Buggering on.

Just to prove I havent thrown myself off a cliff I picked up a brush and finished off a few part painted figures. In the past Ive found that if one paints something a little different from what you normally paint it seems to help cleanse the palate. Hence the lovely Hinton Hunt figure kindly given to me by Iain Mcmillan.

The organ gun is a 3D one which I bought from E Bay. The company supplies four crew so I was able to use two figures for a couple of commanders albeit in later costume style than the times of the Burgundian Wars.

The cavalry are Perry plastics and have been sat in the queue for weeks now. I had trouble with the reds and have now resorted to Games Workshop ones. God knows what Vallejo are doing? I have only two more gendarme units to glue and paint and that should definitely do for the Burgundian army. I already have too many for a normal sized Billhooks game, but enough to host a decent sized Pike and Shot battle. 

People should recognise the billman. He is available from Wargames Illustrated and is meant to be Andy Callan??? He is a very nice figure and will act as a Yorkist sub commander, not that I need anymore.

 So I am still functioning and getting down to business, well at least lifting a paint brush. My next task is repainting some old Garrison and Lamming ancient Egyptians for my Persian horde.

Ennui.

Five 4.00am starts finally rewarded me with sight of this beautiful Sri Lankan leopard chilling in the bush. No worries about wargaming with this lad. The locals call him Lewis? 

Its been a while since I posted and also the longest lay off from painting since the early 1980's. When I discovered blogging in 2010 my intention was to publish something regularly and at least once every couple of weeks, like all good intentions one loses one's way and forgets. I hit a wall regarding posting a blog which was an issue but the wall I hit regarding figure painting was even more disconcerting.
 I returned from the Featherstone weekend having thoroughly enjoyed myself but somehow lacking in enthusiasm which is unusual for me. I looked at my painting desk and simply couldn't find the drive to sit and paint anything. It happens to most if not all wargamers, some walk away, most overcome the feeling and return to do their best work.

 However my painting ennui wasn't about the relevance of buying and painting toy soldiers but more about what I did with the finished products. Everyone of a certain age assesses their future and what needs to be sorted and placed in order. Usually I am able to compartmentalise things and cope but recently Ive struggled to do that. 

It hasnt just been my wargaming but as this blog is exactly about that then I wont bore people with other so called issues.    

 I have some pretty big armies of 28mm figures, that's not a boasting observation but a reality. I haven't used some of these armies for several years and to be very honest I have considered moving them on because of their lack of use. 

 Luckily due to going on holiday I wasnt able to make any badly thought out decisions about disposing of any of my armies and although I had hoped to clarify what I was going to do whilst away that didn't happen either. Its amazing what very early starts, sleeping in a tent in high humidity, the monsoon, leeches, snakes and of course having a holiday in a country in complete political meltdown can do to intrude upon wargaming.

So I came back with no idea what was going on and what the issue was I was attempting to identify.

 So where does that leave me?

 Well no further forward, so I poured myself some clean water and finished painting a unit of Burgundian gendarmes.

 They are waiting basing and to be very honest they look pretty rough but will have to do. I know I've not resolved what has been bothering me but at least I've picked a brush up and planning which figures to paint next.

 I can only apologise for this self indulgent piece and for the lack of posts and hopefully I'll discover some new period, interest or even just some figure that sparks my enthusiasm.

 Here's hoping anyway.

                 Dutch gun emplacement at Galle Fort, Sri Lanka, a lovely place to explore.