Saturday, January 19, 2013

Stepping back into my ImagiNation

Having dived back into the painting, I elected to try my hand at some of the enormous lead pile that makes up my ImagiNation project. I accomplished three things in my first foray back into serious painting (my previous post about adding WWI ships notwithstanding). First, I finished the command figure below. This is a Crusader figure that will command one of my KaiserReich regiments but I have not yet decided which or even his name. I was happy enough just to complete him (although he was already half-painted). My apologies for the quality of the photo (not sure where my camera is and my iPhone had to stand in). Second, I started on some musketeers of Regiment de Pont L'Eveque for the army of the Grand-Duc de Gourmandie. That was a bit more of a struggle. Many of my paints have dried out and need to be replaced. And while I was pleasantly surprised to find, when painting the figure below, that my hand was as steady (or unsteady, depending on the interpretation) as ever, painting in an assembly line format will take some discipline again. Audio books will work well in helping with this, I think. Lastly, I pulled out some of the gorgeous Crusader SYW hussars to clean and prep. I may be a little optimistic about getting at them with a paintbrush, given my output over the last year, but they are so pretty that I'm happy just to have taken them out of their dark hiding place under my desk.


Back in the Saddle?

After almost a full year of painting inactivity, I finally returned to my desk with some trepidation. Of course, cleaning the accumulated dust and paraphernalia of several months took more time than I expected. But, with several hours to kill, I dove into the unfinished projects that had been staring at me every time I went in my office. First up we're some GHQ WWI boats to add to my Royal Navy contingent. These had already been based and primed so the painting took little time (mainly dry-brushing). Finishing the bases took a bit longer; this requires wood filler for the bow and stern waves and several layers of paint and dry-brushing. You can see the result below of two new battle cruisers, HMS Queen Mary & HMS Princess Royal, to go with the pre-existing HMS Lion. I need only one more for David Beatty's battle cruiser squadron, HMS Tiger (but that will require an order to GHQ or a trip to Cold Wars). Also added to my Brits are HMS Phaeton and HMS Undaunted, both light cruisers. Now to put them to sea...