Berry Berry Quiet on the Front

Well it's been six weeks since I last posted, and in one sense things have been pretty quiet on the miniature's front, as April and May are my busiest periods for work. I don't spend much time at home and I'm usually about 10 minutes away from nap-time when I am, plus this year I had the added pleasure of breaking a finger (a pinky finger, so no threat to painting etc.!).

I've also been slowed down as I've had a slew of Vietnam stuff on the table, and I hit a bit of a wall in terms of maintaining momentum when it's the same old stuff to do every night. In this case, doing a bit of sculpting on some bases where figures are in dugouts or behind fallen trees. However, in my first bit of news, Charlie Don't Surf has now been released by Too Fat Lardies, along with a scenario supplement (Surf's Up), so I should get moving again.

And while things have been slow on the painting table, that hasn't stopped me from spending money like a drunken sailor on new mini's. Some birthday money helped on that front, and I had two large orders filled by Dom from Dom's Decals (a fine purveyor of Tumbling Dice mini's). I finished Vietnam both tactically with helicopters and aerially with North and South Vietnamese aircraft, as well as the USAF, USN, and USMC.

I also got the 1960's/70's Indian and Pakistani starter packs, and a ton of modern Warsaw Pact stuff. Of course now that I have it, I'm trying to remember what my plan was! I think it was to work on a modern Chinese air force, as that's a future conflict I'm most interested in trying out on the table.

Going further back in time, I also got some early WWII aircraft, France, RAF, Luftwaffe, Poland, Finland, and Russia. I also got some early war FAA aircraft and extra German aircraft to play out some naval aerial action under the alt-history that the Graf Zeppelin was completed. I've been picking up some Axis and Allies' 1/1850 ships to serve as targets, and with the GZ available, I wanted to be able to defend her. So some Ju-87's will serve as the two proposed naval equivalents, Bf-109E's will play 109T's, and then the poor Fairey Fox will defect to serve as Fi-167 torpedo bombers. I'll probably use some 109G's to act as Bf-155's (or whatever it was), although they don't really look alike; but then nothing does.

I also got some late war RAF to go with my late war American and Soviet forces, as part of my hypothetical East-West war in 1945+.

I should be done painting everything sometime in 2150.

Still on my airforces, I made my first order with Heroic & Ros, under the new ownership of Andy Kirk (I'd never placed an order with the old ownership so I don't have a comparison). Everything just arrived yesterday and looks good, it took only 10 days or so to get here from the UK. This order was for the basics of WWI aerial gaming, I'd been buying a lot of stuff unique to CinC during their sales this winter (including a STUPID amount of Nieuport 11's - so every nation could have their allotment). Now, I have all the classics, as well as a good representation of heavy bombers. Future orders with Irregular and H&R should round me out shortly, I'd like to have everything in hand by the end of the year.

But since there is the well known axiom that once you have finished buying or painting all your miniatures your lifespan is measured in mere seconds, I have started on some new fronts.

• 15mm Freikorps (QRF) "History of India" figures for skirmish gaming using Songs of Drums and Shakos by Ganesha Games. I ordered through a nice new US company, Miniature Armies. I've begun rating the figures in the SDS system, just working on fine tuning them.
• I've been on a space kick lately, and while I have avoided buying new mini's, including some of the nice new ones available in plastic via Shapeways, I have started on notes for a campaign using Starmada and Victory By Any Means. I figure I'll use my billion Starfire counters to start, and have actually made some good progress in converting Starfire's (3rd Ed.) tropes to Starmada; I always liked a lot about Starfire's background and tech levels, just not the mess of rules.
• I also almost got into Star Trek (TOS) gaming, but the apparently terrible state of ADB molds has put me off. Of course, I also have a billion Starfleet Battles counters from my one purchase of the Captain's Edition rules, so I could use Starmada and the counters. There is an authorized Starmada conversion (Klingon Armada, Romulan Armada), but I figure I can do it my way easier.

There are also some great new Splintered Lands miniatures out or on their way to production, so that may occupy a summer purchase, but a multi-project Irregular purchase is next on the list.