good enough for me.

I had based and undercoated about eighty of them, including infantry, cavalry, HMG's plus artillery and I'd even built a 1/48th scale kit of an Ansalso SVA5 fighter for air support. I took them down from the shelf and set myself the task of painting them up. Over a couple of weeks the number of figures I actually lined up for painting gradually shrank as I cut back on painting time due to other things. The garage was also increasingly arctic, which didn't inspire me to get on with the job at the risk of third degree frostbite. The end result is twelve nearly finished infantry, an equally unfinished HMG team and one solitary staff officer who is actually done. A bit rubbish really.

So, all in all, not a bad year. Not as much done as I'd like and quite a few very minor results over all. The concept is, however, sound enough for me to try again in 2010, perhaps with one or two minor adjustments?

I've already got some definite plans for 2010 and will reveal all as soon as I have the time to put them in some sort of order. I'll even try to squeeze in something over Xmas in France, even if it's only some cleaning up and basing!

Wednesday 16 December 2009

The next big thing..


A few weeks ago Mark Cleaver, the chap who runs Raiden Miniatures, sent me an e-mail to ask if my local club, Wessex Wargamers Winchester, would put on a participation game for the main UK shows next year. The game would involve loads of the excellent Raiden 1.285th scale planes to showcase the quality of his models and raise the profile of Raiden, hopefully generating a storm of new sales.

After quite a long process, with lots of different ideas being shot to and fro in the club yahoo group, we've decided on a Battle of Britain scenario set on the 12th August 1940. The game would re-create the day before Adlertag, when a massive formation of Junkers 88's from KG51, escorted by equally large numbers of Me110's from ZG2 and ZG76 plus a small elite grouo of Me109's from JG52, flew down the channel and hit Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, knocking out the radar station at Ventnor.

The game is now in the prepartion stage, with a shedload of planes on order from Mark for delivery after Xmas and plans well ahead for some great looking terrain using the Kallistra hex system. We've also got an experienced team of rule writers on the case, devising a simple but effective rules system, devised with multiplayer participation in mind.

I'll try to keep our progress (or lack of it) posted here to see how we pull it all together for our first public outing, which should be at Salute in April, assuming everything goes acording to plan?

My job in all of this, apart from working out the scenario and units involved, is to co-ordinate the painting and decalling of 90+ planes, including 24 Junkers 88's that I've volunteered to sort out. Mark is sculpting them now and should have them ready in January, which will give me about a month to turn them round...

Fingers crossed, it'll all go without a hitch (but I'm not holding my breath!)

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Welcome to my wargames blog

This is my attempt to record my endeavours in the hobby of wargaming, which I've been involved with for around 25 years, on and off.

It's no surprise that in the space of over two decades, I have had limited success in actually completing the various projects that I've attempted to get started. A couple of years ago I actually counted up all the various projects that I've got tucked away in boxes, crates, packets and bags under my workbench.

The total was 68.

And that was two years ago!

This got me thinking about a way to rationalise this lot, with the aim of actually completing some of them before the floor of my garage implodes under the weight of all the lead.

The result was to devise a punishing schedule of painting, basing and modelling, linked in to my 2009 New Years Resolutions:

1. I would aim to complete one project per month.
2. I would not begin any new projects that weren't already in the pile.
3. I could add new stuff to existing projects.

It's nearly the end of 2009 and I'll be working out how sucessful I've been in achieving my leadpile reduction soon.

Watch this space..

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