Hello all!
I'm alive! Honest! So the move went - I wouldn't say well, but not too badly. We settled in, thesis writing got more intense (almost finished the first draft; lots of bits are with the supervisor being read), I spent some time in Oxford, my funding ran out... and that's the last couple of months in a nutshell. I'm still thesis writing, still out of funding. More importantly, as far as this blog is concerned, is that I haven't done much painting - my normal slot has been eaten by commuting, and I don't get much opportunity in the evenings as thesis writing is, to steal an Ork-ism, 'brain urty'. At some point (after lots of basing) there will be an update with some 20mm milita, Soviet motor rifles and DDR workers combat groups. There are also more arthurians and hairy germans too.
But the lack of painting time and funds have made me think about what I'm doing on the hobby front, and which projects are of particular interest. There have been a couple of folks on the LAF who were talking about thinning down their unpainted lead and focusing more on the projects which particularly appeal; and that's had an impact too. A metric I have used a lot is to assess how much scenery I have for a project - I don't like making scenery, so it's often a good gauge of what I have definitely wanted to do things with...
So - what is going/has gone?
Early plains wars - an interesting period, and some great figures and rules. But I've not painted more than a handful of figures in the last 4 years, have very little scenery, never played a game with them and haven't even been tempted to buy new stuff for them.
Sci-fi kung fu stuff - at one point, inspired by too much sleeping dogs and Farcry blood dragon I started looking at a '80's sci fi' type setting for a fistful of Kung Fu. I bought a few figures, painted some stuff and didn't really get any further.
My retro British apocalypse stuff definitely stalled, and lost focus. In 28mm the winterapoc stuff overtook it and in many ways fitted the game play aspects better. At the same time, my 20mm stuff started to drift more towards the twilight 2000 end of the cold war hot spectrum.
The winterapoc +10 stuff is going (there was never much of it); but more of this later.
I'm also streamlining my modern (post war anyway) African stuff - I've not finished anything for it for years, and baring the couple of games the other year I haven't used most of it. I'm keeping the painted mercs and African milita, but the rest is going.
The Gothic horror stuff is also going. I only ever painted a handful of miniatures, and my scenery building stopped and never got started. I'm still vaguely interested - but I just don't think it's going to happen. There werewolves will be joining my Dark Ages stuff though...
So - what am I keeping, and how is it going to evolve?
The 40mm moderns are staying. They are pending a time when I have a bit more time and energy to make the most of them. From a practical perspective, they don't have a resale value, and the whole project was something of a nostalgia exercise. I will add some more figures if they turn up cheaply, and the focus will stay much as it has always been.
28mm Malayan emergency. In actual terms the project is pretty much finished, and is still pretty close to my heart. There are another 30 or so figures left to finish painting and that will then give me lots of CTs, a couple of different security forces to chase them with (gurkhas and British infantry/marines depending which figures I use for flavour), Malayan home guard, special constables, armed planters/miners. I will add a couple of period cars/trucks and that will be the core sorted. I may convert some DA askari to make aboriginal police. But I may not. I also read a good article about the kumoitang and triad secret societies fighting a closet war with the CTs as an offshoot of the Chinese civil war; so some of the kung fu stuff will be incorporated into this (the triad in traditional costume and the martial artists) and there is room for some pulp adventure around the edges (afterall Biggles was in Malaya for a couple of adventures! Special constables against a sorcerer and summoned deamons and the like). It may also expand into the Indonesia confrontation. I'm not sure yet. If it does, it'll only be a couple of squads of figures for the Indonesians and I'll probably just use the Malayan emergency security forces as the commonwealth troops.
The Quar. No idea where they are going to evolve to, or what I am going to do with them.
Winterapoc is staying. It's a unified project, and almost finished. I've got enough figures to play lots of games, and a regular opponent to use them with (waves at Seb). I'm going to finish off the last few conversions, and may get some of the new sss figures and/or some more sea wolves and cultists.
The final project is to keep the arthurians/early saxons. Plenty of finished figures, the will to play games and figures I enjoy painting. I have enough Welsh, romano brits and picts. I am planning to add more saxons because I enjoy painting them lol. The current plan is to do some 'mid period' stuff for the wars between Christian and Heathen saxon kings in the 600's, and at least find a use for all my hairy germanics. The project will still have some mythical stuff - gods, giants, Alfar and hopefully dragons - but the aim is to keep it to 'saga stuff' rather than turning into a fantasy game.
And what haven't I decided on?
My 20mm cold war stuff - I've got lots, and it's scattered across lots of forces and genres. There is also twilight 2000 and the possibility of doing britapoc in 20mm, with easier access to scenery. Some of it will go, possibly all the East germans and maybe the stuff I was accumulating to be twilight 2000 marauders and the like. Probably the DRA troops too...
The 'modern' kung fu stuff. Heavily inspired by sleeping dogs, I'm definitely still interested and have effectively all the figures I need (and that were are available! ) but scenery is non-existent and will be difficult to get sorted. Definitely one to muse over.
Stone age stuff. What stone age stuff you ask? I bought some cave men and neanderthals. It's an idea I have toyed with for years, and scenery is easy - I'm just not sure about pursuing it long term or not.
Arthurian picts - I know I included them above, but they are the other end of the country to my principle interest (Wessex and the south west) so still have a bit of a question mark over their heads. The same is true of the Wendol - they are up for review as I don't have enough to do much with, but the figures are also pretty steep to buy more so that puts them into a slightly grey area.
My 54mm inquisitor figures have about half the figures finished, and there are some magnificent conversions left to do. But I've not touched them in many years, and they were only unpacked at the last place to repack them prior to moving.
I'm also not sure about what to do with my old ratskin gang. Currently the figures have been part stripped, but I've not so much as looked at them for a year or more...
