There Be Cossacks Here!

Greetings, I hope everyone is staying safe and making the best of your time under house arrest. 

I finally finished what I thought was my last unit of Cossacks.  As luck would have it while digging through the lead pile hoping I had 2 left over Hungarian Knights laying around I could use to make up a full unit, I stumbled across another pack of Cossacks with Bows and Lances.  Huzzah!!  So there should be one more Cossack post.  The only down side with these are the torso and legs are separate so you have to glue them together (I hate gluing figures together).  Once the recently discovered Cossacks are painted I should be good for the new campaign although I guess it is possible given my troop rosters I could still need more Cossacks than I have painted, but unlikely. (yes, I realize I just passed on a bit of intelligence to the other players).

This round of painting production is a little more eclectic; as I dug deeper into the lead pile, back to around the 2008 layer of lead I think.  It kind of makes you feel like an archeologist as you dig down deeper and deeper into the lead pile like going through the various layers of your purchasing history – mumbling to yourself ‘why the hell did I buy this crap’.

But enough with the words, on with the pictures – hopefully Blogger will actually show them.

  

After looking at the photos, I think I need another coat of matt varnish on these, as I recall when I did the magic wash I used straight Future Floor Wax instead of thinning it with water like I normally do.

First up, the brave warriors of the Czar.  These are Old Glory figures, and consist of left over odds and ends from other packs.

I still can't get Cossacks to stay focused for photos.  I'm sure it isn't anything to do with my photo skills - LOL

For the first little skirmish I have planned for my parallel world solo campaign I needed another unit of formed archers.  These are Revenge Miniatures figures.  It's the first time I've used any of these figures.  The sculpts seemed a little 'slight' in stature and had a very annoying amount of flash on them.  They did have a nice assortment of poses and painted up easily.

And now we unveil the 2008 layer of the lead pile.  FOW WWII American Engineer Platoon.  As I was painting these I couldn't believe that prior to 2009 all of my Napoleonic figures were 15mm.  Damn, 15mm is small.  Especially when you desperately need an eye exam and new glasses and you can't get them because everything is closed.  I also uncovered a couple of packs of the American Armored Recon Platoon.  

I couldn't get decent photos, at least not with my camera.

Combat Engineer Platoon consisting of 2 squads and Put HQ

3 Bazooka Teams

2 Heavy Machine Guns

That's it for now.  Stay safe.

So much lead, so little time.

No Cossacks Today

The next unit of Cossacks is primed and ready to be painted.  But, I have a hankering for a solo game to sort of kick off my Otherwhere alternate history Renaissance-ish  campaign, (Sheesh - I really need to come up with a better name).  The first little skirmish will be loosely based on the ‘Raid on the Cheese Factory ’ scenario from the Hostile Realms Scenario book.  But before I can get to that point, I needed a couple more Halberd infantry units, and I wanted a ‘outdated’ looking artillery piece.  I still need to paint up one more unit of formed Archers, then I’m ready to try and roll some dice.  My hope is that if I can actually manage to get a game in, it may motivate me to finish the #$%$ map that has been languishing for months.

The first unit of Halberds.  These are Old Glory, I don’t recall the range, the figures have been laying around for at least 12 years, maybe longer.

 Sorry about the focus (or lack thereof) I miss the old SLR cameras

The Second unit of Halberds.  These are Black Tree Design, from their 100 Years War range.  

These fine fellows at least had the courtesy to stay mostly in focus

The Artillery unit.  This is from Old Glory as well.  I wanted something to convey a ruler/kingdom that wasn’t really into the whole gunpowder thing – it’s just a fad, it won’t last.   

And once you put them all together...

Now, that's the kind of force I want defending my cheese factory.

On a much more serious note, I hope the handful of folks that stop by these pages for my ramblings are all staying safe.  Think of social distancing as a golden opportunity to clean up the lead pile – or to order more lead. 

 I’ve been working remotely almost full time for over a year, only going into the office one or two days a month.  So from my perspective, other than grocery shopping being a bit of chore, and the restaurants all being closed, not much has changed in my routine.  I know for some this has been a major upheaval.

Mother Nature decided to remind us ‘up here’ that she still has a sense of humor.  Tuesday morning we had the below view out the kitchen window.

It would have been much prettier if it wasn't March 31st.

And finally, I am also happy to say that my neighbors, which are few and very far between, are practicing safe social distancing as can be seen in the shot below.  This neighbor stopped by, at a safe distance, Tuesday morning following the snow.

This has to be the biggest fox I’ve ever seen.  It’s hard to tell from the photo but he is easily as large as the Coyote’s we have running through the back yard. Not too bad for an iPhone photo given the distance and shooting through a window.  

Stay safe.

So much lead, so little time.