Disaster Averted

As I was working on my unit of Beja camelry, a disaster struck! I was using a container of Aleene's Tacky Glue to secure the riders to the camels. Everything was going OK until I felt glue on my hand holding the bottle. The bottle was old and the plastic had deteriorated, causing a large crack to open. I immediately summoned assistance from my wife and was able to get almost all the tacky glue into a medium sized margarine container. But I knew that it won't last very long and there was a lot of glue. So, I got my bucket of fine sand and bucket of spackle and mixed some basing material, using the tacky glue, sand, and spackle.

I used it to add basing effects to the 12 Beja camels, a Beja foot leader, and a whole batch of imagi-nation SYW era troops.

These are the Ral Partha Beja camelry after the bases had been augmented with the mix and then painted a base coat of burnt sienna. I'll do some dry brushing of tan and cream and finish the bases by adding some small rocks and grass. The riders still have to have their shields and weapons added and the leader (third from left, front row) his banner.

Here is my improvised work station on the dining room table with two battalions of Eureka Saxons. Their bases have been prepped with the mix. They are awaiting a coat of white glue prior to being dunked into my flocking mix.

And here are some completed figures, all Eureka Saxons, drying on some newspaper.

I'll have to admit I was discombobulated (that's "all shook up" in Southernese) by the tacky glue bottle splitting. I didn't realize at the time that it was that old. But later when I tried to recall when I purchased it, all I could remember was it was a long time ago.

Highlanders in Progress

For several weeks, I have been slowly painting the next unit for my imagi-nations. This will be the mercenary Campbell's Highland Battalion, currently in the service of the Markgraf of Carpania.


Composed of 24 Front Rank Highlanders from their Jacobite line, they will be uniformed in a mid-smokey blue with buff facings. The kilts are a representation of the Campbell tartan of blue and green. This picture shows the first company carrying the inhaber's color, a white St. Andrew's cross saltire on a blue field. In the background is the second company. It may take a little longer to finish them (the tartans are time consuming!), especially since our group's theme for 2009 is Colonial Adventuring and I will be adding to my Colonial armies, starting with some Beja tribesmen (AKA Fuzzy-Wuzzies) for a mini-campaign in the Sudan.

40 Years Ago

A little remembrance from 40 years ago.

And from today.

Merry Christmas to All!!!

The Ballet Comes to Town

Off and on for the past several weeks, I've been doing some non-wargame figure painting - ballerinas for my daughter's dance academy - Bluebird Dance Academy. These MegaMinis figures were procured to use as performance gifts to the girls in the dance academy after their winter performance this coming Saturday. Although I didn't put a lot of detail into the figures (mainly because of their small size), they did come out rather nicely, if I say so myself.

Here are the dancers of the company, led by Ballet Mistress Leslie, in the blue skirt. The younger girls are in the light pink leotards and tights on both flanks (see, I did get a wargaming term in!), while the older girls in black leotards and light pink tights are in the center.

And here the company of dancers entertains the Duke and Duchess of Courland (on the left) and the Margrave and Margravine of Carpania (on the right), in a holiday-inspired scene of cordiality between the two enemies in normal imagi-nation life.

Carpanian Pioneers

These figures were started before MilleniumCon last month but I didn't get them finished in time. They have now been completed and have joined the artillery train of the Margraviate of Carpania.

This company consists of one Hinchliffe SYW officer, one Foundry Prussian grenadier sergeant (in rear rank with halbard), the special Grenadier Books figure (in front rank, consulting the latest tome on military engineering), and nine Crusader Prussian pioneers (from the grenadier command pack). The pioneers were part of an eBay purchase.

Each two figures are painted in the regimentals of one of the six regiments of the Carpanian army - Musketeer Regiments Zweibieren, Teutonica, Clausthaler, and Schweiger and Fusilier Regiments von Stuppe and Paulaner. They will probably be brigaded with the converged grenadier battalion and Campbell's Highland Battalion (still a work in progress) to form a special assault force.

They were actually finished in very late November and boosted my November painting total to 43 Olley points -- 12 pioneers, 15 jagers, 5 limbers (3 points each), and one artillery accessory.