A horse a horse my paintbrush and a horse

Someone thinks I enjoy painting horses. Hmmm well I have had these horse for several weeks if not months waiting to be finished. Painted on the undercoats but then ...... each time I pick them up I got painters block, could not not see how they should look. Am I alone in getting these blocks? I've kept try to tell myself that they are only horses but to no avail. I think part of this block is that someone has asked me to paint them, as in his opinion I can paint good horses. That immediately puts pressure on, and I want them to look good.

Anyway forced myself to slap a little more paint on them the other night. The starting point was as below with basic undercoats applied.

One problem I find with Minifig horses is that there is minimal releaf in the castings. The owner seems to like the big round rumps of these horses, (not sure if that is sexual or not :-) ), but to me they seem plain and stiff. I've no enthusiasm to paint them.

After a while and a few more slaps of paint and I think they're ready for stabling.

Not too sure about the grey but I hope they're acceptable.

Kriegsspiel

I've been trying to keep an eye out for a supplier of Kriegsspeil rules for some time. Have good memories of a game played in the early days of the "gang of four". When we became just two, the Kriegsspeil rules were lost to us.

If Kriegsspeil is new to you, these are rules devised by the Prussian military in 1824 as a training device for officers. They are regarded as the birth of wargaming rules so all wargaming rules owe there existence to Kreigsspeil. They concentrate on tactics at battalion level and below. Coloured blocks are used to represent units on maps at a scale of 1:7500. These maps may well cover 100 A3 sheets for the campaign tactics, down to 9 - 12 A3 sheets for the engagements.

Three sites of interest:

Too Fat Lardies to purchase rules and maps.

Irregular Miniatures to purchase Kreigsspeil blocks.

Kreigsspeil News a support site for the rules.

I don't know why I hadn't found these guys sooner but I feel another purchase coming on. At least it's not lead so will not add to the mountain.

Hellcats

Just to bring a little variety to this blog thought I'd introduce my Americans.

While I am concentrating on my German WWII force, I am also building a small American WWII force. This was started when my son was living at home with thoughts that we might get a game or two. I think I might have scared him off, as we had one game just before he left for uni and since then he has not been home long enough to organise a game. I will continue to build this force but only very much in the background so as not to deter the completion of the major parts of the required German forces.

Below are a couple of shots of the Tank Destroyer Company, two M18 Hellcats. Both are Flames of War castings.

More photos of elements already completed will follow in due course.

120mm Mortar

Here is the 120mm Mortar support company for my Infantry Division. A bit of a mixed bag being made up from a Flames of War Steyr 1500 Kfz 70, Battle Honors 120m mortar and Peter Pig crew.

All packed away in their storage tray

Mortar being towed

Mortar deployed in its mortar pit

Damn Damn and thrice Damn

I succumbed to those demons again. Could not resist some figures on ebay ....... and they arrived today. Austrian Militia, painted as Bohemian, brown coats with blue facings, white trousers. They will need basing and according to my information the facings are wrong, (I'll have to investigate further) but otherwise an excellent buy. I will post pics when finished and based, which might be a while.

Now then, 22 bought painted but I need to finish them, so will I be able to count them as painted when finished? ..... me thinks this is a loop hole in "The Honorable Lead Hoarder Vow".

German Infantry Regiment completed

Well here it is, the completed German Infantry Regiment of two battalions, following the OOB in Rapid Fire v.2 rules.

2nd Battalion HQ

6th Company

8th (Heavy) Company

Recce and Engineer platoons

Could have spent more time on them but there'll do. Have to keep reminding myself that they are only tokens for the gaming table.

The Honorable Lead Hoarder Vow

I thought I was alone and was the only mortal soul possessed by the Lead Mountain Demons. But it seems these demons are plentiful and have possessed many a fellow gamer. While digging in his garden, Thorbjorn Nielsen discovered an ancient tablet with the "The Honorable Lead Hoarder Vow" inscribed. He kindly posted the vow here on the Lead Adventure Forum.

I have it here in its original format as an easy reminder to myself.

"The Honorable Lead Hoarder Vow"

"I hereby vow to not buy a single miniature before I've painted at least two.

I shall display in public my will to resist the temptation of the lead, by entering into my profile the holy data of The Honorable Lead Hoarder Vow:

The letter P: stands for Painted

The letter B: stands for Bought

The letter V: stands for Vow-status-currently-as-by-the-rule-of-1-painted-gives-1-point-,-1-bought-takes-away-2-points

Be strong in spirit and resist the lead! Let not lead take over your life!"

What an excellent idea . I might have to adapt this idea into my blog but with a 1 for 1 point allocation. Do I start from zero as the high priests of the thread suggests or do I start from lead allocated to current live projects? As my blog is aiming to reduce my lead mountain I think I need to start from current position. The big question is, have I the time to climb the mountain and count each stone? Perhaps I should tread carefully and start slowing so not to scare the demons into drastic action.

My interpretation of the ancient vow with my legend explained.

Painted = any completed item (based and ready to use) 1 point for each figure, vehicle, or building (horse and rider count as 2, limber teams horses, limber and figures count separately).

Sold = Any item purchased and/or painted prior to 01-01-09 and sold.

Bought = any figure, vehicle, or building bought since 01-01-09.

Vow status = Painted plus Sold minus Bought ( + value shows reduction of lead mountain).