Sunday 9 May 2010

Apologies, Apologies

Hi,
I'm sorry I haven't been posting consistently - well my painting has been just as inconsistent (and lacking). It's been about four weeks since I began my latest project (the Poland Uhlans in 1812) and still haven't completed that unit - or any others.

When I began this blog it was an attempt to overcome the procrastination that led me to paint less than 40 figures in 2009, despite buying oodles more than that...so, if I were being positive, I'd say that having painted 52 to date was an improvement of sorts. However, I've been falling further behind on my target every week - to the point where I had become embarassed to post just how little I'd done. To my surprise, this hasn't gone unnoticed - I was talking to Trevor Jackson about his super terrain for Bussaco at Salute ( http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=4394 for pictures) when he mentioned my scorecard hadn't been updated for awhile.

So my next step after this post is to update the scorecard - and it won't be pretty.

I haven't been totally idle - but my Poland Uhlans still need some work. I mentioned in my last post, I think, that I had gone to Salute with the intention of buying some standing light horse remounts to suit the BH Uhlans - but Ian Marsh didn't have any - so I bought a blister of AB Uhlans. My plan was to use the horses for my BH Uhlans already on the painting table and then buy some remounts at a later date. So I've painted the horses and have reached the "tidy up" stage (you know - the bit where you look at the figure and realise you have only painted the coloured stripe down the leg seam on only one leg, or forgotten to do the plume or something) with about nine riders. So, I could point to 18 Olley Painting Points for the week (remember horse + rider = 2 OPPs) - or should I say for the month - except...I'm not happy with the horse rider combination.

The BH riders are lovely, and the horses are of course fine, but they don't quite match with one another. The BH riders just don't quite fit the horses. I've looked and a small chunk needs to be taken off the bottom of each rider so they don't rock (either there is a gap at the front or a gap at the back depending upon how you sit them on the horse).....I'm thinking I need a dremel but I'm finding it hard to justify spending another £60 this month on my hobby.

Anyway so mid year resolutions are to;

a) Post once a week and update the statistics (regardless of how embarassing they are).

b) Finish units once started - before starting new ones (in my case that means completing one battalion of French Line Infantry, one battalion of British Peninsula Line Infantry and the Poland Uhlans).